MADISON, NJ (Dec. 1, 2014)\u2014Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate announced today that it has launched a radically different collaboration platform for the real estate industry, Idea Shed.\u00a0 The goal of Idea Shed is to provide real estate professionals with an open forum to share their ideas on topics including technology, service, recruiting, prospecting and the \u201cout there\u201d category, with the hope of those ideas being noticed, developed and launched by people or companies with the resources to bring them to fruition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to leverage the collective ingenuity of real estate professionals, and the collective innovation of solution providers to bring real estate to the next level,\u201d said Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.\u00a0 \u201cBetter Homes and Gardens Real Estate is proud to bring Idea Shed forward to the industry during a time when real estate is undergoing exponential change.\u00a0 We believe collaboration will help us all meet the ever-changing demands of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Idea Shed was developed to bridge the gap between the creative thinking that happens by the people who practice real estate on a daily basis and the innovators whose mission it is to launch tools, systems and resources to make everyone\u2019s professional lives more efficient, successful and productive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a broker, I often think of new ideas that can make a difference in real estate,\u201d said Eric Post, vice president and principal broker at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Realty Partners in Portland, Ore.\u00a0 \u201cI was an early contributor to Idea Shed because I wanted to have a hand in changing the way we do business as real estate professionals.\u00a0 I believe that by sharing my ideas with the people and companies who can act upon them, I am having a direct impact on the industry.\u201d
\nContributors who post their ideas on Idea Shed do so with the intention of someone else bringing them to life. Solution developers can leverage any idea posted on Idea Shed and work on them as they wish.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a company that is dedicated to the innovation of real estate, we applaud the efforts of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to bring great new ideas into the field of vision of companies such as ours,\u201d said Jonathan Bednarsh, president and COO of Onboard Informatics. \u201cWhen you are in the business of changing the way real estate professionals do business, the most direct path to delivering on that goal is to hear suggestions and ideas directly from your stakeholders.\u00a0 Idea Shed will bring new ideas to the attention of those who can deliver on them, to the collective benefit of the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a start-up, we are building products to solve real problems,\u201d said Boubou Guiro, CEO and founder, Onvedeo, Inc.\u00a0 \u201cTo us, there\u2019s no better and easier way to understand a need then getting it directly from the sales professional and broker.\u00a0 We see Idea Shed as the newest source for innovation not only within the real estate space but within the technology space in general. This model is something that can and should be adopted by other industries to the benefit of the stakeholders and the innovators trying to solve business challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n