Recently, I’ve found myself fantasizing more and more about what my Someday Grownup House will look like. I’ve spent the years since college moving from room to rented room in shared houses. At this point I own two pieces of furniture: a badass vintage table from the 50s that my mom bought for me because I was too broke to justify spending $75 bucks on a kitchen table and a loft made from antique wood that my dad built when my room in Brooklyn was too small to contain a bed AND space for all of my clothing.
I’m still not at the purchasing a house point in life but if I was and if I lived in the UK, LemonBricks would be a great place to turn for help with streamlining the majorly stressful process that is this major life step.
Paring down the options
LemonBricks is a property search engine website based in London. It was founded in 2011 by Henri Cammiade and Jae Ryoo. They have taken a big chunk of the hassle out of finding your dream home. The site gives you two options for searching: a map and a list, which show you what’s available, for what price, and where. Both super easy to read, nicely formatted, and totally uncluttered.
The two options for searching thing seems like a small detail, but I think it’s a really essential one. Some people need the visual, graphic image of a map to sort their thoughts and some people need lists. I personally hate it when my files are listed as icons and always switch them over to the list viewing, asap, but there are two options for a reason, right?
Keeping it organized
Once you get sucked down the rabbit hole of future possibilities, you might find that there are just too many options to keep straight. LemonBricks has you covered on this one, too, with a shortlisting function. Put your properties into categories and you won’t have to remember if that incredible three bedroom place was in your town or the next one over.
Social sharing
As if all of that wasn’t enough, LemonBricks has built a social component into the process, allowing you to share lists with friends and collaborate on the house searching process. This is obviously the element that takes LemonBricks to the next level, because we all know how much people love to share their business on social media.
Something for the sellers
While most of the site is buyer-targeted, there’s obviously an upside for the sellers as well. LemonBricks directs potential buyers to the websites of the people who are listing their properties. This keeps control of the transaction in the hands of the sellers instead of in those of a third party.
LemonBricks combines a clear, uncluttered design with access to essential information and a social media component: the three majorly important ingredients for startup success. Like I said, I’ve yet to deal with the process of buying a house but I hope that by the time I’m there, LemonBricks has extended their services into the States.
Or maybe I’ll just have to move to the UK. Anything’s possible, right?
Photo Credits
Courtesy of startup founder | LemonBricks
