Listingbook in The Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney

An article was published yesterday, June 2, 2009, on The Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney website is titled  Home Buying Sites Flying Under the Radar.

The article starts out, “Technology has drastically changed the way homes are bought and sold.”  That got our attention and we couldn’t agree more.  So, where did they do their research for this article? SmartMoney asked real estate industry professionals which lesser-known web sites and services home buyers should use to guide them through the bumpy real estate market. Listingbook is one that stood out.

” Listingbook partners with powerful local Multiple Listing Service databases to provide an interactive community for agents, buyers and sellers. Valerie Van Cleef, associate broker at Coach Realty in Long Island, thinks of it as a beefed-up version of the traditional MLS. Account holders set their search parameters and the site automatically updates those property listings as soon as they’re uploaded into the MLS database. Users can browse local listings, track open houses, edit their preferences and communicate with their broker. Other listing sites offer similar information, but since Listingbook pulls its data from MLS’s, it’s going to be the freshest, the pros say. You’ll be the first to know if a new house that matches your search criteria becomes available, says Van Cleef. “It’s definitely the most tech-savvy search and communication tool out there,” she says.”

Read the rest of this article and let us know what you think!