December 8th, 2009

Matching Foreclosure Buyers and Sellers

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

Our client Countdown to Buy launched a matching platform today that accelerates the sales cycle of foreclosed properties. CTB uses a technology that automatically matches buyers and sellers in a real estate transaction through a time-limited process that reduces the property’s list price 1% per day. According to CTB, this matching process generally takes 60 days or less.

So what is the countdown process?

Each property is listed with an offer range. Qualified buyers bid privately and confidentially within this range. The price decreases 1% per day across the offer range. As soon as the day’s price matches a buyer’s offer, the property goes to contract immediately.

Since Countdown to Buy can do a better job explaining this model than I can, check out this video for a simple explanation on how the match process works and what happens when multiple buyers are in the mix.

CTB President Dan Connell says this new way of purchasing a home is not your typical auction model:

“We integrated the best features from the traditional real estate model and the prevailing auction method and created a next generation real estate transaction model that brings transparency, trust and a controlled urgency into the process. From the traditional model, CTB took the insights and a local knowledge of agents, inspectors, contractors, and appraisers and incorporated their roles in a much more efficient manner. From the auction model, CTB created an environment of controlled urgency, but not a manic high pressure sales environment that can potentially be manipulated.”

As of today, the pilot program features properties from Connecticut, New Jersey and New York with the potential for additional locations to be added pending negotiations with leading banks and service companies.

In an auction scenario, buyers need to quickly consume relevant information about prospective homes, especially regarding an area’s home sales trending and seasonal activity. CTB’s implementation of Onboard’s Neighborhood Navigator gives buyers all of this information instantly.

Tags: Clients, Countdown to Buy, foreclosures, property auctions, real estate innovation.

September 29th, 2009

Introducing MLS OneSource – The One Stop Shop for Today’s MLSs and REALTORS

By Megan Murphy, Marketing Manager

From shopping for clothes, to cars, to homes, online purchases have been growing at an exponetial rate over the past 10 years.  The Nielsen Company did a survey, which suggests that around 85% of online surfers have used the internet for shopping.  Out of those, 94% of all buyers aged 25 to 44 years used the internet to search for a home - NAR Annual Study 2008.  

With that kind of percentage of people (and climbing) utilizing the web for home search, I’d say it’s pretty important for agents to have access to the most accurate local content and innovative technology possible.

 They need engaging information on their websites and in their reports and presentations that goes beyond bed, bath, and square feet. They need access to tools that give invaluable insight into their local communities with just a few clicks. The flexibility to customize, brand and tailor their websites and sales materials to meet each of their customer/prospect’s needs. The content that increases their search engine placement and costumer engagement. They need to be a local expert, a resource, an authority on  local stats and ‘in the know’ information in order to attract, retain and drive quality lead generation.

Technology-driven tools for agents and the need for outsourced data and content used to be something that only the most tech savvy and prosperous companies were involved in. Now, especially with the economic state, it’s a ‘must have’ ‘gotta do’ business move not only to get onboard but to find the highest quality, most efficient, and most cost effective solutions possible.

We started meeting this demand roughly a decade ago when it all started, fine tuning and perfecting the art of data aggregation. Over the years we’ve made it our goal to produce the most accurate and trusted localized content to some of the most established information resources in the country; Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, Century 21, NRT, Realtor.com, Long & Foster, The New York Times, WashingtonPost.com, CNN Money Magazine, and many more.

MLSs and REALTORS®  also have a major responsibility to provide their agents with easy to use tools and accurate local information and have shown an increased interest, over the the past year or so, in the solutions and services we can provide.

We decided to answer the call with our new solution, MLS OneSource.

“Creating the MLS OneSource platform was a natural progression for us. “With an influx of calls and interest stemming from the increase in pressure on agents to enhance their value proposition to consumers, it just made sense for us to formalize a platform. MLS OneSource is specifically designed to help MLSs and REALTORS® engage their consumers by providing relevant and insightful local content and easily integrated solutions that fit their individual business models.” – Marc Siden, CEO, Onboard Informatic

We are excited to launch and introduce MLS OneSource at the CMLS 2009 event this week in Lake Tahoe, California. The platform contains a suite of cutting edge products and services giving full access to our localized content for both agent portals as well as consumer-facing websites. Content categories include detailed information such as home sales, trends, school profiles with GreatSchools.net ratings, demographics, local amenities, and neighborhood boundaries.

