Realtor.com launched its new map-based search expertise on Tuesday, which makes use of color-coded map layers to assist homebuyers discover their subsequent house based mostly on most well-liked house options and market developments.
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Realtor.com has upgraded its map-based house search perform with dynamic map layers, a device that permits consumers to visualise key market knowledge of their desired neighborhoods. There are 11 map layers for consumers to discover, together with house estimates, lot dimension and slope, house dimension and age, market hotness, offered vs. listing costs, common days on market and neighborhood boundaries.
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Mausam Bhatt | Credit score: LinkedIn
“Do you bear in mind whenever you purchased your first smartphone and the way it utterly modified how you employ a cellphone? Dynamic map layers are going to vary how folks seek for houses on-line,” Realtor.com Chief Product and Know-how Officer Mausam Bhatt mentioned in a written assertion. “They’re a completely new pathway to house discovery that enables consumers to reply their most urgent questions with a take a look at a map.”
Out there on desktop and cell gadgets, homebuyers can entry dynamic map layers by altering their house search view from listing to map. After toggling the map, they’ll click on the layer icon to see all the knowledge visualization choices, that are color-coded from vibrant yellow to darkish purple. The colours modify as homebuyers zoom in or out on particular neighborhoods, giving consumers a chicken’s eye view of the listings and market developments of their space.
“[The maps] current knowledge in an interactive manner that’s simple to make use of, simple to know, and simple to take advantage of knowledgeable selections with – so customers can confidently select the place they name house,” Bhatt added.
Realtor.com’s previous map search vs dynamic map layers | Credit score: Realtor.com
In a cellphone name with Inman, Bhatt mentioned the dynamic map layers will save consumers valuable time whereas looking for their good house. As a substitute of manually sorting listings based mostly on filters and key phrases, they’ll merely toggle layers to simply get solutions to their most urgent questions.
“I reside within the Silicon Valley Bay Space, and it’s a reasonably extensive geographic space,” he mentioned. “There are lots of cities and cities that make up the Bay Space and homebuyers are searching for many various issues, like a turn-of-the-century Victorian house, newer development or an space that may not be as earthquake-prone.”
“With the ability to reply these questions historically meant you needed to spend hours and hours like going by one property at a time, all the info, after which creating this psychological map or an inventory,” he mentioned. “With this initiative, it’s been about how can we minimize down what traditionally has been very tedious to one thing that could be very visible and you may get key data at a look.”
Bhatt mentioned his workforce is already considering of the way to broaden the map’s capabilities, together with local weather danger and predictive market development layers.
“We’re engaged on layers to assist folks suppose by their determination, like how will house costs evolve over the following sort of 10, 20 or 30 years,” he mentioned. “Once they’re making maybe one of the crucial necessary monetary selections of their lives, they’ll wish to have some perception into that.”
“After which equally, we’ve additionally been on the forefront of including quite a lot of environmental danger elements and developments knowledge,” he added. “So we’re going so as to add layers [about that] to our dynamic map layer know-how.”
Realtor.com’s dynamic map layer for lot dimension | Credit score: Realtor.com
Lastly, Bhatt mentioned synthetic intelligence can be key to future iterations of dynamic map layers and crafting a personalised expertise for each customer on Realtor.com’s desktop and cell websites.
“I see AI because the foundational underpinning for personalizing the maps expertise as nicely,” he mentioned. “Let’s say, for instance, a purchaser is available in and engages with some layers or some components of the neighborhood greater than others, we wish to use machine studying and AI to personalize the maps expertise.”
“I imply, at this time, for most individuals, maps are pretty generic. It’s one dimension sort of matches all, however how folks work together with maps and what’s necessary to them can be necessary and really completely different, and I believe that that’s a possibility for us to innovate,” he added. “It’s like going from black and white TV to paint. That’s the expertise we wish to create for customers.”
