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RSS FeedHouse Hunting On-Line - Getting the Most from Mapping |
Jul. 9, 2007
Categorized in: House Hunting
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If you are looking for a new Carlsbad home chances are you are looking on-line? You aren’t? Well you must be one of the very rare buyers who is not. The majority of buyers are looking for their dream home on-line even before they engage a REALTOR to help them in the transaction.As you probably know there is a great deal of information about real estate on the Internet, and it is a very rare property that is not listed somewhere, if not in multiple places. In addition to local, regional and state MLSs and agent websites, there is national websites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Sellsius, Homes.com, Trulia and many more places to look for homes for sale. Some of these are better than others in terms of functionality, number of offerings, and information provide in the listings themselves.
I would like to suggest that one important aspect of home searching on-line that you may find very useful is mapping, and to recommend that you pay attention to it, perhaps more than you have.
Obviously a general use of mapping is to pinpoint the location of the home in a community. This is especially helpful if you are not familiar with the Carlsbad area. And you probably already use some sort of mapping (e.g., Google Maps, Mapquest, Yahoo Maps) to help you with directions.
But there’s more. Mapping functionality has gotten pretty sophisticated, especially with the use of satellite technology. And as a buyer you can learn a great deal about a listing from paying attention to the mapping.
- General mapping will show the location near major roads, freeways, train tracks, airports and more. This may help you decide if that location will be a problem or a convenience.
- With satellite views you can actually see an aerial view of the property and look at the yard, where the neighbor homes are, and more. For example, does the property abut a large parking lot (which would NOT show in your standard map and will not likely be mentioned in the listing itself), open space, a large building or other things which may or may not be an issue for you. Many MLS listings have this function (here in San Diego, SANDICOR, the local MLS, includes a small airplane next to the camera designating photos; a click on the airplane provides an aerial shot). If it is not clear to you, ask the agent you are working with to see what mapping might be available.
- Google Earth is a great mapping application. Even if the particular website you are using does not offer a good mapping capability you can search for the address on Google Earth to get a better birds-eye view (or the other mapping websites for that matter).
- Google Maps has recently released a new mapping capability that allows street views as if you were standing on the street (right now only available in San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami and New York). Click on Street View on the main map, then select your location. This is some of the best mapping I have seen for general use, and I expect it will roll out in a more general fashion for other localities over time.
Be aware that some maps you will encounter may not be up to date, so you cannot rely on them for absolute accuracy (my home, for example, is shown as it was a couple of years ago rather than with recent yard improvements and changes).
You can learn a great deal about Carlsbad homes that interest you from looking on-line. But don’t neglect the mapping capabilities that now exist to learn as much as you can in advance. It might save you some time, or raise some questions that you will want to explore further.
Start YOUR CARLSBAD HOMES SEARCH HERE (and other San Diego communities too)
Download FREE BUYER AND SELLER REPORTS HERE
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