By Tom Butala

The Houston Association of REALTORS was awarded ‘Most Innovative Web Service’ in Inman News’ 2010 Innovator Awards for ‘REALTOR Match,’ the online service that pairs homebuyers and sellers with the ideal real estate agent.

July 13-15 at the Hilton San Francisco’s Union Square, Inman News hosted their annual ‘Real Estate Connect’ event, bringing together the brightest minds in real estate and technology for a seminar featuring networking opportunities, guest speakers and the Innovation Award ceremony. Inman News honored winners in 5 categories, as well as 2 individual awards and for the first time ever, the ‘Peoples Choice Award.’

The HAR’s ‘REALTOR Match’ requires input of data from the user including: ‘Buying/Selling,’ ‘Property Type,’ ‘Market Activity,’ ‘Rating’ and ‘Area of Interest.’ With the given information, ‘REALTOR Match’ then displays all real estate agents that meet the given criteria.

The system is extremely user-friendly, displaying the exact location of listed properties and the associated agent in an interactive map.  Once an agent is selected, the user may then view a highly detailed profile comprised of background information, overall rating (determined by the experiences of past users), transaction history and professional memberships. The service is comparable to a REALTOR Facebook of sorts.

Other winners in the 2010 Innovation Awards include The GoodLife Team (Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise), ZipRealty’s HomeScan (Most Innovative New Technology), Tech Saavy Agent blog (Most Innovative Blog), ProPublica Eye on Loan Modifications (Most Innovative Media Site), DocuSign’s ESIGNControl app (Peoples Choice Award), CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Sherry Chris (Innovator of the year no. 1) and CEO of the National Association of REALTORS Dale Stinton (Innovator of the year no. 2).

To use ‘REALTOR Match,’ visit: http://search.har.com/realtormatch/.