In the last couple of years, it seems as though a plethora of real estate startups have been launched. While not all of those startups have made it to the big time, many of them have, while others have made the move into beta and are hoping to capture the attention of the industry. Among those is Revaluate, which is hoping to leverage the interest of prospective home buyers in gaining access to data that may not be available through the traditional Multiple Listing Service for homes they may be considering buying.
In the past, prospective buyers have had relatively little recourse when it came to obtaining deeper insight into properties they were considering. Beyond scoping out the neighborhood on their own or interviewing the neighbors to determine what they could expect, there was relatively little buyers could do to find out more about a prospective neighborhood or home.

How Revaluate Works

Comparing their service to that of a CarFax background check, Revaluate delves deeper than MLS listings to provide a wealth of data to prospective buyers. Among the data provided includes information regarding quality of life, safety, expenses, and environment. Revaluate culls data from thousands of private and public sources and then generates an overall score similar to that of Walkscore. The resulting Livability score makes it easier for buyers to compare properties and find the property that best suits their individual needs.

Revaluate also reveals information about potentially hidden issues and problems that typically is not available in the traditional MLS. Such information might include safety violations, litigation records, tax problems, pest reports, or noise complaints.

One of the biggest surprises that a homeowner might encounter after buying a property are surprise expenses. This is precisely the type of information revealed by Revaluate, which allows prospective buyers to see whether they should expect high utility bills or whether they could benefit from energy savings thanks to the installation of solar panels in a subject property.

Recognizing that no two buyers are the same and may have different preferences in their search for the right property, Revaluate offers a Comparison View feature. This feature allows users to compare properties that interest them in order to find the home that suits their specific lifestyle.

While this type of data can be somewhat boring on the surface, Revaluate has taken that into consideration and included a feature that allows prospective buyers to learn which celebrities may live within close proximity to properties included in their search.

Buyers and homeowners can also elect to receive property alerts to be notified whenever there is new information related to their neighborhood or home. With this type of service, homeowners can be sure that even after they have purchased their home, they will receive the most up-to-date information about their neighborhood and know immediately if there is a potential problem.

Currently, the service is in beta mode in Manhattan, but the service could be soon expanding to other areas.