For one final day, searching for real estate in Portland is scary. If you turn to a comprehensive MLS-based website, addresses are hidden. They lurk unseen until you call an agent or get in your car and drive by (Eeek!). It’s also a total pain-in-the-butt to look at a home, see where it is on the map, but not know the exact address without calling your agent. Agents should be helpful professionals, not address-producing machines.

The other choice for a home seeker was an even spookier road: to search on non-MLS affiliated sites. These sites show homes that are no longer for sale (Aaaaaah! A scary tease!) and loads of homes that are for sale are lurking there on their pretty maps unmarked. The spooky thing: these homes won’t even jump out at you - they are there, lurking in the shadows like Freddy, but unlike Freddy, they’ll never show their face.

The RMLS (Oregon’s biggest MLS) was one of the last major MLSes to allow the display of addresses and we’re pleased to be the first website in Portland with no compromises: you can see the most comprehensive list of homes for sale AND you can see the addresses on those homes. As promised, we are going live with addresses for Oregon at midnight tonight.

HHWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

An Estately power-user asks “what the heck does BOM mean?” Is it a Bank Owned Mansion? Bom Chicka Wah Wah?

It actually has nothing to do with “Bank Owned.” In the cut-off, use-every-available-letter-in-the-description-allowed world of real estate listings, BOM is shorthand for “Back On Market.” It means someone was trying to sell their home, got an offer on it and accepted it, and for whatever reason the person who was going to buy the home backed out.

Why would someone disclose BOM when it could mean that the inspection found something nasty? By their very nature, BOM homes have high DOM (Days On Market). The days in escrow still count against the CDOM (Cumulative Days On Market).

By disclosing that it is Back On Market, the person selling their home is saying “it hasn’t been sitting on the market for weeks and weeks because it’s a bad deal, it is because the person who was going to buy it backed out.”

A quick look down the West Coast shows that the use of BOM is regional. It’s a lot more popular in Los Angeles than anywhere else - I’m seeing 66 properties with “BOM” in the description there as of today. I’m only seeing 3 “BOM” properties in the Puget Sound area.

Photo by wfeiden

I’m proud to announce that as of today we are adding homes and condos for sale from another MLS: Estately has just grown by an additional 10,000+ homes and condos.

We cover every single major metropolitan area on the West Coast - and a lot of smaller areas in between.

But after a short stay in California, it is apparently Los Angeles that inspires us. With today’s release we are embracing the retired, the golf lovers, and the conservative-yet-wind-turbine-loving desert. We’re adding 1,296 homes and condos for sale in Palm Springs, 649 homes and condos for sale in Cathedral City, 912 homes and condos for sale in Palm Desert, and 1,020 homes and condos for sale in Indio.

Some of the listings are a little less expensive than we’re accustomed to. But it isn’t prices, foreclosures, or the desert that is truly different. It’s the golf.

In case you don’t believe that Palm Springs is all about leisure, here is your mind blowing statistic for the day:

Over one quarter of the 7,889 properties listed for sale in the greater Palm Springs area mention golf in one way or another.

Compare Portland to San Francisco to the south or Olympia to the north.

What is the address?

Virtually every property outside of Oregon on Estately has addresses (879 35th Ave San Francisco, CA) whereas Portland listings don’t (#8096660 Laurelhurst, Portland, OR). What the heck is #8096660? It’s the only unique identifier we are permitted to show: the MLS number.

When we started Estately, we went to the MLS because we couldn’t imagine creating a site that was missing homes for sale or a site with incomplete information about homes for sale.

We think we’ve nailed it in every market we’re in - we have way more photos and up-to-date information than any non MLS site (although we realize we are still imperfect at times). But having listings in Oregon with no addresses really annoys us - it means that non-MLS sites are sometimes more useful, at least when they have the listing on their site.

MLSes Are Opening Up

When we launched, we were also told by competitors that the MLS had so many constricting rules that it was insane to use it as the underpinnings for a real estate search site. They also predicted that they would quickly march to victory over the MLS (and would be greeted as liberators by consumers). But as we expand, we’re seeing MLSes slowly open up - freeing the data from the inside.

Some MLS rules are still mind-numbingly stupid, but the MLSes are staying relevant by adapting and opening up. More information is good for consumers, being the definitive source for homes for sale is good for Estately and every other brokerage in Oregon that has a listings search site.

Trick-or-Treat?

I’m glad to announce that we have just learned that the RMLS technology board has voted to lift the ban on showing addresses. On Halloween night, we will roll out addresses on over 34,000 Western Oregon homes and condos!

It’s a moving map. Watch air traffic in America come alive like an ant hill just before sunrise - it’s astounding.

Ever seen an ant hill swarming? This is as close as I could find to the ones you find in the Cascade Mountains.

(via Kottke)