We just added a search box on ShackPrices that lets you limit your search to any piece of text that is in a listing. That means the marketing remarks (from the seller), the amenities, the status, everything. Type in a word to try it out. Include a minus sign in front of it to avoid a word (-townhouse).
Seriously, it’s more powerful than you think.

Who will this help? All you niche buyers who have been asking us for very specific search options should now be happy for starters. But also pet owners, do-it-your-selfers, view needers, and water lovers. Here are some examples:

• Homebuyers who are looking for a loft
• Condos that are dog or cat friendly
• Houses that are fenced (or fully fenced) for your dog
• Fixers that need your help (and are cheaper because they need some work)
• Shacks with a garage
• Shacks with a mother in law apartment
• Shacks with a mountain or sound view
• Waterfront shacks and houseboats so you have somewhere to park your kayak.
• Shacks with a pool so you can relax after working on the fixer
• Shacks with hardwood floors (or houses without -carpets) for the allergen-sensitive

Thanks to Larry for being the first to request this feature and also to everyone else who chimed in - our feature list is long and user requests help us prioritize. We’ll do a couple more posts focusing on specific uses soon.

We just rolled out another feature update today: we now show math and reading scores for all schools (shown on the nearby page for each house) along with links to super-detailed school information. Grade levels and student population are thrown in (small school proponents rejoice!). Additionally, we tell you each school’s district, so you’ll won’t get stuck buying a house next door to a great school, but sending your kids across the city to a crummy one.

We are showing the school scores with some reservations - there are many great schools with middling scores and many unfortunately less quantifiable factors that could make a school great for you. That said, scores are one of the best measures we have for comparing schools and we feel that the links to detailed information will help you find the right school for you.

Part of the upgrade is a much prettier nearby page - we were never totally happy with the layout of the old page. We think you’ll like the new nearby page (you have to click on them to see the new layout).

Inman News, sort of the premier real estate news site, covers our launch and some of our features in an article today:

The site also gives info on neighborhood market conditions such as number of homes currently on the market, average price, average square footage, and average time on the market, among other details. Each neighborhood includes links to popular places and commentary on the area from 43places.com.

They failed to mention Brian Reschke, our excellent broker, in the story.
With a large readership comes privilege: unless you’re a paying member the article goes behind Inman’s wall tomorrow.

-Galen