Estately.com starts operations in San Diego today, the third city to be served by the Seattle-based map-based real estate search start-up. Considering that the company has so-far only raked in a modest six-figures in venture capital, this would seem to argue that Estately’s software scales easily. No news on finances, but, seriously, there must be some boot-strapping money to permit this rapid growth.
This is from an email from Estately.com co-founder and BloodhoundBlog contributor Galen Ward:
Estately.com is expanding into a new market. Beginning on Thursday, June 26th, over 19,000 San Diego homes and condos will be added to Estately.com’s 105,000+ properties for sale. Given the rapid changes in San Diego’s market, we are especially excited to give consumers the ability to track price changes on individual homes and across searches and areas.
Here are some example searches Estately makes into a snap:
- Homes in La Jolla priced between $500,000 and $1,000,000 and sorted from cheapest to most expensive
- Homes between $350,000 and $450,000 in Chula Vista
- Homes including the words “motivated” (as in “motivated seller”) in the San Diego area
Additionally, we have revamped our “nearby information” information, plotted local schools and school scores, parks and transit stops on a map, and integrated it into the listing page.
I tried to run a search on “smug, slow-talking beachbums bragging about all the money they scam off of Arizona tourists with trained fish acts” — but that turns out to be everybody in San Diego.
Next stop: I’m betting on Oakland, but that’s only because I peeked. What’s not next: Phoenix — more’s the pity.
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Brian Brady says:
“I tried to run a search on “smug, slow-talking beachbums bragging about all the money they scam off of Arizona tourists with trained fish acts” — but that turns out to be everybody in San Diego.”
Jeff? You want this one?
June 26, 2008 — 1:43 am
Kevin Warmath - Alpharetta Real Estate says:
I continue to be frustrated by idx vendors. Estately was a bright light that i stumbled upon via BHB months ago. Unfortunately that bright light is still only shining on the west coast leaving us in idx darkness in the East.
God, what i’d do for a good idx – or even just an idx vendor who would listen. Can you believe that many idx vendors don’t support being able to search for homes based on school name (like: give me all homes in Alpharetta High School district). I’ve been trying to get Wolfnet to support this for two YEARS…no joke.
And the bigger problem is that the MLS’s make it so difficult to get the data that you can’t build your own solutions. That leaves us beholden to a bunch of mediocre idx vendors and i think mediocre is generous in some cases.
Good luck on the launch, Estately. Hope to see you in Atlanta soon.
June 26, 2008 — 6:24 am
Barry Bevis says:
My Brother in law and his wife are just starting to search for a home in San Diego. I sent them the estately link.
June 26, 2008 — 7:41 am
Bob says:
Estately isnt acting as an IDX vendor, just another 3rd party looking to snare a referral fee.
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
June 26, 2008 — 9:43 am
Greg Swann says:
> Estately isnt acting as an IDX vendor
This is correct. Estately is a search portal available to anyone through its own domain. If you are interested in buying a house you find on Estately.com, you will be referred to a pre-screened list of Realtors. If you complete at transaction, that agent pays a referral fee to Estately. They have broker’s licenses in every state they operate in, both to gain access to MLS feeds and to accept compensation for referrals.
June 26, 2008 — 9:49 am
Kevin Warmath - Alpharetta Real Estate says:
> They have broker’s licenses in every state they operate in, both to gain access to MLS feeds and to accept compensation for referrals.
Curious how the DOJ – NAR settlement might affect Estately. My understanding of the case is that a significant point for the NAR was to prohibit “online brokers” from obtaining a broker license (and thereby access to MLS) merely for the purpose of building online businesses (with listings as the carrots) and reselling leads back to agents.
NAR’s rule that was challenged and is upheld in the settlement is that brokers must be “actively endeavoring to list or sell property.”
Does Estately pass this test? My first reaction is ‘No.’ They are not selling property they are selling leads.
I do like the estately platform, though ;->
July 8, 2008 — 7:16 pm