Another RE Tech start-up has moved from stealth to beta recently. Revaluate is hedging a bet that prospective home buyers are hungry for data that exists outside standard MLS descriptions on the homes they are considering. From the about page at Revaluate.Com.

“Most real estate sites will tell you the stuff about a home you already know. But what don’t they tell you? What are the sounds, smells and sights? The construction projects, violations and nagging problems?

Meet REVALUATE.”

Revaluate makes the comparison of their service to a CarFax background check. The data provided on properties is made based on a comparison of environment, safety, quality of life and expenses. The data is culled from over 2,000 public and private sources that generate an overall score, akin to Walkscore. The data is subjective and doesn’t factor user submitted, unverified content that can be easily gamed to impact the score.

Data can be boring. Revaluate has baked in a feature that lets you know which celebrities live near the properties in your search. Back when I was working with the editorial team at Zillow, the weekly content calls put a lot emphasis and focus on the featured celebrity properties. It was a major source of traffic and while the users may not have been hot prospects, it was a genius long tail play that paid off big time.

I would imagine that agents will view this kind of transparency as a double edged sword. It will be interesting to see how it perceived and utilized within the industry. Revaluate has an advisory team comprised of 3 people from the world of RE Tech that I know and highly respect. Dan Green, Mike Simonsen and Gahlord DeWald. That’s the kind of brain power any RE Tech start-up should envy.