
Show HN: Find a home close to work - rgbrgb
https://www.openlistings.co/near
======
rgbrgb
Hey HN, I'm a founder at Open Listings and did a lot of the engineering of
this project. We got a lot of inquiries from tech workers who really cared
about their commute times, so we used Googles Distance Matrix API [0] to sort
listings by commute time.

I'll be on here with my cofounders today to answer any questions you might
have.

[0]:
[https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancemat...](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancematrix/intro)

~~~
jboggan
I clicked on my last company (Factual in LA) and the first listing was for a
$18M penthouse. It also said that the buyer would get a $225k+ refund from
Open Listings for buying through them - how does that work?

But seriously, it is a very neat tool, thanks for making it.

~~~
jschoenholtz
Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse...

When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in
the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent
and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half
of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your
closing costs.

Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun slider:
[https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission-
refund](https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission-refund)

~~~
ehhuang
I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they
are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious
about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot
markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?

~~~
danieltillett
As an Australian I have always been amazed with that in the USA you have to
use a buyers agent. Here you visit the properties yourself and deal directly
with the selling agent. Only the buyer pays the agent.

We do have very high stamp duty (basically a sales tax on real estate) which
is 5% of the property price which the buyer has to pay.

~~~
Schwolop
I think you mean that only the _seller_ pays the agent. But yes, I agree the
American system is a bit odd. For one thing the listings are WAAAAYYY old by
Australian standards - here you list your house with an auction or "sale by"
date usually six weeks in the future, and ... it sells (usually). It looks to
me like the American system has longer listings because there are fewer open-
house inspections - your buyers agent arranges a time to inspect on your
behalf, or something like that?

~~~
danieltillett
Yes you are right - the buyer pays the agent.

At the moment is Sydney properties are selling off market which means 0 day
sales. The time it takes in the USA seems amazing long.

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coldcode
The site is very nice, but how does anyone afford houses that expensive in
those areas?

I live in Texas and my nice modern 2000 SF house is only $190.

~~~
rgbrgb
It's tough! As a company we're trying to make it cheaper by refunding half of
our commission back to the buyer [0]. If you're doing an FHA loan, that can be
almost 50% of the down payment. We can also help with the purchase of low
income housing if you qualify [1]. We're actually thinking about building some
tools to make this inventory more accessible. You might also try checking out
our cheekily named list of fixer-uppers, Shitty Listings [2]. As you'll
notice, a "fixer-upper" near the California coast can still be pretty pricy
but I think there's just a fundamental supply constraint. Incidentally, that's
most likely why real estate has been a lasting and valuable asset class.

[0]: [https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission-
refund](https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission-refund) [1]: [http://sf-
moh.org/index.aspx?page=262](http://sf-moh.org/index.aspx?page=262) [2]:
[http://www.shittylistings.com/](http://www.shittylistings.com/)

~~~
optimusclimb
FYI, your links in the footer on shittylistings.com point to localhost:3000 :P

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justizin
Curious where this number comes from:

> It’s sad. The typical car LA or SF commuter spends more than 60 hours each
> year stuck in traffic.

It seems low, it would be an estimate of just over one hour per week, which
would be like 10 minutes each morning and evening.

~~~
smt88
The average commute in the US is something like 23 min, so the average commute
in LA or SF should theoretically be a bit higher. I agree that 10 min seems
incredibly low.

~~~
rgbrgb
Good catch, I'll fact check that number.

~~~
justizin
It should be closer to 2h per day off the cuff, I'm sure you can find better
sources than my memory.

At that rate, though, you save something closer to a hundred hours a year, or
more than two work weeks.

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gricardo99
There's another solution to this problem: remote work. It's 2015, and with the
plethora of Internet technologies that facilitate online collaboration I'm
still dismayed to see so many tech companies behaving like it's 1985. The
insistence and focus on physical location baffles me. Some companies seem to
get it and have embraced an online/distributed workforce but many seem opposed
to that model. I'd really like to hear others thoughts on why geography is
still such a huge factor in knowledge-based industries.

~~~
d_luaz
I guess remote work is an option, but not quite a total solution at the
moment. 1) not all work could be remote 2) self-discipline/communication is
tough

Woofoo (about 7 people) did remote, but the founder admit it's tough and
challenging even for such a small and motivated company (imagine your
workforce > 1000 people), though there are some obvious benefits.

It's not just about tools (slack, skype, etc.) and finding a procedure that
works, but more about company culture, motivation, discipline, adaptation to
remote environment, family at home, etc. Not every employee could survive a
remote environment and continue to be productive :(

Before everyone could work from home, maybe the idea of multiple office
location/work-space (rather than centralized) could be explored, yet it will
have many pros and cons.

