Ok, perhaps a bit more subdued, but John L. Scott has been quietly adding more features on it’s website to empower sellers and buyers alike. Here’s a little break down.
Several months ago, utilizing Real Tech’s search technology, John L. Scott incorporated an interactive map search. This feature allowed buyers to zoom in to a specific area on a map of Washington, Idaho or Oregon. The map would identify all available homes on the map with a little house icon. Buyer’s could zoom into a specific area by using the cursor to draw a box around the area they’re interested in.
About a month ago, John L. Scott upped the ante by being among the first real estate companies to incorporate Microsoft’s Virtual Earth mapping technology. It’s similar to the interactive map but adds multiple angle satellite images, called High-Definition Home Search. Users can look at 45 degree angles of the property from North, South, East and West viewpoints.
There is one major difference in searching, at least from the website user’s perspective. The new mapping search doesn’t enable the cursor to draw a box around an specific area on the map. Instead, viewers need to zoom in using the “+” button and re-centering the map to get to their desired search parameter. A little inconvienient.
About a week after introducing the High-Definition Home Search, John L. Scott then made sold data available. This move empowers buyers and sellers alike to make smart decisions by accessing up-to-date sold data from the Northwest MLS. Unlike other sites that use data from county records (updates months after a home has sold), the NWMLS data is real time.
Finally, John L. Scott provides potential home buyers (seller’s will benefit from this info, too), Community Details. This feature provides information about housing inventory, market stability, weather, population and economic demographics, school information, nearby services and businesses, and home sale activity data. This is a very cool tool.
Community Characteristics:
School Information:
Home Sale Activity Report:
John L. Scott has bucked the trend of the stuffy traditional full-service brokerages by empowering consumers with the information they need to make quality buying and/or selling decisions. And, while these tools are useful, they merely supplement the services of a good real estate agent. Professional agents have added benefits by providing expert knowledge of the market (many specialize in geographic areas or housing types), understanding the nuances of real estate contracts and negotiations, and analyzing buying or selling strategies based on their clients needs and requirements.
