Aug 23, 2024

Share this Post: This week's product and partnership roundup is truly global, with stories from Latin America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, the UK and the United States. We'll start in the States with an AI-powered update... ReAlpha launches 'super app' for home buyers in response to NAR rulings Ohio-based, publicly listed real estate technology company reAlpha has launched its AI-powered super-app (previously known as Claire). ReAlpha develops and commercialises AI technologies and the relaunch of its app combines the previous Claire app, reAlpha's generative AI buyer's agent, with licensed human agent support and a suite of homebuying tools including title and escrow agent services. The firm says it relaunched the app in response to legislation changes brought about by the high-profile National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement that eliminates the standard six per cent (6%) sales commission when purchasing a home. The app offers commission-free homebuying, the Claire AI-powered real estate agent, AI document review and analysis, and end-to-end transactions. The commission-free offering, reAlpha says, should therefore become a compelling offering for house buyers who want the same level of service that a buyer agent is no longer incentivised to offer. Mike Logozzo, President and Chief Operating Officer of reAlpha, said: "Buying a home is the biggest and most important decision many people will ever make. We believe in leveraging AI to create a more personalized and supportive homebuying experience. "The reAlpha Super App is designed to provide homebuyers with all the tools and support they may need to find their dream home, at a great price and with the best experience, all from their mobile device." Currently, reAlpha is under limited availability for homebuyers located in 20 counties in Florida, but reAlpha is actively seeking new MLS and brokerage licenses that will enable expansion into more U.S. states. Daft improves top 'Advantage' visibility product The leading Irish real estate portal Daft.ie has announced a series of improvements to its top 'Advantage' visibility package. According to a LinkedIn post , the portal's product team have added viewing info, increased the agent's branding and allowed users to scroll through photos from the results page for Advantage listings. The Advantage packages are priced between €80 and €487 for 90 days of extra visibility on the portal with the top-tier package delivering six times the views of regular listings. Homely signs listings syndication deal with Gumtree The Australian challenger portal Homely has announced that it has partnered with the horizontal online classifieds site Gumtree to boost the traffic to its listings. Currently, like many horizontal platforms, Gumtree's real estate category consists mainly of FSBO listings and rentals. In a press release, the company said it expects to boost its listing volumes from 11,000 to around 200,000 via the partnership and align its strategy with that of other horizontal classifieds players around the world. Gumtree Managing Director Tommy Logtenberg said: “Cementing our relationships with Homely Group is an important next step in our strategy to build a larger and diversified audience for the Gumtree brand and to grow Gumtree’s offering across a wider range of online platforms and markets Australians use every day." “This is a win-win for all involved; Gumtree will receive a major uplift in listings across its real estate classifieds with customer experience improving, while our new partner benefits from our reach as we are visited by 1 in 4 Australians on a monthly basis.” Commenting on the partnership, Homely's Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Adam Spencer said: "There is a significant need for competition in the real estate market, and the partnership with Gumtree, which boasts over 5 million monthly unique users, is a game-changer. This collaboration not only multiplies our existing reach but also maximizes the visibility of our agents’ listings, ensuring they are seen by as many potential buyers and renters as possible." Gumtree Australia is owned and operated by ASX-listed company The Market Limited (formerly known as The Market Herald) has plans under its new leadership to grow the business around its main autos and real estate verticals. QuintoAndar signs listing agreement with EmCasa The Brazilian real estate marketplace and brokerage operator QuintoAndar has signed a partnership deal with EmCasa, one of the country's up-and-coming tech-enabled brokerages. The partnership will see all QuintoAndar properties listed on EmCasa's site and vice-versa. In a LinkedIn post, EmCasa's account said that the partnership "reinforces our commitment to serving our customers with extreme quality, offering even more options for our buyers to find their property and accelerate the sale of property owners." Founded in 2017, Sao Paulo-based EmCasa has raised R$ 158 million (USD 29 million) and claims to have a network of more than 20,000 agents. According to its