------
unicornporn
What about reverse search? I want to find a work close to home. :)

~~~
dreamdu5t
Same here. I don't want to move closer to work as the entire reason I don't
live closer is cost.

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nicolewhite
The rent explosion article[0] seems relevant. No 1 bedroom apartments for less
than $3000 near my San Mateo office.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10050545](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10050545)

~~~
rconti
Odd. Just last year I was renting a 2/1 house in Belmont for $2k, until we
bought a house. My buddy's renting a 2/1 in San Mateo for $3k. How close is
"close"? I'd expect 1bd apartments to be cheaper than entire houses.

~~~
nicolewhite
Whatever the default was, I believe it was looking for stuff within a 20
minute drive. I'm currently in a studio in San Mateo for $2.3k, but that's
only because I stayed in the same unit I was in last year, so they only raised
rent by 10%. If I were a new resident, my studio is around $2.7k.

------
thoman23
Finally, a website where I can find homes for sale.

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stephengillie
Very interesting. The site looks clean and it's fast.

Where do you get your data? I used to work for one of the industry dinosaurs;
our only competitive advantage was that we had agreements with most of the 674
MLSes to rehost their data for our clients, which were RE Agent companies.
Zillow is still using Trulia as a pipe to funnel that MLS data from my former
employer.

Is that one of the reasons for piloting in CA - fewer MLSes to partner with?

~~~
rgbrgb
As a California RE brokerage we join each MLS and get a direct feed from their
RETS api. It's a dramatically better data feed than any of the aggregators
offer and we get listings the minute they come on market (well our polling
interval is more like 5 minutes). So far we have 100% coverage in San
Francisco, Oakland/East Bay, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles. We've just
joined the San Diego MLS and will have data there soon. And yes, our strategy
is to go deep on California, prioritizing data quality over sheer number of
listings.

~~~
encoderer
You should check out [https://rets.ly/](https://rets.ly/)

~~~
rgbrgb
Been on their beta list for almost a year. They've since been acquired by
zillow so we're not holding our breath.

~~~
encoderer
My understanding is that they are working hard to build APIs that will let
Retsly power the _next_ zillow, and that there's support for that internally.
Time will tell!

~~~
rgbrgb
Cool, if that's the case I hope the API is available soon. In the meantime our
internal implementation makes use of this great open source library from
estately: [https://github.com/estately/rets](https://github.com/estately/rets)

------
swimfar
For people looking for an apartment, padmapper[1] has a similar option where
you can give it an address and it will draw a polygonal boundary around it
showing the limits for an x-minute commuting distance for walking, cycling, or
driving. I imagine the car commute could be inaccurate if there's bad rush
hour traffic in that area, but the others should be relatively consistent.

I'm not affiliated with the site at all, I just thought it's a really cool
feature.

[1]: [http://www.padmapper.com](http://www.padmapper.com)

You need to click on "More Filters", then "Super-Secret Advanced Features"

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yellowapple
Where does this site get its real estate and/or distance/time data? I ended up
doing an address search for my employer (which isn't on the list), but got a
"No properties were found within 20 minutes of this location." despite Zillow
showing dozens of red dots within 20 minutes _walking_ distance from where I
work.

~~~
rgbrgb
We get our data directly from regional MLS systems in the SF Bay Area and Los
Angeles but we're actively expanding (San Diego is next).

If you email the address you're looking for to peter@openlistings.co, I'll try
to prioritize your area.

~~~
yellowapple
No need, my query is quiet a ways out of any of those cities (Reno/Tahoe), but
thanks anyway. Good to know.

------
minimaxir
What's different now than at your launch
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9113240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9113240))?

~~~
rgbrgb
Good question. We've done a bunch of transactions, learned more about our
customers and built this purpose specific site for our biggest segment (tech
workers looking to live closer to the office).

------
jkmcf
Interesting. One of my short term plans is to display hiking trailheads near
homes for sale. Not sure if anything like that exists (also haven't looked...)

~~~
rgbrgb
That's an awesome idea, pretty sure that doesn't exist. Definitely drop me a
link if you end up building it! My brother in law keeps asking me for a
Twitter feed of land near good surf spots. I gave him a bunch of mansions he
can't afford :) [0].

[0]: [https://twitter.com/openmansions](https://twitter.com/openmansions)

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blizkreeg
Doesn't this assume you'll continue working with the same company for a long
time? If you work at a company in SF now but 4 years later want to work at
place down on MV, or vice-versa, not sure how this helps.

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noLocalStorage
Another website that does not works without sessionStorage enabled.

~~~
rgbrgb
Will fix.

