Commute first
Weights for an office commute
This is the Commute first preset. A shorter stored trip leads, and a newer house is the clear second. Schools are almost off, at 4. Use it when the daily trip is the constraint and the house should not be a project at the end of it.
Who this is for
You will make the trip most working days, and you would give up a district and a yard before you would add half an hour.
You want the house itself to be newer once the trip is short. Age at 25 is a strong preference for recent construction, with condition at 15 as a second look at the same year.
The weights
These are the Commute first numbers in the builder (commute-first). They add up to 100. Nothing else is changed when you start from this page.
| Factor | Weight |
|---|---|
| Commute accessThe decision. Fifteen minutes versus forty-five is 17.5 points on the total. Remember the default minutes are a city average, or a single field on the listing, not a route to your office. If the average is the wrong destination, this weight will confidently rank the wrong towns. | 35 |
| Home ageSecond. You are asking for a newer house in a short-commute city. Under 5 years scores 100. Forty years scores 60. That gap is 10 points here. | 25 |
| Condition and systemsThe maintenance check on top of age. Because both read year built, a new house is being rewarded twice. That is deliberate in this preset and too much if you like older buildings. | 15 |
| Value for moneyOnly 10. The short commute and the new house are allowed to be expensive per foot. A house at twice the reference still loses 10 points, which will not undo the commute gap. | 10 |
| Lot sizeEight points. Closer-in houses often have smaller lots. This weight does not fight that very hard. | 8 |
| School qualityFour points. A top district will not rescue a long commute. Switch to the family preset if the schools are why you are driving. | 4 |
| Community diversityThree points. The lowest weight in the profile. The stored index will not move the list. | 3 |
Change it before you save
- If you work from home three or more days a week, this preset overpays in rank for a trip you rarely take. The remote profile is the other end of the same choice.
- Name the destination honestly. A city stored at 20 minutes can still be an hour to the office you have.
- Raise value if the short-commute newer houses are blowing the budget. At 10, price is a footnote.
Read the factors this profile leans on
Other profiles
Start with this preset
The button opens the builder with these weights filled in. You still enter your details and requirements. The weights are waiting on the weights step, and Reset puts back the usual default. A builder link with no preset is unchanged.
Start with this preset