Maps, Maps, Maps. There's no question they are the real estate search poster child of 06 and leading a strong march into 07. "User interface" or ease of use, is another word for MAPS. By Using a quality map based search portal, consumers don't really need to know anything about a general area. While there are some good map based search products being used now, nothing really comes close to the New Metro Broker's search portal; www.ColoradoHomeStop.com. This is a first of it's kind in displaying properties, ALL OF THEM at one time. This screen shot is showing over 14,000 properties for sale in the Denver Colorado market and also all 14,000 pictures of the homes on the filmstrip. (Click on the map picture for a better resolution shot)
Lets really think about that. The consumer doesn't need to know what city or state prior to a search.
- · The consumer doesn't need to know what county prior to a search
- · The consumer doesn't need to know the zip code prior to a search
- · The consumer doesn't need to know where parks, schools or roads are located prior to a search.
In fact, a consumer could know very little about any area in the world and in a short time become very knowledgeable. They really only need to looking for the physical characteristics about the home, size, beds and bath and price range. By knowing these items and using and a unlimited property data point display website like www.ColoradoHomeStop.com, the consumer can see in real time all properties that meet their needs through out an entire city, state or in the future, the world.
What's unique about the ColoradoHomeStop search? This is the only product of its kind in the real estate search portal world. Most all mapping products can display a total count of properties (display 100 to 300 maximum property data points), but not display them all at the same time! The ability of the Coloradohomestop site to provide consumers all available property information on a "see all" format is a fundamental shift in real estate search portals. It's huge!
For the consumer to know how many or how few properties fit in an huge map area profile, can allow them to investigate areas they may have not considered through traditional search methods such as only using a City or Zip for search parameters. All search sites today do not have the ability to display unlimited property data points. Note the screen shots below from the likes of such map search based giants as John L Scott and RedFin, both with property view limitations.
I have included some of the many post and comments about ColoradohomeStop below and they are generous in their appreciation and comments. However, I would really to point out how WONDERFUL it is to have an unlimited amount of "real time" property data points displayed as one drills down on a property search. Theres no question that the leadership at Metro Brokers and WhereToLive are ahead on the property search curve and that a new bar has been set.
I have stated on previous posts that Realtors are now playing in a world of smart people. The team of code warriors at Wheretolive.com that are behind the Coloradohomestop.com search portal are second to none. Real Estate companies today must align themselves with outside the box organizations. We have to take off the blinders and give consumers every tool they need to search!
In February 2006 I wrote a post called Top 3 Real Estate Search Innovators . If I had to write that post again today then...
By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News
Metro Brokers Inc. today is launching its new Web site, ColoradoHomeStop.com, which will allow consumers to search for virtually every home listed by a Realtor in the Denver area.
By Allan on MLS
that eventually all MLS services will combine and present their information in this format. To view the site go to ColoradoHomeStop.com or to read what the Denver Post has to say, by way of explanation about the site, click here .
By Dion Almaer
Does anyone get the feeling that a fair few people saw early Google Maps mashups and realised that it was a killer app for real estate? :) Alex Blyakhman and his team have added many rich Ajax features to Colorado Home Stop using Dojo. You will see how this app can handle
By Mike Pegg
ColoradoHomeStop.com is a cool real estate mashup with great Google Maps work: ColoradoHomeStop.com features a great mapping implementation which pulls in data from WhereToLive.com and displays it using Google Maps. The user interface is amazing and it
By Dustin on tools
| February 2006 I wrote a post called Top 3 Real Estate Search Innovators . If I had to write that post again today then... |
Changing the World One Banana at a Time
Ed is the man behind the the WhereToLive site (which is a decent map-based home search) and the Colorado Home Stop site (which is one of the best map-based home search interfaces I’ve been fortunate to play with!).
Ed emailed me last week to let me know about his Denver-area home search tool and despite my interest, I never got around to talking about it. But on the theory it is never too late, here are some of the features I really like:
- Lightning fast
- Photo scroll bar (Mac-style) at the bottom of screen that is connected to the map and highlights listings on map on mouse-over
- Micro icons get bigger with zoom
- Like Windermere’s maps, they bring every thing on one page, and aesthetically, it is much cleaner than the Windermere maps
- Clean Trulia-style filters
- Pull-down neighborhood search
- Right-click functionality for zooming
- Ability to compare homes without leaving the map
Metro Brokers launches website of Colo. homes The interactive site aims to list nearly all homes for sale in the state. The Denver- based realty business also has plans to expand into a national presence.
By Denver Post
all homes listed with real-estate agencies on the market in Colorado. Denver-based Metro Brokers Inc. is launching ColoradoHomeStop.com at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference ...
By Greg Swann on Marketing
will be able to go online to find all homes on the market in Colorado. Denver-based Metro Brokers Inc. is launching ColoradoHomeStop.com at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in New York. The company spent two years
Colorado-Based Metro Brokers, Inc. Launches Nation's Most Consumer-Focused Web-Based Real Estate Search Tool
January 8, 2007; 08:00 AM
Deep real estate diving
--Jessica Swesey, Inman News
The new year brought about a round of new developments at real estate Web sites and search engines, including:
1. Seattle-based ShackPrices.com launched upgraded text search capabilities, enabling consumers on the site to search through a complete real estate listings using a simple text search box. This means that buyers can narrow searches with keywords like "hardwood floor" or "fixer" and also eliminate certain listings by using a minus sign in front of words they wish to avoid, like "-fixer". This is the first time that we are aware of a listings site enabling a text search of listings. Check it out at www.shackprices.com.
2. Colorado-based Metro Brokers, Inc. unveiled a new real estate search site at ColoradoHomeStop.com. The site uses a map-based interface to guide users to neighborhoods and specific listings in Colorado markets. Using AJAX technology and Google Maps' platform, it offers a fast search as the pages do not have to load each time a section of the map is clicked on. The initial launch includes access to nearly all Denver metro listings from the Metrolist MLS.
3. Trulia tallied up some its online consumers' behavior and released a report showing real estate trends and consumer search habits at its site. While the company did not reveal how many consumers were included in the tallies, it showed real estate search behavior in 15 high-population cities across the country. According to the stats, the typical search on Trulia is for a 1,775-square-foot single-family home with 2.4 bedrooms, 1.7 bathrooms, and a price of $883,986. The 10 most searched cities on Trulia in December 2006 were: Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego, Jacksonville, Denver, Orlando and San Jose. More info is in the report at this link.
4. As more real estate Web sites strive to provide content to consumers in ways consumers think about and search for real estate, OnBoard LLC has enhanced its neighborhood definition and navigation platform so that relevant neighborhood content shows up in real estate searches on sites that use the company's data. The New York-based company can now code real estate data to the neighborhood level to provide a more relevant search for consumers.
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More comments keep rolling in too. Some great and of course, sadly, some of the feedback and comments are by other real estate companies to the Local Boards of Realtors that control the IDX content like the medieval priests at inquisitions. You know you are breaking new ground in Property search when establishment cronies and political dogma comes BEFORE consumer use and interface.
In the Salt Lake area the MLS doesn't allow us to show more than 100 results at the same time. BlueRoof originally showed 500 results and we were going to open it up to show all homes at the same time, but the MLS threatened to pull our license if we didn't restrict it to 100.
Their reasoning for the 100 home restriction- they say it is best for the consumer! I asked why they think it's better to have 100 results as opposed to all of them and they fumbled around with words for a minute and then simply told me that's the way it is.
I can have all the results counted and show in list form as long as you have to scroll page by page, never having more than 100 per page. Just another example of the MLS being restrictive here in Utah.
Greg- BlueRoof