We just launched Estately True Area Search today to let you search within an area or nearby an area or an address. You’ll see the outline of the neighborhood, zip code or city you’re searching for on the map now. If you look up in the upper left, you’ll be able to limit your search to that area or to within a distance of the neighborhood, city, zip code or address.

Want to live within walking distance of Amazon? Near the Microsoft neighborhood? Share a zip code with Bill Gates? Now you can.

All the normal search options still work just the same. To recap how it works:

1. Go to Estately.com
2. Search for an area (like Ballard)
3. Go to the upper left and limit your search to homes within a distance of Ballard (half mile? don’t go much farther or you’ll miss out on the “feel” of Ballard and end up in Doug’s neighborhood, Greenwood)

Here is Queen Anne:

We’re pretty excited about this feature (as we are with every feature, I suppose). It’s our response to the variety of requests for eliminating the east side (or the west side) from people searches - most Seattle-area home buyers seem to pick one side of Lake Washington and stick to it. It also make subscribing to the actual search you want easier: no longer will homes from Fremont seep into your Ballard search unless you want them to.

Where are the dynamically updated stats showing the average price and size of every home that matches your search? Fear not: they’re over in the upper right hand corner of the map. Just click the plus symbol.

I know I’m probably the only person in Seattle who also lived here in 1993, but we’re looking the slightly worn “Out of the Box” phrase in the eye and giving it new a new, Web 2.1 look and feel (that’s means it’s reflective and has sparkles). Estately True Areas: Search Beyond the Box.

I was interviewed by Joel (Inman News / Future of Real Estate Marketing) for Inman TV a little while back they just posted the video this morning. It’s a quick overview of what we’re about and how Agent Match is different (and better) than other ways of finding good real estate agents on the internet. So without further ado:

While it seems like you might miss potential clients by pricing your home so low that it falls off their radar screens, Broker Bryant today spotted a $235,000 home listed for $160,000. The guise: “drama pricing.” Set the price so low people get excited and let them bid it up.  They should call it ebay pricing in honor of the one cent listings.

Sure you’ll get a lot of bodies through the door and maybe you’ll start a bidding war like the ones every Seattle home for sale had in 2004, but isn’t it possible you’ll also turn someone off? There are deals and then there are deals that are too good to be true -  those are the ones you don’t even follow up because you actually don’t want to spend the $70,000 in repairs the person hasn’t disclosed in the listing.

In case the suspense was too much for agents viewing the listing, the listing agent put that the price is to “catch your attention” in the remarks. That sort of killed the drama for me.

There is an ongoing debate over divorcing commissions in the real estate blog world that hasn’t yet jumped into the mainstream media. Divorced commissions doesn’t refer to the consumer divorcing the agent of their pay and it will certainly need a better name to get any traction (pay for representation?). In a word, it means you as a consumer pay your agent for representing you as a buyer or as a seller.

As it stands, sellers pay both their own agent and the buyer’s agent. They typically pay 2-3% to the agent who helps them put their house on the market, advertises it, advises them on offers, and negotiates on their behalf at closing. They then offer 2.5+% to the agent of the person who wants to buy the property. That’s to pay the “buyer’s agent” for dragging you to a bunch of properties, helping you figure out what’s right for you, advising you about each property, helping you put together an offer, and negotiating on your behalf through closing.

I’ve been racking my brain trying to find an appropriate analogy for this. Maybe it’s like bringing your lawyer to a divorce hearing (real divorce, not commission divorce) and having your soon-to-be ex-spouse pay your lawyer’s bill.

But it’s not really like that, because you as a buyer end up paying the commission. Say you just paid your agent yourself: The seller would probably pocket some of that 2.5+% they were offering your agent, but they’d probably also reduce the price of the house somewhat, leaving you with a choice about how much service you wanted from your agent and how much you wanted to pay for that service.

So when will commission divorce be just as common as the marital variety? Probably no time soon: banks are not used to it, so they would be wary of paying your agent from your end. Additionally, no one is going to go first: if you’re selling your your house, you don’t want to be the cheapo who offers $0 commission to buyers agents (because some of them will discriminate against you).

Jeff Kempe cogently argues that the perception of free buyers commissions makes consumers lazy about finding a good agent. Since divorced commissions are really an academic discussion in the short term, buyers should focus on finding good agents who will work on their behalf regardless of who is paying. Like in any industry, there are good real estate agents who focus on the long-term business and there are not-so-great agents who focus on the best buck today.

Interview a couple of great agents who can meet your needs and really know their stuff, describing what you need from them and what you’re looking for in a property, ask to talk to previous clients, and figure out if they are someone you would want to work with. Ask questions and ask more questions.

I attended Mind Camp, a local “unconference” this weekend and met a bunch of interesting people who talked about interesting (and geeky) concepts. Mind Camp could have been more aptly named iPhonistan; there were easily more iPhones present than any other make of cell phone. So what’s the first thing I wanted to see? The interface, but Estately on the iPhone was a close second.

Next time you’re driving around and you see a house for sale, you know where to go to see the interior pictures and the details (just type the address into the search box).