When was the last time you got excited about a search engine? 1998? Okay so maybe we are not the all mighty Google but we think we have just raised the bar when it comes to real estate search.

After a little more than a year, we are officially coming out of beta, introducing the new Roost.com and hopefully putting a little fun back into searching for your perfect home.

What is new you ask?

Well for starters you will probably notice that the old orange Rooster is gone! We have grown up and brought a more sophisticated look and feel to the site which should match up well with what you’ll find under the hood.  Maybe we’re biased, but we’re pretty confident that we’ve made an already easy to use real estate search site even simpler and drastically more powerful.

In terms of functionality, first up is our new search widget, which is something you’ll encounter when you first hit the new Roost.com. You can now immediately set the basic parameters of price, beds and bath in the city of your choice to see all the available MLS listings, new homes and FSBOs in the more than 45 markets that we currently serve.  You can also use this same “search widget” to quickly search for foreclosures nationally. Coupled with this search widget is our enhanced search filters. You now have all the relevant filters in one easy to use place with sliders built in for the standard price, beds and baths and more specialized search criteria such as year built and days on market. And we’ve updated the price function to allow you to now enter your own custom range.

Check out this video on how this new “search widget” gets you relevant results right away and how you can narrow your search even more with our improved search filters:

Roost has also made getting the details of the homes much easier by integrating a stylish and information rich detail page for each MLS listing. We chock these detail pages full of all the information you need to have while perusing the listings coupled with all the available photos, a Google map with integrated street view, comparable sales and one of the most useful mortgage calculators around. All of this helps you quickly scan the listing so you can speedily make a decision if this is one you might have an interest in previewing.

Check out this video to that shows you how cool a detail page really can be.

Even though the search widget, new updated filters and custom detail pages are cool, what we’re proudest of is our “Expand the Map” functionality. This allows you to let either the listings or the map be the hero of your experience at any given time. We’re willing to bet that when you “Expand the Map” for that first time and start playing, you’re going to say “wow, that’s cool.”

Check out this video that shows you how ‘Expand the Map” works:

This is what Alex Chang, Roost’s CEO, had to say about the updated website:

“Thanks to everyone out there for all the great feedback during our beta period over the last year.  I’m thrilled to see that reflected in this major update to Roost – highly integrated mapping, no more clicking out to view details & photos, and so much more.  This is a big step forward for our company and we have so many more exciting things in the works for this year…stay tuned!”

Because we are a company that is built on listening to customer feedback, we did more of that than ever when deciding to overhaul a pretty darn good site. With direct feedback from users and focus groups, the Roost site was retooled to offer consumers a real estate search site that we feel is one of the most advanced in the marketplace. Couple that with our unparalleled comprehensive data and information and you have a force to be reckoned with.

We really hope you will be impressed with what we have developed and would love to hear your feedback so we can continue to improve. Check us out at www.roost.com.