November 16th, 2009

Onboard Powers Real Estate Mobile Apps

By Megan Murphy, Marketing Manager

We are excited to release, Onboard Mobile, our newest product platform providing real estate companies with access to property listings and community data, enabling their development team to create custom mobile sites and applications.

With more and more real estate companies getting into the mobile app space and having been in the business of providing real estate data for almost a decade, it only made sense for us to put a mobile platform together.

Key features include property listings, real-time photo web service, community demographics, school information, home values, home sales trending, home sales transactions and local establishments. The platform is compliant with the most innovative GPS capabilities, such as the ability to show users the proximity to schools and nearby businesses while they are out touring homes.

Benefits of Onboard Mobile

Tags: applications, iPhone apps, Mobile, mobile sites, real estate and mobile, real estate mobile apps, smartphones.

November 6th, 2009

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

• BusinessWeek discusses the lack of transparency and reputable data determining the economic outlook:

“The first place to start is with the accounting for consumer spending data. There is no reason whatsoever that America should be hamstrung by the outdated and often incomplete consumer spending data collected by the Census Bureau and released 30 days after the fact—not when we can get more accurate data almost instantly.”

• Developers were pleased to learn Google offered up Javascript tools that will allow app development with Google’s code  (via ReadWriteWeb):

“Why is Google doing this? Because the more powerful web applications become, the more important Google’s search, browser and nascent OS become. More relevant to developers than some grand anti-Microsoft conspiracy, though, is that some serious UI sweetness may be forthcoming.”

• Our client Listingbook introduced their web overhaul (via RISMedia):

“The overhaul affected the public portal pages and there are no changes to the private portal. One of the biggest challenges the company says it faces is also one of their greatest attributes. ‘Our system is so deep and rich, full of valuable tools and powerful data,’ says Michael Ondrejko, the company’s senior vice president of Operations.”

• The Better Homes and Gardens iPhone app made a splash in the RE technology community (via Inman):

“Jeff Turner, president of Zeek Interactive and founder of virtual tour provider RealEstateShows.com, said in a blog post that the app is ‘solely focused on consumer benefit’ with no obvious attempts to direct users to a real estate agent or away from the home they are interested in.”

Tags: Better Homes and Gardens, data transparency, Google open source, iPhone apps, Listingbook, real estate applications.

November 4th, 2009

Onboard Informatics’ Localized Real Estate Content Makes Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate iPhone Application ‘One-of-a-Kind’

By Stacey Ret, Director of Marketing

Licensing Deal Helps Real Estate Brand to Better Meet Home Buyers’ Needs

NEW YORK, November 4, 2009 — Onboard Informatics, the premier data services and technology company for top-tier organizations in real estate, media and technology, is the provider of robust community information for a new iPhone application, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Home Selection Assistant.

Onboard’s unique products and services help strengthen broker and consumer relationships, streamline the information gathering process, and better enable real estate buyers and sellers to make informed decisions.  As with many Onboard clients,  Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate is using these highly regarded products to provide home buying consumers and real estate agents with the vital community and school information they desire  all from one source.

This new iPhone application ensures that homebuyers now have on-the-go access to  community populations, average income levels, housing trends, education and school information, crime statistics, localized weather, church locations, recreational amenities, recent home sales, nearby restaurants, and more.

Now, a buyer can stand on the sidewalk outside of any home and immediately figure out, not only if the schools are within walking distance, but also receive the closest locations of the grocery store, bank and park.

“Onboard is delighted to bring its services directly to the end consumer through this accessible and useful iPhone application,” said Marc Siden, CEO of Onboard. “Our content has consistently been a natural fit with the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand, which is focused on consumers’ lifestyles.  This new application is just one more step in our continuing effort to partner with clients and respond to specific consumer needs through carefully designed and flexible programs.”

The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate iPhone app exemplifies the versatility of Onboard’s products and opens up  new areas of potential growth for both companies.

“We sought to provide homebuyers across the country with an application that could seamlessly fit into their home buying process and provide them with the tools they need to make the research-to-purchase process simpler,” said Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. “We are confident Onboard’s exclusive community information will help us to achieve this strategy.”

The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate iPhone application, Home Selection Assistant, is available for free on www.bhgrealestate.com/iphone.

Below are a few screenshots of the iphone app

About Onboard Informatics

Since 2001, Onboard Informatics has provided comprehensive local, regional and national real estate data solutions, powerful web tools and web services to some of the most innovative companies in the real estate, media and technology industries.  Onboard combines its expertise in data aggregation, standardization, and integration with expert consulting, transforming the complexity of data into meaningful solutions to support their clients in achieving business objectives.  Privately held since its founding, Onboard is located in the heart of the world’s financial center in the Wall Street area of New York City.  For more information about Onboard Informatics, or to request a demo, visit http://onboardinformatics.com/.

About Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate is a residential real estate company with a growing network of local brokerage offices.  Its real estate agents and brokers offer professional, knowledgeable advice and services for home buyers and sellers.  The company’s Web site offers real estate search, including MLS listings for selected locations.  You can also find in-depth articles about buying, selling and owning real estate at http://www.bhgrealestate.com/.

Tags: Better Homes and Gardens, community data, iphone, iPhone apps, Onboard Informatics, phone apps, Real Estate, school data.

October 2nd, 2009

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

From the worlds of real estate and technology, the best reads of the week according to our staff:

• Layar prepares to release an Augmented Reality iPhone app with multiple location-based data sets (via ReadWriteWeb):

“The current degree of refinement in GPS and map accuracy in the US may need to evolve further before you can reliably stand in front of a place, point an Augmented Reality app at it and get the information that you’re looking for – but big picture, nearby information is available now. The act of looking through your phone, at the world around you, at layers of data on top of physical objects, is something that the human mind and user experience design will need to work on before these apps can turn from “wow” to a tool people use daily.”

• Online ad spending in the UK exceeded television spending for the first time (via IAB):

“According to the bi-annual online advertising expenditure study from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) – the trade body for digital marketing – in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) – the internet has now overtaken TV advertising to become the UK’s single biggest advertising medium.”

• Apple purchases a map company that has nothing to do with Google, causing some drama in the iPhone universe (via Gizmodo):

“So maybe Apple wants these kind of intensive, custom geolocation mapping powers for the iPhone (and other stuff), or maybe Apple just wants to roll its own maps, so it’s not depending on Google for the tiles. Which would actually go along with the same kind of independent streak we’ve seen in other areas from Apple, like designing custom chips for the iPhone (and maybe the Tablet) using its PA Semi acquisition, instead of using the same chips anybody can buy.”

• Young homebuyers give the real estate market a boost as Congress debates the tax credit extension (via RISMedia):

“The incentive is helping to slow the decline in home sales. In August, sales were down 1% over the comparable period last year, the smallest year-over-year decline in any month since late 2007. As Congress considers extending the credit, real-estate agents and home builders worry sales could slump again if it’s allowed to expire.”

Tags: advertising spending, Apple, Augmented Reality, home sales, iPhone apps, online spending.