PropertyShark is a real estate website that provides in-depth data for approximately 90 million properties in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, and other major US markets. The company was founded in 2002 by real estate investor and programmer Matthew Haines and is headquartered in New York, New York. As of March 30, 2010, PropertyShark operates as a subsidiary of Yardi Systems, Inc. Aggregating data and listings from a number of public and proprietary sources, PropertyShark provides property reports, pre-foreclosure and foreclosure listings, sales comparables, maps, and building photos, as well as for sale/lease listings of homes and commercial properties. Named one of the Top 50 Best Websites of 2009 by TIME.com, the website caters mainly to real estate professionals, investors, and home buyers. While a free basic membership option is available, a paid subscription is required in order to access some features and tools.
History
In late 2002, Matthew Haines had just finished renovating a 5-family brownstone in Harlem; when trying to rent out the apartments, he realized that in order to significantly increase the value of his property, the neighborhood would have to get better. For that to happen, he needed to find a way to make homebuyers feel comfortable with the idea of buying properties in the area. So Matthew set out to pull together information from a variety of sources to make it easier for people to buy and renovate properties in Harlem. After having completed his research, in December 2002, Matthew created the first version of what is today the PropertyShark.com website in his apartment in New York City. He spent New Year's Eve putting the finishing touches on the site and launched it under the name MatthewHaines.com on January 1, 2003, followed by NYCpropertyresearch.com later that month.
Expansion
By February 2003, PropertyShark was expanding, releasing its Foreclosure listings service – that brought the company its first mention in The New York Times. In 2006, PropertyShark rounded out its management team with the hiring of Bill Staniford as Vice President of Sales, and Brian Scully as Vice President of Marketing. In 2008, PropertyShark added its ListBuilder tool, that allows real estate professionals and others to create lists of property owners and contact information based on user-specified criteria and export them to create mailing labels.
Purchase by Yardi Systems
In March 2010, investment and property management software company Yardi Systems acquired PropertyShark.com, with plans of expanding its services nationwide. Yardi reportedly acquired the company to integrate deep property data into the Yardi suite of real estate investment management and property management software.
