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The guessing game for real estate addicts is finally here.
Housle — based on the massively popular word-guessing game Wordle wherein players try to guess the correct word in six guesses or less — allows users to guess the price of a house. Over 46,000 users have already played the game, according to a news report.
The game was launched by television producer Doug Weitzbuch, who co-executive produced the 2022 real estate Netflix series Buy My House where homeowners pitch their properties to real estate investors Shark Tank-style. Weitzbuch told Insider his inspiration to make the game came while working on the show and being immersed in the world of real estate, while also playing Wordle every day.
One day I just came up with the idea to marry the two,” he told the outlet.
Weitzbuch selects a new listing every day from areas across the United States. Players win if they guess within 5 percent of the correct asking price. For each wrong guess wagered, new factors about the house are revealed, such as its location, square footage and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. The house picked on Jan. 17 featured a four-bedroom, new-build home in Springfield, Missouri, with four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.
Weitzbuch worked to design the game with Jersey City design firm Rapptr Labs for five months in 2022. The web browser version of the game went live this week and an app is scheduled to launch next week.
The game is a new frontier in the growing category of online real estate content that feeds into Americans’ fascination with real estate listings as a form of entertainment. While real estate has been popular fodder for reality television for much of the past 20 years, newer social media pages, such as Zillow Gone Wild and Zillowtastrophes bank on a younger generation’s thirst for real estate content.
Weitzbuch, who is married to a Compass agent, told Insider he believes real estate listings make for such good content because it taps into people’s fantasies.
“I think there’s a voyeuristic and escapist element,” he said. “There’s a dream behind a home.”
