Go ye WebPointCentral softly into the night...

[MattL]

For those who haven't already heard, WebPointCentral (WPC) shut down (for good) sometime during the wee hours of this morning, leaving many national and regional franchisees and agents without websites or email... many are still 100% down. RealtyExecutives.com did manage to put up a bogus message about security testing, but pretty much everyone else remains in the dark (several hundred sites).

Now, without being too smug, I called this over a year ago -- their business model hinged far too much on a continuous stream of "big scores". We've already gotten a couple of dozen sites in the fallout (yes, just today), but I know many regional directors have to be scratching their heads over this one... tens of thousands of dollars and now dark.

So, some questions to the fray:

• Does this mean that no one else can compete with BirdView on a national level?
• Do you think this will affect small providers of VOW/IDX solutions?
• How can one prevent the same thing from happening again?

I thought I'd get the market reaction, since I've heard nothing but (sometimes tearful) lamenting of their decision to choose them. And, I have to wonder, how can I assure agents that we're not the next them?

-MattL

[webmaster]

Not to sound ignorant, but who is webpointcentral and what were they providing?

[webmaster]

Lol never mind I just found an old post their Project manager made, in his first post he writes:

Hello Realtors,
I would like to introduce myself.
My name is Paul Reyes from WebPointCentral, makers of the HomePoint Internet Marketing System.
We specialize in Internet Marketing Systems for Real Estate Professinals.

Hmmmm

[MattL]

Admittedly, I was a little surprised that I didn't get a single response. I know there's a decent MLSNI membership here, and WPC did handle several hundred VOWs -- including some larger C21 offices and, of course, Realty Executives International.

They generally provided large office sites, at BV-like prices (10k+ annually), with a weaker total package but decent in-house design. They were also the test platform here for Realty Executives (regional) until they went semi-in-house with GoodSport.

We've been providing "rapid recovery" for those agents left stranded:
http://www.pmpvows.com/

Yeah, shameless plug, but I've put in 3AM nights all week to get people back up, because I think the whole situation is just wrong. WPC turned their services back on Wednesday afternoon for agents to have a chance to download their leads, but have also said that the servers will go dark again on this coming Monday. It's a few days, and many Realtors are thankful for the chance, but still have no online home come Tuesday.

-Matt

[RisingWebmaster]

new here. your post drew me in. hired as webmaster with WPC in place. met with the folks and smelt something fishy. wasn't treated with an ounce of respect. migrated from them about a month before they filed bankruptcy. earned due respect at office. SCORE!

[MattL]

I'm glad to hear someone else benefitted from the experience. It was a harrowing couple of months (and random agents are still trickling in), but I think things are just about back to normal now.

Sadly, a lot of offices have lost their domain names because Paluch registered them under their own company name and using a private account. That's just evil.

-MattL

[pmpvowssuck.wpc.1]

the owner of WPC is starting a new business called Appraisal Broker

check these links out!!!

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:3kIMDakMgOcJ:www.appraisalbroker.co m/prelaunch/company.htm+Robert+Paluch+-+brokers&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

http://www.appraisalbroker.com/prelaunch/company.htm