Thursday, September 18, 2014

New service will rank homes by ‘livability’ score

NEW YORK – Sept. 17, 2014 – Many resources help realty professionals find granular market and neighborhood data on properties. However, the current information doesn't always deliver the full story on a listing, according to Revaluate, a website that aims to help real estate agents convey what it's really like to live in a specific home. It's currently being beta tested in New York City.

The website hopes to find success by answering a basic question asked by home buyers: What would it be like to live here?

Revaluate mines data from private and public sources and creates "livability scores" for homes. According to co-founder Chris Drayer, Revaluate reports can "make the agent appear way more informed about the livability of these properties."

Revaluate currently offers free reports for Manhattan residential properties. It generates a livability scores based on four main criteria: safety, environment, expenses and quality of life. Each report shows the data Revaluate used to generate its rating.

Under environment data, for instance, there might be public records of vermin complaints cited. Quality of life issues, meanwhile, might include noise and other nuisance complaints.

Assigning an objective score to something like a home's appeal is subjective and does have limitations, however. Max Galka, also a co-founder of Revaluate, admits that the livability rating is "not meant to capture everything." Instead, each score is meant to serve as a guideline.


Source: Inman News (09/15/14) Wiggin, Teke

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