IRVINE, CA—There's a need in the industry for convenient, self-service, online platforms that help users market their properties to the right audience, Richard Lombardi, EVP/general manager of RealtyTrac's data-solutions group, tells GlobeSt.com. As we recently reported, RealtyTrac has launched an enhanced Marketing List Lead Generation Platform aimed at allowing customers to leverage the firm's nationwide real estate data on more than 120 million residential and commercial properties to create targeted marketing lists in a convenient, self-service online interface. We spoke exclusively with Lombardi about the impetus behind the platform, what it says about real estate and technology and the next step in this process.

GlobeSt.com: What was the impetus behind the creation of this new platform?

Lombardi: We felt that there was void in the market for a convenient, self-service online platform that helps users target consumers and business audiences with precision and fuels customer acquisition campaigns. Given our robust real estate data, we wanted to build a platform that does more than anyone else in this space. Users will have access to the freshest data (our real estate data is updated daily); they can sign in and immediately fulfill their custom list needs with or without the help of customer service; they will have access to demographics such as age, income, children and more; and we add we add value by overlaying our demographic data with our customer's prospect files.

GlobeSt.com: What does this step say about the relationship between real estate and technology?

Lombardi: We were in a unique position, given our history, to leverage our expertise as a real estate website and as a data aggregator to create a platform that was designed for direct-marketing professionals who want a user-friendly tool, but don't want to sacrifice advanced functionality with access to a large set of characteristics on more than 120 million US properties.

GlobeSt.com: What is the next step in allowing technology to further enhance the real estate process?

Lombardi: We are working on some new cutting-edge products that will help our clients take advantage of the real estate process in a whole new way. By monitoring properties in real time, we are changing the typical push vs. pull of real estate with tools that will alert you when changes happen to properties that are of interest to you. Also, we are using predictive analytics to help our customers identify the predictive behaviors of homebuyers, sellers or refinancing.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this platform?

Lombardi: Whether you want to identify potential listing candidates, locate short-sale opportunities or create customized farming lists, our enhanced marketing list platform can help. The RealtyTrac difference is that it combines superior technology with vast data sources in an easy-to-use self-service platform that meets the sophisticated needs of today's marketers.