John L. Scott Real Estate Launches "Neighborhood Wizard"

June 7, 2007; 04:06 AM

Pacific Northwest-based John L. Scott Real Estate has announced the launch of a new, highly interactive way for consumers to search for homes for sale in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Powered by Microsoft’s polygon drawing tool technology, visitors to www.JohnLScott.com are now able to draw their search parameters onto a selected map using the “Neighborhood Wizard^sm”.

The first residential real estate company in the nation to utilize this technology from Microsoft, John L. Scott’s Neighborhood Wizard provides a highly granular search capability that empowers consumers to literally draw an outline of the area in which they want to look for homes. Buyers can use it to narrow their search for homes for sale; sellers can use it to keep track of competing homes for sale in their neighborhood; and homeowners can use it to stay abreast of current home values. They can also save their customized search parameters and receive email notification when homes within that designated area come onto the market.

“The Neighborhood Wizard allows you to draw any shape you desire right on the map and you’ll only see homes for sale within those boundaries. It’s almost like using an etch-a-sketch to define your search area,” said John L. Scott chairman and CEO J. Lennox Scott. “You can be as picky as you like.”

John Chang, Vice President of Marketing and eBusiness for John L. Scott, added that the launch of Neighborhood Wizard is a natural progression for online real estate mapping. “Until now, consumers were forced to search for homes within artificial boundaries that were defined by the MLS or zip codes,” said Chang. “With Neighborhood Wizard, visitors to www.JohnLScott.com can draw their own boundaries right on the map and only search for homes within that area; it gets rid of everything else that is not relevant to a person’s home search.”

Chang added that Neighborhood Wizard is a natural compliment to existing technology on JohnLScott.com, including Microsoft’s Virtual Earth mapping with Bird’s Eye imagery(a). “Once the consumer draws their desired area on the map they have access to homes for sale within those boundaries, as well as 3-D bird’s eye imagery, and neighborhood info, such as schools, local restaurants, and recreational areas.”

The technology behind Neighborhood Wizard, which was developed by John L. Scott technology provider Real Tech, uses geocoding to identify only those homes for sale within the specific shape that the consumer draws. This process involves using geographic identifiers (longitude/latitude) that correspond with the desired shape. The geocoding then interpolates the position of those homes within the specified boundaries and makes them available for the user to view. Chang adds that Neighborhood Wizard uses Ajax technology, which means that the search results are instant and users are not required to hit a search button every time they choose to adjust their search parameters. “It’s another way that we’re making the overall online search experience simpler for consumers,” said Chang.

For more information about John L. Scott’s new Neighborhood Wizard, please visit www.NeighborhoodWizard.com or go directly to www.JohnLScott.com to start your home search.

About John L. Scott Real Estate:

John L. Scott Real Estate was founded in 1931 and is currently led by third-generation chairman and CEO J. Lennox Scott. With over 52,000 closed transactions last year, John L. Scott grossed more than 18 billion dollars in sales volume, making it the fourth most productive regional real estate company in the nation. John L. Scott has 143 offices and over 4,700 sales associates located throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The award-winning website, www.johnlscott.com, receives over one million user visits a month producing over nine million listing views.

(a) Visit http://local.live.com for a complete list of locations that offer Bird’s Eye imagery.