by Richard Augelli

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

REAL ESTATE SOFTWARE PACKAGES

Real Estate is an industry that has gained much from the Internet revolution. Not everyone likes to go to a realtor when shopping for a home. Some people like to do their homework quietly at home without the pressure from the agents to buy a home.

Before the internet, home shoppers had to purchase or rent media with real estate data from realtors or third agents in order to look for homes on their computers. This usually involved a fee from the seller.

With the advent of the internet, realtors and third party agents were able to offer data through the web, sometimes free of charge. Today most realtors have their own web site where shoppers can view the homes available free of charge. Shoppers can view homes pictures, their price, square footage, number of rooms, bathrooms, and related information.

Sometimes one or more digital pictures of the home available are displayed on the web page; some web sites include a short video stream or "virtual tour" of the property, showing the interior, and the property from different angles.

In addition, most realtor web pages include a search engine that will let you search for homes in specific areas, or within a certain price range, square footage, or only for homes meeting certain criteria, such as number of rooms and baths, pool, garage, etc.

This software is usually custom developed for the reality either by developers working for the reality or from specialized third party software companies such as Property Software Solutions (http://www.propertysoftwaresolutions.com), MasterKeySystems (http://www.masterkey-systems.com/RealEstate.html), Bondware Real Estate (http://realestate.bondware.com) and several others.

Some companies specialize in the development of Software Packages for the development of full-featured Web Sites for independent realtors, such as RapidListings (http://www.rapidlistings.com), Realigent (http://www.realigent.com),
others specialize in software packages for property management, such as Capterra (http://www.capterra.com/real-estate-property-manage ment-software),

Shoppers that do not want to be restricted to only a specific reality should check out the free Multiple Listings Service (http://www.mls.com). This service includes a search engine for properties nationwide, including foreclosures and auctioned homes.

Software Packages that accesses the MLS such as NAVICA , by Systems Engineering, Inc. (http://www.seisystems.com) include many additional features such as being able to

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