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PropertyMaps - Real Estate Searching

By David Mckinney Jr (Intel) (13 posts) on February 6, 2008 at 3:48 pm

When it comes to real estate technology, you are helped out by mashups everyday and may not even realize it. What’s a mashup? Basically, it’s a combination of Web applications that are “mashed” together to do something totally different.  In Real Estate, mashups are most prominent in map form, such as integrating housing databases and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) listings with maps. MLS’s are the databases that are shared by all Realtors from coast-to-coast. 

A recent submission on CoolSW, PropertyMaps serves the Real Estate industry and is a searching tool that combines complete Multiple Listing Service (MLS) access with the easy-to-use interface of Google Maps.  I’m not a licensed Real Estate Broker, but I did sit down over a latte and briefly tried out the software/service.  I found it easy-to-use and it seemed well integrated with the MLS.  I found a lot of homes that had been placed in foreclosure, but I didn’t look up the addresses in the MLS to confirm if it was a “short sale”.  In my unscientific comparison of PropertyMaps coverage to other services it looked like they had about twice the listings in any given market where they had data.  The company reports they update the data daily and their not as susceptible to errors and inaccuracies of sites that “screen scrape” for listings. 

I’m not advocating anyone navigate a complex real estate transaction without professional assistance because Realtors with specific market knowledge are more likely to know the local factors affecting the sale of any home.  However, for many of us who are into casual home searches or curious about the market in other regions, the site offers a large database of property listings with detailed maps in 3D.  In the latest addition to the service it offers features allowing users to search not only for homes but also for criminal offenders who may live nearby. 

As a casual observer I found the software/service interesting and cool.  Searching for homes online may no longer mean visiting a dozen Web sites.  If you are an expert in this space then take a look at the service and give me any feedback.

Categories: Cool Software

Comments (1)

July 24, 2008 10:36 AM PDT Chris Brake

Great post David!! There are lots of options out there when it comes to looking up MLS listings. It appears that more and more people are turning to the internet for listing information. Property Maps is pretty cool. One application I think you should definitely check out would be HomeQuest. If you go to their website you can sign up for a demo. Its really cool and it has a neighborhood/subdivision breakdown on the map.

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