ZipRealty’s “Powered by Zip” technology and referral network has grown to 20 firms with the addition of Coldwell Banker Select Professionals, a 10-office, 300-agent brokerage in central Pennsylvania, the companies said today.
Lancaster-based Coldwell Banker Select Professionals is the fifth brokerage affiliated with Coldwell Banker to sign up for the Powered by Zip program this year.
Since announcing its 17th brokerage to the Powered by Zip network in August, ZipRealty has signed up two additional brokerages in addition to Coldwell Banker Select Professionals: Pittsburgh-based Coldwell Banker Real Estate Services, which has more than 900 agents in 13 offices, and a handful of Coldwell Banker Select Professionals’ offices in the Naples-Sarasota, Fla., region.
In markets where ZipRealty has partnered with a brokerage to provide leads and lead management tools on an exclusive basis, ziprealty.com displays Internet data exchange (IDX) listings pooled by all of the brokerages in that market.
Agents who sign up to use the Powered by Zip platform in brokerages in the network receive leads from ziprealty.com in that market and access to ZipRealty’s lead management platform “Zap.”
“Powered by Zip provides our brokerage with operating discipline, improved service to our clients and increased lead flow,” said Coldwell Banker Select Professionals CEO Ryan Hess in a statement. He said the network “will help us establish and grow long-term relationships with serious homebuyers and sellers, while growing our business.”
Brokerages participating in the Powered by Zip network typically pay a combination of a monthly subscription and transaction-based fee for a package that includes a co-branded website, online agent marketing, leads, and the Zap brokerage operating system, including full agent functionality for managing client interaction, lead incubation and customer service.
Powered by Zip, along with marketing agreements with mortgage lenders and display ads on ziprealty.com, accounted for 7 percent of the company’s net revenues during the third quarter, the company said in its most recent quarterly report to investors.
ZipRealty, which also operates as a brokerage in 19 separate markets, launched the Powered by Zip platform in 2011 in conjunction with a restructuring that included closing brokerage operations in 15 markets.
ZipRealty’s display of IDX listing data in markets where it does not provide brokerage services has been an issue of concern to some industry observers. Typically, only MLS members or MLSs themselves are allowed to display IDX data on public-facing websites.
ZipRealty has said that it’s acting on behalf of partner brokerages who are MLS members to display IDX listing in Powered by Zip markets.
Consumers searching ziprealty.com for listings in Powered by Zip markets see the partner brokerages’ branding, and ziprealty.com is in compliance with IDX display rules, the company says.
Based in Emeryville, Calif., ZipRealty operates its own brokerage offices in 19 markets nationwide: Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Orange County, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix; Richmond, Va.; Sacramento, Calif.; San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Washington, D.C.
The 20 Powered by Zip markets include Atlanta; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; Greater Hudson Valley, N.Y.; Philadelphia; Jacksonville, Fla.; Lancaster, Pa.; Long Island, N.Y.; Miami; Minneapolis; Nashville, Tenn.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Pittsburgh; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Salt Lake City; Sarasota-Naples, Fla.; St. Louis; Tampa, Fla.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Virginia Beach, Va.