Redfin, Trulia – I don’t get it.
I spend as much time as anyone in the web 2.0 world studying the new business models and the latest ajax apps that have made their way into the online real estate space. Since the sites I am talking about are not direct competitors (not yet anyway), I thought I could go ahead and talk about what I think they are doing wrong.
As most people who follow this sector know, Redfin closed an $8M round of venture capital financing a little while back. When I first heard about it, I was very excited…LakePlace.com’s alexa numbers were better than theirs (at the time – not anymore) and they were bringing a lot of attention to our sector. This is good for everyone in the online real estate business. I was also excited to see that they announced the launch of their redesigned website. What I wasn’t excited about – was that they continued to use their map mash-up as the main search and navigation function of their website.Â
Trulia, who has also raised around $8M, relies heavily on their google map mashup as the main way to navigate their website as well. They have added a link allowing you to make the map disappear – but not until the map has already bogged down the user experience.
Why Map Mash ups do not work
I think that maps play a very important role in the world of online real estate. And I know that it is really easy to get excited about new technologies (i.e. flash websites back in the day) – but in most cases, there are simply too many listing markers on these map mashup sites to make them a relevant and useful search tool. If you are looking at a map of a small area with 50+ property markers, most of them completely overlapping each other, what’s the point? How does this enhance user experience? How does this make finding a home easier? I don’t think it does.
I also need to comment on the slow load times caused by these maps and geocode calls. Alexa calls Redfin’s loading time “average†– with an average load time of 2.2 seconds. Trulia’s loading time is called “very slow†– with an average load time of 4.8 seconds. I can tell you that at LakePlace.com, we are working very hard to speed up our “fast†load time of 1.3 seconds – it is one of our main concerns. I think fast is better than slow – and there is no such thing as fast enough. I do not think map mash-ups, at least the way they have been implemented thus far, make real estate websites or real estate search better.
For the record, I think that Redfin and Trulia are very exciting companies with disruptive and promising business models. Redfin is working hard to change the agent/broker commission model and Trulia is working hard to crack the Multiple Listing Service – both seem to be doing well – I just don’t like the maps.
Most of the new sites in real estate have the maps in mash up form. Buying a home is a lot easier when you can see a map of the area, besides if you begin with just a home spec form- the results get displayed but then at that point want to see them on a map anyway. Blueroof.com just started in Utah also and it has a map and I think all of these sites make it easier for buyers.
I think you make some valid points and one of the things we struggle with at Trulia is how to best serve all of our users. We recently launched some new view types:
1. list + map (default)
2. photos + map
3. list + details
4. map only
These view options can be found on the search results page right above the listings, for example (http://www.trulia.com/CA/San_Francisco/). Check out the list + details and let us know what you think (no map). We also default to your last view type, so if you like it and do another search that is what you will see.
[...] Dave Gooden gives us his take on Ajax and Ruby web Applications with Real Estate 2.0 – Map Mashups – Am I missing something? posted at Dave Gooden. [...]
We recently launched the beacham.com site. Beacham and Company is a local Atlanta luxury real estate company and we used the Microsoft Virtual Earth maps and birds-eye view. It\’s been pretty quick in loading and the bird\’s-eye view is pretty amazing. We added AJAX to make the search criteria process more dynamic.
I was frustrated in my own experience in searching for homes on major real estate web sites because I\’d find a property that I liked and had no idea where the street was. We implemented a map view after searching for a property and drilling down to the property details. Additionally generating driving directions.
We\’ve had great feedback so far and I\’d be curious to see what everyone here thought.
I have a relatively new website myself as it is only 4 months old. ryanwardrealestate.com. The site ranks very well and I feel like I am loosing potential clients because the home search feature I have does not include maps of the properties. The slow load times are exactly why I have not implemented a map feature yet. This is a good article and I will take a look at some of the maps available that may be a little faster to load.
[...] should make our page load time even faster. Needless to say, we are very excited - we think faster is better. This new platform should provide room for us to continue growing – and that makes us happy. [...]
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