In my continual quest to give my clients better and more useful real estate information, I’m experimenting with posting the home sale data over Google Maps and I’ve finally got an alpha version ready for limited public consumption. There are no forms to fill out or hoops to jump through, all you have to do is click on this link:

http://www.RainCityGuide.com/gHomes/

Some notes on the the project:

• MLS data includes all of Seattle, Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond
• The coding is not very advanced stuff (I’m not much of a coder at all!), so be merciful in your comments!
• The database is missing some MLS listings for a variety of reasons and is only updated once a day. Some listings are missing because the agent filled in the address wrong, while other listings are missing because the agent purposefully did not include the address (this is very common on VERY expensive listings)
• This is meant to be a fun toy to test out the limits of what’s possible in the real estate industry. Please use it accordingly.
• Make sure you turn on the “Satellite” view
• The easiest way to zoom in on an area is to select and icon from that area and then use the scroll bar to zoom into it!
• Initially, I plan to update the data on a daily basis

Other great google mapping sites include:

• http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/ (includes Craigslist housing data over Google Maps)
• DASNET (allows you to view more detailed terraserver aerial tiles over Google Maps interface)
• http://mygmaps.com (simple interface to begin posting data on Google Maps)
• http://www.blogwise.com/googlemaps/ (Lists blogger locations over Google Maps

Improvements I’d like to make:

• Add higher quality aerial images a la DASNET
• Add condos
• Provide a link to additional listing information directly from google minipages
• Add more areas in the Puget Sound

Thank you Louis, Ken, Phil and Paul for your help and inspiration!

Of course, if you are interested in seeing any of these homes (in person!), just let me know! Enjoy!

http://www.RainCityGuide.com/gHomes/