Climb Real Estate Group, the tech-powered Bay Area real estate residential brokerage, has launched a new alternative to map-based property search with the development of Climb Explore. In partnership with Pitch Interactive,Climb Explore has reinvented real estate search, not in a traditional map-based format, but by looking at search in a more graphic and visual manner. Climb Explore gets up-to-the-minute data directly from the same sources used by real estate agents and publishes homes using data visualization tools. This groundbreaking format is intended to serve a broad audience of buyers and sellers, professionals, and members of the general public interested in San Francisco and Bay Area real estate.
The new home search site features all available San Francisco-based properties including 89 different neighborhoods, all property classes including condominiums, TICs (Tenancy-in-Common), co-ops, 2-4 unit buildings, 5+ unit buildings, land, and commercial properties. Additional search criteria such as price, bedroom count, bathroom count, and parking will alter data in real time. Making the site real-time was paramount in the design of Climb Explore; when a user changes a search parameter, the search results instantly appear, providing the fast response time necessary for today’s consumers. Additionally, the level of interactivity of Climb Explore creates a more productive and richer experience.
“Our online visitors will now experience a more vibrant and seamless view of San Francisco real estate,” said Michelle Balog, Managing Sales Director for Climb Real Estate Group. “This valuable new tool represents a unique way for buyers and sellers in San Francisco to search for homes.”
The Climb Real Estate Group team, led by Technology Director Mark Choey, has been developing the new design over the past year, working with their internal staff and marketing to support the multifaceted mission of the company’s founding principle to reinvent residential real estate. Having created SFNewDevelopments.com, one of Climb’s flagship websites years before, Choey had been looking to take on real estate search for quite some time. However, he was looking to do something different. He says, “When looking at the state-of-the-art in real estate search websites, almost all sites start off with a big map of the area you are searching. Starting with a map to search real estate definitely has some benefits, but we also find this sort of user experience can be limiting. We wanted to approach the problem from a different angle.” After researching different opportunities, Choey was very impressed with the development team at Pitch Interactive, who are well known for creating interactive visualizations to illustrate complex data for technology clients. “I also really liked the fact that they had no experience in real estate. From that perspective, they brought in a crucial, unbiased viewpoint.”
“We wanted to take on the project because it was something new and challenging for us compared to the work we typically take on. Our first response when approached for this project was that we don’t do real estate. There are several real estate services that do a great job,” said Wesley Grubb of Pitch Interactive in a statement. “But after understanding Climb and the challenges of getting the best possible properties to clients, we wanted to take this on. Also, we really like the culture at Climb and felt that Climb fits well with our philosophy. Namely, the willingness to try something new and find a unique way to do something exploratory.”
With Climb Explore, consumers are offered a more engaging way to explore property through data visualization, which highlights target properties while giving access to other listings based within the same proximity of the search criteria. Grubb said, “The problem with current systems is that the search is limited and funneled. You get a limited list of properties based on what you search for. You rarely get to see the big picture or how related properties may look when you select multiple criteria.â This did not come easily. Through a complex algorithm, Pitch Interactive sought to provide enough information without overwhelming the user. Grubb said, âThe most challenging aspect for us was searching for an explorative way to represent the data without overwhelming the visitor and without showing too few data points. ”
The partnership is a result of Climb’s ongoing research and development efforts, many of which are focused on building new mobile and web-based experiences. The launch of the Climb Explore is an example of how Climb Real Estate Group plans to innovate the traditional real estate brokerage model — whether opening new office spaces in mobile Airstreams or developing essential digital properties — in new ways on both emerging and existing platforms.
“Climb Real Estate Group always strives to be on the leading edge of innovation — it is at the core of our company,” said Climbâs Marketing Director Chris Lim in announcing the successful release of Climb Explore. “We are working to engage home buyers everywhere in the Bay Area, now and in the future. Climb Explore encourages us to think about home search in a new way.” Climb Real Estate Group is a full-service general real estate brokerage with an emphasis on the purchase, sale, rental and marketing of select residential new developments, commercial and premier resale properties. They specialize in condos, high rises, lofts and homes in South Beach, SOMA, South Beach, Mission Bay, Rincon Hill, Potrero Hill and Central Waterfront. Our focus is on urban-style properties, specializing in new construction, historic loft conversions, live/work spaces, Victorian flats, modern condominiums, and stylish single-family homes. They also have exclusive access to off-market listings, foreclosures and developer specials. Wesley Grubbs is an artist, data visualizer and provocateur based in Berkeley, CA. In 2007 he founded Pitch Interactive, a studio whose focus is weaving code with design with statistics to find versatile solutions to communicate complex data for clients including Google, Wired, GE, Esquire, Scientific American, Popular Science and the
McKnight Foundation.
Built upon his experiences living abroad, degrees held in International Economics and Information Systems and his innate interest in the brain and cognition, Wes’ work focuses on revealing patterns about human behavior and how our actions impact our surroundings.
Pitch Interactive’s work spans illustrations, physical installations, console game user interfaces, software applications, websites and textiles. Their work has been showcased at the MoMA’s TalkToMe exhibit in in New York, the McKnight Foundation’s 30 year anniversary exhibit, the Foosaner Art Museum’s “The Art of Networks” exhibit, The Max Planck Science Express Train, the Data Flow books and many other internationally acclaimed publications.