Zoocasa Takes on MLS.ca Dominance
Maybe it’s the dominant position that MLS.ca (recently rebranded as Realtor.ca) occupies in the market, but real estate search north of the border seems to have been stuck revving in neutral for a while.
Zoocasa is a new free Canadian real estate search engine that aims to kick it in to gear. Zoocasa covers the Canadian market from coast to coast and marries real estate search with research tools, like neighborhood guides and listing comparisons that are aimed at home buyers.
The site does a few things really well. The search queries are fast and results are returned quickly. The site’s pale blue, Web 2.0 palette is a little predictable but not obnoxious.
Individual listing pages map the home with the obligatory Google map and the expected property details (only one photo however!). A unique touch is their Commute Cost Calculator, where you can punch in the address of your work, the fuel consumption of your vehicle and average cost per litre of gas and Zoocasa will return an estimated average fuel bill for your commute.
US search site Estately recently introduced the ability for people to search for homes along transit lines (see Estately Comes to Portland) and we see services like Walkscore that calculate the walkability of particular neighborhoods (see Measuring Walkability with Walk Score). It seems, for a certain segment of the population, these sorts of environmental factors are weighing in on the decision making process.
On a similar note, I wonder if at some point we’ll see Energy costs alongside Property Taxes in the listing details. And how long it will be till we see search sites that allow us to filter out McMansions from our real estate searches (see Are McMansions Making Some Americans Unhappy?)
The only problem with Zoocasa is that its database of homes is pretty slim, probably since it has been cobbled together by indexing brokers sites.
For example, a search in Vancouver, BC:
- REALTOR.ca (MLS driven) pulls up around 5500 homes for sale
- Zoocasa pulls up only 2481 for sale.
Also unclear is the site’s business goals. Other than display advertising there doesn’t seem to be a clear revenue model, though I suspect if the site builds enough traffic amongst Canadian consumers, we’ll eventually see the same sponsored listings and zip code sponsorships its US counterparts display.
Despite it’s glossy Web 2.0 shine and its solid performance - Zoocasa is going to have a hard time knocking MLS.ca off its perch. That said, if it can jump start a better search experience for Canadian consumers (Century21.ca is about the only other decent search experience I’ve found) then the race may be on.
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9 Comment(s)
3 Trackback(s)
- From Without more listings, Joel is pretty su … | The Hotlist | Sep 12, 2008
- From Zoocasa Takes on MLS.ca Dominance « Openr Blog | Sep 13, 2008
- From Real Estate Marketing Rundown | Sep 16, 2008
Will | Sep 12, 2008 | Reply
Being that it is new (this is the first time I've heard about it and I am a Vancouver agent) I will give them the benefit of the doubt… but so far it's no Realtor.ca. It's not even as good as the VOW IDX system I have on my site.
What's wrong?
- limited selection of properties
- no broker information on the page (which I believe contradicts rules)
- an extra click to get to the broker page and it is not clear about contacting the listing realtor
So what is this site? Maybe just a research portal with some perks to try to offset the limitations? I don't know.
Johnny | Sep 12, 2008 | Reply
After a bit of research it looks like the majority of Zoocasa listings are coming from crawling idx sites and realtor.com which i am pretty sure is not allowed. On top of that they do not display the listing brokerage and are compiling the data which again is against the rules.
Unless Rogers plan is to get into a legal fight, it seems to me that they just decided to make a fancy site without thinking through their business strategy. I would not be surprised if CREA cracks down on Zoocasa very soon.
julie | Sep 13, 2008 | Reply
Thank you for a great comparison! I love that your blog is literally watching all of the portals all over the world - even those in my backyard!!
We looked at Zoocasa a few weeks ago and it does have some positive features that someone searching for a house would like. It’s simplicity is nice, the “smart search” feature is a plus (for example, you can search “Little Italy”, Toronto, ON), and the map is great.
But, unless it is going to bring all of the listings together (FSBO and the MLS listings) I can’t see it taking over… at the end of the day I don’t really want ANOTHER site to search for houses for sale on. I use Realtor.ca and check some FSBO websites… One stop shopping would make me happy and this site doesn’t do it and Johnny is right - if it’s screen scraping taking place (And it’s not the first time) then it’s not going to be long before CREA steps in.
Thanks for always keeping me in the loop on the latest real estate portals. Good blog!
Brian | Sep 16, 2008 | Reply
I heard someone say that they are pulling their listings from Point2 NLS.
Not sure if this is true or not.
Hawaii Broker | Sep 16, 2008 | Reply
Without the maximum number of listings, users will gravitate toward something else. Real estate portals have basically been commoditized. Listings presented on a different skin. Nothing too innovative. But good luck!
DennisSC | Sep 18, 2008 | Reply
I wonder how many portals like this have been in “product development” for the last few years, and for how long.
Hawaii real estate guy | Sep 18, 2008 | Reply
I actually thought the functionality of this site was pretty good.
Hawaii Relocation | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
Nice look and speed, but just another real estate portal.
Erik Peterson | Oct 2, 2008 | Reply
Looks decent. If only someone would do something about the MLS dominance in this country…