Placester offers Realtors a home for websites
Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal
W. Marc Bernsau
Real estate is a service-based business. But, most house or property hunters begin their searches online.
So, simply put, the goal of Cambridge-based Placester is to “empower every real estate professional to be on the Internet, so they can be found by the right people,” said co-founder and CEO Matt Barba.
Founded in late 2010, the company has developed an open-source platform for building real estate websites, whether for single agents, teams of brokers, single properties, property or transaction types, or dedicated markets and geographic areas.
Placester has 16 full-time employees and is backed by $2.5 million in funding. Investors include Romulus Capital, Brightcove co-founder Bob Mason, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen and Adelphic Mobile co-founder Jennifer Lum.
As Barba explained, the site-creation process is simple on Placester: Users choose a theme from the among the current 14 choices — half of them free, half premium — then customize it with colors, photos, branding and blogs. The sites are powered by WordPress, optimized for search engines and responsive to mobile devices.
Revenue comes from premium subscriptions, costing $45 a month, that integrate MLS data into sites, and also provide indexable property pages and priority support. The company has access to about 90 percent of the roughly 900 MLS data regions across the country, Barba said.
Although he declined to disclose revenue, he did say that Placester has a paid customer base in the “low thousands.” It also has “many tens of thousands” of free sites that it powers, and it provides developer tool sets, as well.
“Our mission isn’t to give every single agent a cookie-cutter website,” Barba said. “We embrace the idea of developers, and companies that specialize in making real estate websites, using our platform.”
Lisa Archer, of the Keller Williams-affiliated “Live, Love Charlotte,” turned to Placester when she wanted to create a site that was more destination-based and “picture-rich,” as opposed to simply listing properties.
“There wasn’t ever ‘That can’t be done,’ ‘That’s going to take too long,’ ‘That’s going to be too expensive,’” she said. “They’re really easy to work with, and they listened.”
Although the experience of people finding homes is becoming increasingly digital, people typically don’t buy or rent a home solely on what they see online, Barba said. “There’s a very, very important place for the foreseeable future for real estate professionals,” he said.
And Placester, looking ahead, has plenty of ideas about its next phase, said Barba, pointing to the 1 million agents, 90,000 brokerages, and 100 million listings across the U.S.
“There’s incredible opportunity,” Barba said. “We think we can really thrive.”
Original story link.
So, simply put, the goal of Cambridge-based Placester is to “empower every real estate professional to be on the Internet, so they can be found by the right people,” said co-founder and CEO Matt Barba.
Founded in late 2010, the company has developed an open-source platform for building real estate websites, whether for single agents, teams of brokers, single properties, property or transaction types, or dedicated markets and geographic areas.
Placester has 16 full-time employees and is backed by $2.5 million in funding. Investors include Romulus Capital, Brightcove co-founder Bob Mason, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen and Adelphic Mobile co-founder Jennifer Lum.
As Barba explained, the site-creation process is simple on Placester: Users choose a theme from the among the current 14 choices — half of them free, half premium — then customize it with colors, photos, branding and blogs. The sites are powered by WordPress, optimized for search engines and responsive to mobile devices.
Revenue comes from premium subscriptions, costing $45 a month, that integrate MLS data into sites, and also provide indexable property pages and priority support. The company has access to about 90 percent of the roughly 900 MLS data regions across the country, Barba said.
Although he declined to disclose revenue, he did say that Placester has a paid customer base in the “low thousands.” It also has “many tens of thousands” of free sites that it powers, and it provides developer tool sets, as well.
“Our mission isn’t to give every single agent a cookie-cutter website,” Barba said. “We embrace the idea of developers, and companies that specialize in making real estate websites, using our platform.”
Lisa Archer, of the Keller Williams-affiliated “Live, Love Charlotte,” turned to Placester when she wanted to create a site that was more destination-based and “picture-rich,” as opposed to simply listing properties.
“There wasn’t ever ‘That can’t be done,’ ‘That’s going to take too long,’ ‘That’s going to be too expensive,’” she said. “They’re really easy to work with, and they listened.”
Although the experience of people finding homes is becoming increasingly digital, people typically don’t buy or rent a home solely on what they see online, Barba said. “There’s a very, very important place for the foreseeable future for real estate professionals,” he said.
And Placester, looking ahead, has plenty of ideas about its next phase, said Barba, pointing to the 1 million agents, 90,000 brokerages, and 100 million listings across the U.S.
“There’s incredible opportunity,” Barba said. “We think we can really thrive.”
Original story link.
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