Real estate startup offers 'Zocial' platform, buyer rebates

Before forming ZonicRealty.com Inc., founder and CEO Eric Eckardt served as founder and president of Empire Home Realty Inc., a brokerage based in Sarasota Springs, N.Y. That company was acquired in 2009by Hunt Real Estate ERA, where Eckardt served as general manager and partner until November 2011.

The following is a Q-and-A with Eckardt:

Q: What idea launched the company?

A: After selling my independent brokerage firm, which I founded in 2004 to a nationally ranked Realogy brand in 2009, and then managing that "traditional" model over two years, my thoughts were validated that our industry is going through a necessary correction.

Specifically, social media technology has redefined our industry, while consumer behavior has changed (and) traditional firms were trying to justify their relevance.

Therefore, I wanted to launch a brokerage, ZonicRealty, that would leverage every medium while ... utilizing an online platform and an "in-house" social platform, Zocial.

This, combined with assembling a strong leadership team with proven business development experience, allowed me to finally launch ZonicRealty.com with an aggressive growth strategy to scale quickly and disrupt traditional markets.

"Zonic" was chosen because we believed it was "futuristic" and resembled technology, versus a typical name like John Doe Brokerage.

Q: What are the major products and services offered by your company, and the cost of these products and services?

A: (ZonicRealty offers) real estate brokerage services, providing significant cost savings per transaction through buyer rebates and a lower commission structure for homebuyers and sellers, respectively.

The commission rebate is for buyers, where we rebate 20 percent back to the buyer at closing. (Sellers) can list (for) as low as 4 percent (commission) while still receiving maximum exposure and professional service. 

Q: What is the company's core business model?

A: Our core business model is a residential, consumer-centric real estate brokerage utilizing an online platform that leverages social medial and technology. Our business model generates revenue (gross commission income) through buyer and seller representation.

We offer buyer rebates to consumers to qualify and save thousands on the sell side while offering them a wealth of services, including an aggressive online marketing campaign for each respective home. Our sources of revenue will be through ancillary partnerships, although our primary source of cash flow is gross commission income.

Q: What makes the company's product and service offerings unique?

A: ZonicRealty.com's product and service offering is unique due to the following attributes:

·         Social platform, Zocial (derived from the word "social" and "zonic," hence "Zocial"): inspiring collaboration between all market participants (and) links to Facebook. We are steering our ... homeowners to post about their home, neighborhood, schools, etc., from their perspective -- encouraging collaboration and market insight.

·         Buyer rebate: offering the opportunity to earn 20 percent back at closing with no diluted requirements (such as a minimum commission) or fine print.

·         List online: Sellers can list online through our website, creating efficiency and minimizing a traditional role in the process.

·         3-D virtual environment: Through our intranet site, ZonicCloud, our agents can collaborate through (an online virtual) environment across all markets.

·         Leadership: Proven real estate professionals that have business development experience at the executive level.

·         Paperless transactions: Our agents can manage their business (and) deals in the "cloud" through our platform.

·         Scale: In seven weeks, we (were) in three separate markets in Long Island, Syracuse and the Greater Albany Capital Region in New York state, with Florida pending in the Tampa-Sarasota region. (In) other markets we have secured partner agents in advance of our formal launch(es).

·         Disruptive: We are targeting "traditional markets," providing consumers with a viable option.

Q: As the founder, what is your background?

A: I started my career on Wall Street in investment banking, where I worked for more than eight years, providing senior bank financing for acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and general working capital needs for Fortune 500 and middle-market companies.

After departing investment banking in 2004, I launched an independent real estate and mortgage company that I ultimately merged into a joint venture with one of the leading real estate firms in the country in 2009.

I stayed with this company (Hunt Real Estate ERA) as the general manager and partner for our region in New York state growing revenue by more than 400 percent in less than two years by executing organic and acquisition initiatives. (I) departed ... this traditional firm in November 2011 to launch ZonicRealty.com.

I've also been involved in several other startups since 2004, including a crowd-funding platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Q: What is the amount of outside funding received to date?

A: ZonicRealty.com is self-funded, although (I) had preliminary exploratory conversations with (a) venture capitalist and angel investor regarding an equity injection to accelerate our growth initiatives. As the sole shareholder, I'm on the fence with regard to diluting my equity position with a (venture capital firm), unless it is a strong strategic partner.

Q: Is the company profitable now? If not, when is it projected to reach profitability?

A: No, although our break-even will be within the second quarter of operations, given our pipeline of business and low cost structure (no brick and mortar).

Q: What are the company's growth plans for the current calendar year?

A: Outside of penetrating several markets in New York state, which we already did within two months in Syracuse, Albany and Long Island, we are launching in Florida and several other states.

Q: Which technology trends and market trends is the company watching most closely?

Outside of specific technology, we are focused on consumer behavior.

Q: What new products, product features and services is the company investing in most heavily?

Social media and technology.

Q: Any upcoming releases/developments?

