Rethinking Search Parameters: Lifestyle and Commute Dominate Over Size/Price

Do you currently value homes based solely on bedrooms, baths, and square footage? You – and sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia – may want to consider moving to a new neighborhood. Where are we off to in such a hurry?

Meet the new kids on the block…

Lifestyle, affordability and commute. These three amigos can make finding the right home for buyers infinitely easier – all with the help of data analytics searches, the latest in real estate trends.

What the heck is that?

Unlike data searches, which generate an overwhelming glut of options for buyers based on search parameters like bedrooms, baths, price and location, data analytics searches can help pinpoint a few top houses in a market area that best match a buyer’s needs.

Chuck your thinking cap

You’ll no longer have to try to prioritize thousands of pieces of data in an attempt to solve the puzzle of each client’s perfect housing solution. Reshaping the search experience, analytics search engines like TLCEngine.com take buyers from daydreams to actionable information on:

• Affordability
  Focusing exclusively on price can result in missed opportunity: Home insurance, utilities rates, homeowner’s association fees, and more can all affect the overall monthly cost of owning a home. Data analytics can help determine if that house with a higher price tag may ultimately end up costing less.

• Lifestyle
  HomeJunction.com connects buyers with home locations based on everything from demographics and schools to coffee shops and places of worship, whatever’s hot in real estate trends.

• Commute
  Data analytics can even help determine the best home locations for a given maximum commute time, and the cost of a single vehicle rather than two cars (for walkable/bikeable locations). This can help determine if centrally located, higher-priced homes beat those in the ‘burbs.

To view the original article, visit the Properties Online blog.