SecondSpace Targets Niche Real Estate Markets
There is a newcomer in the land of real estate web site giants. Zillow, ActiveRain, Redfin and others are being joined by another Seattle-based upstart, SecondSpace. Aimed squarely at baby boomers, SecondSpace is headed by former tech leaders of Classmates.com, Microsoft, Amazon, American Express, and Real Networks, to name a few. Its subtle goal, reportedly, is to help people between ages 40 and 60 “have more free time.”
The SecondSpace network currently consists of ResortScape.com and LandWatch.com. These sites are unique in that they target a very small niche. Their layout and interface is user-friendly and appealing to the eye. On ResortScape, you can search for resort and vacation properties by location, price, property type and even “lifestyle” choices like active adult, tennis, private golf, private spa or retirement. LandWatch aims to help people find hunting land for sale or lease, farms, ranches, country homes and development sites across the United States, from Wyoming to Georgia. It is a Google-esque operation tailored to niche real estate industries. It certainly seems like it would reduce a lot of the headache and eye strain involved in buying or renting long-distance, as opposed to browsing dozens of web sites and Craigslist ads and consulting with local realtors for a fee.
Though it only has a measly 70,000 listings and no significant marketing push thus far, according to the Rain City Guide, SecondSpace still shows great promise. The company has received more than $6 million in venture funding. It is predicted that they might eventually expand to offer other sites targeted at time shares, vacation homes overseas, etc. This may be one to watch, or it may fizzle. Though the online real estate web site scene seems to be a bit overdeveloped, there may be room for the niche marketing that SecondSpace brings.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
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