The suite of products and solutions offered in the platform range from customizable reports and presentations, easily integrated plug and play neighborhood search tools, standardized web services, to fully tailored delivery of all Onboard’s data, providing complete control over design, development and integration. These tools play a major role in adding value to real estate websites through increasing search engine placement and customer engagement all while building credibility and quality lead generation.

Now is the time for not only real estate but all industries to realize the importance and value in innovative  web and technology solutions. The number of buyers using the internet to do their own research is only growing by the day.

Online shopping trends are showing a consistent rise due to the great response from people. In the coming years, the numbers suggesting the development of the online shopping trends are expected to rise alarmingly.

Kim Cipriano Prior, Onboard’s National Sales Director, is solely devoted to understanding and addressing the MLS sector’s unique set of needs. Kim has over 15 years in strategic business development and sales and marketing experience with 10 years specifically dedicated to the real estate industry and working with MLSs.

If you are interested in learning more about Onboard’s MLS OneSource platform, please email Kim Cipriano Prior at kprior@onboardinformatics or call 646-747-4396.

Tags: CMLS 2009, community reports, data, MLS, neighborhood data, Real Estate, realtors, school profiles, technology tools.

March 5th, 2009

Community 2009 CoPilot and Navigator Release

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

Today we released the Community 2009 data into our CoPilot and Neighborhood Navigator products. As we communicated last week the changes will add new reports to both.

Fair Market Rents was added to both CoPilot and Navigator and Smoking Ban was added to Navigator. To see the full details please refer to the following post: http://blog.onboardinformatics.com/2009/02/changes-navigator-and-copilot-community-overview-2009/.

If you do not want to display either of these reports on your Navigator please contact our Product Support team at support@onboardinformatics.com.

Tags: community data, community information, copilot, data updates, neighborhood navigator.

February 27th, 2009

CHANGES – Navigator and CoPilot Community Overview 2009

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

Onboard Informatics will be releasing the Community 2009 update to our CoPilot and Neighborhood Navigator products in the coming weeks. For the CoPilot reports we will be including HUD Fair Market Rents. We have added two new reports to the Community Profile in Navigator:  Smoking Ban information and HUD Fair Market Rents.

If you do not want to display these reports in your CoPilot or Navigator products please contact our Product Support team at support@onboardinformatics.com.

CoPilot

As was messaged last year, Onboard will no longer support certain debt/net worth fields. As a result the following tables will be eliminated from all CoPilot reports (both new reports and reports that were previously created and saved):

Financial Report:

Now included in all CoPilot reports is a report on Fair Market Rents:

Neighborhood Navigator

1. Smoking Ban data – This data will be provided at each geographic search level within Navigator. The data indicates whether an area has a smoking ban in place for the following:

• Workplaces
• Restaurants
• Bars

A report will look like this:

2. Fair Market Rents – These estimates will also be provided at each geographic level. Navigator will show estimates for the following:

• Studio
• One Bedroom
• Two Bedroom
• Three Bedroom
• Four Bedroom

This Fair Market Rents Report will look like this:

Onboard’s data team works diligently to estimate FMRs for our place, zip and county level data (not all counties are identified in HUDs base data). Please note that FMR values typically occur at a county or Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

The definition of FMR from the HUD website states:

“FMRs are gross rent estimates.  They include the shelter rent plus the cost of all tenant-paid utilities, except telephones, cable or satellite television service, and internet service. HUD sets FMRs to assure that a sufficient supply of rental housing is available to program participants.  To accomplish this objective, FMRs must be both high enough to permit a selection of units and neighborhoods and low enough to serve as many low-income families as possible.  The level at which FMRs are set is expressed as a percentile point within the rent distribution of standard-quality rental housing units^[1].  The current definition used is the 40th percentile rent, the dollar amount below which 40 percent of the standard-quality rental housing units are rented^[2].  The 40th percentile rent is drawn from the distribution of rents of all units occupied by recent movers (renter households who moved to their present residence within the past 15 months).  HUD is required to ensure that FMRs exclude non-market rental housing in their computation.  Therefore, HUD excludes all units falling below a specified rent level determined from public housing rents in HUD’s program databases as likely to be either assisted housing or otherwise at a below-market rent, and units less than two years old.”

