HotPads

HotPads is a map-based housing search engine, delivering the most meaningful and interactive housing search experience online. HotPads features rentals, homes for sale, foreclosures, vacation rentals, and hotels. HotPads.com launched in November of 2005 as a map-based rental housing search engine. It quickly grew to over 500,000 active rental listings including both rental houses and apartments. In November of 2007, HotPads launched a For Sale search engine to compliment its growing rental portal. It has grown to nearly 3,500,000 active For Sale listings. In 2009, HotPads launched vacation rentals and hotels, becoming the first truly map-based vacation housing search engine. HotPads is now a Zillow, Inc. business, having been acquired by the company in 2012. HotPads works to deliver as much relevant information to housing shoppers as possible during their search. It features demographic and housing heat maps that allow users to get quick snapshots of cities or neighborhoods. HotPads also maps points of interest like schools attendance zones, public transportation stops, and enables users to mark their own points of interest like "work" and "favorite cafe". Home shoppers also have the ability to hand-draw their own search right on the map with the Lasso tool and visualize area prices with the HotSpots tool. HotPads also features the first Buy vs. Rent search portal. Housing shoppers can browse both homes for sale and for rent at the same time based on the estimated monthly cost. Users can customize the mortgage variables to meet their unique situation. This allows housing shoppers to see exactly what they can afford to buy and what they can afford to rent, allowing them to make more informed housing decisions.