Northern California luxury homes specialist Alain Pinel Realtors has launched an online open-house search tool and other features at open.apr.com, including a route-planner tool, integration with Google Maps and Street View, and interactive real estate statistical charts.
The site counted 6,055 open-house listings as of this morning — the list is generated based on multiple listing service information pulled from four Northern California MLSs: BAREIS (Bay Area Real Estate Information Systems), SFAR (San Francisco Association of Realtors), MLSListings and EBRDI (East Bay Regional Data Inc.).
And that number has been growing quickly — up from 3,813 open-house listings on April 21 — perhaps inflated by the homebuyer tax credit contract deadline today. Consumers can also choose to view a full range of for-sale properties listed in the MLS, whether or not they have scheduled open houses.
Data on the site is updated hourly, said Stephen Skinner, vice president of technology for Alain Pinel Realtors, which has a corporate office in Saratoga, Calif.
There are no registration requirements to use most of the site’s features. A map-search tool allows consumers to customize their property search by map view, with for-sale properties popping up as icons on the map view.
Users can choose to share properties they like at social media sites, save favorites, and to create and customize a route that provides driving directions to multiple properties. Users can register to receive open-house alerts via e-mail.
The site also features community descriptions and detailed community-level reports on real estate market conditions, with data and interactive charts provided by Altos Research LLC, and school data provided by GreatSchools.org.
The company announced the launch of the open-house site and other new tools in March.
There are a range of other sites that display open houses, too. National property search site Realtor.com displays open house events in property searches, for example. And FrontDoor.com, a part of Scripps Networks LLC, operates a national open-house directory site at OpenHouse.com. It acquired that site last year from national real estate brokerage and franchise company Realogy Corp.
HomesOpenToday.com is a consumer-facing online open-house tool that serves a handful of Realtor associations in California.
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