When the Department of Justice and the National Association of REALTORS® agreed to a settlement that made virtual office website platforms available to every broker in the nation, WAV Group expected widespread adoption and innovation of client servicing tools leveraging full/VOW data. It did not happen. Perhaps it was because of the economy was slumping or perhaps it was because of category killers like Listingbook, rDesk, and AgentAchieve. Regardless, we have kept our eyes open for innovation.

A Silicon Valley based company called RealScout jumped up on the radar in a significant way this week with the announcement of over $6 million funding round. We were aware of the company because the tool has been in use by one of America's top teams – Ken DeLeon, always ranked among the top teams in America by sales volume.

Ken DeLeon is in a super competitive marketplace where massive firms like Alain Pinel Realtors, Intero, Coldwell Banker NRT, and Sotheby's NRT are duking it out. Moreover, tech brokers like Redfin and NRT's Zip Realty have a massive online presence that rivals Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. Moreover, MLSListings has a superb client-servicing tool.

To stay on track with a goal of $500M in sales this year, Ken has put RealScout front and center as the means for servicing the firm's clients. All of his agents are employees, not independent sales reps. Today, he employs 42 staff members, many with degrees in accounting or law to augment their real estate license. It is a unique and impressive organization.

Before DeLeon's brokerage-wide launch of RealScout, his clients were mostly using the MLS portal or Redfin. "With RealScout, my clients can use natural language search – large backyard, near Google Shuttle Stop, etc. – 17 sales have come from RealScout as defined by customers. Clients use it as their primary search tool," said DeLeon. I spoke with him at 6:30 Sunday night, where he is easy to find in his office. "My customers love the categories and tagging solutions in the RealScout search. Clients can leave notes for our agents."

As you see in the press release below, "RealScout is focused on increasing the number of transactions for real estate agents by improving agents' close rates with buyers who are actively in the market for a new home." That means moving fast in the Silicon Valley area where many neighborhoods have days on market below 10. Clearly the injection of funding will allow RealScout to fuel customer acquisition and expand into new markets.

To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

RealScout Raises $6 Million Series A to Reinvent Real Estate Search by Empowering Agents and Their Clients

DCM and Formation 8 Double-Down on Seed Investment to Fuel Further Growth

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Nov 17, 2014) - RealScout, the home search platform that helps agents close more transactions from active home buyers, announced today it has raised $6 million in its Series A round of financing. DCM led the round, with participation from Formation 8. Both were significant investors in the company's 2013 seed round. Additional investors included Ken DeLeon, the number one Realtor® in the U.S. in 2012 as named by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends, and Matthew Moore, former executive vice president of sales and marketing at Realtor.com and early investor in Retsly, a company acquired this year by Zillow.

In the past year, RealScout expanded its market coverage to Seattle and secured relationships with leading real estate brokerages, including Sotheby's International Realty in Burlingame, Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco, Realty One Group in the East Bay, Carmel Realty in Carmel and Century 21 Bundesen in Petaluma. These brokerages are using RealScout to help their agents convert more home buyer leads into closed transactions faster through improved buyer engagement, collaboration and agent intelligence tools.

"RealScout is unique in that they're focused on building technology that empowers real estate agents instead of trying to minimize their role," said DCM partner Osuke Honda, who joined RealScout's board of directors with this financing. "We've seen enthusiastic early response from agents and brokers using the platform, and believe that RealScout's vision of helping agents be more successful represents a massive opportunity for the real estate industry," said Honda.

While portals like Zillow and Trulia aim to create more leads for agents, RealScout's singular focus is to increase the number of transactions and commission dollars for real estate agents by improving agents' close rates with buyers who are actively in the market for a new home.

RealScout's industry leading features include a modern home search that lets home buyers find properties by preferences that matter to them -- like homes with big backyards -- and agents search with all the power of the MLS. Custom, natural-language property alerts engage buyers while RealScout's dashboard monitors buyer search activity so agents can proactively respond to their client's changing desires. These collaboration tools, combined with an agent-branded mobile app for iOS, are empowering RealScout customers to be more successful with high-value clients.

"This funding round is an important milestone for RealScout, and it enables us to further our mission to keep agents at the center of the home buying process," said Andrew Flachner, CEO, RealScout. "Our search and collaboration tools give today's buyers the experience they expect, while helping agents close more transactions and provide better service."

RealScout is currently working with agents in California and Washington state. For more information about RealScout please visit www.realscout.com.

About RealScout

RealScout is a Mountain View based real estate technology company that helps agents win over active buyers with a modern search and collaboration experience. Their software helps agents manage more clients by offering a lightweight CRM and the industry's first natural language email marketing software. RealScout is funded by DCM's mobile focused A-Fund, Formation 8 and Ken DeLeon, the number one real estate agent in the U.S. in 2012 as named by The Wall Street Journal and REALTrends. For more information, visit: www.realscout.com.