By The Tim on August 5th, 2009 at 10:17 AM · 7 Comments
Couple of interesting developments in local real estate search this week.
First up, local discount brokerage Findwell (a Seattle Bubble advertiser) announced today that they are partnering with Estately to provide a more user-friendly search experience. Sounds like it should be a good match for both parties. A good search tool was the one (big) thing that the Findwell site lacked in its competition with Redfin. I think they could attract more people to use it if they put it more prominently on the front page, but this definitely seems like a step in the right direction to me.
Secondly, Seattle’s all-industry real estate blog continues to evolve beyond its pure blogging roots. Yesterday founder Dustin Luther unveiled a newly polished, more commercial site design as well as their very own home search tool. Personally, their new search feels clunkly to me compared to the offerings that have been available for years from Redfin and Estately. With the real estate search market as saturated as it is (especially here in Seattle), I think Dustin’s got a pretty difficult uphill battle on this one.
So what’s your opinion of the Findwell / Estately partnership and Rain City Guide’s new look and search tool?
Categories: News
Tags: Estately, Findwell, Rain City Guide, real estate search
Please vote in this poll using the sidebar.
How many properties are on your Redfin / Estately watch list?
- <10 (38%, 40 Votes)
- 10-25 (19%, 20 Votes)
- 26-50 (15%, 16 Votes)
- 51-100 (15%, 16 Votes)
- 101+ (13%, 13 Votes)
Total Voters: 105
This poll will be active and displayed on the sidebar through 05.16.2009.
Categories: Polls
Tags: Estately, Polls, real estate search, Redfin
By The Tim on December 29th, 2008 at 12:33 PM · 6 Comments
I’m happy to announce that Seattle Bubble now sports a new and improved sidebar inventory tracker, thanks to Galen Ward of Estately.com.
A few months ago our most reliable source for the hourly inventory tracker went offline, leaving us with two far less dependable sources for the inventory data. Since then the sidebar inventory tracker has been updated with data from one of these sources since it’s the best we’ve had available.
However, Estately.com has graciously set up an hourly feed just for Seattle Bubble, so we now have a reliable data source once again. The new data from Estately has been added to the inventory log files (click the numbers in the tracker on the sidebar) as a new fourth column.
This is also a good time to remind you of the nifty features sported by Estately’s real estate search technology. Head over to this post for a good roundup of the features of the top two real estate search sites Redfin and Estately. The two are engaged in a constantly-escalating technological arms race that is resulting in ever more options for the real estate searcher.
Also, don’t forget that you can make an account on Estately and add Seattle Bubble as a “friend” to share comments on properties with other Seattle Bubble readers.
Thanks again to Galen and the Estately team. Keep up the great work.
Categories: Features
Tags: Estately, inventory, real estate search
By The Tim on November 21st, 2008 at 10:02 AM · 21 Comments
Locally-based real estate search site Estately kicked their technology up another notch yesterday, with the addition of past home sales information to every listing, as well as the expansion into Chicago and Long Island, New York.
I’ve been consistently impressed with how much Estately founder Galen Ward has been able to do on a shoestring budget with a minimal staff. Especially with the new addition of past sales, Estately’s search technology has been keeping toe to toe with the larger, better-funded Redfin.
Since Redfin and Estately are (IMO) the top two real estate search websites in terms of technological feature sets, here’s a comparison chart of some of the features of each site, to visualize how they compare:
| |
Redfin |
Estately |
| Search by City, Neighborhood, Zip |
X |
X |
| Search raw land |
X |
|
| Keyword Search |
|
X |
| Aerial View, Street View |
X |
X |
| Bird’s Eye view |
X |
|
| Past Sales |
X |
X |
| Days on Market |
X |
X |
| Cumulative DOM |
X |
|
| Mapped Schools, Parks, Transit |
|
X |
| Similar Homes Nearby |
X |
X |
| Neighborhood Stats |
X |
X |
| Shareable Saved Properties List |
|
X |
| Share Notes on Properties |
|
X |
One of the coolest features offered by Estately is probably the shareable saved properties list. Just like Redfin, you can save a list of favorites. But unlike Refin, Estately allows you to share your favorites list with friends, or make the entire list public. For example, here’s mine.
Even more nifty is the ability to share your notes on listings with anyone on your Estately “friends list.” If anyone is interested in sharing notes and favorites with me and other Seattle Bubble readers, you can add Seattle Bubble as a friend here. Once we build up a few friends, you can click on “Other’s Properties” an “Other’s Notes” to see what everyone else is saving and sharing.
Categories: News
Tags: Estately, real estate search, Redfin
