Inman

Love connection: Homebuyer match app expands into 2nd market

Inspired by the modern dating app, a new real estate search platform is looking to match hopeful buyers with their dream home faster — without having to swipe through as many bad fits along the way.

The platform is LandOnEarth, and on Wednesday it announced it had expanded into Austin. The Texas capital is the platform’s second active market, adding to its offerings in San Antonio, where the company is based.

“Similar to how dating platforms have transformed the dating world, LandOnEarth is transforming the process of selecting an ideal home,” the company said in a press release. “The platform goes beyond the typical bed, bath, and square footage search and provides results based on the lifestyle users aspire to live.”

Aimed at buyers and their agents, LandOnEarth offers users the chance to plug in their preferences for a home’s price range, location, property features and a number of lifestyle considerations. 

The app then assigns a “match” score — say, 96 percent for a very strong match, or 72 percent for a weaker one — and sorts the available homes by how closely they align with the user’s preferences.

The service is also outfitted to allow the buyer’s real estate agent to see their client’s preferences and collaborate with them throughout the home search.

LandOnEarth isn’t the first real estate business to approach listings like a dating service, but it claims to be the first lifestyle-based matching app of its kind aimed at buyers and their agents.

This year, the Washington, D.C., brokerage Go Brent Realty launched a matchmaking database for homeowners who would consider moving but don’t yet have the right destination lined up.

The D.C.-area service, dubbed “I Would Move If I Could,” does all the matchmaking in-house, without a broader listing or search feature. Its goal is to enable more would-be sellers to enter the market by suggesting the right fit for their next home.

LandOnEarth, meanwhile, is focused on helping buyers make sense of a broad range of listing search results. Using artificial intelligence, the company has been refining its matching software in its pilot market of San Antonio since it first launched in 2019.

The company’s co-founder and CEO Mario Corona said the app is the first to provide buyers a match score for each listing that’s based in part on the lifestyle considerations of the neighborhood around it — such as the home’s proximity to parks, nightlife or children’s activities.

“We’re here to streamline the home discovery experience by reducing time and friction,” Corona said in the release. “With LandOnEarth we quantify the subjective, visual, and unspoken personal preferences in home discovery.”

After the expansion into Austin, LandOnEarth is setting its sights on other Texas cities, as well as some of the largest metros in California, Florida, Colorado and Georgia.

Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Diego and Tampa are all sites for possible expansion, the company said in its announcement.

Email Daniel Houston