First Team and Oodle Fuel Social Sharing of Listings on Facebook and MySpace

COSTA MESA, Calif., Nov. 12 -- In one of the most significant developments for real estate marketing in years, the partnering of top tier real estate brokerages including First Team® Real Estate, Southern California's largest independent real estate company, and Oodle, the fastest growing online classified network in the U.S., promises to pioneer new frontiers in commerce opened by social networking venues like Facebook and MySpace.

The announcement that Oodle and First Team would be joining forces to reap the property marketing potential, presented by Facebook's 300-plus million active users and MySpace's 125 million users, will continue to be shared during the National Association of Realtors 2009 Convention, held Nov. 13 - 16 in San Diego, CA.

Oodle, known for its innovation in online classified advertising, has powered Facebook Marketplace since early 2009. When Oodle began exploring the idea of developing a self-service classifieds platform for real estate brokers and agents that would allow them to more easily get listings on Facebook and MySpace, it turned to a few select partners that have long been recognized as innovators in real estate sales and those with superior reporting and analytical resources such as First Team Real Estate.

"We're thrilled to start providing our clients with Oodle's valuable new tools and give their properties increased exposure across the most powerful social networks," said Cameron Merage, CEO and Founder of First Team Real Estate.

The value of using social networking sites as a venue for classified advertising in categories such as "furniture" and "rentals" has proved extremely effective on Facebook because people could instantly share their finds, opinions, and insights with friends and business associates.

Merage expects over time the same benefits will apply to real estate listings, with the added advantage of capturing a world-wide audience and maximizing the exposure of First Team Real Estate's listings for the benefit of its clients and agents. "Social media has emerged with huge potential to fuel word-of-mouth referrals in the housing market as a single comment has the potential to influence thousands," said Craig Donato, CEO of Oodle.

"This is another 'First Team first' - a major partnership with social network online property classifieds," Ondar Tarlow, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations, said. "First Team's 'The NEW Rules of Real Estate®' are well-known in Southern California as a service standard and brand promise, which we have faithfully upheld to benefit our clients and agents. Our new venture with Oodle helps to further expand our online listing syndication strategy which is another step in line with maximizing demand for our client's property listings - a critical need in today's diverse and dynamic marketplace."

The choice of First Team® Real Estate makes perfect sense when looking back at the business histories of both Oodle and First Team. Both have earned reputations as innovators in their industries.

As other real estate companies have seen their market share drop in an ailing real estate climate, First Team has expanded. Industry professionals generally attribute it to the company's aggressive pursuit of advances in proprietary technology, marketing tools and well trained and committed real estate agents.

About the Company

Founded by President and CEO Cameron Merage with five agents in one office in 1976, First Team® Real Estate and its Family of Companies including Hallmark Escrow Co., Inc., Coast Cities Escrow and Western Resources Title, have grown to over 2,000 agents and employees across 56 locations. The company has responded to changing markets for more than 33 years with innovative programs and targeted marketing enabling the company to sell more homes in Orange County in the last ten years than any other brokerage, according to Real Data Strategies, Inc. First Team® Real Estate, based in Orange County, is the # 1 independent real estate company in Southern California according to the 2008 RIS Media Power Broker Report and has sold more homes over $1 million dollars in Orange County, CA according to 2009 TRENDGRAPHIX, Inc. report for Orange County, CA, all residential property types $1 million and above.

First Team wins market share in any economic climate through innovation and proprietary marketing tools such as "The NEW Rules of Real Estate", HOT BUYS® and Market Trends(TM) and successfully targets the luxury market with First Team Estates' "Live Beautifully®" campaign. First Team has relationships with Luxury Portfolio®, the world's top luxury destination website, and Realtor.com®, Yahoo! Real Estates ®, Zillow® and many more. The company's "First in our Hearts" Foundation is well known for its generosity to the Southern California community. First Team and the Merage family are proud and honored to support Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, allowing families to realize the dream of home ownership and to experience hope.

Source: Oodle