Mapnificent should be acquired, Trulia would be the best fit

Mapnificent technology

Real estate search is evolving at a rapid pace and consumers are beginning to flock to sites that offer layers of information beyond MLS data. We introduced you to SpatialMatch in April of 2010, a layer to IDX feeds that incredibly reveals search as based on nearby businesses so that consumers that obsess over living near their yoga studio, coffee house and the ability to walk to work can track all three and see what living options are in the space where they converge.

Today, we would like to introduce you to Mapnificent which currently exists independent of real estate search. The goal of Mapnificent is to search featured cities for how a living option correlates with travel times using only public transportation. In a visually interesting way, Mapnificent uses sliders and map markers to visually demonstrate (as shown above and just below):

Consumers are not only looking for the utility of public transportation as needs change and households shed cars, but from a philanthropic standpoint, many people are choosing to make decisions based on environmental impact and choosing to get rid of cars and live in areas both urban and suburban that offer public transportation. This is having an impact on real estate choices, thus Realtors’ practice methods.

The next acquisition

Trulia acquired the talent behind Movity last year and has since launched crime heat maps and even price reduction heat maps, both in line with the visual design and goal of Mapnificent.

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It would make the most sense for Trulia to be the company to snatch up Mapnificent, but if Zillow, HotPads (also known for heat maps), Homes.com or Realtor.com beat them to the punch, the horse race could change a little bit as currently, Trulia holds the heat map title given their Movity acquisition. It is a major aesthetic and useful layer to real estate search that will inevitably be on all real estate search but for now, they lead.

Mapnificent could end up remaining independent or be acquired by a totally unrelated industry, but we suspect that the major real estate search that aren’t already in touch with Mapnificent will be shortly and we will watch closely to see if the tool is acquired and folded into real estate search as a search parameter in heat map form.