Real Estate Industry Shifting to Facebook with N-Play's Applications and Services Built on Windows Azure

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- N-Play, a company that provides real estate-centric applications and services on Facebook, is utilizing the Windows Azure cloud platform from Microsoft Corp. to deliver a hosted scalable, reliable social environment for agents, home buyers and sellers who are shifting their real estate activities from the web onto Facebook.

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N-Play's virtual ecosystem of real estate applications and services on Facebook includes its agent-based app, the Real Estate Agent Directory, a free Directory, which over 180,000 real estate professionals have joined since its launch in late 2011. Directory members have created agent profiles and been included in over a quarter million Directory searches.

With hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals and consumers using N-Play's solutions on Facebook, N-Play's swift adoption rate and continued member growth has been enhanced by its interoperability with Microsoft products. N-Play's panel of apps and services have been created using Microsoft development tools and executed using the Windows Azure hosting environment.

Real estate professionals are building their brand and enhancing their business socially using several of N-Play's Directory services. One service is IDX Home Search, which allows agents in MLS-approved markets to auto-import their MLS listings to Facebook business pages. Consumers can then search for properties on an agent's page.

READ ADvantage™, N-Play's advertising and lead generation service, allows agents who are Directory members to promote their real estate services and listings to likely prospects in their market on Facebook. Featuring Property Pins™, agents are able to see who has clicked their ads and capture quality leads on Facebook, a unique Directory feature not offered by other real estate advertising services like Trulia and Zillow. N-Play also provides a referral service where agents can network and generate new business.

N-Play's consumer-facing app, Property Pins™, is geared towards consumers who are looking for an agent or home on Facebook. Consumers using the app can find, pin, organize and share their favorite properties, and find agents to work with.  Thousands of properties and agents have been pinned since the application's launch this March.

This year N-Play migrated all of its services to the Windows Azure cloud computing environment, to meet demand for a highly reliable product that could grow with its expanding user base. "Windows Azure offers flexibility, reliability, scalability and reduced overhead, and this led us to fully adopt the Windows Azure cloud application platform," said Daniel Fuchs, Director of Product Development at N-Play.  "Our integration with Windows Azure means better performance and faster response time. The adaptive Microsoft platform allows us to quickly scale our products. The overhead reduction we experience from Windows Azure allows us to stay competitive in the growing real estate market on Facebook. We save on hardware investments and experience simplified resource management. As a result, overhead fees do not need to be passed along to the customer, and customers can continue to benefit from our low and no-cost apps and services."

"In addition to the benefits of the Windows Azure cloud environment, Microsoft development tools allow us to incorporate a combination of technologies, including Windows Azure SQL Database, Cloud Services, Virtual Machines, Web sites, Mobile Services, Storage, CDN, Reporting and Service Bus. These tools enable us to quickly launch new product rollouts and modify our existing products with ease, translating to an unparalleled user experience," Fuchs stated.

"Windows Azure provides unmatched flexibility with infrastructure services, platform services, hybrid services and hosting, as well as open developer environments," said David Aiken, group product manager, Server and Tools Marketing, Microsoft. "Companies like N-Play are working to transform the real estate landscape socially with their innovative apps and  services, and Windows Azure sets them up to quickly scale their products, deliver dependable performance, and continuously provide novel solutions for real estate professionals, homebuyers and sellers on Facebook."

The Real Estate Agent Directory has grown into one of the most used real estate applications on Facebook supporting agents and brokers in over 10,000 cities throughout the U.S. The Directory is hosted on thousands of pages on Facebook including over 700 Broker pages and 350 Realtor Association pages representing 700,000+ Realtors.

Facebook has reported over one billion users worldwide. In the U.S. market there are 100 million Facebook users between the ages of 35 and 55, a prime demographic for real estate.

Agents who have an interest in learning more or joining the Directory can visit the Real Estate Agent Directory on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/16kS3aJ

Consumers who are interested in finding homes and agents can visit Property Pins™ on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ZfnCxA

Contact:

Raina Van Cleave
Director of Marketing
Email
904-800-1811

For more information, visit:

Promo video: http://on.fb.me/TwglvS
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Agent_Directory

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SOURCE N-Play