CommonFloor, India’s largest real estate online portal wishes you a Happy New Year and brings to you another set of new features for easy handling and better experience. What better way to start 2012 than with user friendly and technologically advanced features on CommonFloor!

We have so many things in pipeline for 2012 for better real estate services and apartment management. The features just get better and better each day of the year keeping in mind the need of home seekers and apartment owners.

Some of the features like enhanced accounting for the community moderators, new User Interface for better usability & navigational flow and unrestricted SMS sending to the previously unavailable DND mobile numbers are just the start. There are lots more which will get added to the list and will equal all the features you love and so much more.

Let’s have a look at the year 2011, how it was and what has improved since your last visit:

Starting with January, as a New Year gift for 2011, the team worked hard to bring you a new face of CommonFloor.com. It posed a fresh, smooth and younger look as never before. We had already empowered 22,000 Apartment communities in 100 cities in India with an aim of providing value to Apartment Seekers, Apartment Owners & Residents and Apartment Association Members.

We also had launched “universal search” for your private portal for searching Notices, Discussions, Polls, Events, Articles, Stories, Classifieds, Property, and Handbook – Quick contacts, Residents Directory and many more.

In February 2011, CommonFloor was the center stage sponsor of “Blogomania”, an attractive event at Cognizance, IIT Rookie Tech Fest. This annual fest brought many accolades and fame to our organization.   The same month also added another feather to our hat. CommonFloor was shortlisted among 25 organizations for “Young Entrepreneur Award 2011 by Business World”. Our company was nominated under Category A which included companies that are at least 2 years old and less than 5 years old. It was all our users and communities support which made the same possible.

In March 2011, a very unique “Maintenance Dues module” was developed for an improved maintenance collection process. The module is highly appreciated by the community members as they could see the status of the maintenance and other dues, apartment-wise. This was also highly beneficial in managing the affairs of the society.  Yet again a new look in March with a motto “Key to your Dream Home” & a punch line “Buy/Sell/Rent Property at Your CommonFloor”. A newer, sleeker and faster look of CommonFloor was developed for easy search and access purpose. The motive was to provide the owners the fastest and secure way for Renting or selling their property in simple easy steps.

In April 2011, we saw a rise of over 94% Property Rental/Sale Owners recommending Commonfloor. The survey was done for owners who used CF in eight major cities of the country. Also, 20% of the owners had been recommended by their friends to post their listing at CF.

In May 2011, prioritizing our users’ privacy, we came up with a “Proxy email” service which would temporarily generate email id for the purpose of contacting you by the agents for your listing. We also termed as India’s Most Privacy Friendly Real Estate Destination where the vast database is not to anybody and proper care is taken to not show Email id and mobile number directly on website.  On June 25th, CF participated in Property Buying in Internet Era at Property Buyer’s Summit- Bangalore

In August 2011, CommonFloor came up with a ‘Spirit Of Freedom’ Photography Contest. It was an opportunity for people to show their love for lens and the nation. We got many entries from our users based on Independence Day celebrations in their apartment communities. Photos with maximum votes won many CF goodies and appreciation.

In September 2011, we presented our users with an “Admin Inbox” for easy handling of emails by the moderator of each community listed on CF.

In October 2011, still more new features were added to the website for better usage. You now get an improved and smoother photo gallery. Email reply of a complaint will be automatically added as a comment to the Complaint in the Issue Tracker. Ability to create Folder and Sub-Folders to better manage the documents of your Community. Post your Property Requirement and List Your Property for Sale/Rent in CF got better with added features.

In November 2011, we saw many achievements as a team. CommonFloor was Web 2.0 panelist at FICCI-India R&D 2011, New Delhi. We represented the consumer web application in India and presented forward the various challenges we face and how academia can help us with research and help advance the use of Web 2.0 applications.

The best of the best, CommonFloor bagged the Best website of the year 2011 award in the housing and interior category with highest score on content, design, navigation and recommendation likelihood. The award was an initiative by online research agency MetrixLab. We left behind many our competitors and this was possible only because of all the love, support and encouragement from our users.  We also made it possible to resume our Full SMS Services to our CF users against all odds and previous impact of TRAI SMS guidelines which could affect the smooth functioning of messaging services.

