Over the past few years, StreetEasy has become the go-to site for listings information across all brokerages and neighborhoods, but there have been a few attempts to compete, most notably the incorporation of the VOW, or "virtual office websites," into brokerages' search functions. First there was CondoDomain, then there was the Elliman website revamp, and now there's LivingThere, a new site from the Observer Media Group and NateFind.com creator Nate Friedman. We took it for a brief spin this morning.
The search options appear to be the same ones seen on StreetEasy and elsewhere: input price, desired neighborhoods, and unit size, and the search engine will spit out appropriate results. Advanced options allow searches by school district and for specific amenities. So far, we see only sales listings, not rentals.
So are there any features of LivingThere that might sway a real estate hunter to use it instead of a more established site? LivingThere does get points for user-friendliness: the new and PriceChopped listings are easy to find, and a user doesn't have to know anything about how the site works in order to find data. There are, according to a press release, also some features that allow users to chat with each other about listings?to share potential properties with a significant other, for instance. For buyers who want to see many brokerages' listings in one place, without too much extra data noise, LivingThere might be a useful option. But with StreetEasy and individual firms' sites already in the mix, we also don't see it standing out from the pack.
· VOW coverage [Curbed]
· Launches & Releases coverage [Curbed]
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