Coldwell Banker(R) Entrance into Second Life(R) Makes Virtual Homeownership Easier for Millions of Residents.Company Leads Real Estate Industry Into Virtual Future PARSIPPANY, N.J. -- With the 3-D virtual world of Second Life([R]) having become an online phenomenon, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation today announced that it is the first national real estate company to sell homes within the community. Offering houses in a variety of architectural styles and the ability to tour neighborhoods with a real estate professional, Coldwell Banker([R])is reinforcing its mission to ensure that everyone can achieve the dream of homeownership, whether on Main Street or in the metaverse. "We are incredibly excited to be a part of Second Life, the most explosively popular community on the Internet," says Charlie Young, senior vice president, marketing, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation. "Like the Second Life members, today's homeowners are technologically savvy so it's paramount that we offer them the opportunity to engage with, and experience, our brand in a variety of different ways, whether in the real or virtual world. Second Life is an excellent virtual platform that will enable us to interact with consumers where they are meeting today, in online 3-D communities." Members of Second Life (www.secondlife.com) create personas Personas or personae are fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. for themselves, known as avatars, which they use to navigate through the community peopled with more than four million residents worldwide. While in the virtual world of Second Life, avatars explore the society, shop, interact with others, visit entertainment events and do essentially everything they might in the real world. One of the more popular activities within Second Life is the purchase and rental of virtual land, so players can build their own stores, homes and event sites. Coldwell Banker has an inventory of more than 500 homes on 550,000 square meters Noun 1. square meter - a centare is 1/100th of an are centare, square metre area unit, square measure - a system of units used to measure areas in the Ranchero ran·che·ro n. pl. ran·che·ros Southwestern U.S. A ranch owner; a rancher. [American Spanish, from rancho, small ranch; see ranch.] section of the Second Life mainland, one of the largest home developments in this virtual world. These virtual homes will vary in price based on size and style, including southwestern, colonial and contemporary, among others. In addition, Coldwell Banker is offering homes perched atop a picturesque picturesque, term used in 18th-century England to refer to a landscape that looked as if it had come out of an academic painting. Used as derogatory criticism of such painting, the picturesque was considered pretty rather than beautiful. hill overlooking o·ver·look tr.v. o·ver·looked, o·ver·look·ing, o·ver·looks 1. a. To look over or at from a higher place. b. the ocean. Second Life residents can meet with a Coldwell Banker sales associate avatar in the brand's virtual office and schedule an appointment to tour virtual properties of interest. Homebuyers who close a purchase with Coldwell Banker will receive free "virtual furniture" for their new home as a closing gift. Coldwell Banker is the first company in any industry to employ tracking technology to analyze how residents interact with the brand's Second Life headquarters. The ability to monitor traffic allows Coldwell Banker to track visit minutes, unique visitors A count of how many different people access a Web site. For example, if a user leaves and comes back to the site five times during the measurement period, that person is counted as one unique visitor, but would count as five "user sessions. and total visitors, as well as determine which features are used most in the Second Life headquarters. "The Coldwell Banker headquarters in Second Life features coldwellbanker.com amenities, including the home value estimator, streaming videos A one-way video transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play video clips and video broadcasts. Computers in home networks stream video to digital media hubs connected to a home theater. and the ability to search for real world properties and find a sales associate," Young said. "And to keep in the spirit of fun, we wanted to introduce the Coldwell Banker helicopter so that looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a home in Second Life and exploring our headquarters can be a really unique experience." For those participants who do make a purchase, they can do so using the V-Commerce function, a first in Second Life and unique to Coldwell Banker, in which the avatar can touch a virtual palm-scanner that will automatically provide Coldwell Banker with the buyer's qualification status and simplify the purchasing process Purchasing Purchasing is the formal process of buying goods and services. The Purchasing Process can vary from one organization to another but there are some key elements that are common throughout The process usually starts with a 'Demand' or requirements . "Rather than having to negotiate for top dollar with Second Life 'land barons,' users can visit our virtual office and interact with our virtual sales associate to buy homes from Coldwell Banker at reasonable rates," Young continued. "Ironically, Colbert Coldwell, and later Benjamin Banker, founded our company after seeing similar practices in 1906 San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . Coldwell Banker was founded just 18 weeks after the earthquake largely because our founders saw the need for ethics ethics, in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a and integrity in assisting victims of the devastation who were being preyed upon by unsavory businesspeople. We want to do the same thing in Second Life: give residents the opportunity to participate in fair and reasonable real estate transactions." Code4Software and Kinesis kinesis /ki·ne·sis/ (ki-ne´sis) [Gr.] 1. movement. 2. stimulus-induced motion responsive only to the intensity of the stimulus, not the direction; cf. taxis. Marketing developed Second Life content for Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation. Recent Online Firsts Joining Second Life is the latest online offering from the real estate company. In late 2006, Coldwell Banker launched its comprehensive satellite mapping service on coldwellbanker.com which not only positions a home within the community but also identifies neighborhood amenities such as schools, restaurants, shops, houses of worship and more. Earlier last year, Coldwell Banker became the first major national real estate companies to debut streaming video content on its Web site. About Coldwell Banker([R]) Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker([R]) organization has been a premier full-service real estate provider. In 2006, Franchise Times magazine's prestigious Top 200 issue ranked the Coldwell Banker system number one in real estate for the seventh straight year and number eight among all franchisors. The Coldwell Banker System has more than 3,800 residential real estate offices and 123,700 Sales Associates in 32 countries and territories. The Coldwell Banker System is a leader in the industry in residential and commercial real estate, and in niche markets A niche market also known as a target market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector. By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. such as resort, new home and luxury properties through its Coldwell Banker Previews International([R]) division. It is a pioneer in consumer services Consumer Services refers to the formulation, deformulation, technical consulting and testing of most consumer products, such as food, herbs, beverages, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, hair products, household cleaners, [paints, plastics, metals, waxes, coatings, minerals, with its Coldwell Banker Concierge([R]) Service Program and award-winning Web site, www.coldwellbanker.com. Coldwell Banker Mortgage is one of the largest telephone/web based lenders in the country. Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation is a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :H), the world's largest real estate franchisor. Coldwell Banker([R]) is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation. Each office is independently owned and operated. |
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