This post is really notes for me to make a competing real estate site that kicks the shit out of all the real estate sites that exist currently. There are certain things I'm looking for when I'm looking to buy or rent a property.
What I want is a property within a certain area. I want to select that area on a map (with shapes, like circles) as opposed to selecting from a list of suburbs. Hell, even a single point with a "within 100km of" would've been great, but no site I've found does this.
I also want a weighted set of POIs (points of interest), such as work, restaraunts, railway stations, etc. These would preferably be dynamic (such as railway stations, because I need to be near one, but it doesn't really matter which one) but it's not necessary. I'd like to be able to use this to generate a "hot-spot", which would look like the equi-pressure lines on a weather map. It shows a hot spot of where the properties are "cheapest" for me (ie: properties that I would value highly, but are priced relatively low to other properties I would value highly).
I want to use this "hot-spot" to generate a "mean value" (an amount I expect to pay to rent or buy a property). This should take into account the value I place on amenities (like parking, garden, a view) and automatically divide up the cost of a 2-person or 3-person abode (with penalties for having to live with other people). I would call this "mean value" the Optimal Price Index, or OPI, and I would measure properties against that.
I want all the properties in the area to be displayed on that map, with a simple click to get pictures and other information I want. Then I could finally make an informed decision on what property to get, whether to rent or buy, and how many people to do this with.