I spent some time looking at TruePad, a real estate portal only available in Chicago (Inman coverage here).

“Find the best valued homes”.

I like it. Unlike the majority of approaches I see (aka search for home in city X), that actually seems like a differentiated value proposition buyers will care about.

I’ve long been a fan of using agent data in portals; the challenge is incentives. How do you incentivize agents to provide the data? Additional exposure, leads, or forced data collection/insights via a Redfin-like brokerage model. I like the fact Truepad’s team is perfecting the model in one market first.

Chicago only? I’ll wager a pretty penny this model will be copied into other markets at a rapid rate.

I’m still long on the agent estimates / public CMA opportunity.