A specialist in real estate web design including IDX, VOW, ILD, RETS and MLS property search with integrated dynamic maps and
   customer relationship (CRM) automation for multi-branch offices, top REALTORS®, brokers and agents.

The Real Estate Web Blog

Google Maps: Video Tutorial on Adding Custom Points, Overlays and Commentary
July 20, 2007

Recently having a “Eureka” Moment, Pat at TransparentRE.com showed us all his fancy moves with Google Maps. In his words “…real estate professionals can use Google Maps to continually update their clients on the status of their local housing markets…”

A good number of us wondered how to do this. So I’ve created a video tutorial detailing the basics of the process.

Here’s the test map created in the tutorial

This has some great implications for the real estate market. Especially when combined with photos, video, street level views and property data.

What Is Wrong With Property Search Maps?
July 12, 2007

The world of the real estate web 2.0 loves a mash-up. Google maps, Yahoo maps … maps, maps, maps. Ooh ahh … sigh.

You would think I was against mapping, to the contrary, I’m just against the superficial way they’re implemented.

Why? Maps are good for people who know an area or need to live in a specific place, but they ignore site visitors that aren’t familiar with an area.

Here’s an internal conversation our fictitious “Joe Re-locater” has with himself:

I’m “Joe Re-locater”, I come to your real estate website…

Nice site, where’s the search?
There it is, click…
I want a condo, 600-750,000, min 2000 sq ft… Searching…
These are all fine and good, The first one looks nice, It’s on “ABC street”
I see it on the map. 2 Miles from the beach, that’s good.
What’s that area like? The map shows me the streets, possibly even a plethora of statistics.
Man, it would be nice if this real estate site has some information about these areas …
maybe even tied to this map?
More visuals, pictures, descriptions, area amenities, local businesses and services …
I mean, can I get broadband, who’s it with, how much is it?
How close are the local stores?
Is there a dump of a building next door?
Oh well, I’ll have to get a plane ticket and go look… Sigh.

Maybe “Joe” will contact you; but most likely he’ll wait until after he’s gone through the area to get a feel for it. By then, he could be with another agent, searching on another site; remembering what a disappointment your website was.

Sure, you had the property search, but you didn’t answer his internal question properly: “Is this the real estate person I want to contact? Can I trust them? Do they know the area?”

The bottom line is mapping has so much more potential. If you give it some additional content.

Update:
Apparently, I’m on the right wavelength today. Google Maps blog had an interesting article on extending mashups with more data. Now let’s see if we can make this work in the API. Here’s a video…

Update 2:
TechConsumer had a nice piece about the future of Web 2.0 today. “…Location, Location, Location…”

Tags:
idx, vow, real estate websites, real estate website design, real estate web design, real estate marketing, google maps, yahoo maps, web design guide, web design, web colors, virtual office websites, tutorial, realtors, real estate web 20, real estate web, real estate mapping, real estate blogsites, real estate, property search, personal branding, palm, nar, mls, mashups, mapplets, mapping, map search, iphone, internet data exchange, inspiration, digital photos, colors, color scheme, casual friday