Homestore.com, Inc. and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) have unveiled eREALTOR.com SM, which the partnership is calling the "first phase of the Realtors® Electronic Transaction Platform."

Along with other MLS-based transaction management systems, eREALTOR.com has been hotly anticipated by the market with its promise of integrating products and services onto a single platform from its formidable list of subsidiaries.

Collaborating on the platform are TOP PRODUCER®, a leading client and marketing agent productivity software; WyldFyre(tm), a leading MLS information and wireless software designer; REFormsNet, a contracts and forms provider; and strategic and equity partners including the National Association of Realtors®; GMAC Real Estate and GMAC Mortgage; Fannie Mae; the California Association of Realtors®; and, Cendant Corporation and its CENTURY 21®, COLDWELL BANKER®, and ERA® real estate brands.

Combining a continuum of productivity services for brokers and agents, the eREALTOR.com transaction platform, demonstrated during the NAR 2000 Realtors® Conference & Expo last week, promises to enable Realtors to use the Internet in serving their customers' moves from initial contact through the home's closing and beyond into affinity services. The platform has an automated scheduling and workflow engine, an order center linked to real estate brokers' key trading partners, including title and escrow service providers, mortgage brokers, and inspection companies -- and an electronic document storage and transaction archive.

According to the company, eREALTOR.com integrates the key applications used by real estate professionals during the Real Estate Activity Lifecycle (REAL), including but not limited to:

• Lead Generation: eREALTOR.com links to Realtor.com®, the official site of the National Association of Realtors®.

• Contact Management and Sales Support: eREALTOR.com incorporates top client and marketing management tools from TOP PRODUCER where customer records are automatically linked for sharing with the eREALTOR.comSM platform.

• Property Listings Management: eREALTOR.com interfaces with WyldFyre Listings, an MLS access software. Real estate professionals can transfer property records from their MLS to the eREALTOR.com platform.

• Contracts and Disclosure Management: eREALTOR.comSM uses ZipForm®, an electronic contracts software with almost 10,000 pages of standardized settlement forms organized by jurisdiction. eREALTOR.com extracts from the electronic contracts key dates, disclosure data and other information that drives the closing process.

• Other features include providing each buyer and seller with a private Web site and tools to track each step of their transaction so they can determine if it is on-time, and communicate with their agents or brokers to provide feedback and order services electronically. The consumer interface can be integrated seamlessly with brokers' or franchises' regional and national Web sites, says the company.

• In the first quarter of next year, eREALTOR.com will be customized for brokers and national real estate franchisers to enable them to tailor the system to match their business and local market requirements.

Homestore representatives could be reached for comment on how the eRealtor platform will be rolled out to brokers and what the costs of using the service will be, or whether the eRealtor platform will accommodate other productivity software that agents or brokers may currently be using. Competitive platforms have a wide range of business models, from transaction based fees, to licensing fees, to MLS fee upgrades, making it impossible to guess at Homestore's business model for eRealtor, but six of the largest franchises in the nation are already behind the platform, says the company.

Published: November 16, 2000

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