^[1] Standard-quality rental housing units have the following attributes:  Occupied rental units paying cash rent; Specified renter on 10 acres or less; With full plumbing; With full kitchen; Unit more than 2 years old, and Meals not included in rent.

^[2] FMRs were initially set at the 45^th percentile, but were reduced to the 40^th percentile, beginning with the FY1995 FMRs. The vast majority of areas remain at the 40^th percentile rent. However, certain areas are assigned the 50^th percentile rent. Fiftieth percentile FMRs were established by a rule published on October 2, 2000, that also established the eligibility criteria used to select areas that would be assigned 50th rather than the normal 40th percentile FMRs. The objective was to give PHAs a tool to assist them in de-concentrating voucher program use patterns. The three FMR area eligibility criteria were: 1. FMR Area Size: the FMR area had to have at least 100 census tracts.  2. Concentration of Affordable Units: 70 percent or fewer of the tracts with at least 10 two-bedroom units had at least 30 percent of these units with gross rents at or below the 40th percentile two-bedroom FMR; and, 3. Concentration of Participants: 25 percent or more of the tenant-based rental program participants in the FMR area resided in the 5 percent of census tracts with the largest number of program participants. The rule also specified that areas assigned 50th percentile FMRs were to be re-evaluated after three years, and that the 50th percentile rents would be rescinded unless an area has made at least a fraction of a percent progress in reducing concentration and otherwise remains eligible. (See 24 CFR 888.113.)

Tags: community information, copilot, data, HUD, neighborhood data, neighborhood navigator, Onboard Informatics.

January 26th, 2009

Yelp Content Live On Neighborhood Navigator Client Sites

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

Onboard Informatics has officially released Yelp Ratings and Reviews in our Neighborhood Navigator product.  Users looking at business listings in Navigator will now be able to glean further insight into the local community around a client’s listings.   Over 3 million Yelp reviews can be accessed through the newly updated user interface.

Current clients who have amenities do not need to make any changes as the update is automatic.  For clients who would like to take advantage of this content set, please contact our Product Support team at support@onboardinformatics.com.

January 20th, 2009

Amenities XML and Neighborhood Navigator Product Updates

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

Amenities XML Service

Onboard Informatics has formally launched its new Amenities XML Web Service.  Existing clients can now choose to receive their amenities via our new web service interface.

This new web service interface for amenities (business listings) content has many advantages over bulk delivery.  Onboard clients can eliminate the hassles associated with batch flat file updates (FTP download, file loading, data management, update processing) as Onboard will now process all updates directly to the XML web service.  End users can enjoy even more information about their prospective communities with the availability of Yelp Ratings and Reviews through this web service (Note – Yelp content is not available by bulk delivery).

Neighborhood Navigator

On Monday, January 26, 2009, all clients who have the amenities (business listings) content set in Neighborhood Navigator will now have Yelp Ratings and Reviews added to their Nearby Establishments pages.  This update will happen automatically so that on Monday morning your users will be able to view Yelp reviews on your Navigator.

Over 3 million Yelp reviews will be available.  Navigator users will even be able to link to Yelp to write their own review.  If clients do not wish to have their Navigator display this data, they should contact our Product Support team at support@onboardinformatics.com.

Tags: navigator amenities xml products updates.

December 15th, 2008

New and Exciting Products and Upgrades from Onboard

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

EXCITING new things going on at Onboard Informatics!

In addition to a ground breaking new product, the New Year will find some additions to our current product line.  We are excited to introduce a web service interface for our bulk amenities (business listings) content set.  This new service will reduce data management costs for our clients by allowing them to request and retrieve information on over 4 million public and private establishments in real time.  Gone will be the need to download massive flat files to update your data base servers each month.  Instead, Onboard will process updates to our web service infrastructure and your developers can focus on user interfaces and business requirements.

