Making sense of disorganization
Online real estate Q&A is not new. It is not ground breaking. Question and answer forums predate websites, they go back to Usergroups and further to IRC. Now, they’re on every real estate search site, and even on individual Realtor sites. Forums, apps, blogs, all share the goal not only of answering common real estate questions but to generate leads and connect with potential buyers and sellers.
The problem with the widespread use of questions and answers in real estate is that they are everywhere and disorganized and often, users on one site will contradict information offered by users of another site making a very confused real estate consumer.
RealtyBaron’s Answers API has taken on the lofty task of sorting the decades old mess. RealtyBaron CEO Marc Dugger revealed to AGBeat that they have partnered with MLS.com who is currently publishing questions and answers from the RealtyBaron API which is continually growing.
Why Answers API is pertinent:
The crux of what makes the Answers API pertinent is that it enables any website, blog, or mobile app to post questions and display answers. Dugger says, “think ‘MLS for Answers.’”
In true startup swagger lingo, Dugger noted, “Now, imagine when many partner web sites, web blogs, and mobile apps are both publishing and posting questions in far corners of the Interwebs. It’s Real Estate Answers 2.0 and it’s taking root now.”
Recently, they released the “Real Estate Answers” Facebook app that is built on top of the RealtyBaron Answers API that “anyone can plug into.” The Facebook app allows Facebook users to ask real estate questions which publish to their news feed with answers crowd-sourced from local real estate agents and fed back into the API.
Rather than ask a consumer to leave Facebook and navigate another site, the app simply allows interaction in an organic manner without relying on consumers to leave (which they aren’t often wont to do).
Built on the Answers API:
The company has now released three products based on their Answers API:
Because all three apps are built on the Answers API, Dugger says they “are not standalone “silos” like existing Q&A found on real estate portals,” setting the Answers API apart.
RealtyBaron is owned and operated by SoCo Technologies, Inc. and headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
