Is HomeTrader Our Real Estate Site Saviour?
The company behind Condo Guide magazine has just launched HomeTrader.ca, a new web site (still in beta) that becomes the latest in a long line of online efforts to try to help us find a home to buy, sell or rent in the Toronto area.
In the wake of the massive failure that is Realtor.ca (280 angry comments and counting), the market is still wide open for competitive offerings. But after giving HomeTrader a bit of a spin my initial take is that its shortcomings are consistent with what's plagued so many of the other sites - a lack of comprehensive data and bad usability.
For me, the number one feature that I'm looking for in a real estate site is a useful map interface that let's me easily scope and sort available real estate or rentals in different parts of the city. If I'm interested in The Beaches, I want to see at a glance what's available there and then be able to sort by price, features and maybe some other variables.
HomeTrader seems to get this and goes heavy on the map interface. But why have they gone with a custom version of Microsoft Virtual Earth rather than use a more user-friendly version from Yahoo! or Google? The zoom feature is wonky which means I can't easily narrow in on a specific few blocks or neighbourhood, and am instead initially subjected to a way too large grid system. One box seems to cover most of Toronto and parts of Mississauga. So much for zeroing in on Leaside or The Annex.
But beyond the map issues, the major failure here will ultimately be the data. When you find a place the info can be quite good. There are often lots of photos, floor plans and other useful info. But most of the listings here are condos and townhomes which means it's not a good source to find interesting re-sale homes, authentic lofts or other non-cookie-cutter places. There's also, frankly, a complete lack of listings in certain areas. Take a look at the screenshot above of what HomeTrader is able to find east of the DVP.
Beta or not, that's simply not good enough to make this a useful real estate source.
Comments (11)
I think the map search aspect of Hometrader.ca shows some promise, but remember that it is put out by Condo Guide so this will only cover new homes and condos. I don't think they are intending to populate it with resale property listings.
What I would really like to see in a real estate directory site is a mapping feature that would let you set some boundaries or co-ordinates, e.g. "south of Bloor, East of Bathurst, West of Donlands" and then get a listing by prices and type of housing and have them display on the map. The formal areas used by the Toronto Real Estate Board are not very helpful for this.
Most of those services fail on more than one front. Even if they have decent interface (zoocasa) or aggregate various feeds (housing123 before realtors shut it down), they are simply inadequate. A decent solution must include asoild interface AND critical mass of listings. Even realtor.ca does not have all the listings avilable on the realtors' own intranet. Then there are multiple FSBO type sites, none with enough content to be of any use. And so the more persistent among us still have to go to a half a dozen (at least) places to look; others hire an agent. :(
So, they intentionally aren't going to include resale homes, because those are covered by a separate magazine (called "Resale Homes")? Which is owned by the same company? So, like, two division directors are feuding, and therefore their online real estate site is crippled?
Wow, how stupid. Fail.
I think the quantity of listings is far, FAR more important than interface. Who would honestly buy a house using a site where only 10% of listings are shown? I know I sure as hell wouldn't.
Despite their clunky interface, that means Realtor.ca comes out on top in my books now that housing123 is no longer.
ZooCasa.com is pretty good, but the thing that all these tools are missing is, like the author said, data. That's because all of them guard it jealously and no one wants to release it, and in the end that's a loss for the user.
I personally think that BlogTO should develop it's own realtor tool as part of this site and get the users to submit all the data on an ongoing base (Web 2.0 style). If Craigslist taught us anything it's that user generated content is more accurate, vaster and more effecient then what an in-house team can provide.
It is time to look at Realtor.ca again. All sorts of changes have been made, you can search by area (ie. Cabbagetown) and it has no advertising other than the houses. This new site Hometrader.ca just does not cut it.
I came across a great site for finding a new home in Ontario - www.newinhomes.com and/or www.starrealestate.ca - they seem to have more comprehensive information to help home buyers who are in the market.
Lived in Toronto for 6 years and 3 of those were as a realtor, before moving down here to Florida. I think this is leaps and bounds better than Realtor.ca. But, after having talked to friends who are using it back up north, I think it has it's shortcomings mostly in the reseller market.
-HousingBubble
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