Your end users will still get the same great, detailed amenities information that they received before, PLUS an extra feature that is only available through our Amenities web service:  Yelp reviews and ratings.  With over 3 million Yelp! reviews, end users can find out the real fabric of their prospective community, plan a great lunch after an open house, or find the best neighborhood in town for whatever activities they enjoy.  Weekly updates of Yelp! data ensures that we have the most recent information possible.  Please look for further information at the end of January.

Neighborhood Navigator To Be Updated Again!

Not to be left out, our Neighborhood Navigator product will be enhanced once again!  Over 3 million Yelp! reviews will be added to Navigator’s Nearby Establishments page in order to help users gather more information about the area surrounding each listing.

Having the Yelp! data right on the page will make it easier for the user and cuts down on the number of other sites they have to visit to get local information.  This leaves more time for the consumer to browse your company’s site.

Navigator clients that already receive amenities will automatically be updated with the Yelp! content.  If clients do not wish to display Yelp! content on their site, they should contact our Product Support team at support@onboardinformatics.com.

Tags: amenities, data, neighborhood navigator, onboard.

December 1st, 2008

Onboard December Navigator Enhancements – GreatSchools Ratings and Reviews

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

Onboard Informatics is excited to announce the release of GreatSchools data into our Neighborhood Navigator product adding powerful support to our current school and community information services. Onboard’s unique partnership with GreatSchools means providing additional content for over 90,000 public and 30,000 private schools in our Navigator platform.

Your users will benefit from having comprehensive profiles that go “beyond the numbers” to include a school’s culture and skill set, state test scores, teacher profiles, and even the physical condition of the school buildings which can be compared at a zip, city and state level .They will be able share what parents have to say about the school with their clients and give first hand parental testimonies, far better than any statistics.

Neighborhood Navigator users will be able to access 400,000 GreatSchools reviews, adding reviews at a rate of 5000-6000 per month. The School Review Ratings, Category Ratings and Reviews are updated bi-monthly providing you with accurate up-to-date information.

We are here to help you leverage the addition of our GreatSchools data according to your needs. Feel free to contact sales@onboardinformatics.com or call (646) 488-1550 to discuss a quick implementation of this data. As always, the Onboard team is here to provide you with the service and support you need to stay ahead of the competition amidst market turmoil. Please contact our dedicated support team at support@onboardinformatics.com if you have any questions.

Tags: greatschools, navigator, Onboard Informatics, product updates, school reviews.

October 14th, 2008

Neighborhood Navigator Update

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

As promised, we are keeping our clients and potential clients updated on all the features in the latest version of Neighborhood Navigator.  In the last post I pointed out all the features that were made available to users of the Navigator product.

We now go a step further in allowing users to customize the color of the graphs.  In addition to the base color there are eight colors available to choose from.

Current clients that have already made the transition to the new Navigator include ToledoBlade.com, Realty World, and HomeServices of America, Iowa Realty, and Prudential First Realty.  There are a number of other clients who are working on switching over.  We can’t wait to see the new Navigator up on all our client’s sites.

Tags: community data, neighborhood data, neighborhood navigator, Onboard Informatics, real estate tools, school information.

October 1st, 2008

Congrats to Toledo Blade!

By Colleen Staunton, Product Manager

Onboard Informatics would like to congratulate Toledo Blade on being the first to implement the newest version of Neighborhood Navigator, the most powerful local neighborhood search tool on the market, maps and charts to their website, taledoblade.com.

Toledo Blade, a daily newspaper covering general news in Toledo, Ohio, was first published in 1835 and is now one of the top 100 USA newspapers. With so much growth they realized they needed to ramp up their real estate section and reached out to us for advice on how to gain the neighborhood and community expertise they needed.

We had just launched our latest version of Neighborhood Navigator, with a new user interface, maps and charts; they needed community data for their area…the timing was perfect. They were up and running in less than a week with community and school information, nearby establishments and local amenities . They also took advantage of our customization options, allowing them to provide the information they needed without losing any brand recognition. They used their own header, icons and fonts colors, providing a consistent look and feel throughout the site.

Part of Onboard’s team, Mike Demetriou, Relationship Specialist; Tahisha George, Product Support Specialist; Colleen McKeading, Product Manager, worked closely with Toledo Blade in successfully getting this up and running as fast and hassle free as possible.

Tags: community data, data, navigator, neighborhoods, toledo blade.