Real estate listing engines have received ample attention in recent quarters. One such destination is Roost, a company that launched earlier this year at, according to CEO Alex Chang, a “great time.” More supply, more business, eh? Even so, competition is inevitable. Roost works with a number of MLSs (Multiple Listing Services) and individual real estate brokers to serve aggregate listings to users.
The same of course goes for sites like Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow and Trulia. Therefore features are where they Roost the extra mile. Which is why Roost has delivered a few new options to please its users, all of them wrapped up into a multi-functional device from PopularMedia called SocialNotes.
SocialNotes itself was launched only several days ago. And what it enables for Roosters is quite useful when the moment requires. In short, it allows users to share webpages via a number of methods - email, social networks, blog posts, and general Web page embeds. Those options alone warrant a try. It takes a little bit of work, depending on what route you wish to take. But the net effect of Roost’s SocialNotes implementation is nothing short of great. There’s no software to install, nothing to sign up for. Just click the ‘Share listing’ button beneath each residence found and up comes the widget.
It's also worth noting that once a listing is shared, the recipient of a note can reply through a comment link. This in turn enables a very basic chat feature on the Roost website. The chat is not in real-time, per se. But email notifications of comments received arrive soon enough. What would be especially intriguing is if SocialNotes could manage to collaborate with Roost in a way that might include home owners or real estate agents in the conversation as well (if in fact that is desired by a visitor to Roost). For now, though, the disconnect will have to do.
