1. LoopNet, Reaction Web Deal Offers Functionality and Design for the Online Brokerage Space

San Francisco-based online commercial real estate marketplace LoopNet announced last month the acquisition of Denver-based Internet design and online solutions firm Reaction Web in a deal that promises to bring robust functionality—including customized Web sites, secure online “deal” and “due diligence” rooms, and private property marketing tools—to the suite of LoopNet solutions.

Reaction Web general manager Mike Mockus sat down with Multifamily Executive senior editor Chris Wood this week to discuss the acquisition, the relative strengths of online property marketing in the multifamily industry, and the prospect of creating a completely digital asset trading platform.

MFE: How did Reaction Web first get involved in the multifamily real estate sector?
MOCKUS: My partner and I started the business in 1997 as a general Web design firm to improve how Web sites interact and provide services to customers. In 1999, we landed a commercial brokerage team—a Grubb & Elllis multifamily team here in Denver. Grubb & Ellis took notice of our work, and by 2001, we were their preferred vendor nationally. In just a couple of years, we had taken that business into a much bigger multifamily footprint and re-branded ourselves as a commercial real estate Web design and services firm. Since then, about 90 percent of our business has been on the brokerage side, with the remainder coming from developers and owner/operators.

MFE: What areas of online real estate marketing could be improved?
MOCKUS: At our very first meeting, we were bidding against three or four other firms, and they picked us because we were focused not as much on how the site superficially looked, but how it worked operationally for the user and what the client experience would be like. We wanted ease of use with customized functionality that might include investor registration for access to property specifics, or confidentiality agreements that could be executed online. We made those things happen. It was technology, driven by the needs of the clients, and it was centered on offering and streamlining the digital components of the transaction process.

MFE: How have those tools developed into the LoopNet offerings available to brokers?
MOCKUS: All of our efforts are to make the life of the broker more efficient. We have a Listing Lab marketing component that includes digital teaser pages, full offering packages, confidentiality agreements, offering memorandums, deeper qualification tools, and the release of due diligence information such as lease documents, tax documents, and other investor qualification tools. All of that occurs in our online due diligence war rooms.

MFE: Your start was in multifamily. How do you anticipate your client roster will shake out on the LoopNet platform?
MOCKUS: We have been more heavily focused on multifamily and retail investment broker clients, although we do some leasing business as well. So we’re probably 30 percent multifamily, 30 percent retail, with the remainder divided up amongst industrial, mixed-use, office, land, and other real estate categories. LoopNet has such a large, diverse client base that we’ll probably see a broader exposure to different commercial real estate classes, and a broader exposure to smaller, private capital deals as opposed to larger, $20 million-plus institutional deals.

MFE: Is the end game plan to create an entirely electronic property trading platform?
MOCKUS: It is an electronic platform already, but its purpose is to make brokers more efficient, not replace them in the transactional process. We think our services are there to empower brokers. You will always need dedicated, experienced professionals to see these deals through from start to end. We want to provide an electronic platform that enables broker creativity and continues to make brokers more efficient and provide their client with better service as opposed to pushing paper.

2. AppFolio Offers Free Online Rent Payments

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based property management software firm AppFolio announced March 29 that it has integrated online rent payments into its AppFolio Property Manager platform, allowing customers the ability to collect rent online using ACH with no additional monthly charges. AppFolio’s Web-based property management software combines Web site, marketing, accounting, online rent collection, and property management services into a single Web-based platform. Key features of the new online rent payment functionality include: secure, Web-based interface for resident rent payment, as well as automatic integration of rent payments into AppFolio’s accounting records. “It costs a typical property manager $2 or more to process just one rent check each month,” says AppFolio CEO Brian Donahoo. “For a property management company with 1,000 properties, this means a cost of $24,000 a year just to process rent checks.”