A new and unique Accounting Features was presented to our users with Income & Expenses Tracker in Apartment Management Software. This feature helps you in keeping a track of income and expenses along with your community’s bank accounts.   Major National Daily, The Hindu covered CommonFloor as: “a tool to empower the committee and the owners for better and transparent management.”. It spoke about the four solutions that CF provides: Communication, information, management and accounting. The story also spoke about the splendid journey and expansion of Commonfloor from 2007 to 2011.

As bidding goodbye to wonderful 2011, CommonFloor experimented yet another look, this time with various features and values for better usage in Dec 2011.

On a happy note, along with brand new accounting features CommonFloor will make your Home management a lot easier in 2012. Less worries with money management, improved communications and better collaboration with fellow neighbors. We are even working on getting online payments so you can pay all your maintenance dues for your apartment in just one click.  CommonFloor now serves more than 45,000 gated communities across 100 plus cities in India (and is establishing its presence internationally too). CF is the first consumer-centric real estate portal and also has active communities from smaller cities like Vishakapatnam, Coimbatore, Kochi and many more.

Robin Sharma

Till date, he has eleven international bestselling books on leadership to his credit. One of his bestsellers- The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari which has gained many accolades needs no formal introduction.

His latest book, “The Leader Who Had No Title” has gathered many fans and is already inspiring anyone and everyone that “Now, anyone in any organization can show Leadership“. He has this charm and ability to inspire any number of individuals worldwide with his motivating speech.

Commonfloor.com is proud to be in association with “Rang De” as the Community Partner for Robin Sharma’s live show in Bangalore titled ‘Lead without a Title‘.

Rang De, a nonprofit organization which is a web based initiative supports the rural entrepreneurs who are ambitious in life but due to financial constraint could not come up in life. The organization took the initiative of setting up those businesses by giving them cost-effective loans.

Be a part of this session on 29th February 2012 at Taj Vivanta, Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore and get to hear some “Winning Leadership Lessons to Build a Great Organization”.

The session is in between 9.00 am to 12.00 pm followed by Networking Lunch. Book your tickets before 26th of January 2012 and avail a discount of 35%. If you plan to book your tickets after 26th of January, you can avail a discount of 20% till the 14th of February 2012. Registrations close on 22 Feb 2012. So hurry!!! Click here to register.

Hurry up and be a part of this once in a life time opportunity!

CommonFloor is now the official Online Partner* for IIM Bangalore’s annual cultural fest ‘Unmaad 2012′. The fest planned for Jan 27 to Jan 29, 2012 promises you total excitement and opportunity with a motto to let you ‘escape yourselves‘ from all the constraints; come out of your comfort zone and mark your presence in this tough world.

The special attractions of the fest include Kailasa by Kailash Kher, The Original Jam with BBC hosted by Nicholas Parsons, Special performance by Musician Benny Prasad, B-School of Rock, Fastest Feet in Rhythm by Kathak Maestro Chitresh Das, Workshop by Shantanu Moitra and Shibani Kashyap.

Other in house highlights are Mr & Ms Unmaad, Twists ‘n Tales, Footloose, Haute Couture, Fine Arts, Dance, Dramatics, Music and Literary.

Be a part of this fest and win exciting prizes. For more information, Click Here to buy tickets and avail early bird offers.

Unmaad 2012 for 3 days packed with excitement and opportunity, and escape yourselves.

IIM Bangalore UNMAAD

One of India’s leading newspapers “The Hindu” recently published a feature about Commonfloor.com.

The story spoke about the efforts and vision of Lalit Mangal, Sumit Jain and Vikas Malpani, the founders of Commonfloor which was started in 2007.

Hindu covered Commonfloor as: “a tool to empower the committee and the owners for better and transparent management.”

The story also spoke about the splendid journey and expansion of Commonfloor from 2007 to 2011. In the initial stages, Commonfloor took its roots by introducing E-enabling to residential communities (apartment complexes, gated layouts, villas or colonies) serving major cities in India.

The integrated portal to relive issues in concern with apartments and communities has been successful in providing a helping hand to its users. The four solutions that CF provides are Communication, information, management and accounting.

