Since we launched the newest version of our site last month, we’ve been taking requests. Users (and our own staff) have given us all kinds of ideas for improving Sawbuck’s home search. Many of these were from users of our original site who missed the free-form map-based searching they had come to love. Some offered constructive criticism like:
“You have destroyed my favorite real estate site. Bring back the old site. I loathe you.”
OK, that is more of a paraphrase. But we could tell they missed the freedom that our old no-boundaries map search offered. We always liked it too, but wanted to offer a lot more tools and information that could only come with defined “areas” (cities, towns, zip codes, neighborhoods, etc.). So we set to work improving our Map View.
By default, Map View shows you an outline of the area you’re looking at, with icons for the homes that match your search criteria. Only homes inside the area are shown—and you can switch to List View or Gallery to view and sort those same homes. Around the edges are icons for that area’s nearest neighbors, each with a count of the matching homes in that area—mouse over those icons to preview the area’s boundaries or click on it to jump to that area, with your search criteria intact.
But what if you want to see homes across boundaries? Now you can. Pull down the new “Show Me…” menu at the top-right of the map. The second choice is “All Homes on Map”. Pick this to remove the nearby area icons from the map and show matching listings across the map without regard for the boundaries. You can scroll or zoom the map infinitely to see more matching homes.
We also added a new way to survey other nearby areas. At the bottom of the same “Show Me…” menu are options that let you see all the areas of a certain type on the map. As before, each has an icon with a count of matching homes. And again, you can scroll in any direction to see more areas; mouse over to preview the boundary and click to jump to that area.
You can switch between these different map views as needed to find the area and homes you seek. We put a lot of thought into how to improve Map View for serious home searchers, and hope these changes are helpful.
But wait, there’s more...
At the same time, we’ve added several other new features we think you’ll like. Returning users will see a customized home page, including the last ten listings they viewed and links to their three most recent searches. (As before, any user can view their recent searches, recently viewed listings, saved searches and rated listings in My Sawbuck.)
You can now add and edits notes to any listing. Under the description is a link to “Create a Note”. Once created, the note appears in this spot whenever you visit the listing, and a “note” icon appears with the listing whenever it shows up on any list. You can edit or add to the note at any time.
At the bottom of every listing page is a list of the six most similar listings to the one you’re viewing. Registered users also see a list of the six most similar recent sales. We’ve added a new page that takes this a step further. Click the “More similar listings…” link to see the 25 most similar listings (or “More recent sales…” for 25 sales comps). This new page lets you see details on all 25, shows them on a map, and allows you to sort them however you like.
What do you think? Any more features you can't live without? We’re taking requests again (just don’t say you loathe us).
