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The Placester team is pleased to announce the release of a brand new, completely redesigned version of our platform.
We have spent the last four years helping real estate professionals get online, and one of the things we have learned is that most website platforms are not built for the average agent or broker. Instead, they are built for developers and advanced users who know their way around code and website design. Meanwhile, most of us are struggling to figure out dozens of settings and features we do not need, or paying someone an arm and a leg to figure it out for us.
At Placester, we think building a real estate website should be simple. That’s why we set out to build a platform for the majority, one that’s accessible to anyone interested in building an online marketing presence.
With our new interface, you can easily set up a beautiful and functional real estate website in just five minutes. We’ve also overhauled Placester’s dashboard experience to streamline all the tasks of maintaining your website, from adding blog posts and pages to uploading media and managing settings. This way, you can spend less time tinkering with your website, and more time working with leads and clients.
For more details on Placester’s redesigned platform, check our full press release below:
PLACESTER RELEASES MAJOR PLATFORM UPDATE, AGENTS CAN NOW CREATE WORDPRESS IDX WEBSITES IN MINUTES
A new administrative panel reduces website launch time from weeks to minutes
Boston, MA – September 4th, 2014 – Placester has released a brand new, totally redesigned version of its turnkey website and marketing platform for real estate professionals. This update focuses on making the building and maintenance aspects of a real estate website even easier and more intuitive. This release marks another leap forward in its mission to give every agent and broker a presence online.
Listening to feedback from real estate professionals over the last two years, CEO Matt Barba found that most website platforms are geared toward developers and a minority of power users who can afford to pay hundreds per month, leaving the vast majority of agents struggling to establish an effective online presence. “Most people just want to get a solid website up and running quickly,” Barba says. “Instead, they have to spend weeks or even months dialing in advanced settings and features they frankly don’t need. In the meantime, they’re not generating traffic or leads. In other words, they’re not in business.”
With these challenges in mind, Placester’s engineers set out to build a real estate website solution that’s accessible not just to the most high-profile, tech-savvy brokers and agents, but to all real estate professionals. “With this release, we’ve created a platform for the majority,” Barba says.
Placester’s redesign begins with the initial setup process, which sports a new user interface that allows users to easily set up a website from start to finish in just five minutes. That’s not just lip service, either. “We’ve focused on giving our users the options they need in a format anyone can understand,” Barba says. Over six simple screens, agents can select a design; integrate social media pages; choose a lead capture scheme, property search form, and navigation menu style; and add their branding elements. Each screen offers clear visual cues and descriptions, so users know exactly how each option will look and function on their finished site.
In addition to overhauling setup, Placester has also completely reimagined the backend dashboard. With dynamic dropdown navigation and slide out menus, users can create pages and blog posts, add media, manage settings, and perform other everyday maintenance tasks without ever loading a new page. All of this comes with incredibly snappy performance, creating a navigation experience that’s quicker and more seamless than ever.
While Placester’s backend user experience has been rebuilt from the ground up, the new interface is still deeply integrated with WordPress. “We’re not interested in reinventing the wheel,” Barba says. “WordPress is a flexible, feature-rich platform with a vibrant developer marketplace for real estate. We’re simply streamlining the core user experience with the average real estate professional in mind.” Placester users will still have access to all the interoperability and deep functionality of WordPress, along with Placester’s sleek responsive designs.
Placester’s update for real estate professionals arrives on the heels of its new publisher platform, which has already scored a nationwide deal with Hearst Corporation. The white-label solution offers local media companies free-text search and an advanced native advertising system geared specifically toward real estate. According to Barba, both products are merely a taste of what’s to come. “Today’s tools for real estate professionals suffer from short-term thinking,” he says. “We’re building an infrastructure to set real estate professionals up for long-term success.”
Real estate professionals who sign up with Placester receive a website, IDX integration, hosting, blogging capabilities, and phone and email support, all for $45 a month.
About Placester
At Placester we help real estate professionals grow their business by giving them the technology to better connect with buyers, sellers and renters online. We do this by aggregating every home in the US through partnerships with MLSs. These partnerships, along with our products, create economies of scale that allow all real estate professionals to promote themselves and their listings affordably.
Through Placester Web we provide cost-effective websites for real estate professionals and local media outlets (Newspapers, online publications & digital portals). Together, they create a marketplace, allowing real estate professionals, through Placester, to easily purchase digital advertising from a variety of local and national publishers. Placester maintains the trusted relationships required to sell digital ads and manages the ad inventory giving real estate professionals the network required to grow their businesses.
Placester was founded in 2010 by Matt Barba and Frederick Townes. The company has raised $8.9M in total funding to date and is backed by leading investors including Romulus Capital and Techstars.
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Contact: press@placester.com
