Contra Costa Association of REALTORS® New “Open House” Web Site is quickly attracting Buyers, Sellers, and Real Estate Professionals

HomesOpenToday.com shows usage growing by 30% each month

For immediate release

Walnut Creek. May 14, 2007. The Contra Costa Association of REALTORS® (CCAR) finds its new web site, www.HomesOpenToday.com (or HOT ™, for short), contributing significantly to an increasing flow of potential home-buyers to its weekend open houses. Since the official launch of the web site in February, REALTORS® and home-sellers are reporting an upswing in the numbers of people coming to open houses after first “visiting” the properties online at HomesOpenToday.com.

“I placed my open house only on HomesOpenToday.com two weeks ago and had thirteen couples come through. This was more than I have had at any single open house in the last six months. HOT really works,” said Fred Weston of Century 21 Diablo Valley Realty in Walnut Creek., CA

“Publishing to HOT is a key component of my listing presentation – I publish all of my listings to HOT as Open Homes. I am pleased to report that not only do prospective clients feel that HOT provides added value but that traffic at our open houses has increased,” said Henry Alvarez of Howard Hills Real Estate in Lafayette, CA.

HomesOpenToday.com, which currently covers the Greater East Bay, is totally dedicated to providing the public with free access to information on real estate open houses. The web site allows the more than 4,400 CCAR members to post their current open houses online.

According to CCAR, HomesOpenToday.com is growing at a rate of over 30% per month both in terms of the quantity of open homes available to search - and in the number of visitors searching the web site. CCAR expects this rate increase as the summer months approach.

HomesOpenToday.com has quickly climbed to some excellent search rankings on Google, Yahoo!, and other major search engines and directories.

“Just 45 days ago HOT was not even in the top 1,000 sites for search phrases like “East Bay Open Homes” – now it is ranked #2. In April, we saw a 502% increase in traffic referred from the Google search engine,” says Michael Seguin, CCAR’s Director of MLS & Technology.

Typical HOT ™ Listing

	Sat April 21 1:00 PM to 04:00 PM2400 LOCATION LANE SAN RAMON, CA 94582 Click here for map	Townhouse $659,900 2170 Sq Feet 3 Bedrooms 2 bathrooms	Click Here For More Details
Listed by Jane Realtor at Homes, Inc.

HOT ™ Details

HOT ™ shows potential buyers the location of open houses, along with details about each property. The new CCAR web site lets potential buyers choose their parameters – price range, number of bedrooms, and number of bathrooms. The site tells them which homes are available for inspection on any given weekend.

When house hunters visit the web site, they can find homes in any city in Contra Costa, Alameda, and other East Bay counties. HomesOpenToday.com lists the homes that meet their parameters, along with addresses, prices, photos, lot square footage, and specifics about each home, such as garages, fireplaces, pool, governance by a home owners association, etc., as applicable.

House-hunters can search the site 24/7 for weekend open houses. HOT ™ has the capability of providing information three-to-four weekends into the future, allowing potential buyers to see what’s available now and what may be coming up in subsequent weekends.

“The advantage for users of HomesOpenToday.com is that the site has been designed to be completely user-friendly. There is no clutter, no advertising, and no fluff. It’s updated and available 24/7, and the information is always fresh and accurate,” Seguin says.

Contra Costa Association of REALTORS®, 1111 Civic Drive, Suite 375, Walnut Creek, CA 94596, (925) 295-9200, www.ccartoday.com

Contra Costa Association of REALTORS® “Open House”

Web Site Designed to Simplify Home Showing, Buying, Selling

Planned alliances will expand coverage to most of San Francisco Bay Area

For Immediate Release

Walnut Creek. March 15, 2007. The Contra Costa Association of REALTORS® (CCAR) has simplified the open house process for buyers and sellers of homes in the Greater East Bay with its new web site, www.HomesOpenToday.com. The web site allows the more than 4,400 CCAR members to post their current open houses online.

HomesOpenToday.com, which currently covers the Greater East Bay, is one of only two websites in the U.S. totally dedicated to providing the public with free access to MLS information on real estate open houses. The other such dedicated web site, by the Hawaii Association of Realtors, covers open houses in that state.

CCAR is planning to expand its coverage of open houses by forming alliances with other REALTOR® associations in Northern California and sharing the HomesOpenToday.com site with them.

“We are currently exploring ways in which fellow REALTORS® in the South Bay, the Peninsula, and elsewhere can get their open house data on the site,” says [Clark Anderson, CCAR President.]

Typical HomesOpenToday.com listing

	Sat Mar 24 01:00 PM to 04:00 PM2400 LOCATION LANE SAN RAMON, CA 94582 Click here for map	Townhouse $659,900 2170 Sq Feet 3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms	Click Here For More Details
Listed by Jane Realtor at Homes, Inc.

HomesOpenToday.com shows potential buyers the location of open houses, along with details about each property. The new CCAR web site lets potential buyers choose their parameters – price range, number of bedrooms, and number of bathrooms. The site tells them which homes are available for inspection on any given weekend. When house hunters visit the site, they can find homes in any city in Contra Costa, Alameda, and other East Bay counties. HomesOpenToday.com lists the homes that meet their parameters, along with addresses, prices, photos, and specifics about each home.

House-hunters can search the site 24/7 for weekend open houses. HOT has the capability of providing information three-to-four weekends into the future, allowing potential buyers to see what’s available now and what may be coming up in subsequent weekends.

“The advantage for users of HomesOpenToday.com is that the site has been designed to be completely user-friendly. It’s available 24/7, it’s updated hourly with MLS information and continually by REALTOR® members interacting with it. The information is as current as possible.Should there be a glitch, like an incorrect address, we can fix it immediately. No one has to wait for the next edition,” [says Michael Seguin, CCAR’s Director of MLS & Technology.]

At its Walnut Creek headquarters, CCAR has a nine-person technical staff in place to assist its 4,400+ members with all their online needs.

“It’s an online world, and CCAR is right in the thick of it of it,” [Anderson, the Association’s President, says.]

Contra Costa Association of REALTORS®, 1111 Civic Drive, Suite 375, Walnut Creek, CA 94596, (925) 295-9200, www.ccartoday.com