For real estate agents
Showing tours that avoid unnecessary backtracking
Typical route setup
- Route size
- The confirmed and flexible properties in one tour or outreach area
- What drives the order
- Confirmed showing windows dominate. Between them, drive time and keeping the tour narrative sensible.
- Where the list comes from
- An MLS export, a saved search, or a list of addresses in a client email.
Showing tours and farming routes
The showing tour
A showing tour combines confirmed windows, flexible properties and a client in the car. The map makes cross-neighborhood backtracking visible before the client gets in the car, so you can compare the efficient baseline with the sequence required by showing windows.
The farming route
Door knocking, dropping market updates and canvassing a subdivision emphasize geographic coverage. The planner can provide a driving order for up to 100 addresses, but a walking sequence still needs manual adjustment for street sides, paths and access.
Building a tour that holds together
A working method for a showing day with mixed constraints:
- Optimize the complete tour first. This gives you the efficient drive-time baseline for every intermediate property.
- Move confirmed showings manually. Drag them into the order their times demand; intermediate appointments cannot be locked during optimization.
- Read the leg times before you commit. A 30-minute leg in the middle of a tour is worth reconsidering. Reorder it or set expectations in the car.
- Leave more slack than the drive time suggests. Showings run long, clients linger, and a tour with no slack turns into a tour that misses its last window.
- Keep sensitive access details separate. Notes may be printed or encoded in a shared URL, so do not place lockbox codes or alarm details there.
When presentation matters more than mileage
An agent may want to show the strongest home last or open with a property that sets a useful reference point. That sales decision can override the lowest-drive-time sequence.
Optimize first to see the efficient order, then move the one or two homes whose position matters to the presentation. The updated leg times show how that choice affects the tour.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import listings from the MLS?
There is no MLS integration, but most systems export a list to CSV or let you copy an address column. Paste that in and add a notes column with the MLS number or price so the route reads like a tour sheet.
How do I handle confirmed showing times?
Optimize the full tour for a drive-time baseline, then drag confirmed showings into the order their windows require. Only the chosen start and finish stay fixed during optimization.
Is this useful for a six-house tour?
It depends on the geography and the order you started with. Optimize the addresses and compare the estimated total; a compact tour may barely change, while a cross-town sequence may reveal avoidable backtracking.
Can I use it for door knocking or farming?
You can use it to group and order up to 100 addresses for driving. It does not calculate a pedestrian route, so a door-knocking walk still needs manual street-by-street review.
Can I share the tour with my client?
Yes, via a share link or a printed sheet. Bear in mind the link encodes the addresses in the URL itself, so treat it as the address list it contains.
Does it show drive time between each home?
Yes, per leg. Check those times before committing to a tour so you can set accurate expectations for the drive between homes.
Try it with tomorrow's stop list
Choose the start and finish, optimize the stops between them, and compare the result with your current order.
Open the optimizer