Great Scott! Polygon Based Property Searching!
Robbie on 06 7, 2007
About 13 months ago, John L. Scott & Real Tech introduced what they brand High Definition maps for their map based MLS search. Well today, they’ve gone from 720p to 1080p with the introduction of the “Neighborhood Wizard“.
With the Neighborhood Wizard, you draw a polygon like you would in a drawing program. Then when you’ve defined the shape, connect your final vertex with the origin and viola, your properties appear! I’m especially impressed with the UI. I’ve haven’t played with the VE Polygon API much, but I think the “snap-to” effect for closing off the Polygon involved some interesting custom code.
When I played with the feature at work, the search itself felt a little sluggish. However on my hot-rod machine at home it felt pretty snappy. So I suspect I need to pester my corporate masters for a faster machine at work. At any rate, this is the new state of the art in web based property searching and it will push your web browser to its limits. So if doing a complex polygon search causes your web browser to peg your CPU, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I’ve haven’t tried searching within a complex octadecagon yet, but the implementation seems pretty solid so far. I drew a LED like 5 over Sammamish and I got the expected results. If they implement Bézier curve searching with Adobe Illustrator like tools by this time next year, I may have consider a new line of work…
John L Scott better be giving the engineers at Real Tech a nice bonus this year! Assuming they are using MS SQL, doing advanced GIS search tricks like this is quite an accomplishment. I wonder if they are using CLR SPROCs to pull this off or really ugly T-SQL? Oh well, I’ll have to implement my own polygon search someday and learn where all the mines are…
So what does this new technology mean for RE.net? Here’s my thoughts….
- Me and every other software engineer who develops RE/AJAX map web applications (including RedFin, Zillow & Trulia) – I feel like Frank Fredericks after watching Michael Johnson run a 19.32 200m in the 1996 Olympics.
- You and every other agent, broker, or MLS board who cares about such things – I hope you’re planning on increasing your IT budget. Implementing this stuff on top of AJAX maps (and being fast) isn’t easy and it probably won’t be cheap.
- FlexMLS - I’m looking forward to seeing what they say on their blog.
- RealTech – Whatever JLS & CB Bain are paying you guys, it isn’t enough…
- John L Scott – Very happy I assume
- RE consumers – Even happier
- CB Bain – I assume they’ll be the second broker in the NWMLS with this on their web site…
- Redfin – It’s safe to assume this feature is under development or soon will be…
- Realtor.com, Zillow & Trulia – Getting this feature to scale for multi-state maps should be fun…
Anyway, hats off to RealTech on John L Scott for raising the bar for everybody!
About the Author: Robbie Paplin
- Author's website: http://www.caffeinatedsoftware.com/
- More posts by Robbie
- email the author
5 Responses to “Great Scott! Polygon Based Property Searching!”
Leave a Reply
Live Comment Preview
Popular Posts
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- ARDELL: Around these parts t
- Scott Greenlaw: Ardell, I just c
- Johnny Brooks: That is a very commo
- Lyle Crews: This is a very inter
- Denise: I bought a house at
[...] Robbie, posting over at Rain City Guide, is more upbeat, “hats off to RealTech on John L Scott for raising the bar for everybody!” Robbie did note that the mapping seemed a bit sluggish from his work computer but snappy at the rocket ship he has at home. (Robbie, you should bug your bosses to get a rocket ship at work, too. ). Some of the sluggishness may well be coming from the drawing as opposed to the actual searching. [...]
Robbie:
Wouldn’t something like Spatial Extensions for SQL Server 2005 (http://www.codeplex.com/MsSqlSpatial) be what you are looking for?
It would be, if my forward progress was faster. I suspect by the time I get around to implementing something like this, I’d probably be using SQL Server 2008 ‘Katmai’ Spatial Support features instead.
I thought you guys were running Rappatoni MLS in Seattle ~ don’t they have that feature built into their MLS system?
Yes, but not on the public side of the site.
Some of the Rappatoni features are modified by Board Vote. For instance, the name of the Buyer Agent on the sale never shows. Rappatoni system is more than capable of providing that info, but our MLS eliminates it. I’ve never seen that in any other area. Another nail in the coffin as far as I’m concerned. The agent for the seller always shows, but the agent for the buyer never shows.