Redfin’s newest feature is helping hopeful buyers identify the hottest properties in their neighborhoods.

Late last month, customer-centric real estate brokerage Redfin unrolled its new “Hot Homes” feature, designed to help buyers identify homes likely to sell quickly in their area.

Using an algorithm formulated by Redfin’s own data scientists, Hot Homes flags properties that have an 80 percent likelihood of selling with two weeks of the listing’s debut. Users can find these properties through the brokerage’s larger “for sale” properties map, where hot listings are identified by a special marker that tells users how likely it is the house will sell and in what amount of time.

Putting the Buyers First

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman says that the company’s new feature is just another way Redfin is helping buyers get a leg up on the competition.

“Using data no one else has to rate every home for sale, Redfin crunches more than 500 different attributes of the house, the neighborhood – and what homebuyers are looking for in that neighborhood,” he says. “Our goal as Redfin agents is to make sure [buyers] never miss a shot at [their] dream home.”

Getting a Leg Up On the Competition

Redfin’s new feature could not have come at a better time, as demand is climbing while inventory levels remain relatively low.

In its latest Bidding War Report, the innovative brokerage found that upwards of two-thirds of Redfin offers are faced with opposing bids. Through the new Hot Homes feature, users would hold a considerable advantage over competing buyers who aren’t privy to the same sort of predictive insights.

The new feature is particularly valuable in places where demand continues outpacing construction and inventory, like Chicagoland where homes only stay on the market for an average of 23 days. In many instances, buyers think they or their agent can simply “eyeball it,” making assumptions on how long a property will stay on the market, but Redfin points out that even seemingly ordinary homes can sell in less than a week.

Redfin Hot Homes is currently available both online and through iPhone and iPad mobile apps.