New Lifestyle Map Search from Comey & Shepherd

Comey & Shepherd Realtors personalizes shopping for a home with it’s new Lifestyle Map Search Feature! Lifestyle search is available at www.mycityliving.com and www.comey.com within the Greater Cincinnati Property Search tool.

With nearly 90 percent of home buyers shopping online for their next house, the variety and competition among online search tools is steadily ramping up.

Among the latest: Lifestyle mapping and search engine features aimed at helping consumers go beyond traditional online searches that are typically limited to location and price.

At Mariemont-based Comey & Shepherd Realtors, the firm recently launched a Lifestyle Map Search option on its website, www.comey.com. The new tool compiles more than 100 levels of data meant to help home buyers personalize their search.

“Essentially, it’s a much more complete mapping tool that allows people to individualize their search and plot their lifestyle preferences,” says Scott Nelson, CEO of Comey & Shepherd. “It’s an added search tool meant to enhance a homebuyer’s ability to get a variety of information they think is important for the properties that they might be interested in.”

In addition to the traditional search by location and price, home buyers can hunt for homes within 15 minutes of their employers or their children’s schools. Or they can zoom in on houses near retailers, restaurants or other neighborhood perks. Users also can search historic sales data, neighborhood demographics and other stats that might weigh in on their buying decisions.

In December, Coldwell Banker Real Estate launched a similar search tool at its website www.coldwellbanker.com that allows users to rate elements of a neighborhood that matter to them.

Users start by selecting an area and price range, then rate criteria including nearby shops and services, public transit, nightlife, art, music venues, well-performing schools, golf courses and rural or urban areas.

The tool “allows people to intuitively narrow in on communities that fit their needs and then pinpoint the perfect home for them,” Helen Galasso, the company’s vice president of platform development and e-business, said in a statement. Coldwell Banker’s search is powered by New York-based Onboard Informatics, a real estate information and technology company.

Comey & Shepherd is using La Jolla, Calif.-based Home Junction Inc.’s SpacialMatch technology to power its new lifestyle mapping tool.

Founded in 2007, Home Junction is working with 15 multiple listing service agencies across the country, as well as real estate firms and brokers to enhance their websites and technology offerings.

“When people move, they’re moving their whole life,” says Melissa Pederson, director of business development at Home Junction. “If they have children, they want to know where the schools are in relation to their home. They want to know where the grocery stores are, or how long they’re going to have to commute to the city or to work. With SpacialMatch, you can see how everything that’s important to you correlates together and from there you can delve into the three-bedroom, two-bath houses that are in your price range.”

Comey & Shepherd’s Nelson says it’s too soon to know just how well received the new tools will be by users. “It’s another evolution in the industry,” he says. “Our other traditional search options remain the most popular ones, but the feedback we’re getting so far has been really good.”

via Cincinnati Enquirer