Search by travel time, not just distance
Buyers usually describe what they want in minutes — "20 minutes from the office," "a quick bike ride to favorite coffee shop," "close enough to my parents." RealScout’s Travel Time Boundaries let you draw search areas that follow real roads, sidewalks, and transit, instead of an overly-optimistic circle on the map.
You'll find them in three places:
Basic Search (cross-MLS)
Advanced Search (per-MLS)
AI Search
The four short videos below walk through the most common ways to use it, from the simplest case to a full lifestyle search.
1. Your first travel time boundary
1. Your first travel time boundary
On the Search Page, scroll to the section for Schools and Location Boundaries and click the Drawn Map Shapes pencil (or click the pencil icon on the map), and select Draw a travel time boundary.
As of this beta, you can also now draw shapes to require an overlap — just click the “three dots” menu to access:
Type in the name of a place — a school, an office, a coffee shop, an address — and pick the result. Choose how the buyer plans to get there (Drive, Walk, Bike, Transit, Bus, or Scooter), set the travel time, and decide whether to account for traffic. Click Add to search.
The shaded area appears on the map and as a chip in your Drawn Map Shapes. Your results filter to homes inside it.
That's the whole loop — one location, one trip, one boundary.
2. Two boundaries, "must match both"
2. Two boundaries, "must match both"
Most buyers care about more than one place. To require a home be close to all of them, click the map pencil icon, click ‘Draw a travel time boundary’, and enter your required places.
Then, click “Add (2) (matches all)” (instead of ‘matches any’) to add them to your map as an overlap requirement:
If the boundary isn't quite right, click the chip to reopen it and change the mode, time, or traffic settings. The polygon redraws when you save.
3. Asymmetric commutes with AI Search
3. Asymmetric commutes with AI Search
Couples rarely have the same commute tolerance. AI Search handles this directly — you can describe each person's commute in plain language and it picks them up as separate boundaries.
In this video the prompt asks for a 45-minute drive to one point of interest and a 20-minute drive to a university campus. AI Search opens a short to-do list with one item per location. Confirm the exact spot for each, click Run search, and the results filter to the overlap.
At the end of the video, bumping the 20-minute boundary up to 30 minutes opens up considerably more inventory — a useful thing to try when results feel thin. You can edit any boundary after the search runs without retyping the prompt.
4. A full lifestyle prompt
4. A full lifestyle prompt
AI Search isn't limited to commutes. You can describe the whole shape of someone's week and it'll build the search around it.
This video uses a real client-style prompt:
Client is looking to purchase house/townhome Budget: 300k–1.25m Lifestyle:
weekend 15 minute bike ride with kids to National Children's Museum, International Spy Museum, National History Museum, or Chessie's
20 minute Sunday morning bike rides to Peregrine Espresso, Hypergoat Coffee
parents in assisted living at The Kensington in Falls Church, need to reach them in 20 minutes by car
date nights, 20 minute Uber to Old Ebbitt Grill or Josephine
AI Search reads each line, picks the right travel mode and time, and builds a to-do list. You confirm each location, then run the search. The result is a filter set that reflects the buyer's actual life — kid-friendly weekends, Sunday coffee rides, family within a Sunday drive, and a date-night radius — all layered together.
It's worth watching this one end to end to see how the boundaries combine.
5. Client Experience
5. Client Experience
Your registered clients can also search by travel time! On any client-facing search page, clicking Travel Time (screenshot 1) will allow them to input a destination. They can choose their destinations, mode of transport, and then view their changes on the map, optionally saving their search. If an unregistered visitor attempts to search by Travel Time, they will be prompted to sign up (screenshot 4).
A few things worth knowing
Boundaries follow real roads, so a 15-minute drive stretches further along a freeway than across a dense neighborhood. Data provided by GeoAPIfy and Mapbox.
You can mix travel time boundaries with hand-drawn polygons or circles on the same search!
Up to 25 boundaries per search.
If a buyer's needs change, edit the existing boundary, instead of redrawing — your saved search stays the same. Click the shape on the map or in the filter criteria to revise.
AI Search remembers each pinpointed location, and the Previously Used tab in the regular drawing modal lets you re-add boundaries you've made before without retyping.
If a boundary doesn't look right or AI Search misreads a prompt, send us the search and we'll take a look
















