CoreLogic launches consumer search with OneHome

Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.

OneHome by CoreLogic is a consumer-facing home search portal.

Platforms: Browser, mobile-responsive
Ideal for: All agents, teams and brokerages

Top selling points:

• Lifestyle-driven search
• Transparent agent oversight of search activity
• Homebuying Planner resources
• Property Fit scoring
• Similar listing recommendations

Top concerns:

As an invite-only search experience from the agent, there will have to be significant sell to peel consumers off of the heavily advertised, name-brand portals.

What you should know

CoreLogic took a hard look at its agent-focused Matrix portal, didn’t love what it saw and renovated it from the studs up to create OneHome. Then it handed over all that housing data to consumers.

For the most part, what they built is quite nice. OneHome users will find an engaging user experience with versatile search functionality, a plethora of property scrolling options (card view or half-page carousel), and an easy-to-toggle-on-or-off map view to clear up screen space.

Shoppers can browse their market by something as simple as an address or ZIP code, or by home style. I like its keyword search, and I hope they move this feature up front.

Because of CoreLogic’s databanks, users have access to deep trove of property descriptions, where they’ll find countless home features and highlights for searching — the stuff that really sell people on a home.

I’ve always found home search to be more subjective than objective, meaning: “I want this, and I’ll worry about budget later.” This explains why so many buyers continue to move that affordability meter, and why it takes them so damn long to decide on a home.

OneHome helps agents understand their buyers’ preferences with “Favorite/Not For Me” functionality. Each click on either helps tighten the search. Further assisting in that endeavor is the Property Fit survey, an in-system Q&A on what’s important in a home. It’s helps engage the two parties in honest context about features and amenity importance.

Those answers contribute to the Fit Score, a running point total for every listing viewed from that point on. Buyers can also search by fit score, and new listings that score high are immediately delivered to the buyer.

I dig it. It helps put an objective metric on that ever-wavering opinion of what matters to buyers.

Along the way, the agent’s dashboard is keeping track of buyer activity, offering a two-way mirror experience. But what I think stands out here is the Planner module.

In the Keller Williams consumer app, they call them guides, and I’ll argue that its location-centric customization gives it a leg up. Nevertheless, buyers need more direction than a first-time subway rider, so these kind of buying-process resources are important.

Also, home search from the agent’s perspective is ultimately a lead-nurture process because a signed buyer agreement in no way equates to a commission. Thus, the more ways the agent can monitor and respond to activity, the better.

The Planner provides information for each stage of the buying process. Not merely static articles, each step is tightly wound into OneHome’s functionality, overlapping education with features. This results in a sharp way to keep them engaged and hopefully, a few taps away from the Zillow icon on their phone screen.

The Marketplace is where buyers can search for mortgage, insurance and home services professionals — an extension of OneHome’s intent on streamlining homebuying. I find this to be a superfluous add-on.

There’s a mortgage information workflow, but most buyers should be ahead of that curve before the agent sends them the private invitation, or they’ll need to get their mortgage partner on board. Plus, a number of brokerages are implementing transaction management systems that will need to be engaged at this point, or much earlier, in the sales cycle, so where are the integrations?

It doesn’t take away from the system’s better parts, but comes across as an afterthought or the makings of a HomeAdvisor-like database, a market resource that was flooded shortly after Angie’s List launched.

Thankfully, the Neighborhood Insights tool is another nice touch, giving consumers background on area walk scores, price trends, regional public data and the like. It’s not particularly innovative, but it’s certainly related to home search.

OneHome was launched in beta in Ohio’s Yes-MLS, and will be soon pushed out to other markets CoreLogic covers.

Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe

Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.