The perfect house may be a click away

Sudbury entrepreneur Alain Blais hopes his new website, The Perfect House, will do for real estate what dating websites have done for relationships. 

“We call it reverse real estate,” Blais said describing the website. “But it's basically matchmaking, or like a dating app for real estate.”
The Perfect House lets home buyers enter their wishlist for their dream home. 

They can specify the locations that interest them, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, whether or not it's near a body of water and any other number of details that are important to them.

Each house feature also comes with three check boxes: “must have,” “would be nice” and “bonus.”

A must have feature would be something the buyer absolutely needs in their new home.

If they require three bedrooms, for example, they can make it a “must have” and that would signal real estate agents not to approach them with anything less.
Blais allows local realtors to access the website for $10 a month. That access lets them see the various wishlists from local buyers, and they can approach those buyers if they have a listing that suits their needs.

But Blais said in his own experience buying property, real estate agents did not always show him houses that met his needs.

“Understandably agents are hungry for a sale,” he said. “They're looking to get that commission. So I find they tend to take you to places that don't match what you're looking for.”

To help cut down on listings that aren't relevant to buyers, the website's users can rate agents after they approach them with a listing.

If they agent shows them a property that meets their expectations, they are more likely to receive a positive rating; if the home does not match most of the wishlist they might receive a more negative rating.

Agents with positive ratings would have a better chance of gaining business through the website.

Blais said the website will be beneficial to new real estate agents who haven't had a chance to establish a large network of potential customers. The Perfect House could also help real estate agents drum up new business during slow months.

Blais said if all goes well, he hopes to expand the website across Canada by September.

For now the Perfect House is limited to Greater Sudbury, to allow him and his team to test the website at a small scale and work out any issues before the expansion.