findwell Partners with Estately to Upgrade Real Estate Search
Two Seattle startups team up to provide innovative real estate search and brokerage
SAN FRANCISCO — August 5, 2009: findwell, a Seattle-based online real estate broker, launched a major upgrade to its real estate search website today at Inman News' Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, incorporating real estate search technology from Seattle-based Estately. New features include the ability to search for homes based on local transit stops and "walkability" to local amenities, virtual neighborhood tours with Google Street Views and local school and neighborhood information.
"Home buyers want a real estate website that is loaded with data about neighborhoods and homes, but is also simple and easy-to-use. Estately provides that and more," said findwell CEO Kevin Lisota. "We think that Estately is one of the top two real estate search sites in Seattle. Their search website is way better than anything the big brokerages provide at the moment."
"We are excited about the future potential of our partnership with findwell," said Estately CEO Galen Ward. "It seems like a natural fit by allowing both companies to do what they do best. findwell can continue to perfect their innovative, low-cost real estate brokerage services while Estately can continue to focus on developing the best home search technology."
New findwell Search Featuresfindwell's new search is based on data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS), so buyers can be assured that they are viewing the most current available listings in the Seattle area. To help home buyers searching for homes in Western Washington, the new findwell.com features:
Early feedback from customers indicates that they love the new search capabilities. "We think findwell's new search is the best search site we have seen in the Seattle area. After searching homes online for several months, we were impressed by how simply the information is presented and how easy it is to dig into detail when we need it," said findwell home buyers Liz & Riley Althauser. "Estately's search is a pleasure to use and definitely far more user friendly than the majority of competitor offerings," said Nicholas Wood, another first-time home buyer working with findwell.
Partnership Shows Continued MomentumThe new search partnership demonstrates the continued momentum of Estately in the real estate marketplace. After expanding over the previous 12 months to new markets such as Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Long Island and most recently Atlanta, traffic to Estately's website is up 500% — and up 20% month over month. Transactions have increased at an even faster rate.
The new partnership also bodes well for findwell's future. "With Estately already providing real estate search in many major cities, future expansion for our brokerage services will be that much easier," said Lisota.
Consumers in the Seattle area can check out all of the new search features at www.findwell.com. Estately also provides real estate search and referrals to top real estate agents for California, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Washington and Georgia at www.estately.com.
