It looks like ShackPrices just had their first major update.
ShackPrices is a Seattle-based outfit that focuses on helping sellers value (or “appraise”) their homes.
The new layout is clean and very straightforward. If you’re a King County resident curious to find out what homes in your area are selling for, then using their site will be a breeze. In addition, they have some nice goodies like a direct link from each home to King County Records (and bus stops!).
For what they are trying to do (provide information for home sellers), they do it really well… But it seems pretty obvious that ShackPrices will need to expand into helping home buyers at some point. The obvious missing ingredient is real-time MLS data.
With that in mind, I think the hardest part for them will be creating something that is not easily duplicable. Their interface is easy to use, but at it’s current state, a similar functionality is available to King County residents through Redfin. (and even more data is available without the mapping interface through Property Shark). In addition, Redfin is a few steps ahead in that they already have the infrastructure to display MLS data and to incorporate user/agent data.
Wow you guys are using Google map api’s already, are you Seattle WA real estate agents or technology providers? Sorry if I missed the info some where. So are you going to be marketing your technology solutions to real estate agents across the country? I could use your real estate mapping technology for my MLS search. But soon a lot of providers will be doing this, so let me know. My website is at http://www.urbantango.com I can’t believe I found you on Anna’s Seattle real estate blog. I told Anna to start a blog almost 2 years ago, to get Internet leads. You go Anna!