Video Review: Properazzi Property Search Engine

Properazzi is a worldwide property search engine. They claim to be the "world's largest" with over four million listings. The site is very Ajax-y and has very few pages to load. You can search on a location and find listings in multiple formats, and then use their search refiners to find exactly the home you are looking for. It is only a search engine so selecting a home or rental sends you to the listing site. The site is very smooth in form and function. One feature added in their latest release is, "More intuitive map-based search that applies a density map to Google Maps street and satellite views, and incorporates an auto-adjusting radius tool and automatic scroll."

My question is whether someone searching for a home or rental would rather search on a large, "cold" search engine or would a local search work better? For example, last week I met with StreetEasy who provides a very-indepth resource for house-hunters in NYC. Not just a listing, but school info, transportation info, crime rates, building information, etc. Perhaps you start on Properazzi and then as you go to the listing sites, find the local info there? Which do you prefer? Large and cold or local and in-depth? Personally I would rather find a great local resource (not a realtor's site) to find out about the areas I am investigating. Properazzi might consider creating a city resource directory where they can link out to all of the great local real estate resources. And the local sites could link back to Properazzi for searches outside the locality. Might be a great trade-off.

Here is my video review of Properazzi: