Roost.com Continues its Expansion into Key Markets Including the Detroit Metro Area, Ann Arbor and the Thumb

RISMEDIA, Sept. 19, 2008-Roost, Inc., one of the fastest, most comprehensive search engines for finding dream homes, announced the launch of its service in Southeastern Michigan, extending its coverage to the Detroit Metro Area (Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties), as well as Ann Arbor and rural areas spanning from Washtenaw County to the Thumb. The addition of these new listings gives local home buyers the most accurate and up-to-date homes for sale listings of single-family homes, new construction and for sale by owner properties on the Web and provides real estate agents with a streamlined and effective new way to connect with home seekers. Roost has initially teamed up with Real Estate One, the largest broker in Michigan, and one of the largest brokers in the country, in promoting the launch.

As the 11th largest designated market area in the country, the addition of Southeastern Michigan expands Roost’s network by more than 110,000 for sale listings. To develop the best, most accurate listings, Roost says it forms partnerships with local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) boards one community at a time. By contrast, according to the company, other real estate search sites largely depend on broker feeds and other third party sources which are often unreliable and outdated. Roost’s listings are always current because they are tied directly to the MLS. In this competitive real estate market, outdated information can quickly lead to frustration if a listed property has been sold or taken off the market.

Roost’s services in Southeastern Michigan are available within the Detroit MLS board boundaries.

“The Detroit-area real estate market is a challenging one with falling prices and a tough economic climate. However, people who do plan to buy need accurate information they can act on in confidence. That’s where Roost comes in,” said Alex Chang, CEO of Roost. “The MLS tracks and updates both new listings and price changes frequently, and Roost makes that information immediately available, either by searching or through e-mail alerts. By using Roost, we know users will be better armed to make smart decisions in their home buying quest.”

Roost is a “blazing-fast” search engine that sits atop IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, sites. IDX is the national data sharing standard among all real estate brokers. Most popular real estate search sites are listing aggregators, and unlike IDX sites powered by the MLS, these sites get their listings for properties for sale from a variety of sources including brokers, magazine publishers, newspapers, other software companies, and sometimes, even each other. The result is often inaccurate and incomplete data, leading to frustration for home buyers. With Roost, users can create custom search profiles with simple filtering controls to sort by price range, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, neighborhood, school district, new or resale properties and more – even which homes have granite countertops or pools.

Additionally, Roost’s platform and traffic-sharing approach with brokers helps agents form new connections with potential clients, serving as an important ally for real estate agents struggling to stay afloat in one of the most difficult housing markets in history.

“Despite the tough economic times, there are incredible deals to be had in this market,” said Jodi Dines, CIO of Real Estate One. “When prices fluctuate like that, a dream home that had previously been out of reach suddenly becomes affordable, and Roost can help homebuyers get the crucial information they need to keep them on top of the market and in their dream home.”

Roost recently announced the results of a study by the WAV Group, which performed a true apples-to-apples comparison between MLS-based real estate search sites, like Roost, and aggregator search sites including Trulia, Zillow, Google and Yahoo! The results clearly showed that Roost’s listings were 96% to 98% accurate, compared to aggregator sites with accuracy rates as low as 8%.

For more information, visit http://blog.roost.com/2008/08/26/accuracy-online-property-searches-examination/ and www.roost.com.

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