Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Yardi acquires RealTown/InternetCrusade

Interesting move by Yardi. It does get them deeper in the residential real estate game. RealTown is still very popular and IC had run NAR’s Technology Certification in the past. Congrats to Saul, John and the rest of the RealTown team!

[Update: Made a correction to timing of IC’s involvement with NAR]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts: Yardi Systems Inc. REEPCO Inc.
Joel Nelson Ashley Ruble-English
800-866-1144 x1255 866-377-0627 x615
Joel.Nelson at yardi dot com Ashley at RealTown dot com

Yardi Systems Acquires Real Estate Electronic Publishing Company Inc.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Feb. 1, 2011 – Yardi Systems today announced the acquisition of Real Estate Electronic Publishing Company Inc. (REEPCO).

Headquartered in San Diego, REEPCO owns and operates InternetCrusade® (IC), a national technology training organization for real estate professionals, and RealTown® (www.realtown.com), the industry’s oldest online real estate community. In 2001, IC created the National Association of Realtors’ exclusive Technology Certification Program, which has provided online technology education to more than 65,000 NAR members. IC and RealTown also manage numerous online communities and offer such productivity tools as e-mail and domain services to real estate professionals.

REEPCO’s entire management team and employee population will remain with the company and operate from its San Diego offices.

“With access to REEPCO’s sales channels, publishing and content syndication resources and educational training infrastructure, this acquisition will make many of our new products available to a large number of real estate professionals,” said Anant Yardi, president of Yardi.

About Yardi
Yardi Systems has been committed to the design, development and support of real estate investment management and property management software for nearly 30 years. With its Yardi Multifamily Suite™, Yardi Commercial Suite™ and Yardi Investment Suite™, the Yardi Voyager™ system is the most comprehensive single real estate management platform on the market today. Yardi serves clients around the world from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. More information about Yardi products and services is available at www.yardi.com.

About REEPCO
REEPCO, established in 1995, is best known under the industry trusted InternetCrusade® (IC) brand. IC owns and operates the oldest online real estate community, RealTown (www.RealTown.com), and is recognized for its national broker and agent training infrastructure, having delivered more than 3,600 live technology training programs in the U.S. and Canada. IC created and operated the National Association of Realtors’ exclusive Technology Certification Program (e-PRO®) between 2001 and 2010. The company also created NAR’s Web 2.0 & Social Media Course in 2009.

The Syndication Hustle


I was just reading John Heithaus, Chief Marketing Officer, of MRIS blog post titled; Reality Check Ahead: Data Mining and the Implication for Real Estate Professionals. He does a great job of outlining the implications of syndication has upon the real estate business.

Unfortunately it seems nobody cares.

To me, and others, it’s clear that the risks of syndication far out weigh the rewards. Yet brokers continue to sign agreements they never read with fine print they never see. Granted there are some best practices to follow, such as making sure the syndicator’s site has much less information than yours, and to make sure you understand what rights to the data you are giving away.

But, with sites like Facebook and Google people have become accustom to surrendering their personal/business data for “free” products and services.

The frustration is that many MLS professionals understand the dangers of listing syndication but are powerless to dissuade their board members to stop, look and listen. Bob Hale at the recent Inman Connect conference did an excelent job of listing off the battles that MLS/Real Estate Industry has lost in recent years, citing “agent ratings” as the latest defeat. And if Bob Hale can’t get anything done? Can anyone???

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