I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Dave Herman, SVP of Product and AI innovation at Realtor.com, to discuss two exciting product launches that are reshaping how buyers explore properties online. If you haven’t checked out these features yet, you’re missing out on some truly innovative technology.
Watch the full interview:
How Realtor.com Decides What to Build
Before diving into the features, I had to ask the question that fascinates me most: With endless possibilities, how does Realtor.com decide what to build next?
Dave explained that their approach is deeply rooted in consumer research and data analysis. The team constantly talks to consumers through multiple channels – support feedback, dedicated research teams, real-time prompts on the site, and continuous journey tracking. They look for behavioral patterns in the data that indicate opportunities to enhance the experience, then validate those hypotheses through experimentation before launching features broadly.
It’s refreshing to hear that there’s not a week that goes by without multiple daily conversations with consumers. This customer-centric approach ensures they’re building what people actually need, not just the latest “shiny object”.
Fly Around 360: A New Perspective on Property Exploration
Fly Around 360 experience, which launched in partnership with TopHap and was part of Google’s announcement last week is the first feature we discussed
The Problem It Solves
Through consumer research, Realtor.com identified that buyers have an intense desire to understand neighborhoods and property boundaries. While street view has been helpful, it typically only shows the front of a property and doesn’t provide that aerial perspective buyers crave; especially those who are increasingly willing to purchase homes sight unseen.
How It Works
Available now on any for-sale home on Realtor.com, the Fly Around feature lets you:
- View properties from an aerial perspective
- See property boundaries clearly drawn where parcel data is available
- Navigate up and down in elevation
- Pan left and right to explore the surrounding area
- Zoom in and out for different levels of detail
I tested it myself and was immediately impressed. I compared two similar homes with a significant price difference, and the fly-around quickly revealed why – one property backed up to a large industrial complex while the other was in a purely residential area. This kind of context is impossible to get from traditional photos or even street view.
Current Availability
The feature is live for:
- All for-sale homes
- Off-market properties
They’re still evaluating the best approach for rentals and new construction, where the imagery might not accurately represent the current or final state of the property.
Search It How You Say It: Natural Language Search
The second major launch is what Realtor.com calls “Search It How You Say It” – a natural language search capability that lets consumers search the way they naturally think and speak.
The Evolution of Search
Dave started by launching support for just 300 different search terms – things like “modern kitchen,” “fenced yard,” or specific neighborhood characteristics – most of which are already accessible by search filters. This approach allows a consumer to type in what matters most to them instead of having to work their way through filters. But the vision is much bigger over time: Eventually, a user will be able to access listings with search terms well beyond what’s included in a filter or listing input form. It will read images and provide judgements to allow consumers to get a lot more granular with their searches.
The system analyzes data from agents, MLS feeds, imagery, and metadata to understand what can be identified about each property. These same insights that power the new “chips” on listing detail pages now also power the natural search experience.
If you are looking for a good example about how natural language search will overhaul the search experience, check out Amazon’s RUFUS. Click on a product you’re interested in and the RUFUS chatbot pop-up providing you with search “pills” for contextual questions related specifically to that item. It also invites you to ask it questions beyond just the product itself.
Real-World Example
Instead of clicking through dozens of filters, you can simply type: “3-bedroom, 4-bath with a fenced yard in Austin, Texas” – and the system understands each component of your query and applies the appropriate filters automatically.
Continuous Improvement
What I love about their approach is the commitment to iteration based on user feedback. They’ve already added radius search capability (like “within 10 miles of Austin”) just by observing how people were trying to use the feature.
The roadmap includes:
- Expanding from 300 supported terms to virtually unlimited terms
- Adding conversational refinement – start with one query, then add more criteria to narrow or expand results
- Making it easier to discover what’s searchable without scrolling through hundreds of filters
An iOS version with enhanced conversational capabilities is live now, with web following soon.
The Consumer Demand
As someone who conducts more consumer research about real estate technology than just about anybody else, I can tell you that consumers are absolutely ravenous for as much detail about neighborhoods, amenities, and contextual information. They want everything – and they want it delivered in the most intuitive way possible.
What excites me most about these developments is that AI is finally letting us adapt technology to how humans naturally communicate, rather than forcing people to learn how to talk to technology. Remember when we all had to learn the quirks of Google search syntax? Those days are ending.
Dave and I discussed how this technology will continue evolving alongside advances in large language models, OpenAI, Google, and others. Consumers are being trained in new interaction patterns, and Realtor.com is committed to staying at the forefront of these advances.
The Agent Benefit
These features aren’t just about consumer experience – they’re also creating better-qualified leads for agents. When buyers can do more thorough research upfront, they come to agents with more specific questions and a clearer understanding of what they want. The search data can also help agents understand trending interests and prepare for the most common questions they’ll encounter. Bottomline, REALTOR.com is helping to deliver more well-educated consumers that have worked themselves further down the sales funnel.
What’s Next?
When I asked Dave if there were any other surprises coming, he wasn’t ready to give us an exclusive scoop, y but promised we’ll hear much more from Realtor.com in the coming weeks and months. I’m looking forward to those conversations!
My Takeaway
Both of these features represent significant steps forward in giving consumers the information they need to make confident decisions. At WAV Group, we’ve consistently found that you simply cannot give buyers enough angles – literally and figuratively – to explore properties. Realtor.com is clearly listening to that consumer demand and building accordingly.
If you haven’t tried these features yet, I highly recommend heading over to Realtor.com and exploring a few properties. The Fly Around experience is genuinely impressive, and the natural language search feels like a glimpse into the future of property search.
