We'll be back on Wednesday when we've had our fill of eggnog...
INCENTIVE WIRE— Urban Pace has announced two end-of-year price perks. For CoHi's Old Bacon Street Condos they're offering a $10,000 closing cost credit and for Mt Pleasant's The Schafer they're offering a $15,000 holiday bonus. [CurbedInbox; previously; previously]
ONLINE—Redfin announced a new way to feed a real estate addiction with Collections—their pinboard feature that lets people save and group home listings. See the press release which explains how it works. [CurbedInbox]
Redfin Gets Creative with Launch of Redfin Collections—A New Way to Admire, Organize and Share Photos of Homes for Sale
SEATTLE—December 19, 2012—Redfin, the technology-powered real estate broker, today introduced Redfin Collections, a new social feature in which users browse, collect and share sets of listing photos. The Collections feature, currently in beta, is about the aesthetic, emotional and creative side of real estate, giving Redfin users a new way to express themselves, as well as be inspired by others. People can create Collections on any topic, such as "Gorgeous Views," "Luscious Gardens," "Cool Pools," "Killer Kitchens," or "Homes to Tour."
"After years of building the nerdiest real estate site on the web, Redfin got all gushy about pretty houses," said Glenn Kelman, Redfin CEO. "Along the way, we discovered how much fun it is to compare pictures of oceanic pools, bizarre bathrooms, palatial tree-houses and overstuffed libraries. As website creators and as real estate agents, the conversations we want with our customers aren't just about the price-per-square-foot but also about the lusted-after and the wacky, the homes like this but not like that, and the design ideas we want to steal."
Each photo of a home in a Collection links to the home's listing details page on Redfin, making it easy to get additional details about the home, add it to Favorites, view it on Google Maps, or even request a tour. All Collections are viewable by Redfin users, and easily sharable via email, Facebook and Twitter.
"Our customers told us that they wanted to be able to share their home search with their friends," said Bridget Frey, Redfin vice president of engineering. "We took inspiration from many amazing photo sharing websites, and then layered in a tremendous amount of real estate information to create the first social photo-sharing site that is built from the ground up for home buyers, home sellers, and all of the people who help them."
Hundreds of Collections have already been created as part of the beta program, and they range from practical, to fun and wacky, to simply gorgeous. Some favorites include:
Lucky Kids
Ultimate Entertaining Rooms
Sun Drenched Homes
Modern Mansions
White Sofa Designs
Panda Pandemonium
Pretty Pretty Ponies
What does it mean?!?
Lonely Pianos
Get Your Read On
Kitchen Inspirations
Awesome Pools
Gorgeous Outdoor Living Spaces
To create a Collection, users select a photo on Redfin.com, click the Collections icon in the upper right-hand corner, and name the Collection. Users can "follow" individual Collections, and be notified by email whenever a new photo of a gorgeous kitchen or a cute kids' room is added. To search and browse all Collections, as well as find Collections to follow, visit www.redfin.com/collections.