Start searching on ShackPrices.com
As of midnight last night, ShackPrices.com is live. We have a post up on the ShackBlog about what you’ll find on our new site, but I’ll summarize it for our readers here:
What is ShackPrices?
ShackPrices.com is a snappy Google maps-based real estate search site that makes finding a home better by augmenting each real estate listing with data about what is nearby, including the distances to nearby landmarks, nearby schools and nearby bus stops. ShackPrices also helps home buyers learn about cities and neighborhoods through reviews, statistics and photos. Home buyers can search for shacks (shabby to chic, of course) across all of Western Washington on ShackPrices.com.
What makes ShackPrices.com different?
You’ll spot some obvious things that differentiate ShackPrices.com right off the bat, including information about what is nearby every listing (check out the surroundings near this Ballard listing) and Suggested Shacks, which predicts houses home buyers might be interested in if they like any of the 20,000+ houses for sale on ShackPrices.com.
ShackPrices is still in its infancy, so expect more handy features in the coming year and please let us know how we can improve your experience.
Posted: December 13th, 2006 under General Real Estate.
Tags: home-search, Real Estate Search, real-etate, ShackPrices, web2.0
About the Author: Galen Ward
- Author's website: http://www.estately.com/
- More posts by Galen
- Email the author
Comments
2.
Comment
from Dustin
Time December 13, 2006 at 10:28 am
BTW, I love the interface… It is very clean and I really like the way you’ve implemented a lot of your AJAX features and added things like “Shack Recommendations. Great job!
3.
Comment
from Galen
Time December 13, 2006 at 10:35 am
Dustin, I’m glad you like the site! ShackPrices is a member of the NWMLS, so the listings come from all of the brokerages who are Northwest MLS members in Washington State.
4.
Comment
from Robbie
Time December 13, 2006 at 10:35 am
Excellent work. Looks like I’m going to be very busy playing catch up with you and Doug. I assume you’re using Ruby & Postgres?
6.
Comment
from Galen
Time December 13, 2006 at 11:05 am
Thanks Robbie! We are indeed using Ruby on Rails for our back end and a Postgres database - we’re 100% open source.
7.
Comment
from Galen
Time December 13, 2006 at 11:06 am
No, neither of us are brokers. We have a broker on staff.
9.
Comment
from Tom
Time December 13, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Great search tool! Glad to see your using open source technology. I just created a site using joomla - love working with the OS stuff.
Question - does the NWMLS also deliver you the solds data? My local MLS does not.
10.
Comment
from Galen
Time December 13, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Tom, the Nwmls does deliver solds data, which is very quite progressive of them. There are some rules about what can and can’t be displayed, but nothing overwhelmingly restrictive.
11.
Comment
from ARDELL
Time December 13, 2006 at 9:44 pm
I don’t know what “Ruby on Rails” is, but that new product of yours is clearly a “Polished Gem!”
Best of luck with it Galen. I especially liked the differentiation between houses and condo buildings! Knocked me OUT! It looked like a Monopoly game and was great for navigating to or away from condos.
I prefer the “non aerial” version of map searches like this one myself, though I like aeriels AFTER I find the house when I want the most detail. Loved the “nearby” feature.
We’ll have to get together sometime and do a full blown Ardell behind the wheel. I would like to see more increments of value. People like to creep up and broad ranges are sometimes TMI. Not many look from $400,000 to $500,000. Usually $400,000 to $450,000.
Personally I like the increments in $25,000, like $400,000 to $425,000…more use friendly. People like to “peek” over their preferred price and not jump in to “deep water”.
Congratulations!!!
Greg Swann gave it a great write up…you are definitely his “golden boy”, and deservedly so.
12.
Comment
from Calculator
Time December 14, 2006 at 10:02 am
Second obvious question… how do you plan to monetize the site? Ads? Referrals? Or is your broker on staff actually going to sell homes?
13.
Comment
from Sandy
Time December 14, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Folks, it would incredibly useful if you could give me some insight into real estate trends in the redmond, wa area. the key questions i have are 1) are prices at the risk of going down? 2) is it better to go for a new home than a 30 yr old home? 3) what would you price a 2006-2007 (new home) of 2230 sqft in redmond wa (education hill for)?
14.
Comment
from for sale by owner center
Time December 15, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Nice work. Beautiful layout. Fast. Some basic comments. First, I would probably make it more apparent that it’s a WA only site. Some users may type in a different area… I.E. “Las Vegas” because they don’t know (or take the time to read) and in turn get frustrated.
If the person finds a home they like… what do they do next? There is no contact information… I know this is a problem, because I have run across the same issue in the past.
Other than that beautiful!
15.
Comment
from Dustin
Time December 31, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Galen,
I just had a realization! I think you’re giving more love to real estate mashups than to Taco Truck mashups… What’s with that?
16.
Pingback
from You are breaking my heart Redfin… | Rain City Guide | A Seattle Real Estate Blog…
Time January 12, 2007 at 4:03 pm
[...] Here is the image from Shackprices [...]
1. Comment from Dustin
Time December 13, 2006 at 10:27 am
Let me be the first to ask the obvious question… Where are you getting your listings?