Integration includes county property data

Inman News

Google Earth put the world- at least a computerized version of it -at
computer users’ fingertips, and a real estate agent in Idaho has put a
new spin on property listings by sprinkling local MLS data on this
digital globe.

Bill
Clark, an agent at Holland Realty in Boise, unified county property
records and multiple listing service information and packaged this data
for display on the Google Earth application. Google Earth
allows users to zoom in and out on a map and to rotate and tilt the map
view. In order to view property listings, computer users must first
install Google Earth, a free program, and then download property
listings from Clark’s Earth Point Web site, at www.earthpoint.us.

Properties
are color-coded by price, and listings that appeared on the local MLS
within the past week are represented with a star-shaped symbol while
other properties are represented by a diamond-shaped symbol. The Google
Earth representation of the MLS properties shows parcel outlines, based
on county records, and users can click on property icons for property
descriptions and photos.

Clark said he worked on the project for about eight months, and the
Google Earth-based MLS search capability launched about two months ago.
The property listings information is supplied by the Intermountain MLS
in Boise, the largest MLS in the state.

There
are about 4,000 property listings in Ada and Canyon counties available
for viewing via Clark’s Google Earth integration, including about 3,200
listings of homes for sale. The property listings are updated daily, he
said.

Flyover views are
nothing new for Clark, who has maintained a pilot’s license since high
school and developed a private residential airport with his neighbors.
Even so, he said he was dazzled when he first saw the Google Earth
tool, which allows viewers to zoom in on any part of the planet –
from outer space to a rooftop view. “I saw Google Earth and I just
said, ‘Holy cow,’” he said.

There are a handful of other real estate-related companies that have offered property listings data for the Google Earth site – Point2, Propsmart.com and ForSaleByOwnerCenter.com are among those that have announced Google Earth integration.

A
larger group of real estate sites are using the Google Maps-based
platform to display property listings. There are other pluses and
minuses to each mapping tool: Google Earth views offer added dimension
and customization compared to Google Maps, while Google Maps is a
streamlined and simplified mapping tool that operates in a Web browser
and doesn’t require a data download.

In March, the author of the Google Earth Blog promoted Clark’s work, which he said “shows more information, and with more accuracy, than any other real estate listing service I’ve seen to date.”

Greg
Manship, director for the Intermountain MLS, said he isn’t sure whether
a lot of real estate agents in the area are using Clark’s tool, though
he is familiar with the technology. “He came over and gave us a demo,”
Manship said. “I’ve talked to Bill quite a lot about the concept. It’s
expanding on the IDX data using new technologies that are available.”

Another company in the area, Genius Realty,
is displaying the MLS data in a Google Maps format at its Web site.
Heinrich Wiebe, a manager at Genius Realty, said the company’s mapping
tool launched about two months ago and is popular with consumers. “Our
position is – give them the data,” he said.

Heinrich
and co-manager Matt Newbill said they are familiar with Clark’s Google
Earth integration. “It’s pretty complex for just your typical
end-user,” Newbill said. “People are pretty impatient when they’re on
the Web. The less hoops the better. We don’t require logins or
passwords to get the data- it’s just come and get it.”

He
also said that consumers are empowered by new property-search tools.
“It used to be that only the real estate agents held the data. They are
no longer held hostage.”

Clark
said that his Google Earth integration is a useful tool for listings
presentations, and he believes there is a rich future for real
estate-related mapping applications. “I’m convinced this is going to be
successful and grow. I think in a couple years this will be the
standard,” he said.

There
is a huge community of developers who are building integrations with
Google Earth for other purposes, he said, such as map locators for
speed-monitoring cameras on European roads and for National Geographic
feature articles. “That gave me enough confidence to say there are
enough people who,when they see this, they’re not going to go anywhere
else. Once you have a customer using this they’re not going to go back
to the old method,” Clark said.

“What
makes Earth Point special … is that you use the map itself to hunt
for property. Thus, Google Earth becomes the primary interface to the
MLS,” he said. By contrast, some traditional property-search sites use
maps as a secondary source for finding properties, he said.

With
those sites, he said, “you enter search criteria on the screen, get
this list, and say, ‘Well, that’s interesting, I wonder where that is,”
and then map this property. (Mapping) is the last step of your process.
Google Earth is the other way around – you can just go hunting like
you’re in a helicopter. I think it’s making it a lot easier to wade
through all that data.”

The
Earth Point project has been rewarding, though it was “a long road” to
get it off the ground. It took him about four or five months of work
before his first success in getting properties to show up on Google
Earth. “When I saw that first dot show up on the map … I just fell
over. That was gratifying. It was a huge challenge. It took me three
months to that ‘Yes, it really would work.’ When I started out there
was no one to turn to.”

Before
he took on the project, Clark worked in the manufacturing industry, and
the challenge of integrating property data with Google Earth drew upon
his interests in computer programming, mathematics and navigation. “I
have flown several times across the U.S. using just a watch and a
compass for navigation … and have done weeklong treks in the Idaho
wilderness with even less,” he said.

Clark
said he would like to add a new layer of information to his Google
Earth integration, such as museums and other public attractions. He has
also considered mapping local garage sales.

In
addition to existing properties, Clark has mapped several new housing
developments on Google Earth using developers’ subdivision maps. In the
future, he said he would consider charging a fee to promote new
developments using Google Earth. “The master plan would appear, along
with a description of amenities and a link to the subdivision Web
site,” he said. “Once construction is under way, the links would be
geared to the home buyer. They could learn more about the house being
built, available options, history of the builder, etc. All this would
happen well before anything appeared on the MLS.”

Copyright 2006 Inman News