Continuing on our success with other Nova Scotia newspapers, we have launched a new digital real estate section with The Casket in Antigonish. The Casket is 161 years young and shows that innovation is still in their blood.

The newspaper documents its official beginning as being 1852 when John Boyd, a school teacher in Pictou County, set up the newspaper in Antigonish, The first copy of The Casket appeared on June 24th, 1852, consisting of four pages, two in English and two in Gaelic.

Mr. Boyd established the paper a Guardian of Liberty and his masthead bore the motto: Liberty the choicest gem of the Old World, and the fairest flower of the New.

The name of the paper was suggested by a local doctor, William Currie. The word, casket, at that time meant a treasure box, a container of precious things.

Alot has changed in that time, the meaning of Casket for instance, but real esate in Antigonish has always traded hands. Now with our new digital section, it is even easier for home buyers to find the real estate in the Antigonish and Guysbourgh Counties.

HomeZilla now partners with six Nova Scotia newspapers and reaches over 40% of the province.

Look for more newspapers to come online over the next couple of months!

It has been a while since we blogged, mostly because we have had our heads down looking at all of our data. Our team has been busy looking at, sifting through, scratching our heads over and otherwise immersed in data.

HomeZilla produce lots of data per day but nothing like the big boy. (ex: Google process 24 petabytes of data per day) Luckily, we are focused on one vertical, Canadian residential real estate. With a narrow focus we are betting it will be easier to find meaningful results. Most of our focus is helping home buyers find the perfect home faster and how to connect them with a perfect real estate agent.

In the coming weeks, we are going to be talk more about our current research. Specifically, about our research projects with Dalhousie University. One of the project focuses on help educate visitors using our mortgage calculator while the other focuses on help users quickly find a great home to view on mobile devices.

Dalhousie was also our partner in doing research, in 2010-2011, on “The affects of neighbourhood amenity searches on lead generation”. This was a much bigger piece of research which tried to take all of our data into consideration. The results were mixed, it did point out some key indicators but didn’t help us find any smoking guns.

Both new projects are very exciting…and of course if you are doing residential real estate research…please drop us a line!

We are proud to annouce a new partnership with the Truro Daily News to power their new real estate section.

TheTruro Daily News real estate section includes a majority of the real estate for sale, by REALTORS, in Colchester County.
The partnership between the newpaper, the REALTORS, and technology company produces a great product for the consumers that benefits all parties involved.

Thanks to all the real estate offices that are participating in this new product:
Royal LePage Truro
Prudential Woods Realty
Century 21 Market Realty
Exit Realty 1st Call
Tradewinds Realty
HLM Realties
Sunrise Brokerage and Sales

HomeZilla now has five newspaper partners in Nova Scotia with more coming on board in the next few months.

We are proud to annouce a new partnership with the Amherst Daily News to power their real estate section.

The Amherst Daily News real estate section includes 100% of the real estate for sale, by REALTORS, in Cumberland County.
The partnership between the newpaper, the REALTORS, and technology company produces a great product for the consumers that benefits all parties involved.

Thanks to all the real estate offices that are participating in this new product:
RE/MAX County Line
Coldwell Banker Performance
Royal LePage Cumberland Realty
Royal Lepage Preview Realty
Sunrise Brokerage and Sales
Mystic Coast Realty Limited

HomeZilla now has four newspaper partners in Nova Scotia with more coming on board in the next few months.

Nova Scotia, by far, HomeZilla’s top market for real estate listings in Canada. We now have over 7100 Nova Scotia real estate listings this is over 50% of all listings. All listings are provided via NSAR .

This past week, we have added three new offices to our feed:

• Anne Thomson Realty Ltd, in Liverpool, NS
• RE/MAX South Shore Realty Ltd., in Bridgewater, NS
• Coldwell Banker Supercity , in Bridgewater and Halifax

Thanks to these new partcipating offices we have added over 500 new listings to our website.

There are quite a few cool listing in their feed but here are three of my favorites:

• 3000 feet of water fron in Hubbards, Nova Scotia
• Amazing, off the grid house that is almost all windows looking at the ocean.
• In Vancouver, this would probably cost you $12 million dollars!

We are proud to annouce that a 3rd Nova Scotia newspaper has choosen HomeZilla to power their real estate section; both online and in print.

The Lighthouse Log is the newspaper for Lunenburg County in Nova Scotia; their website is SouthShoreNow.ca. You can check out thier list of Pictou County Real Estate For Sale to see how HomeZilla has integrated into their website.

HomeZilla powering their print section is key to a succesful partnership because in small communities print is still king.
Check out the Lighthouse Log PDF .

As a testiment to the product, every real estate offices servicing Lungenburg County has joined to help produce this innovative product.

What do you think? What would you change about the print page? What about the website?

Today is an exciting Friday at HomeZilla. We have just passed our 5000 registered REALTOR. That presents about 6% of REALTORS in Canada and that is a testiment to the quaility of our data. Who was the 5000th REALTOR you ask?

It was Deborah Armitage of Coldwell Banker Essential Realty.

HomeZilla also works with another 1000+ REALTORS in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland who share their listing with us each month.

To all the REALTORS who help make us a success… thank you!

Nova Scotia is still one of HomeZilla’s top market for real estate listings in Canada. We now have over 5900 Nova Scotia real estate listings. All provided via NSAR .

This past week, we have added three new offices to our feed:

• Costal Winds Realty, in Musquodoboit Harbour, Lunenburg, and Tantallon (HRM)
• Walt MacDonald Real Estate Ltd, in Liverpool
• Holm Realty, in Bridgewater

Thanks to these new partcipating offices we have added over 290 new listings to our website.

There are quite a few cool listing in their feed but here are three of my favorites:

• 3000 feet of water fron in Hubbards, Nova Scotia
• Amazing, off the grid house that is almost all windows looking at the ocean.
• In Vancouver, this would probably cost you $12 million dollars!

Nova Scotia has always been one of HomeZilla key test markets. Over 2 years ago, we started working with NSAR to get a 3rd party agreement so we could display MLS listing from participating offices.

This past month, we have added five new offices to our feed:

• The Real Estate Store, in Yarmouth
• Victory Realty, in Yarmouth
• RE/MAX Park Page, in Sydney
• Coldwell Banker David Butts, in Sydney
• Kennedy Realty and Appraisals, in Glace Bay

Thanks to these new partcipating offices and to all our existing partners.

We are happy at annouce that HomeZilla has started receiving listing from the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of REALTORS! Newfoundland becomes HomeZilla’s second province where were accept listing from real estate offices.

The first office to share listing with us is Sutton Newfoundland and Labrador. We send a big thanks out to them for being our first in Newfoundland.

Now that all the bugs are worked out of the process, we are going to start getting listing from other Newfoundland offices as well.

Check out our Newfoundland Homes for sale or the St. John’s homes for sale to see examples of our listings search pages.