UPDATE 04/15: We can now officially add “Patent Pending” to our demand-based commercial real-estate search process (see below). We filed the paperwork with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last night.

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One of the many features of Sibdu is our Market Match tab (which, when we launch the new-and-improved Sibdu, will be called CRE Tools). Besides having the ability to upload your listings and then distribute them to local and topical groups within Sibdu, you’ll be able to use those listings to respond to requests-for-proposal (RFPs) issued by those looking for real estate — brokers, investors, business owners, and so on.

Basically, Market Match is much more than your basic “needs-and-wants” e-mail or other form of communication. You know, the kind of thing that looks like this:

SEEKING SPACE: Looking for 1500-2000 SF in the downtown Bethesda area. Class A space. Something nice. Call Bondy Bonderman at Bonderman Realty, 301-xxx-xxxx.

We’ve got something much better — it’s property search on steriods, quite frankly. And while our way of conducting searches begins with the “demand” side, we’ve got plenty of tools to help the “supply” side as well.

In a nutshell, on the “demand” side our system lets Sibdu members issue RFPs with specifics on where and what they are looking for, in terms of real estate sites/spaces. We cover both the buy- and lease-side of commercial real estate, too. It’s as simple as filling out a form, selecting how you want it to be distributed, and clicking “Submit” (or even “Save Draft,” if you want to save it to work on later).

Sibdu goes way beyond that initial form and send, though. You can manage multiple RFPs, monitor the listings being proposed for your RFP (more on that later), answer questions about your RFP, shortlist them, and then even use Sibdu’s other features as negotiation aids.

On the listing/supply side, meantime, you can upload your listings to the platform, search for RFPs, and propose your uploaded listings for RFPs issued by Sibdu members looking for space/sites to lease/buy. You can ask questions, and monitor your listings to see which ones have been shortlisted. You can also use Sibdu’s other features, like private groups, for all participants in the process, to store documents, communicate with one another, etc.

The process is easy, but it does take a bit of explanation the first time around. That’s why I’ve developed a document (at the bottom of this page) on how to use the Market Match/RFP platform … from both the demand and supply sides of the equation. A video is coming after we relaunch the new-and-improved Sibdu as well.

Why do we say this “turns commercial real estate search on its head”? At so many other sites, the supply side drives the “bus” with the search process, through an aggregation of listings. The demand side is not the equal of the supply side. With Sibdu, the demand side drives that bus. What’s more, with all of the tools we provide the demand- and supply-sides, both sides are equal in the search process. That’s something a lot of CRE search sites out there can’t say.

Additionally, with all of our social-networking functionality, we continue to support all sides of commercial real estate far beyond the site/space search process. That’s something precious few CRE-related search sites out there can say. We at Sibdu can say this, though.

Plus, let’s face it: In our current market, the demand side is pretty much queen and king right now. This way of conducting the search embraces that idea and supports it. But even when the market turns back around (and believe me, it will), Sibdu’s RFP functionlity will have continue to be extremely useful. After all, it’s easiest to know what’s being searched for, rather than just publishing listings and hope there’s demand for them. And both sides of the process will continue to be equal, in any kind of market.

But to use it, you need to join Sibdu. It’s free, and you’ll get much more out of it besides this feature.

So we hope you use this functionality, and score a lot of business from it. We’re here to help you and all of the CRE segment of our economy grow — especially now.

And now, here’s the awkward-looking (on this page) but effective tutorial document on our RFP functionality:

Market Match RFPs(Directly download document using the above link) Market Match/RFPs (by Bob Woods). This is a step-by-step guide of how to use the Market Match tab within the Sibdu platform. For both the “demand” and “supply” sides.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu request for proposal sibdu

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 @ 11:31 am on the category Local Markets, Marketing/Sales, Sibdu, Social Networking, Technology, Web Sites, investment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.