A: ZonicRealty Inc. is launching in Florida around April 1, pending application status, in addition to other markets outside of New York state. Again, we are currently conducting business in Syracuse, Long Island and the Greater Albany Capital Region in New York state, with teams in place carrying our flag, ZonicRealty.com.

http://www.inman.com

Clive Thompson on the Power of Introversion

• By Clive Thompson
• Email Author 
• March 21, 2012 
• 12:34 pm

Guy Kawasaki, by all appearances, seems like an outgoing guy. A former Apple “evangelist,” he’s an omnipresent voice online, blogging his ideas about entrepreneurship and tweeting 40 times a day to his half-million followers.

But a few years ago he posted a surprising 140-character revelation. “You may find this hard to believe,” Kawasaki wrote, “but I am an introvert. I have a ‘role’ to play, but fundamentally I am a loner.” His followers were gobsmacked.

You can understand their confusion. As Susan Cain points out in her much-discussed new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, introverts get a bad rap in American culture. Ever since Dale Carnegie began writing manuals might l on glad-handing your way up the corporate ladder, US society has embraced the idea that extroversion is key to success: Your achievement—and even your level of creativity—depends upon your being gregarious and outgoing and able to work well in a team.

But as Cain’s work indicates, a new picture is emerging. Forcing everyone to act like extroverts harms the quality of our work and our lives. The good news that I’d add? Many digital tools are helping to mitigate that harm.

About half of Americans are introverts, Cain says. These are people who have a superb ability to focus but work best alone and become drained by too much enforced socializing. Yet the US workplace has evolved in complete opposition to their needs. Private office space has shrunk dramatically: 30 years ago, companies averaged more than 500 square feet per employee; today it’s less than 200. Meanwhile, corporations have pushed employees to work in face-to-face teams, marching them endlessly into conference rooms for brainstorms.

“There’s such a stigma against introversion,” Cain says. “To reveal that you’re an introvert puts you in a bad light.”

Yet this incessant teamwork isn’t useful. A mountain of studies has shown that face-to-face brainstorming and teamwork often lead to inferior decisionmaking. That’s because social dynamics lead groups astray; they coalesce around the loudest extrovert’s most confidently asserted idea, no matter how daft it might be.

What works better? “Virtual” collaboration—with team members cogitating on solutions alone, in private, before getting together to talk them over. As Cain discovered, researchers have found that groups working in this fashion generate better ideas and solve problems more adroitly. To really get the best out of people, have them work alone first, then network later.

Sounds like the way people collaborate on the Internet, doesn’t it?

Indeed it is—and as I’ve noticed, my introvert friends love it. Sure, the digital era has uncorked a fire hose of interaction, but it’s mostly asynchronous. With texting, chat, status updates, comment threads, and email, you hash over ideas and thoughts with a pause between each utterance, giving crucial time for reflection. Plus, you can do so in private.

“This is precisely what brings out the best in introverts,” Cain agrees. It’s why someone like Kawasaki thrives online. And it’s how the epic collaborations of the digital age—like Linux and Wikipedia—function: with a constellation of folks, many of whom probably peg the needle on the Introvert-O-Meter, working intimately but remotely.

Granted, not all online tools are good for introverts. As Cain says, research shows that Facebook’s endless friend-collecting is more appealing to extroverts than introverts.

But overall the irony here is pretty gorgeous. It suggests we’ve been thinking about the social web the wrong way. We generally assume that it has unleashed an unruly explosion of disclosure, a constant high school of blather. But what it has really done is made our culture more introverted—and productively so.

www.wired.com

Real Estate Tips Intro

Today, I will be adding a sub-category under Real Estate and it is about real estate tips and guide how to be an effective real estate salesperson. This will cover everything about how a real estate work his or her business offline or online, how to effectively deal with clients and prospecting.

From online tips and techniques to get quality traffic, to get qualified clients into your sales funnel, I will be sharing some of my experiences, and other people experiences, even covering some of the successful people’s secret how they get so many sales. If I can get them for an online interview with their permission I can featured that on this section too.

Today is the right time to start discussing or blogging this subject since I’ll be one year in real estate by tomorrow, March 20, 2012. And during those 12 months, I have learned a lot, the do’s and don’ts, the pitfalls and the challenges that I face before and more so in the future ahead.

This will be sort of a blogging journey for me as well as giving my tips how to dominate real estate online. (I have lots to cover on this).

I’m a geek so don’t expect I’m good at writing but I will try to make it better as they say practice makes you good, then better if not best in my field. So hang on and watch this blog section.




www.cebudotcom.com

PHILIPPINE REAL ESTATE and RELATED NEWS in and around the country .

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) yesterday filed a criminal complaint with the Department of Justice (DoJ) against Virkar Realty Corp. (Virkar) and its officials.

Virkar and its president Nora Bitong and treasurer Reynaldo Bitong were charged for two counts of willful attempt to evade or defeat tax, one count of deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information in its income tax return (ITR) and one count of deliberate failure to file to supply correct and accurate information in its value added tax (VAT) return for taxable year 2008.

