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Builders' Update: An XML-Powered Listing of New Homes

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Wed, 2012-09-26 01:53 — lazar
Builders' Update Founders
At BuildersUpdate.com, Bill Gaul, the founder, and Lee Goldstein, operations director, work on bringing the entire inventory of new homes in the U.S. online (Photo source: upstart.bizjournals.com)

BuildersUpdate.com is an Austin, TX startup founded by Bill Gaul, a U.S. veteran and serial entrepreneur. The company offers real estate agents a searchable online directory of new homes, to-be-builts, lots and condos.


In their line of work, real estate agents typically use Multiple Listing Service (MLS), an online service containing every home for resale listed by a real estate agent. However, MLS simply doesn't provide any data about planned homes. So far, that information was to be found fragmented into various different resources, none of which emerged as an industry standard.

Builders' Update aims to change that by sheer scope of its listings. The company's goal is to make information about all new homes in the United States available to real estate agents. When it launched in June, the website already contained 61 percent of the the new home directory. It is expected to scale to 90-95 percent by the end of the year and full 100 percent by mid-2013.

How does it work? Home builders update an XML feed for their own use that is automatically transmitted to the website. From that point on, much of the data processing and organization is automated, thereby eliminating human error factor. This decentralized model allows for up-to-date and accurate information without any organizational bottlenecks. The final product is a searchable, geo-targeted directory available to realtors 24/7.

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