RISMEDIA, March 1, 2011—Onboard Informatics, a premier data and technology services provider to top-tier real estate, media and technology companies has partnered with First Team Real Estate (a Leading Real Estate Companies of the World member) to power the company’s Lifestyle Search. Lifestyle Search, an innovative home search tool that helps real estate brands create a unique and comprehensive search experience on their sites, allows consumers to find their “best place to live.”
The Lifestyle Search Engine, powered by Onboard Informatics, allows First Team website visitors to search for a home by parameters that are important to them—family friendly, quality of schools, proximity to arts and culture—before they fall in love with a home in an area where the taxes are too high, the schools aren’t great, or that doesn’t provide the amenities they need. “Typically, home buyers who want to start their searches without involving an agent have had to rely on sources such as Chambers of Commerce and social networks for information on where to look for their ideal home,” said CEO/Owner, Cameron Merage, at First Team. “The Lifestyle Search gives them access to this information much more easily and thoroughly. Everything from quality of schools to pet friendliness to local culture and vibe is covered in this great new feature.”
The Lifestyle Search Engine combines millions of data points with battle-tested analytics to determine the places that best match the user’s input. Using a sliding scale, consumers rank the importance of the criteria—whether the area is family friendly; fun, hip and trendy; its convenience for commuting and traffic; whether it is dense-urban, light-urban or suburban; the proximity of golf courses; quality of schools; nearness of cultural arts and theater; public transportation; quality of shopping; and pet-friendliness. The engine finds the best matching places and ranks the results, providing the consumer with a targeted list of places that fits their criteria.
“The sliders are especially helpful because you can adjust the priorities and see how it changes the recommended neighborhoods,” said Merage. “You can become comfortable with a variety of locales, knowing they all have what you want in terms of nearby parks, family friendliness, or other factors which are as important to you with regard to your lifestyle. From there, you can search with confidence for homes based on price range and the number of bedrooms and baths.”
“With 90% of home buyers using the Internet to search for homes, streamlining the online home search process and meeting the evolving needs of home buyers are crucial first steps in engaging with a visitor, and First Team Real Estate understands this importance,” stated Marc Siden, CEO, Onboard Informatics. “We appreciate working with companies that realize the value of offering Lifestyle Search on their sites, and certainly First Team Real Estate is one of those companies.”
For more information, visit www.onboardinformatics.com.
