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Wednesday, August 14, 2002 Catching the next wave of technology Prudential Atlanta/Georgia Realty, one of the nation's largest 100 real estate companies according to a recent ranking by Realtor Magazine, continues to be at the forefront of Internet technology with its latest unveiling of a new web site designed to inform, educate, and assist area home buyers and sellers. "We had a major overhaul of the site just two years ago, but with the major advances in Internet technology we knew it was time to revamp our site and make it even more user-friendly and information-packed for today's consumer," Kim Hoyt, Director of eCommerce for Prudential Atlanta/Georgia Realty, explained about the new www.prudentialgeorgia.com Web site and the sister web sites of its sales associates. To accomplish providing the very latest in online tools for its real estate customers, Prudential Atlanta/Georgia Realty turned to Seattle-based Reliance Network to be its exclusive web hosting service. Reliance Network currently assists some 200 real estate brokerages around the country including Prudential Preferred Properties in Oregon, Prudential Northwest Realty in Seattle, and Prudential Carolinas Realty. The new sites have taken the best of the previous sites' features the ability for Realtors to quickly customize and update their own Web page; show up to 12 photographs of each listing; virtual tours on current listings; and offer buyers automatic e-mail announcements about new listings matching their criteria on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis with numerous new and cutting edge features. Online visitors can now: View more detailed information and conduct refined searches on specific neighborhoods, including the schools, crime rate, average home age, lot size, and area map. Save favorite property searches, making it easy to pick up where the customer left off on the last visit. Register online easier no long forms to complete, just enter an e-mail address. Earmark and save favorite listings. Have instant customer recognition upon returning to the web site (provided viewer has registered with an e-mail address). See a Real Estate news section with articles and topics changed on a daily basis. Check the Real Estate Tips link with answers to 500 frequently asked real estate questions "The new Web site provides detailed, real time information and instant communications for our agents and their clients," stated Hoyt. "Our goal is to take the intimidation out of the Internet, provide helpful, up-to-date information, and allow a more personal connection between agents and clients. Metro Atlanta consumers now have one Web address to go to for all their questions and concerns including an estimate of what payments would be on a particular home, guidelines for assessing current home value in today's market, and an inventory of homes currently available." Prudential Georgia Realty agent David Holihan, with more than 20 years' real estate experience, was one of the early testers during the site's developmental stages. He has been impressed by the updated, professional look and the host of additional features including the expanded property search capabilities. "I believe our site offers better search options than the much publicized realtor.com web site. We now have the top real estate site in Atlanta." This is an important factor when statistics from the National Association of Realtors say that nearly half of all home buyers now use the Internet to search for a new home. Just seven years ago, that number was only 2 percent. "Our improved online presence gives our sales associates an opportunity to showcase their listings, real estate knowledge, and technological expertise," explained Dan Forsman, president and CEO of Prudential Atlanta/Georgia Realty. "This new relationship with Reliance Network gives our agents increased productivity and the tools to run their businesses more efficiently because, used properly, their web sites are 24/7 virtual real estate offices on the Internet." Prudential Atlanta/Georgia Realty is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, a full-service residential and commercial real estate network with offices throughout the United States and Canada. Operating in its 39th year, Prudential has 25 offices and more than 900 sales associates throughout metro Atlanta and North Georgia.
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