Press Release: New home search website provides information to dog owners searching for a Chicago home.
Chicago, IL, May 5, 2008 - DogPads.net is a unique real estate website geared towards dog owners who are looking to purchase a Chicago area condo or townhome. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2005-06 National Pet Owners Survey, 43.5 million U.S. households own a dog, and nearly 73 million dogs are owned in the country. Real estate broker associate Jim Gramata, Keller Williams Lincoln Park Realty, recently launched his dog-centric home buyers MLS search website whose purpose is to help finding the best available "pad" for both the canine and owner. Current available search websites are geared towards pet owners looking to lease apartments, however, Gramata took this concept one step further by offering a similar search service for dog-owners looking to buy a home in a pet-friendly condo building.
"The dogpads.net site was created out of lots of slobber and perspiration for the dog lovers out there who would absolutely never consider living in a home without their pets." He went on to say the one mission of the site "is supplying a demand for pet-friendly home buyers who are interested in filtering out the thousands and thousands of properties that do not allow pets at all or with size and weight restrictions saving them time and money."
Some of the current features of the site include a report request where a free list of properties meeting the buyer's needs and wants, neighborhoods of interest and price ranges are sent via email. The second more advanced search method includes daily online reports of active properties meeting buyer's search requirements. The buyer can mark them as "interested," "not interested" or "maybe" and can view interior pictures when available and request showing appointments. Another method coming soon will be giving buyers the ability to independently search for properties by selecting their own parameters and stretching a box over an area of a map and seeing what active properties fall within the search areas.
"Buyers will have more interactive control of where they look since search criteria and interests can change daily," Gramata said.
In addition to these direct property search features, Gramata envisions the site evolving to offer a complete list of property addresses that allow pets in each neighborhood and any association bylaws. While a seemingly monumental task, the information would be quite valuable. "We also want the site to contain useful current information from local businesses and organizations that share the same philosophy that dogs (and all animals) are an important part of the family and deserve a home in this great city of ours." When asked if this meant the site would eventually be dominated by corporate sponsors, Gramata replied "we do not want to create a site whose sole purpose is to create advertising space for companies. Our mission is genuinely to distribute valuable information to our site visitors as it relates to improving their (and their pets) experience of finding a home and living in the city."
The site is live now at http://www.dogpads.net/ and Gramata reports there are currently visitors who are using the services and are actively searching for properties in the area. "We are happy to report that so far the dogpads.net has been very well received. We are diligently creating daily search reports for each of our recent visitors and are trying to find their dog (and them) their next home." The site is a refreshing original concept that offers a service long overlooked and it seems if the site continues in the direction it has started it should continue to serve the needs of buyers looking for a place to call home for both them and their dog and it will enhance the pet-friendly experiences for dogs and their owners for years to come.
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