BuyerHunt (Beta, of course. It’s cool to be Beta) has just launched. What’s a BuyerHunt? It’s a web site that’s supposed to connect sellers and buyers. A buyer enters a profile about the type of home he’s looking for. Sellers can register and look for buyers. It’s a “reverse” MLS of sorts (so say the people behind BuyerHunt).

Apparently they have plans to go national, but for now are only available in the Phoenix market. At the moment of this typing, there are 10 buyers registered. This includes the dilusional buyer named “malavance” who’s looking for a 1500 – 5000+ square foot home in Paradise Valley for $200 – $500K. And buyer “pmikal ” is looking for a condo east of 7th street. He/she says it must be 1+ bedrooms (as opposed to zero bedrooms). They are willing to pay up to $45,000, but a fixer is OK (Good thing. Hope they don’t want things like a roof. Or walls).

I thought about registering as both a buyer and a seller in order to look closer at the site, but I didn’t want to whack out their stats. Curiosity may change that later…

As an agent, of course one of the first things I noticed was a button labeled “Realty Coaches”. Alas, this feature is COMING SOON! Here’s what the little blurb on the site says I can become when this feature is rolled out:

Realtors can take advantage of this easy way to generate business! By becoming a Realtycoach, real estate professionals agree that they will negotiate discounted commissions to perform specific tasks. What is typically the hardest part of selling real estate (matching a buyer and seller) has already been done for you. Now, for minimal time and effort, help close the deal and get paid for it! Get the exposure you are looking for by advertising yourself as a realtycoach and get the leads you need!

And according to BuyerHunt here is how “realty coaches” can help buyers and sellers:

FOR SELLERS – If they so choose, sellers that use BuyerHunt can hire a Realtycoach to perform specific services for a discounted fee. Since you may have already found your buyer, you could only need your Realtycoach to review purchase contracts or help to write counter-offers. Speak with your realtycoach about what you need to get done, get a price quote, and save thousands!

FOR BUYERS – If a buyer would rather communicate with the seller via a real estate professional than speak with the seller directly, s/he can elect to hire a Realtycoach . As with sellers, buyers should specify what services they need from the Realtycoach ( i.e. showing houses, writing a contract, etc.). The benefit to a buyer of hiring a Realtycoach is that the seller will pay a substantially discounted commission, thus the seller will be willing to sell for a lower price.

They sure sound confident that Joe Seller is willing to sell for a lower price….There’s an FAQ if you want more info. Of course there’s the ubiquitous blog available (quite barren as of this writing).

I thought the Google Maps based zip code selection was a little quirky. Searching through the buyers list was tedious as I could only view the details for one buyer, then I had to go back to the results page to get the details for the next buyer. It needs a “next buyer” and “previous buyer” button from the details page. It’s one thing to have to page back and forth for 10 buyers. Many more than that though, and I’d run away screaming. Other than this, the interface is clean and the system is fast.

It is an interesting concept. It sort of smacks of Craigslist, though it has far more sophisticated search capability than CL. We’ll keep an eye out to see if anything comes of it. No idea how they plan to market the thing, but they’ll obviously need to get buyers to register and sellers to look. Maybe one of the worker bee’s over there can let us know?
Hat tip to alarm:clock!