Findwell, the Seattle online real estate brokerage, is revamping its real estate search functionality. And it is turning to a fellow Seattle startup to help with the chore.

Beginning today, Estately will power the real estate search on findwell. It marks the first time that Estately has powered another real estate Web site, though co-founder Galen Ward said at least one other deal is in the works. The companies plan to announce the partnership today at the Inman News’ Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco.

Kevin Lisota, the co-founder and CEO of findwell, said that he's been thinking about switching search providers for about a year.

"Our customers at findwell are coming to our site from Web searches and a lot of them were clicking on our search pages before and weren't sticking around long enough for us," he said. With Estately, Lisota is hoping to retain those potential customers for much longer periods of time.

Findwell's Lisota

The two entrepreneurs started talking about the possibilities of a partnership at a TechFlash event earlier this year. The discussions continued throughout the spring and summer, with Lisota saying that it made much more sense to partner with Estately than to build the functionality on their own.

With the Estately service now powering findwell's site, Lisota is confident that the company can distance itself from some of the traditional real estate companies which he said offer "OK" to "poor" Web site experiences.

He's also hopeful that the new search functions will make it more competitive with Redfin, the Seattle online broker that also refunds 50 percent of the real estate commission to the home buyer.

"From our perspective, it was really a two horse race in Seattle for the search Web sites and we now think we are incorporating one of those two," said Lisota. "In terms of competition with Redfin, I think this puts us on a very even footing and I continue to believe that our brokerage services are over and above theirs."

Estately's real estate search shows a home's proximity to regional transit options as well as the WalkScore's for homes, measuring how close a home is to neighborhood amenities such as grocery stores and theaters. Estately also shows Google street views, local school information and the historical sales data for the home.

As part of the deal, Lisota said that findwell is paying Estately based on the custom work on the site and an increase in page views. Ward described it as a "technology deal" and noted that findwell agents will not be given preference on the Estately Web site.

Findwell and Estately don't necessarily compete with one another, since findwell makes money through real estate transactions and Estately does so by referring potential home buyers and sellers to agents.

Ward, for one, doesn't anticipate issues on that front even though both companies operate in Seattle.

"Our job is to build the best search experience that we can build," said Ward. "This is a success-based contract, so if we are driving tons of traffic to findwell, then we are going to be successful financially also."