website, it already lists its properties on other major real estate portals in Brazil including OLX and Zap. 58.com and Anjuke crack down on rental scams According to a report in the local press, leading Chinese real estate vertical operator, 58.com is cracking down on rental scams. The report says that the company, which operates the Anjuke portal, has launched a "strong attack" on "black intermediaries" who use the portal's listings to charge illicit fees for providing information or viewings. The article cites an example from Nanjing where an estate agency was forced to issue a public apology after using the 58.com and Anjuke brands to "carry out false house listings". The portal has changed its criteria for judging illegal intermediary companies and their agents, and has also developed punishment rules for bad actors with a new blacklist system for problematic accounts. Divar adds a plugin to show nearby amenities The Iranian horizontal marketplace, Divar has announced the addition of a plugin that will show users the distances from its listings to local amenities. The new plug-in, developed by local third-party software provider Propision, shows users of the platform's real estate category the distances from local amenities and a neighbourhood environmental assessment report. The service is offered as an extra for sellers listing on the platform with advertisers prompted to log into the service and provide information while users also need to pay to access the reports generated. Houseful (Zoopla parent) wants its CRM customers to use its new sales progression software Movemnt, the property onboarding and sales progression platform launched by Zoopla-owner Houseful in June , is aiming to have half of its CRM client base using its platform by the middle of 2025. Houseful operates one of the leading CRM suites in the UK (Alto) and the company is confident that it can migrate its client base onto its new transaction progression platform. Riccardo Dawson, Chief Operating Officer of Alto, revealed that 470 estate agency branches have already signed up since Alto integrated with Movemnt in July. This is a small fraction of Alto’s 9,000 branches, but Dawson is optimistic about reaching 4,500 branches by the end of the second quarter of 2025. Dawson explained, “This is a brand new brand so there is a bit of inertia. We are committed to growing this, as are our private equity backers, so we would fully expect to be 50% of that Alto base by Q2.” Movemnt offers additional features designed to speed up transaction times, including the use of machine learning to read title deeds and highlight potential issues. Dawson emphasized the value of the platform, stating, “We believe in this proposition that adds the benefit to estate agents.” REA Group integrates commute-based search tech from SearchSmartly The Australian real estate marketplace operator REA Group has released a commute-based search functionality for its Property.com.au research portal. The functionality represents REA Group's first real foray into personalization in property search and comes via a partnership with UK-based specialist technology provider, SearchSmartly. Property.com.au is marketed as a 'research portal' for Australian home hunters to check a property's sale history, planning restrictions and various other data points. It may well be REA's testing ground for the commute search feature before the company rolls out the functionality on its flagship portal, Realestate.com.au. ...Meanwhile, Realestate.com.au also sets new audience record REA Group's flagship portal realestate.com.au hit an all-time high audience of 11.58 million people in July. According to new data from Ipsos, the portal pointed to the success of its new brand campaign, "Keep Moving", which was launched during the Paris Olympics earlier this summer. Other findings include the total time spent on the portal was nearly 6x more than the closest competitor Domain. Melina Cruickshank, Group Product and Audience Officer at REA said: "These record-breaking results prove that big, cultural moments are an excellent environment to strengthen the brand and grow audiences. "Launching our campaign to coincide with Olympics coverage has been such a positive way to drive momentum in the lead up to the spring selling season. "The record engagement we’ve seen across our platforms indicates we remain Australia’s most trusted and important brand for buying, selling and renting property. With listings leadership and property expertise, we remain focused on our vision for realestate.com.au to set the global benchmark for personalised property experiences." August 23, 2024 Since March 2020 Edmund's job has been to read about, write about, collect data on, analyse and generally know about real estate marketplaces and the companies that run them. Before that he worked at the aggregator Mitula Group (which became Lifull Connect) for five years. Subscribe to our mailing list to get the famous, free Friday newsletter! News and analysis to help build better online marketplace businesses, in your inbox, every Friday Email address*