an online marketplace for foreclosed and defaulted properties in the united states . it was founded in 1993 and is based in irvine california . it publishes a monthly u.s. foreclosure market report . 1 2 3 in november 2011 renovo capital llc a private equity firm bought a majority stake in the company and formed a new company renwood realtytrac llc . james saccacio was replaced as ceo by brandon moore previously a senior executive at one technologies with saccacio staying as a spokesman and board member . 1 4 in august 2012 ceo brandon moore was replaced by acting president and coo james moyle who joined realtytrac during the acquisition of homefacts 5 in april 2012 where he served as ceo . contents 1 operation 2 history 2.1 beginnings 2.2 move nationwide 2.3 great recession 2007 2009 2.4 2011 purchase 3 reception 4 references 5 external links operation edit the site has over 1 million distressed properties in its database at any time . in 2008 they had 150 data collectors who collected data directly from notices posted on courthouse noticeboards or from county recorder offices . 6 7 the site charges a monthly fee for access to their listings . the company provides data to msn real estate yahoo real estate and the wall street journal 8 and from 2005 they press release monthly figures on foreclosures that they say are a good indicator of real estate appreciation or depreciation . 2 9 government agencies and wall street analysts also use the data which are given free to government bodies . 9 history edit this section is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the wikipedia editor s personal feelings about a topic rather than the opinions of experts . please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style . may 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message beginnings edit real estate agent and entrepreneur derek white began realtytrac information systems in 1993 with his wife kimberley based at their arizona home before opening an office in phoenix and then moving to santa barbara in 1994 ; . 6 10 alternatively the company is also reported as being founded in 1996 by white with programmer michael keane . initially the business located repossessed houses and sold the information to real estate agents expanding by 1998 to cover 100 000 properties in the state of california . 6 9 in 1996 white teamed up with hughes aircraft research engineer ronald schwarzrock to found realtytrac information systems llc with keane as the lead programmer . ref corporationwiki.com nevada carson city realtytrac information systems llc 45853594 . aspx in 1998 schwarzrock left hughes aircraft ; he and derek white opened the office in westlake village california around the corner from realtor.com . they raised nearly 1.8 million from 78 investors which allowed the firm to build an expanded robust system . the firm gained national attention after white schwarzrock and bob marmorstein made a presentation at the inman real estate connect in san francisco and secured pivotal relationships with yahoo and other major companies in this new space during the early days of the internet . the firm was even featured on cnbc s power lunch . during the early days of the company foreclosure information was limited to california 9 in 1998 the company had records on 180 000 californian properties 6 as data was obtained from smaller companies that transcribed property records from typically only one county or municipality . with the new hardware and software in place white struck a deal with mike ela then president of dataquick for foreclosure data from all 50 states through dataquick s partner axciom which took them national with complete foreclosure data that included notice of default nod notice of trustee sale nts and bank owned reo information on more than a million properties from florida to hawaii and alaska and all points in between realtytrac secured its place in history as the leader and pioneer in online foreclosure information with a strong business to business b2b operation and broad based business to consumer b2c applications . in january 2000 then vice president at comerica bank matthew mara a golfing buddy of mr. schwarzrock arranged a meeting between realtytrac llc and first security van kasper of newport beach california a brokerage and investment banking company . they had just taken homeseekers public nasdaq hmsk and were extremely excited to partner with realtytrac and saw it as a perfect complement to homeseekers and were ready to raise up to 20 million to fund realtytrac s growth . unfortunately in less than 30 days was the infamous dot com crash which dried up any hope for funding . white and schwarzrock went to mara to set up a meeting with rich toubman s financial services firm global vantage ltd located in newport beach . one of the attendees in that meeting was james saccacio who obtained the expansion capital for realtytrac . mr. saccacio 2 relocated realtytrac to its current location in irvine california . move nationwide edit a reduction in foreclosures in california coupled with start up costs resulted in the company failing to make a profit and so in july 2000 when the company was based in westlake village they launched a national website to sell data from dataquick information systems for a daily or monthly charge . 11 12 in 2000 jim saccacio stepped in as the ceo after white left to start stellar real estate solutions in ohio . the ceo from october 2000 until november 2011 was saccacio previously principal at transition management group . 2 13 saccacio assisted by white s vision to sell data to yahoo real estate helped moved the company from a statewide business to a national one . 9 great recession 2007 2009 edit in 2007 the colorado division and housing and the mortgage bankers association among others complained that by counting the three stages of foreclosure separately the company was overstating foreclosure levels and the company changed their counting methods to only count properties once in their figures . 9 during this period comparisons in data over time were complicated by changes in methodologies and in the increase in the number of counties that data was gathered from . 14 2011 purchase edit renovo capital llc a private equity firm bought a majority stake in the company in november 2011 and formed a new company renwood realtytrac llc . saccacio was replaced as ceo by brandon moore previously a senior executive at one technologies with saccacio staying as a spokesman and board member . 1 4 reception edit in 2007 the site was rated as the third largest real estate site by mediamatrix . 15 the new york banking superintendent said that realtytrac is now setting the standard by which this information gets reported . 9 vp of marketing rick sharga was awarded a stevie award in 2007 as best marketing executive . 8 in response to the suggestion that people regard the company as grave dancers saccacio responded that we provide a potential solution to people with a problem . by democratizing the data we help people in a bad situation . 2 as of 2012 the company maintained an a rating with the better business bureau . 16 references edit a b c panchuk kerri 28 november 2011 . big investor moves into realtytrac ceo replaced . housingwire . a b c d e croghan lore 23 january 2006 . inside trac on housing . new york daily news . renwood realtytrac llc . bloomberg businessweek . a b brambila andrea v. 28 november 2011 . renovo takes majority stake in realtytrac . inman news . realtytrac acquires online data aggregator homefacts . a b c d ronan courtney 27 january 1998 . realtytrac exposes the hidden market . realtytimes . ronan courtney 27 january 1998 . realtytrac exposes the hidden market . a b realtytrac . stevie awards . the american business awards . a b c d e f g kiviat barbara 23 october 2008 . house hunters . time magazine . evans blanche 23 january 1998 . derek white taking the hidden market mainstream . realtytimes . murphy barbara 8 august 2000 . realtytrac launches internet site for distressed real estate . los angeles times . garcia shelly 4 september 2000 . internet foreclosure company hoping for worse times . los angeles business journal . james j. saccacio . bloomberg businessweek . kiviat barbara 20 june 2008 . how to escape your crushing mortgage . time business . babb danielle ; nazur bill 2007 . finding foreclosures an insider s guide to cashing in on this hidden market . entrepreneur press . isbn 1 59918 131 2 . http www.la.bbb.org business reviews real estate information services realtytraccom in irvine ca 13159967 external links edit official website stories in the business journals q & a the outlook for home foreclosures interview with realtytrac s rick sharga by barbara kiviat time business 3 november 2009 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title realtytrac & oldid 714509250 categories companies based in irvine californiaonline real estate 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