Wednesday, February 28, 2007

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE -- Powerful New Internet Tool 'Matches' Residents, Multifamily Owners

By Brent Greer
Prudential CRES Commercial Real Estate

I LOVE the power of technology to bring people together. And now a new service is taking real estate yet a step farther by electronically "matching" property owners and residents. Its called "Tenantmarket.com."

From the owner perspective, it helps them find the right residents fast! Instead of spending time time and money with newspaper ads and signs, TenantMarket "can find great renters instantly" by enabling the owner to list the criteria that make up the ideal resident. From the resident's perspective, the renter can use the service to publish a personalized housing search, and the system does the rest. The renter may receive an electronic, personalized offer to rent. Both parties meet and decide whether to proceed with a rental agreement.

It is too soon to know how successful this project will be, but with increasing use of the web to search for houses, it makes sense that there would be such a tool to search for apartments beyond a simple electronic listing. Check it out! And if someone out there uses it successfully -- or not -- let me know. I'm very curious how people respond to this service.

Brent Greer is an investment specialist with Prudential CRES Commercial Real Estate. Brent represents buyers and sellers of income-producing properties, particularly multi-family, land and office, and consults on IRS 1031 tax-deferred exchanges. Email: bgreer@prudentialcrescolumbus.com

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