We’ve been closely watching real estate search site HotPads.com as their leadership team and strategy have shifted recently. HotPads is a growing site that emphasizes visualization of data in creative ways.
Today, HotPads announces “HotSpots,” which they claim “takes visual search to a whole new level” by offering results of a real estate sale or lease search as colored dots coordinated by color based on price (which recalibrates “based on zoom level and location, making it simple to see relationships between location and price.”).
At any viewing point, the dark red dots are the most expensive properties and the light blue dots are the least expensive on a cost per bedroom basis.
Marking a property as a “favorite” changes the marker to a star, and (one of the more ingenious features), markers that have already been previewed shrink in size so that users can focus on the properties they haven’t seen. I wish all map searches offered this!
This all just makes so much sense and the way the map markers renders is fast, fluid and very clean unlike Google Maps which has the pop up 3d map markers that aren’t actually easy to see.
As a Realtor, this is a great snapshot of trends (the east side is becoming more expensive than the south side, etc) and for buyers/renters it is an easier way to visualize the first impression data (because of course, price is one of the first points of data considered).
Try out HotSpots now and tell us what you think in the comments below.
AG is not affiliated with HotPads.com.
MH for Movoto
February 14, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Totally fascinating if you’re looking for broad trends. I don’t know that it’s all that practical for the individual buyer with one defined price-range, but it looks great on the page.