Know your noise level: HowLoud and Factual create Soundscore for homes

by Patrick Hechinger
August 5, 2015
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Have you ever moved into a new home only to find out that the bar at the end of the block is a hangout for the 2 a.m. crowd? Or that your new El Segundo apartment is directly below the flight path of the 6 a.m. red-eye from New York?
 
HowLoud and Factual have teamed up to prevent these disruptive surprises by informing home buyers or renters of the noise level in their area. 
 
“The goal is very simple— to provide user friendly noise information in the same way you’d get a weather report or a restaurant review,” HowLoud founder Brendan Farrell said. “Whether there is a busy road nearby, or a loud supermarket that gets late night deliveries, or an airport we’ve put it together in a nice easy way so people can search it or see it embedded in a real estate listing.”
 
HowLoud delivers a Soundscore that ranks the overall noise level from Severe to Peaceful. The different factors include vehicle noise, airport noise, local commercial noise, and specific local noise sources like bars or auto shops. But HowLoud says their product would not have been possible without the extensive database of business information from Factual. 
 
“It's nice to see the core operating thesis of Factual in action,” said Vikas Gupta Director of Marketing and Operations at Factual. “If you make data accessible to innovative, creative people they’re going to do innovative and creative things.” 
 
Currently HowLoud only operates in Los Angeles and Orange County but plans to expand to the rest of the United States by the end of the year. 
 
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