Finally, a website where I can find homes for sale.
Show HN: Find a home close to work
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#52Hey HN, I'm a founder at Open Listings and did a lot of the engineering of this project. We got a lot of inquiries from tech workers who really cared about their commute times, so we used Googles Distance Matrix API [0] to sort listings by commute time. I'll be on here with my cofounders today to answer any questions you might have. [0]: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancemat...
Hey, with cookies disabled, the site displays nothing at all, simply a blank page. (A favourite hobby horse of mine. I accept cookies only from specific sites, whitelisted after consideration.)
It also shows nothing at all if you turn off JavaScript in Firefox. Not even a crappy "You need JavaScript" error -- just blank.
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#53Where does this site get its real estate and/or distance/time data? I ended up doing an address search for my employer (which isn't on the list), but got a "No properties were found within 20 minutes of this location." despite Zillow showing dozens of red dots within 20 minutes walking distance from where I work.
We get our data directly from regional MLS systems in the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles but we're actively expanding (San Diego is next).
If you email the address you're looking for to peter@openlistings.co, I'll try to prioritize your area.
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#54Where does this site get its real estate and/or distance/time data? I ended up doing an address search for my employer (which isn't on the list), but got a "No properties were found within 20 minutes of this location." despite Zillow showing dozens of red dots within 20 minutes walking distance from where I work.
We get our data directly from regional MLS systems in the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles but we're actively expanding (San Diego is next). If you email the address you're looking for to peter@openlistings.co, I'll try to prioritize your area.
No need, my query is quiet a ways out of any of those cities (Reno/Tahoe), but thanks anyway. Good to know.
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#55For people looking for an apartment, padmapper[1] has a similar option where you can give it an address and it will draw a polygonal boundary around it showing the limits for an x-minute commuting distance for walking, cycling, or driving. I imagine the car commute could be inaccurate if there's bad rush hour traffic in that area, but the others should be relatively consistent.
I'm not affiliated with the site at all, I just thought it's a really cool feature.
You need to click on "More Filters", then "Super-Secret Advanced Features"
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse... When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your closing costs. Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun s…
I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?
As an Australian I have always been amazed with that in the USA you have to use a buyers agent. Here you visit the properties yourself and deal directly with the selling agent. Only the buyer pays the agent.
We do have very high stamp duty (basically a sales tax on real estate) which is 5% of the property price which the buyer has to pay.
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse... When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your closing costs. Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun s…
I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?
Redfinnian here. To add a bit of context to this claim, our agents do four times as many transactions as the most productive traditional agents. This is primarily because we don't have to prospect for leads; our site and mobile apps are great at connecting our agents with prospective buyers and sellers. That's the big advantage of any end-to-end product, and the extra time that our agents have to serve real customers instead of searching for them reveals itself in our higher win rates and customer reviews. Proof's in the outcomes, after all, not in empty words.
And a quick response to the Open Listings folks: Redfin agents actually do work on teams, consisting of Support Agents, Listing and Tour Coordinators, field agents who can help customers homes tour on demand, and deal-writing agents who handle the toughest bits -- negotiations, offer-writing, and general guidance to the customer. Just wanted to set the record straight here.
That said, I love what you guys are doing. This is a big enough market for everyone :) and we're excited to see so many folks adopting alternative transaction models.
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#58Curious where this number comes from: > It’s sad. The typical car LA or SF commuter spends more than 60 hours each year stuck in traffic. It seems low, it would be an estimate of just over one hour per week, which would be like 10 minutes each morning and evening.
The average commute in the US is something like 23 min, so the average commute in LA or SF should theoretically be a bit higher. I agree that 10 min seems incredibly low.
Whether 10 minutes is a realistic number depends heavily on your definition of stuck in traffic. You can choose anything from "absolute standstill" to "slower than one would go on an empty road".
For a typical definition, those 23 minutes will not all be spent stuck in traffic.
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Been on their beta list for almost a year. They've since been acquired by zillow so we're not holding our breath.
My understanding is that they are working hard to build APIs that will let Retsly power the next zillow, and that there's support for that internally. Time will tell!
Cool, if that's the case I hope the API is available soon. In the meantime our internal implementation makes use of this great open source library from estately: https://github.com/estately/rets
Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?
As an Australian I have always been amazed with that in the USA you have to use a buyers agent. Here you visit the properties yourself and deal directly with the selling agent. Only the buyer pays the agent. We do have very high stamp duty (basically a sales tax on real estate) which is 5% of the property price which the buyer has to pay.
You don't need to use a buyer's agent, but it's usually a good idea to have someone at less theoretically looking out for your interest. If you use the seller's agent, that one agent has a big conflict of interest. If you have a real estate attorney (which isn't very common in california, but may be in Australia), then I wouldn't see needing an agent as well.