The BIR said all the charges are in violation of Section 254, Section 255 and Section 256 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended.

Virkar (formerly Kronbi Realty Corp.) is a domestic corporation engaged in the real estate business with office address at 2nd Floor, Bldg. I, Jannov Plaza, 2295 Pasong Tamo Ex., Makati City.

The case stemmed from the sale on June 26, 2008 of a commercial real property located at Jupiter-Canopus Sts., Bel-Air Vill., Makati between then Kronbi Realty and Jupiter Street Properties and Dev’t Corp.

Investigation showed that the sale of the said real property was subjected to the 6 percent expanded withholding tax (EWT). However, the sale was not declared as part of the gross sales for taxable year 2008 of Kronbi Realty for the purpose of computing the correct tax.

Instead, it was declared in its 2008 ITR as income already subjected to capital gains tax (CGT) to evade the payment of the correct corporate income tax and VAT.

Investigators noted that the certificate authorizing registration (CAR) issued by the BIR covering the said sales transaction reflected a P6.59 million payment of EWT and not CGT.

The subject sale being a sale of an ordinary asset by a realty corporation is subject to EWT and not to CGT. The nature of the property as an ordinary asset is reflected in the audited financial statements of Virkar and in the letter of formal offer to buy the said property where the nature of the property and the payment of VAT were discussed lengthily.

The scheme of treating the said sales transaction as subject to final tax (capital gains tax) instead of as part of gross sales resulted into an underdeclaration of income by more than 30 percent that allowed Virkar to lessen its income tax and VAT liabilities and constitutes a prima facie case of fraud.

http://philippinerealestatenews.blogspot.com/

Ayala, Cebu, IPVG, JG Summit, Philex: Philippine Equity Preview

Shares of the following companies may have unusual moves in Philippine (PASHR) trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of the previous close, unless stated otherwise.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PCOMP) rose 0.6 percent to 5,005.75.

Ayala Corp. (AC) : The owner of the largest Philippine builder plans to boost capital spending 38 percent this year to a record 91 billion pesos ($2.1 billion), 75 percent of which is for unit Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Globe Telecom Inc. (GLO) , Chief Executive Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said. Ayala decreased 0.1 percent to 413 pesos. Ayala Land fell 1.7 percent to 20.65 pesos. Globe gained 0.3 percent to 1,200 pesos.

Cebu Air Inc. (CEB) : The nation’s largest budget carrier posted a 47 percent drop in profit to 3.62 billion pesos last year on higher oil prices, a stock exchange filing showed. The stock was unchanged at 68 pesos.

IPVG Corp. (IP) : The company’s affiliate Conqueror Space Ltd. signed a preliminary agreement with a Canadian-Chinese venture for the rights to build and operate mineral refineries in India, a stock exchange filing showed. The stock was unchanged at 1.28 pesos.

JG Summit Holdings Inc. (JGS) : The company said profit rose 32 percent to 21.59 billion pesos last year, boosted by the sale of its stake in Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc., a stock exchange filing showed. The stock gained 2.4 percent to 25.70 pesos.

Philex Mining Corp. (PX) : The nation’s biggest metals producer is looking at investments overseas, including Indonesia and Myanmar, Senior Vice President Michael Toledo said. The stock fell 0.5 percent to 21 pesos.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Sayson in Manila at isayson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net

www.bloomberg.com

Eyewatch

Monterrazas unveils main entrance and guard house

GENVI DEvelopment Corporation, the company behind the Monterrazas de Cebu, led by their president Architect Augusto Villalon, unveiled last SAturday the property main's entrance and guardhouse. 

Architect Villalon made the master plan on the main entrance and guardhouse and had in mind GENVI's commitment to its buyers, as well as to CEbu, which is to sustain the environment.

This explains why the roof over the guardhouse is covered with green grass and that most of the materials used are from Cebu like the stones for the signage.

www.monterrazasdecebu.com

Ayala rolls out Kukun hotels

Brian Higgs, Singapore, HICAP UPDATE


FILIPINO real estate developer Ayala Land is hastening its foray into tourism business through the introduction of a new hotel brand, Kukun, which is targeted chiefly at business travellers.

Derived from the word 'cocoon', Kukun hotels will be self-managed by Ayala. Each property will be situated adjacent to a shopping mall development also operated by the group—to capitalise on efficiencies, according to Ayala Land senior vice president, Junie Jalandoni.

“Kukun is what we call an urban lifestylfe brand, and is in the three- to four-star category. We don’t want to compete with the large international brands in the five-star segment,” he explained, adding that average room rates for Kukun would be about US$100 per night.

Ayala currently has four Kukuns in the pipeline—one scheduled to open in Fort Bonifacio in 3Q2012, one each in Davao and Cagayan de Oro, Alabang in 4Q2012, and the last in Nuvali, Santa Rosa, Laguna by middle of next year. Each will offer about 150-200 rooms and a single F&B outlet.

Ayala, which owns the InterContinental Manila and the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, will also be opening the 347-room Holiday Inn & Suites Makati in 1Q2013.




ttgasia.com