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

COSTA MESA, Calif. November 12, 2009 – 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.

MEDIA CONTACT:
WeedaLutfi@firstteam.com
OndarTarlow@firstteam.com
First Team Real Estate Public Relations, +1-714-557-0771