3. G5 Unveils Tracking of Social Networking

Bend, Ore.-based G5 Search Marketing unveiled its Facebook Fan Widget February 22 at the National Apartment Association’s Student Housing Conference & Expo. The G5 Facebook Fan Widget enables student housing clients to generate, track, and measure prospective resident leads from specific property Facebook fan pages. “We have long recognized the value of Facebook in our marketing efforts and have been active participants on the social network via our property pages,” says Blair Sweeney, development manager for Franklin Holdings, one of the first firms to try out the fan widget. “Now, we can track exactly what value those efforts are bringing.” Results generated by the widget on individual community Facebook marketing efforts are available through the G5 Local Marketing Platform’s dashboard.

4. Trulia Partnership Enables Expansion of ForRent ILS

Norfolk, Va.-based ForRent.com, the anchor Web site for For Rent Media Solutions announced April 7 a new partnership with real estate search site Trulia.com, a comprehensive real estate search site. This partnership exemplifies ForRent.com’s most recent efforts to expand its online presence and generate more leads for advertisers. “With more than 6.5 million unique visitors to Trulia per month, it is obvious Trulia is a well-known name in the real estate world,” says Terry Slattery, president of For Rent Media Solutions. “After establishing such a strong name with realtors and home buyers, we are proud to be working with Trulia as they expand their reach to renters. Integrating ForRent.com listings into Trulia’s site will put our clients’ properties in front of a new audience, ultimately generating more exposure and creating the potential for them to receive more leads.” To access ForRent.com listings on Trulia.com, renters can click the “For Rent” tab on the home page and search by location. The search results page will pull up ForRent.com listings in their area. Renters can also locate properties using the Google Maps feature on the property’s details page or through Trulia.com's popular map feature.

5. Resite, ePremium Form Renter's Insurance Partnership

Meanwhile, For Rent Media Solution’s sister company Resite Online, also a Norfolk, Va.-based division of Dominion Enterprises, announced April 1 a strategic partnership with ePremium to integrate software between Resite’s ResidentHubTM portal and ePremium’s renter's insurance enrollment platform. The partnership allows ResidentHub portal users to enroll in a non-underwritten renter’s insurance policy via the Resite platform, while new and existing residents at Resite-powered apartment communities are pre-approved for enrollment in the ePremiumRENTERS insurance program at fixed premium rates. “Property owners understand the positive impact that high renter's insurance participation can have on operating results,” says ePremium president Chad Scott. “The traditional manual application process has always been an obstacle to new resident enrollment. We are confident that the availability of this integrated enrollment tool will help drive renter's insurance participation throughout Resite partner communities.”

6. Yardi Builds Data Bench Via PropertyShark Acquisition

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Yardi Systems announced March 31 that it has acquired New York City-based PropertyShark and the PropertyShark.com real estate data Web site in an effort to integrate deep property data into the Yardi suite of real estate investment management and property management software. "PropertyShark’s aggregation of real estate data from hundreds of sources into a single property research Web site has changed the way real estate investors, professionals, and consumers educate themselves and make decisions about property in hubs such as New York and Los Angeles,” said Gordon Morrell, Yardi’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Yardi acquired PropertyShark to expand the service nationally, strengthen our suite of products, and provide our clients with fully integrated access to detailed property information.”

7. Sperry Van Ness Brokers Go Mobile

Irvine, Calif.-based commercial real estate brokerage firm Sperry Van Ness announced March 30 that it has implemented a new mobile marketing platform using Qonnect.mobi for its commercial property listings. Qonnect.mobi is a mobile marketing platform that uses 2D barcodes, also known as QR codes, along with highly optimized mobile Web pages to instantly deliver information to mobile users, providing Sperry Van Ness brokers and clients with immediate handheld access to property information such as URL links to mobile pages, digital flyers, images, video, and contact information by simply scanning a bar code with any smart phone device. “Technology has always been a key component to the success of this company, and this new mobile marketing platform is a result of our efforts to improve our efficiencies in marketing our listings," says Kevin Maggiacomo, president and CEO of Sperry Van Ness. The firm’s downtown Chicago office will be the first to use the technology in the marketing of a 13,000-square-foot retail/restaurant space in Alta At K Station, a luxury high-rise development built by The Fifield Cos.

