Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Zillow launches new RealEstate.com

Zillow Group Launches RealEstate.com, Gives First-Time Home Buyers New Way to Search for HomesAllows buyers to search by “All-In Monthly Price” to get a fuller picture of cost of homeownership

” “RealEstate.com is designed to equip the next generation of home buyers to find a home that suits their needs and budget,” said Jeremy Wacksman, CMO at Zillow Group. “We know from our research that affordability is a huge driver for home buyers, and that first-time buyers are more likely to go over budget. By tailoring the home search experience on RealEstate.com around a home’s monthly cost, we hope to make the home buying experience less daunting and even more transparent for first-time buyers.”

Some initial thoughts…

Andrea at Inman News reported that this might be something they were looking at doing. The ideas aren’t that new. John Holley of NTREIS had a similar idea I posted about a few years ago. And of course there’s Krishna at TLCengine who took it all to a next level.

A few quibbles.

1. What’s up with the white board explainer video? What is this 2006?

2. Cats? Seriously


It’s all about execution. I haven’t had time to dive in to the site yet, Teke at Inman News has a good breakdown of the site and its new features. All in all it does have some very interesting aspects to it.

  1. Have something against cats? The home page image changes hourly. Right now it’s a pair of lovely bicycles. You should keep coming back again and again to see other images!

  2. “Even with the CO2 emissions of food required to power a bicycle, the ECF study found that ā€” while not emissions free ā€” the bicycle is still the lowest emitter of greenhouse gasses per passenger kilometer traveled.”

    (https://bikeportland.org/2011/12/12/new-study-compares-bicyclings-co2-emissions-to-other-modes-63536)

    They’re “green.” Green is in. So is “low carbon footprint.” It’s hip. Or whatever the younger crowd is saying these days.

  3. Looks cleaner that ZT. It reminds me of Compass.com with a more readable Refine bar. Also there is also single line view!! Most portals and IDX sites suck for this exclusion alone. Who the hell wants to click though pages and pages of thumbnail views. Thumbnail views are cute but what a UX nightmare!

    Iā€™m a big fan of a clean UI, so that is a plus. The map needs square, polygon and radius tools.

    Overall, a much better site than ZT.

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