Open Listings, a company that began with the goal of helping homebuyers secure a property without a real estate agent, is switching map providers.
The startup, which offers on-demand showings and a 50 percent agent commission refund to its buyers, has previously used Google’s map services to display properties on an interactive chart of a specific city or area. Now, Open Listings announced that it has integrated with Mapbox to update customizable maps that locate individual properties in relation to schools and highways and present a larger-scale view of the area’s market.
“Google became cost-prohibitive,” said Peter Sugihara, co-founder and chief product officer at Open Listings, in a statement. “The customer service experience was poor. It really was surprising. Our engineers felt Mapbox was incredibly developer-friendly and great for integration.”
Since launching in 2014, Open Listings raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by Matrix Partners and started expanding beyond its Los Angeles headquarters — its services are currently available in California, Washington, Texas and Illinois.
According to the company, a map feature that displays different properties geographically is a major function of the services it offers to clients — it will now use GL JS, Mapbox’s web application programming interface, and the Maps software development kit for its mobile app, as the technology behind its maps.
“Maps are a major function of pages on our website, so the performance and customization and how much dev time it would take are what weighed that decision,” Sugihara said.
