Today, we at Homethinking are proud to announce the launch of neighborhoods.homethinking.com. Here’s the full press release. I’d also like to take a second and introduce myself. My name is Alex Mather and I am joining Niki Scevak and his Homethinking.com team as the new Product Manager.

What Makes it Different (and Useful)

While other sites give statistics on each neighborhood (Redfin, Trulia, and Zillow are great at this.) This data is useful (especially concerning schools and market trends), but from afar it’s still tough to really understand the neighborhood.

Imagine if we just designed a new fruit, we can spout out all of the data on it: 53% sour, 20% sweet, pH level of 2.2, citric acid levels, size in centimeters, it’s color, etc. You’d know a lot about the fruit but you wouldn’t know what it would taste like, would you? Now, imagine if we said our new fruit is like a lemon but bigger and sweeter, you’d know a lot more. Heck, your mouth might even water. (Example inspired by Made to Stick.)

Learning a new city by comparing its neighborhoods to the neighborhoods of a city you know well will allow you to get a feel for a new city quickly and easily.

How We Compared Neighborhoods

From our website:

Neighborhoods scores are initially calculated using demographic data from the US Census and other public sources. Wide numbers of demographic factors, such as age, marital status, whether the household has kids or not and the frequency of arts and culture activities, among other variables, were compared. The scores are then refined over time by reviews from people just like you.

Obviously, data only tells part of the story. We think of data as a starting point and that user reviews will eventually be the primary way we compare neighborhoods.

Calling All Agents!

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 38% of movers (over 16 million) moved to a different county including 19% that moved to another state!

Are you a real estate agent with an intimate knowledge of more than one city? This is your chance to show off your expertise - for free! Here are all of the ways you can get exposure:

1. Free exposure when you compare neighborhoods.
2. Top reviewers in each city get free exposure on city pages.
3. Premier exposure for all pages in a specific cities by paying to be featured for specific zip codes.

We all know the CAR statistic that 69% of people hire the first agent the communicate with. If you’re interested in being noticed by some of the 16 million people moving counties each year, this is your chance!

There’s More to Come

We’re just getting started in our efforts to make relocating easy so stay tuned for more features. We look forward to your feedback.

Welcome to the Homethinking.com blog.

With this blog, we aim to have an open conversation with you, letting you know what we are up to and hopefully soliciting some great improvements that you’d like to see on the site. We’ll also throw in real estate related news and other tid-bits you might find interesting.

Sit back, relax and enjoy.

(New York, NY - December 6, 2005) - Homethinking.com today unveiled an online directory to help home owners choose an exceptional realtor to sell their house with. The free site helps home owners see what homes realtors have sold in the past, whether the advertised price differed from the final price and what prior customers said about the job they did.

“The housing boom has produced a flood of realtors from which home owners are increasingly challenged to choose from,” said Niki Scevak, Chief Executive Officer of Homethinking LLC. “By distilling massive amounts of data and drawing upon the collective wisdom of prior home sellers, we are able to help home owners make an intelligent decision as to who should sell their most valuable asset.”

Each year home owners in the US spend $70 billion on real estate broker fees. Furthermore, a realtor’s expertise determines whether a house is sold for a good price or a bad one.

Homethinking.com, in beta form, is currently monitoring real estate transactions and marketing data, as well as county records in California and will expand its data collection efforts nationwide in the coming months. Reviews by home owners are available on a nationwide basis now.

“In essence, Homethinking.com amplifies real estate word-of-mouth marketing, both good and bad, providing an objective resume of what the particular realtor has done in the past and what their customers have said about them,” Scevak continued. “For realtors, Homethinking.com provides highly qualified home sellers over a medium on which they are more likely to convert into a sale: the phone.”

ABOUT HOMETHINKING LLC

Homethinking LLC was founded in 2005 by people genuinely interested in helping consumers make better decisions and is backed by a group of entrepreneurs and angels in the technology and marketing industries. The company is based in New York City.

For more information go to http://www.homethinking.com/about.jsp

Contact:

Niki Scevak
Chief Executive Officer
646.723.2322