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Estately Chooses Portland for 2nd Market Release
Another home search vendor has landed in Portland, migrating this time from Seattle with a bulging portfolio of online house-hunting features.
Mashing up RMLS (Portland’s multiple listing service) data with Google maps and a first-rate search interface, Estately.com joins the ranks of Roost and a very small handful of local brokers with truly Web 2.0 house-shopping experiences using actual MLS-derived listings.
Users may be disappointed not to find addresses, but the map interface does a good job of visually placing the location in the Google map. If address is critical to your search, you will need to register yourself with a local agent to establish what is construed to be a legitimate broker/client relationship. For example, I use the HomeQuest service to provide the neighborhood search + maps + addresses, etc. information to clients.
But without involving an agent, the Estately service can give you a leg up in your learning experience. Then, if you wish to engage the services of a local agent, Estately is partnering with local brokers to give you a handful of pre-vetted agent selections to anonymously research and interview at your discretion.
Estately has other handy search features — search by neighborhood, proximity to transportation, and by keyword (i.e. fixer, short sale, hardwoods, etc) to name a few. You can tap into local market conditions, neighborhood, school, parks, and other attractions from their tabbed menus. Registering with Estately will get you access to a Saved Searches and Properties feature, plus email updates on pricing of specific listings.
Estately (originally ShackPrices.com) was co-founded by Galen Ward, a regular contributor to Seattle’s Rain City Guide real estate blog (and my inspiration to start my own). Galen bootstrapped the fledgling company on an initial $20,000 investment, and recently raised $450,000 in new capital. Estately’s development has been closely watched by many in the real estate technology community, and Portland is fortunate to be the second stop in Estately’s growth plan.
It’s early in their Portland release, so I ran into a few hiccups in the map search, primarily when it came to clicking on a property for further details (although it could be my choice of operating system and browser–Mac/Firefox). It was sometimes a little poky in refreshing the maps, and the neighborhoods and days on market information needs some refinement, too.
Nevertheless, suddenly in Portland, there is a wealth of real estate shopping options with multi-mode search features to keep any property junkie occupied.
Read more at the Estately blog.
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10 Responses to “Estately Chooses Portland for 2nd Market Release”
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Thanks for the coverage Ron. Please feel free to send me an email with any and all bugs you find on the site – I use it with the same firefox-mac combination and there is no reason it shouldn’t work 100% for you.
More evidence that Portland continues to stay on the cutting edge of real estate technology.
Milan,
Not having talked specifically with Galen about this, my guess is that Portland is a complementary market to Seattle, and a scalable MLS to add to their platform…in other words, a good test before taking on a behemoth market.
I wish there was more innovation emanating from Portland. Other than the crew at HomeQuest, I’m hard-pressed to think of any serious RE technology development.
Ron – what would the RE community like to see developed in a perfect system that’s not already provided by other services?
Any news on the May numbers – I know Jeff said he saw increased traffic – wondering if it translated into a bump in closed sales ?
I don’t know if I can speak for even a majority of the RE community (if you mean agents), but I believe many would prefer tools that foster tighter relationships with agents. No surprise there.
In contrast, most of the recent search innovations are written outside of the industry, by companies seeking revenue through subscriptions, ad placements, pay-per-click, or referral fees.
Larger agencies, like JLScott, Windermere, and Prudential, have been developing their own search sites (with maps, polygon search, etc.) to upgrade the home search experience for their users, thereby funneling opportunities back to their franchisees as part of their desk fee. So, whether new search methods are broker-based or VC-infused start-ups, everyone’s got their hand out.
That said, as a techie, I enjoy seeing new innovations in search design, user interface, and mashups of various data. Working as an independent in a much smaller agency, I have to invest in other solutions that bring value to my clients during their home search (or sale) process.
The third-party concepts like automated valuations (Zillow) or enhanced MLS search (Roost & Estately & my favorite, HomeQuest), bring self-service options and fresh ideas to the table, but perhaps threaten traditional brokers who have been guardians of real estate knowledge until recently.
Yet, I view that for uninitiated or infrequent real estate participants, these services often leave gaps (advice, experience, and fiduciary duty) that only a local broker can efficiently fill.
As for May numbers, I’m waiting until the 5th, when most of the closed sales should be entered. (Over 200 sales have been added since I looked on Friday.) One hint, though…closed sales will probably follow the trends of the past few months — down ~35-40%.
Ron -
A question for you on HomeQuest. I have used that service just to keep an eye on the neighborhood and it seems that not every listing is picked up. Sometimes I’ll see a house with a sign in front (and with a major realtor brand on it) but not in HomeQuest. Do you know why that is?
Paul,
What I usually find with missing HomeQuest listings is that they aren’t geocoding (mapping) correctly, and therefore aren’t showing in the correct neighborhoods. If I find some mis-mapped listings, I let them know and they place it manually. New construction falls into this category frequently.
Other than that, the feed HomeQuest receives is a full MLS data set as far as I know.
I’ve noticed the new construction too – sometimes it is sort of comical.
Hey Paul great post. I actually enjoyed looking at estately website. They seem like they are doing their homework and I think that’s where a lot of RE technology companies can fail.
As far as the listings go we update our system every 30 mins in Portland and every hour in the other markets through the MLS to make sure the clients have up-to-date information on properties. If you drive by a place and its not on HomeQuest there is a chance that no one submitted it to the MLS. If no one submits the property to the MLS then it will never show up anywhere on any real estate software program and most likely end up on the newspaper or maybe craigslist. If its in RMLS then HomeQuest will have it as well.
To follow up on Rons post, our system is truly one of a kind. We hire geo-coders that sit behind a computers all day, everyday of the week and place properties by using the address and then longitude and latitude. Its a very complex position and occasionally they make mistakes but we try fix those issues ASAP.
If anyone has any feedback or any issues please feel free to contact me at anytime. The only way HomeQuest has gotten to where it is now is by listening to agents and making those changes they require. Have a great day and keep the good posts coming.
Chris Brake
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