SAN FRANCISCO – A new Arizona-based company has launched a private national referral network for real estate brokers that enables brokers to funnel online consumers from search engines to agents they work with throughout their states.
E-Partner has created a network of community-based Web sites for every major city in every state, according to Gary Fisher, vice president of network services. Brokers buy the exclusive rights to a state, and they receive all the online consumer inquiries coming into that state.
What the brokers do with the leads is entirely up to them, according to Fisher, who explained the company’s business model during the National Association of Realtors convention here this weekend. Typically, they would set up a system to funnel them off to their agents in respective cities throughout the state. Fisher said they can either operate the state network themselves or license out the individual cities to agents.
E-Partner’s network of Web sites includes 26,000 city Web sites that feature local community information, property listings information provided by the broker, and advertisements from relevant service companies.
The program aims to enable brokerages to penetrate new markets without having to set up a traditional brick-and-mortar office, Fisher said. What differentiates the company from other national online referral services, he said, is that the network is made up of thousands of community Web sites that all are found in simple search engine queries for real estate.
“No matter how much you market a single Web site like Realtor.com, for example, seven out of 10 people looking for real estate online will go to search engines,” Fisher said.
The e-Partner network has been in the works for three years, and just recently started licensing rights to states. Each state is sold only to one broker, and there are still states and regions left for sale, representatives said.
So far, Century 21 brokers have comprised the majority of e-Partner’s customers, according to Fisher.
To find out more about the company, go to www.ePartnerUSA.com, or www.UnitedStatesWebPage.com.
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