CF now serves more than 28,000 gated communities across 100 plus cities in India (and is establishing its presence internationally too). CF is the first consumer-centric real estate portal and also has active communities from smaller cities like Vishakapatnam, Coimbatore and Kochi.

CommonFloor (CF) has a long list of free services for apartment owners and has Twin towerz, Olympia opaline, VGN Minerva, Ceebros, Sunnyvale and Atrium etc. as members.

It provides the best information on the available properties along with buyer reviews, and helps the seeker connect to the seller. It is an integrated portal to satisfy real estate services and apartment management needs.

By: Commonfloor Editorial

In the next few days, you will be able to experience the world of money management for your Apartment Community. We at CF have developed an easy to use feature to keep track of your income and expenses along with your bank accounts in place. We call them Income Tracker, Expense Tracker and Bank & Cash.

Income Tracker & Expenses Tracker

A basic and simple Income Tracker & Expenses Tracker to track the income of the apartment community. Once you start using it you will get to see from where your money is coming/going, quickly and easily. You can easily search from the loads of income details about that particular information you are looking for. You want to sort the details, it happens in a jiffy. You made a mistake while entering the details, fret not, you can always edit the same. You want to delete, just go ahead, and delete it. All this should happen like a breeze.

At any point of time, you will get to know the total income and total expenses without any effort. You can’t miss the big ‘total’. Do you have lot of bills/receipts lying around? Just make it digital, scan them and upload them with each entry of the expense/income. You can do that with just couple of clicks. You can download the same for later reference.

Bank & Cash

A feature to add bank account details of your Apartment Community.  Whenever you get any money to your account, we help you keep track of it and when money goes, you will know from where it has gone. We have ensured that you don’t have to remember such trivial things. CF will do that for you efficiently. Don’t you worry about the petty cash that you handle, we will handle that as well.

We plan to add many features in the coming releases. It is all in the pipeline. Just wait for few more days to come.

Keep visiting the blog for more updates about the feature list.

We have resumed full SMS services to all our CF members.  Exempting from the previous announcement.

So feel free to send SMS to all your CF members for important announcements.

Cheers!!

Vikas

Website of the Year India awards – India’s most important people’s choice award for websites – are revealed on www.websiteoftheyear.co.in. 264 websites were nominated for over 22 categories across India and in each categories two prizes one for Best Website for website with the highest average score on content, navigation, design and recommendation likelihood and another Most Popular Website for website with the highest number of votes.

CommonFloor.com was nominated in the housing and interior category and more than 15,000 votes were casted over 22 categories between 14th of October and the 21st of November.

Website of the Year India award is an award initiative by online research agency MetrixLab. CommonFloor.com bags Best website of the year 2011 in the housing and interior category.

Commonfloor.com thank all its users for casting their votes and encouraging them to grow.

I had the pleasure of talking to a niche audience from academia and government involved in research in upcoming areas of Interest.

CommonFloor represented the consumer web application in India and we talked about the various challenges we face and how academia can help us with research and help advance the use of Web 2.0 applications.

The panel consisted of eminent personalities in the field of web and we discussed on how it was shaping up in India.

The other panelist were:

Mr.Ananth Krishnan- CTO TCS

Mr.Satyendra Garg- Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi

Mr. Randy Zadra- Director Carleton university, visiting prof MIT media lab

Mr. Ashok Krish- Head Web 2.0 Innovation labs, TCS

Thanks FICCI, Fellow Panelist and delegates.

Cheers!!
Vikas

As many of you may be aware, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently issued new regulations on the SMS industry in India. These regulations are designed to significantly curb the sending of unsolicited commercial SMSes to consumers.

Consumers across the country have seen great relief from telemarketers . However, these regulations have significant impact on legitimate personal messaging services such as CommonFloor.

We are in talk with concerned department and will let you know the updated about it till then you will not be able send mass SMS.

We seek your understanding as we continue to employ our best efforts to ensure smooth functioning of the CommonFloor platform. We regret any inconvenience caused to you.

To start getting SMS from CommonFloor, please SMS ‘STOP DND’ to 1909 and deregister from the DND list.