Buyers ask about the neighborhood almost as often as the home itself. Where is the closest school, how far is the grocery store, how long is the drive to the airport. With Path, the AI concierge answers those questions inside the virtual tour, pins the places on a map with satellite, 3D and Street View, and shows walking and driving times from the property.

The neighborhood questions buyers ask

Once a buyer likes the home, the next questions are about daily life around it. They want to know what their week would look like if they lived there.

• Schools: which schools are nearby and how far away they are.

• Groceries and errands: the closest supermarket, pharmacy and coffee shop.

• Parks and gyms: places to walk the dog, run or work out.

• Transit: the nearest train or bus stop and how long it takes to get there.

• Airport: the drive time, which matters a lot for second-home and relocating buyers.

• Restaurants and nightlife: what is within walking distance.

Many listing pages leave these out. The buyer opens a map in another tab, searches place by place and pieces it together, or emails the agent and waits for a reply.

Why answering inside the tour matters

Every time a buyer leaves the tour to check something, there is a chance they do not come back. A question that sits unanswered overnight can also cool a buyer who was ready to book a viewing.

Answering in the tour keeps the buyer in one place while they decide. It also tells your team what each buyer cares about. A buyer asking about schools and parks is telling you something different from one asking about the airport and nightlife.

How Path answers neighborhood questions

When you create a property, Path looks up nearby places on Google around the address. The lookup covers 38 place types, including restaurants, schools, parks, gyms, transit, airports and hospitals, within 5 km of the property. For each type it keeps up to 10 places with the distance in miles, opening hours, phone number and website.

Those places go into the property's knowledge base next to your website content, any property details document you upload and your custom instructions. When a buyer asks about the area, Ella, the AI concierge, answers from that information. If the knowledge base does not have the answer, the concierge can fall back to a web search.

Buyers can ask by voice or text, 24/7, in 42+ languages. Every tour also shows the line "AI may provide inaccurate information. Verify important details." so buyers know to confirm anything important, such as school boundaries, with the source.

The in-tour map

Talking about a place is useful. Seeing it is better. Path's concierge can pin places on a Google map inside the tour, so the buyer sees the school, the park and the station relative to the home.

• Map, Satellite and 3D views: switch between a street map, aerial imagery and a 3D view of the area.

• Street View: look at the street and the block as if standing there.

• Walking and driving times: see how long it takes to get from the property to a place, with the route drawn on the map.

For a buyer who is not local, this is often the closest they get to driving around the area before they visit. Our guide to multilingual virtual tours for international buyers covers that remote buyer in more detail.

How to set it up

1. Enter the correct address. The nearby places lookup runs from the property address, so check it before you create the property.

2. Add what Google will not know. In custom instructions, add local details you want buyers to hear, such as a shuttle to the beach, a planned park or the school the community is zoned for, if you have confirmed it.

3. Upload a property details document. If you have an area guide or a fact sheet, upload it so the concierge can answer from it.

4. Test it as a buyer. Open the tour and ask the questions buyers ask most. Ask for the nearest grocery store, the drive to the airport and the closest park, and check the map pins and travel times.

5. Share the tour. Use the public link or embed code on your listing or project page.

Using neighborhood questions in your sales process

The questions buyers ask are useful well beyond the tour. In Property Insights, Path shows what people are asking, with top questions counted per question, and what people care about as topic themes.

If many buyers ask about the same school or the commute, put that answer in your listing copy, your brochure and your agents' talking points. When a named visitor asked several questions about schools, your sales team can open that visitor's conversation history and lead the follow-up call with the answers they care about. Teams at brokerages and developers use this to tailor follow-up to each buyer. For more on the concierge itself, read what an AI concierge for real estate does.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Path get neighborhood information?

From a Google Places lookup around the property address, covering 38 place types within 5 km. The concierge also uses your website, uploaded documents and custom instructions, and can fall back to a web search.

Can buyers see places on a map inside the tour?

Yes. The concierge can pin places on an in-tour Google map with Map, Satellite and 3D views, Street View, and walking and driving times with a drawn route.

Can I add local details that are not on Google?

Yes. Add them to your custom instructions or upload a property details document, and the concierge answers from them.

Does this work on photo tours?

Yes. Nearby amenities are looked up for Path Lite photo tours as well as 360° and 3D tours on Path+.

Can buyers ask neighborhood questions in other languages?

Yes. Buyers can ask by voice or text in 42+ languages, 24/7.

See neighborhood answers on a live tour

Book a 30-minute demo and bring the address of a listing or project. We will show you the nearby places Path finds, the in-tour map and the questions your team would see. You can also try a live demo tour first.

Book a demo