REALTOR.COM named in top 50 fastest growing web sites
Orange Tree Realty Joins The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates
LIST-IT: Internet - based MLS launched
DeWolfe Acquires Post Road Realty
CalEnergy acquires Mid-American Energy Holdings Co.
Benson Realty will merge wigh Shorewood Realtors

REALTOR.COM named in top 50 fastest growing web sites

REALTOR.COM is joining a select group of pace setters being recognized for record breaking Internet traffic. The announcement, which named REALTOR.COM in the Top 50 fastest growing web sites, was made by Media Metrix in its latest Web In Review: The Top 50 Fastest Growing Web Sites in terms of audience reach for the first half of 1998. According to the report, topping the list are sites that offer web users a vehicle for communication through custom homepages and to other web users through chat, instant messaging and enhanced email. In other top honors, TopTenLinks, a poll of Internet users who rate real estate sites' quality, recently rated REALTOR.COM #1 over other national listing sites. REALTOR.COM scored 9.927 out of a possible 10.

Orange Tree Realty Joins The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates

The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. announced that Orange Tree Realty, Inc. of Orange, Calif. has joined the Prudential Real Estate Network.

Orange Tree Realty, which will now do business as a member company of Prudential California Realty, has offices at 2249 N. Tustin Avenue in Orange. The full-service brokerage, incorporated in 1978, brings nearly 100 real estate professionals to the Prudential Real Estate Network. The company's focus will continue to be leadership in residential sales, however, the company also specializes in commercial, industrial and investment properties with special expertise in property and business opportunities.

Lou Donofrio, owner and broker, will lead his company as it does business under the name of Prudential California Realty, a name recognized throughout the state of California. Donofrio has been involved in real estate for thirty years.

LIST-IT: Internet - based MLS launched

Banton Research, LLC, a leading developer of analytical real estate software, announced today its official release of LIST-IT, an interactive and fully functional internet-based MLS. LIST-IT is one of the only MLS packages that is designed to operate totally on the Internet and offers many functions to provide the Realtor the needed information to remain in control of the transaction.

LIST-IT - The LIST-IT application has been in development for over 2 years and represents a significant departure from traditional MLS systems. While providing all the functionality one expects from an MLS application, LIST-IT utilizes the Internet as the medium for all communications and maintenance of the MLS database. Built to be "Browser Independent", LIST-IT utilizes the best available technologies without requiring its clients to choose a particular Internet browser or operating system. "LIST-IT helps the Realtor Associations by permitting their members to choose their favorite tools. We are comfortable with Microsoft, Netscape and other browsers of that caliber", says Robert Moore, Lead Developer for LIST-IT.

LIST-IT provides many features and functions that Realtors will find useful to provide value-added services as perceived by the consumer. Included with the application is an interface to Banton's acclaimed ValueWizard"! automated valuation model (AVM) that is typically used by its banking clients to "virtually inspect" a property on which a loan is to be made. ValueWizard offers the Realtor a menu of appraisal and other reports available in the neighborhood, including the ability to produce an instant estimate of value based on the surrounding properties.

LIST-IT also has built-in mapping and geographic information system (GIS) functions for selecting comps based on proximity to subjects, generating maps of properties for sale and census block group statistical summaries. Future plans call for a sophisticated spatial query that will take into consideration consumer needs regarding proximities to their work, schools and shopping.

General functions of LIST-IT include the following:

• Client/Contact Management
• Add, Update Listing Data
• Change Status
• CMA
• Interface to ValueWizard appraisals
• Bank Interface for Updating Current Interest Rates
• Integrated Mapping and GIS
• Hot Sheet
• Inventory Management
• Downloadable Forms
• On-Line Laptop Computer Data Download and Update
• Statistical Summaries of Transactions
• Reporting
• Powerful Search Features

For additional product and sales information contact Robert Moore, toll free, at (877) BANTON1 (877-226-8661) or (256) 536-5330 for a personal phone/internet demonstration of LIST-IT.

DeWolfe Acquires Post Road Realty

The DeWolfe Companies, Inc., the largest provider of homeownership services in New England, announced the completion of the acquisition of the business of Post Road Realty Corporation of Weston, Massachusetts.

Post Road Realty will merge with the existing DeWolfe office in Weston and will be managed by Fran Daub, the owner and President of Post Road Realty.

Richard B. DeWolfe, Chairman and CEO of The DeWolfe Companies, Inc., said "The merger of Post Road with our Weston office gives us a combined strength in this important market of 38 real estate professionals whose total sales volume for 1997 exceeded $50,000,000. Fran is well respected in the real estate industry and is a tremendous asset to our company."

CalEnergy acquires Mid-American Energy Holdings Co.

CalEnergy, of Omaha (NE), will acquire Mid-American Energy Holdings Company, the owner of real estate operations in five states. Headquartered in Des Moines (IA), Mid-American owns Iowa Realty and First Realty/Better Homes and Gardens in Iowa, Edina Realty in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, and Carol Jones Realtors in Missouri. No changes in the firm's strategy to acquire brokerage companies have been indicated.

Benson Realty will merge wigh Shorewood Realtors

Benson Realty of El Segundo (CA) will merge with Shorewood Realtors, headquartered in Manhattan Beach and covering the South Bay area, in September. Olga Benson, of Benson Realty, will remain with Shorewood. Shorewood ranks number 263 on the 1998 REAL Trends Big Brokers Report ranking the 450 largest residential real estate firms in the United States.

Published: August 14, 1998

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