Google Ventures-backed agent matching site HomeLight now allows users to search for real estate agents by neighborhood through a partnership with data firm Maponics Inc., the site announced today.
With a new mapping feature powered by Maponics neighborhood data, HomeLight users can select a neighborhood from a map view on the site and see a list of agents with HomeLight profiles who have done deals in the area.
The new feature “makes it even easier for homebuyers and sellers to find real estate experts by specific neighborhood in over 1,500 U.S. cities,” the company said in a statement.
The new search functionality also allows consumers to explore agents’ profiles on the site to see details about the homes for which they’ve represented buyers and sellers by neighborhood, said HomeLight CEO and founder Drew Uher.
Once the site has served up a list of agents, users can click on an agent profile and filter the transactions seen on the profile map by neighborhood, area served, transaction type, property type, and year.
Screen shot of neighborhood search on agent profile page on HomeLight
“One neighborhood can differ dramatically from the next within a given metro area when it comes to home prices, property types, demographics, and proximity to schools, and as a result, the real estate agent best suited to help a buyer or seller on one neighborhood could be very different than the agent best suited for another neighborhood,” Uher said in a statement.
“This new functionality will enable our customers to make that determination.”
HomeLight is a referral-based site that claims to match homebuyers and sellers with unbiased real estate agent recommendations based on transaction performance data.
The San Francisco-based company launched out of beta on Nov. 14 with $1.5 million in funding in hand from Google Ventures (the venture-capital arm of search giant Google), Crosslink Capital, Innovation Endeavors, and several undisclosed angel investors.
In January, HomeLight added agent reviews, and with the new neighborhood information, Uher says the site’s “truly launching.”
HomeLight has had a couple bumps in the road since its launch.
Just two weeks after HomeLight’s official debut, the site stopped showing recommendations for agents in central and western Washington state, including Seattle, at the request of the Kirkland, Wash.-based Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The MLS said HomeLight, though a broker member of NWMLS, did not have a license for NWMLS data and therefore could not use any of it on its website.
Days later, the Grover Beach, Calif.-based Pismo Coast Association of Realtors, one of eight member associations that own the Central Coast Regional MLS, made a similar request asking HomeLight to pull CCRMLS data from its site.
Uher said HomeLight is still working with Northwest MLS and the Pismo Coast association to develop a solution.
