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HomesUSA.com is a platform for real estate agents to publish and manage builder inventory to the MLS.
Platforms: Browser-based
Ideal for: Agents who work specifically with new home builders
Top selling points:
- Designed to manage large volume of homes
- XML feed from builder websites
- Ease of use
Top concerns:
- Product is not built specifically for the open market, so licensing deals are subject to the company.
What you should know
HomesUSA was developed by a Texas real estate broker who provides limited service agreements to more than 60 home builders in the fast-growing markets throughout Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin and Houston.
The software offers a utilitarian interface for overseeing the status of listings within large, new home communities.
HomesUSA populates its database with listing data siphoned from builders’ websites through an XML feed.
The overall user experience mirrors that of most common MLS tools.
Builders are provided logins to update each property as milestones are achieved, eventually “clicking” a Submit Now command to send it directly to the appropriate MLS.
HomesUSA helps builders alert the market to when new houses are ready to be shown, when price reductions occur and when sales are final, for example.
A series of charts and tables are provided upon login to help builders quickly understand the number of active and pending listings in each of their communities, what listings are available to be sent to the MLS and even how many may be beyond their expected closing dates.
Community Profiles are detailed descriptions of each builders’ neighborhood and serve to quickly search for and measure listing progress.
Market reports are available for users via a RETS (Real Estate Transaction Standards) feed pulling from the MLS. Thus, builders can peruse new home market activity according to agent, office, ZIP code and other common MLS metrics.
All the data is there, but listing pages are bland.
Quickfinder.homesusa.com is the company’s proprietary listings browser. It too creates listing pages directly from the linked MLS information.
Any agent looking to license the software would want to re-think how these listing pages appear. All the data is there, but they’re for the most part bland and not very image-centric. In short, they’re no better than an MLS page, circa 2006.
In summary, this is very specific B2B software, designed solely as a way for agents to help builders publish and manage their properties within their local MLS.
The product ultimately fulfills its promise of eliminating the hassles and poor information upkeep habits that plague real estate developers and their sales teams.
By funneling the information and MLS responsibilities through HomesUSA.com, new homes and communities and reach buyers faster and sell in less time.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