8. Property Solutions Offers Mobile Marketing, Too

Provo, Utah-based multifamily Web site and online payment provider Property Solutions introduces mobile Web site capabilities with the release of its ProspectPortal Mobile component on March 23. ProspectPortal Mobile allows apartment hunters to visit Property Solutions-powered community Web sites via Web-enabled mobile devices and find property information such as pricing and floor plan availability on the go. ProspectPortal Web sites are already in use by apartment communities in all 50 states, and mobile versions of the Web sites are compatible with all major wireless devices, including the iPhone, Blackberry, and Google Droid. “People are using mobile devices to access the Internet more than ever. Traffic to mobile Web sites tripled last year on the iPhone alone,” says Ben Zimmer, president of Property Solutions. “ProspectPortal Mobile allows management companies to take their online marketing to a growing segment of the American public.”

9. Rentbits Acquires ApartmentFrog Search Engine

Denver-based apartment rental search engine Rentbits.com announced March 11 its acquisition of rival apartment search site ApartmentFrog.com. “This acquisition is part of our long-term strategy to continue expanding our distribution offering for our advertisers,” says Tim Moynihan, Rentbits’ chief operations officer. “As part of the Rentbits network, ApartmentFrog.com offers our multifamily customers relevant distribution and qualified lead generation for their apartment communities.” With more than 500,000 active daily rental listings and 10.2 million unique visitors per month, Rentbits.com was recently named one of Hitwise’s fastest-growing real estate sites. The firm is currently working on an initiative to incorporate historical rental rate data from more than 7 million transactions into the Rentbits.com databases.

10. RealPage Moves Closer to 100% Paperless Billing

Carrollton, Texas-based multifamily software and services provider RealPage announced March 15 that it would begin offering resident e-billing through Velocity, the firm’s utility management services offering. Convergent billing of combined rent and utility payments is delivered via e-mail from online resident portals, giving renters secure access to view their statement and even pay their bills online. "We've removed the post office from the billing process, speeding up delivery for communities and residents alike as well as eliminating paper statements,” says Velocity president William Chaney. “We've found this is a preferred amenity for residents, who want the option to view their combined rent and utility statements at any time they choose."

11. LeasingDesk Expands Gap Insurance Coverage

In addition, RealPage’s multifamily risk mitigation systems division LeasingDesk announced March 17 the availability of RenterProtection, a supplemental insurance product that provides limited liability coverage to apartment owners in the event that a renter's insurance policy lapses, is canceled, or the renter has no insurance. Integrated with LeasingDesk's flagship eRenterPlan renter's insurance, RenterProtection is automatically activated when a resident's renter's insurance policy has been discontinued, providing owners with seamless coverage from exposure to risk. "Managing a required renter's insurance program can be incredibly time-consuming and often inaccurate without online tracking capabilities," says LeasingDesk president David Carner. "The ability to track enforcement of renter's insurance policies through the property management system and have RenterProtection kick in when a policy lapses makes it easy for an owner to manage risk transfer in an efficient and cost-effective manner." RenterProtection provides $25,000 to $100,000 in coverage for resident-caused damage under common perils including water, fire, smoke, or explosions.

12. WilliamPaid Eases Roommate Rent Payment Tensions

Chicago-based WilliamPaid, an online resource for renters and roommates, launched on March 10 with its namesake Web site WilliamPaid.com, which offers tools for making rent payments, managing roommate relationships, and building personal credit via reporting of rent payments to the major credit bureaus. The Gen-Y targeted Web platform allows for online rent payment, management and splitting of rent payment collections between roommates, and cash-back rewards for friend referrals. For users opting to funnel cash rewards into student loan debt repayment, WilliamPaid offers a 10 percent match. “WilliamPaid compliments existing social media platforms to offer a hyperpersonal roommate relationship experience,” says WilliamPaid CEO Evan Silverman. “For many, rent is a sensitive topic due to financial issues and roommate disagreements. We provide flexible payment options to relieve financial strain as well as a medium for roommates to communicate about and monitor rent payments without face-to-face conflicts or ‘text message stress.’”

Editor's note: E-mail your multifamily technology news to cwood@hanleywood.com.