By Lauren Baier Kim
Note: This is the sixth installment of "The Smart Surfer," a feature that reviews real-estate Web sites and tools available online for home buyers/sellers and investors.
Web site: At www.Terabitz.com, users can create, save and share custom "mashups" or Web pages containing data about a particular neighborhood in the U.S. The Web site, a Palo Alto, Calif., startup, launched last month and is geared to home buyers, sellers and those searching for a rental.
The Web site collects publicly available information such as census data, crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and government records. Additional data comes through partnerships with Google Base, some Multiple Listing Services and Craigslist.
In addition to real-estate information, Terabitz layers in data that would be of interest to those looking to purchase or rent a home in a particular neighborhood: such as area photos, demographics, and the locations and phone numbers of local stores, places of worship, banks and post offices.
Coolest functions: Individuals can drag and drop "Bitz" (or windows) of information on their pages -- including data and tools such as a home-value calculator, real-estate listings, recent home sales, crime statistics and area attractions like restaurants, cinemas and schools.
How it works: Visitors who log in can click on the "Take Snapshot" tab to save the pages ("dashboards") they create and share them with others through email or instant message. This month Terabitz plans to extend its offerings, adding features like for-sale-by-owner properties, new construction listings, and rental and foreclosure properties.
Pluses: Terabitz's real-estate listings come from a variety of sources, increasing the likelihood of fuller, more complete coverage. It's easy to drag and drop elements onto the dashboard. The site lets users integrate pertinent neighborhood and housing information in one place in an eye-pleasing format that can be easily revisited and shared with others. Terabitz offers a short step-by-step tutorial for newbies to the site.
Drawbacks: As with other real-estate sites of its kind, Terabitz's availability of information varies across ZIP Codes and geographical areas, with the West Coast covered more heavily than other parts of the U.S., so some users may be disappointed with its offerings. However, the site plans to ramp up its coverage through relationships with regional real-estate brokers and national listings aggregrators.
House hunters can narrow down the parameters for real-estate searches on the site (e.g., search within a particular price range), but the function (an edit button located under the city, state and ZIP search field) is small and hidden. Mousing over a listing or location on the dashboard highlights its pushpin on a Google map, but the change in the pushpin's appearance may be too subtle for some users to identify.
Insider tips: To pull up any snapshots you've saved on the Web site, log in and hit "My Snapshots" in the top right-hand corner of the Web page. Click on the "Map" tab on the top right of the dashboard to pull up a larger map. Click on a real-estate or place listing to find its location on the map.
-- Lauren Baier Kim is a senior editor at RealEstateJournal.com.
Email your comments to lauren.kim@wsj.com.
-- August 02, 2007