Wav Group

Local TV Stations are setting their sights on attracting the best online consumer, people looking for real estate.

Buckeye CableSystem announces the launch of HomeFinder Channel 100 and companion web site http://www.HomeFinder100.com as a new 24 hour digital real estate channel and powerful real estate search engine. TV Advertising is now affordable for Realtors. This marriage of Cable TV advertising with an integrated web site ad represents a nationwide first in real estate - or any category for that matter.

Toledo, OH (PRWEB) April 17, 2008 ’ HomeFinder Channel100 will launch on Television on Thursday April 17th. The website is currently up and running in beta test mode for consumer searches and neighborhood blogging, at www.homefinder100.com.

HomeFinder Channel 100 is billed as ˜A Better Way To Find A Home and was created and founded exclusively by Buckeye CableSystem. The channel and web site were designed to be the most powerful and most advertised real estate marketing platform in Greater Toledo in Spring of 2008, says Lonn Dugan, Real Estate Manager at Buckeye CableSystem,

High tech system builds tv commercials from web interface:

New technologies allows local real estate agents who are member of regional MLS groups to log on to www.HomeFinder100.com and build a television ad. Agents upload 6 high resolution photos. Photos are converted to video ads in a highly automated process designed to make television advertising more affordable than ever before. Customized audio is added by HomeFinder Channel 100 writers and voice talent. The entire process depends on matching photos with data from the MLS, and is therefore available to homes listed with participating Realtors.

About The Television Station:

Channel 100 will be available exclusively to Buckeye CableSystem Digital TV subscribers. Programming will consist of Realtor sponsored shows featuring homes for sale in the Greater Toledo area, organized by neighborhood, in half hour programming blocks. Shows rotate throughout the day and repeat every 4 to 8 hours so that each show will be on at several different times each day. Shows will also be offered on Buckeye VOD or Video

On Demand, which viewers can watch whenever their schedule permits.
Homes shown include those for sale in Toledo as well as nearby areas of N.W. Ohio and S.E. Michigan. Each sponsored home spot will offer 6 photos, price and details, as well as professional narration. Broker logos are shown, along with Realtor name and photo, as well as a phone number that can be used to make an appointment to see the home.    

Why Television?

A television show is easier to share with a partner, spouse, or family member than an internet browsing session. Buyers may not know what kinds of homes are available in different neighborhoods. The television shows, organized by neighborhood, will help them conduct research about the different neighborhoods that they might like. Once attractive neighborhoods or homes are found, the buyer can get additional information and the current price at the companion web site.

About the Web Site:

http://www.HomeFinder100.com offers a more extensive presentation of homes for sale, and more facts about every home, than what is found on television. The online consumer search database includes every listing by every agent of every participating real estate brokerage. There is no charge to broker, agent, or realtor listed seller to be included in the web site as a basic listing. These basic listings can be searched by any and all web visitors or home buyers.

˜HomeFinder100.com was designed to be user friendly and offer consumers the most powerful real estate search features available in our area. ˜The main idea, says Lonn Dugan, Real Estate Manager at Buckeye CableSystem, ˜was to help visitors find a short list of great homes in only a few clicks. Other sites may be hard to use, and tend to produce long lists of homes. After you search for 3 beds and 2 baths, you get hundreds of listings. The only way to find out which ones have master bedrooms or fenced yards is to actually read every listing. HomeFinder100.com makes this much easier.

Like many real estate web sites, the visiting consumer can request additional information about a home, or schedule a showing, in which case the listing agent or company receives an email request.

Unique Online Feature

However, HomeFinder100.com offers many additional features not found on other real estate web sites. One unique feature of the web site allows visitors to register and create a private, password protected page where they save their bookmarked homes. Another unique feature is the ˜Tell My Agent button. Consumers can register their Buyer Agent with the web site. Once registered, the next time the buyer clicks Tell My Agent, an email is sent to their own buyer agent when they want additional information or an appointment.    
The web site also offers neighborhood blogs where area residents can post articles about their neighborhood history, points of interest, area news, merchant reviews, garage sales, babysitting services and other topics of interest. There is a blog for each neighborhood.

How It Helps Realtors:

Realtors are invited to get more advertising while paying less than the cost in other marketing venues by using this dramatic new duel platform technology. Sponsored listings are marketed to potential buyers in a more exciting way than ever before available in Toledo. All area homes for sale by participating brokers are loaded from the MLS computer to a password protected portion of the HomeFinder100.com web site. To sponsor a listing, Realtors log in, choose one of their own MLS listings, upload photos and select a schedule. The sponsored ads are placed only once but appear on a dual platform of ˜TV + ONLINE showing agent photo and contact information. Any price changes or other fact changes made to the MLS appear automatically in our program and web site. There is no new web site for the Realtor to maintain. The system was pioneered by Buckeye CableSystem for the Greater Toledo Market and may represent the first use of such technology anywhere in the world!    

About the Timing of the Launch:

Area sellers and Realtors have certainly struggled in the current market cycle, so we wanted to do something to help them. ˜The timing of the launch represents a commitment by Buckeye to help stimulate the real estate market and assist with a market turnaround, says Steve Piller, V.P. of Ad Sales. ˜As a local media provider, we wanted to do something to counter all the negative publicity running on national news programs. This is our chance to do something positive for Toledo. We can make a difference and help support buyers, sellers, and Realtors as the market recovers, he added.

˜Its a classic marketing strategy to launch a product or service in the down phase of a cyclical market, says Dugan. We think this will really help agents and brokers build their brands and generate some excitement at a time when it is hard for them to do this on their own.
Those who are trying to sell their homes will benefit when their agent sponsors their listing on HomeFinder Channel 100. Sellers receive increased exposure to buyers when their homes are marketed online as well as on TV. The multimedia nature of the exposure is more powerful than mere print or online advertising of the kind that the new service replaces. Sellers are encouraged to ask their agent to sponsor their home on HomeFinder

Channel 100.

Participating Brokerages:
Pre-Launch participating brokers include: Assist2Sell - OH ~ Century 21 Kasten - OH ~ Century 21 Kasten - MI ~ Coldwell Banker Haynes - OH ~ Coldwell Banker Haynes - MI, ~ Effler Schmitt - OH ~ Flex Realty - OH ~ Oak Valley Realtors - OH ~ RE/MAX Alliance Premiere - OH RE/MAX Central Group - OH ~ RE/MAX Central Group - MI ~ RE/MAX Masters - OH ~ RE/MAX Preferred Associates - OH ~ RE/MAX Power - MI ~ RE/MAX Executives - OH ~ Real Advantage Realty - OH ~ Real Estate Solutions - OH ~ Real Estate Solutions - MI ~ Robert F. Lindsay Realtors - OH ~ Sulphur Springs Realty - OH ~ Sulphur Springs Realty - MI. Agents of these companies can sponsor listings on TV and online using the new

HomeFinder Channel 100 service.

Consumers with questions about how to get a home listed on HomeFinder Channel 100 should ask their agent. Agents who want to know how to sponsor listings should visit the web site for the phone number to the support desk.

http://waves.wavgroup.com/002DFE