By DIEGO CAGARA
[email protected]
CLIFTON PARK — “Game on.”
That’s what Jules Ianniello thought during the May 10 ribbon cutting ceremony in Clifton Park Center, thus beginning his own new business.
As founder of WhoWantsMyListing.com, Ianniello imagined it as a “revolutionary” way for people to sell their homes.
“What we’re looking to do is revolutionize the whole real estate selling process,” he continued. “When someone wants to sell their home, they may ask a neighbor or friend, ‘Hey, do you know a real estate agent?’ The real estate agent would give them a contract, typically in the 6 to 7 percent area of the selling price. With WhoWantsMyListing.com, the seller would go to the website, post their home and they start getting competitive proposals from real estate agents.”
He emphasized that WhoWantsMyListing.com is like “the middle man.” It intends to give the client power in choosing which real estate agent’s proposal best satisfies them, harking back to how it is all based on being competitive.
“What we do is we match [clients] with real estate agents,” he continued. “It’s up to the seller and real estate agent, they determine who’s the best fit for each other. We don’t actually get involved in the negotiation.”
As the business has been active for only 16 months, calling Ianniello a relative newcomer would be deceptive because he has been working for insurance company giant Allstate prior to starting up his own business, a job he still possesses today which is based in Delmar, NY.
His experiences at Allstate have helped his ventures with WhoWantsMyListing.com and he recognizes that since its business model is unique, “it’s a huge undertaking of educating the consumer on how there’s a whole new process of selling their home.”
Since its inception, he has promoted it via direct mail marketing, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter which are gradually gaining followers, and even on Albany’s Talk 1300 AM radio. Another tactic is how he came up with the idea of featuring one of his adopted sons, Santino, in a 50-second jingle-accompanying commercial, including catchy messages like “It’s Totally Free! And it worked for me! And it’s easy as 1-2-3!”
Even though Ianniello said he’s the only one involved in this company so far, he plans to expand it into a multibillion dollar company someday, its concept alone possibly going international. He acknowledges that “there are a handful of similar companies doing [what he does] with similar websites. It’s all in a $64 billion market and there’s currently like $10 million in revenue.”
Speaking of revenue, a personal reason why he’s in this business is because he “always wanted to accumulate wealth to help foster kids in a good way and we currently support a charity called Quest for Grace Foundation.”
This foundation is based in Schenectady which aims to care for local foster children by receiving generous donations and clothing. As a foster father of two himself, he believes that helping one another and giving back are important, qualities he hopes to achieve with his business.
