I’m getting ready to put my home on the market, so I’ve become more than just a theoretical user of Zillow and other real estate sites in the last few months. Of course, as an owner, I think my Zestimate is a bit low, but Zillow doesn’t know about the big remodel we did to the house last year, at least not yet. That’s what My Zestimator is for. It enables me to refine the Zestimate based on changes that I’ve made to the home, and try my best to get full value for those investments from a buyer (my agent and I are entertaining offers, btw). Anyway, that’s not the point of my post here.
I actually want to highlight the “other browser” window that I have open the most while making all of my plans and preparations: the recently upgraded John L. Scott site. The upgrade to the site was extensive, but I especially applaud how they’ve integrated images and maps seamlessly into the listings user experience. It looks like they are using the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform which includes the shockingly cool bird’s eye images that Zillow also uses. These are the images that allow a user to virtually fly around a house and look down on it from about a 45-degree angle from each compass heading, a dramatic improvement over the straight-down satellite images that have become standard on the Web.
John L. Scott is a big regional brokerage out here in the Pacific Northwest that has been in business for generations of Scotts. Despite its long history, it clearly sees the Internet as a big opportunity to enhance the way it communicates and educates and markets to its customers. Bravo.