Online property search has improved considerably over the years, but the team at Onboard Informatics feels we still have much room for improvement. More specifically, rather than limiting online searchers to traditional criteria (such as price, number of beds/baths, and square footage), we should also be helping them with something just as important: helping evaluate where they want to live. It's a valid point; after all, how many times have you seen a buyer compromise on price in order to live in their desired neighborhood? You can add value by holding their hand as they discover this desired neighborhood, and then transition them easily to looking at specific listings in the area with your traditional property search.

Neighborhood Navigator from Onboard Informatics is a plug-and-play tool for real estate brokers who want to offer prospective buyers an improved online property search experience on their consumer-facing website. The functionality is focused on providing data about a specific neighborhood and offering comparisons to other areas. The upside for brokers is increased time on site, repeat visits, and cementing that "neighborhood expert" role. The benefits for consumers are numerous, as you can see from our walk-through of the product.

Try It Yourself

Onboard Informatics has made it really easy for you to experiment with this product. You can try it for yourself here. We suggest this as more than just a way to get a hands-on experience with the tool. It's also important to look at a countywide snapshot of your area and assess the neighborhood data available. While Onboard Informatics remains at the very top of the data "game" in real estate, it's a Herculean task to look both nationally and locally and achieve 100% accuracy on the fine nuances of both.

You can also check out a few of the sites that currently use Neighborhood Navigator to see the different implementation options: Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate (you'll need to enter a city or a zip code), Mel Foster Co. Real Estate (see the "Neighborhood" tab on this property details page), and Lyon Real Estate. We'll talk more about implementation a little later on.