Redfin added energy cost estimates for more than 85 million homes in the United States through a partnership with energy software company WattBuy, becoming the first real estate website to do so.
Christian Taubman, chief growth officer at Redfin, says the new estimates will help homebuyers make more informed decisions.
“Our research shows that many movers assume their utility costs will be similar in their new home, but that’s sometimes way off-base,” Taubman added.
Home detail pages on Redfin will now show estimates on a home’s monthly electricity usage and bill, as well as seasonal changes in such costs. Potential homeowners can also see how much they could save on costs by installing solar panels, allowing them to compare costs between homes.
Redfin’s new energy cost information will be available on both for-sale and off-market homes with customized data for each user, according to a statement. For for-sale homes, buyers can see estimated electricity costs while for off-market homes, owners can see solar savings.
“Our APIs make it simple for consumer-facing companies to help their customers understand current energy usage and take the steps needed to lower their energy costs and their carbon footprint,” said CEO of WattBuy Naman Trivedi. “As the technology-powered real estate company, Redfin was the obvious partner to debut this new feature.”
In December last year, Redfin added zoning and land use data to its home details for more than 70 million homes, in partnership with AI and machine learning-powered real estate intelligence platform Zoneomics.
In August 2021, Redfin started publishing climate risk information on its location pages, for fire, heat, drought and storm over a 30-year period, in partnership with ClimateCheck, a company that checks the extent to which an area is at risk of a climate disaster.
