PropertyMaps Corporate Blog

With the recent announcement of Yahoo jumping on OpenID, the number of accounts has almost tripled to 400 million users. Yahoo’s OpenID platform will be ready to go on 1/30 and we will support it from day 1. Google is also dabbling in the OpenID world and has recently became a provider with Blogger in Draft.

PropertyMaps now supports both the OpenID specification 1.1 and 2.0 as a consumer (not provider), meaning you can use almost any OpenID to simplify your PropertyMaps registration and sign in. This also means no more CAPTCHA and no more email validation to create an account. Go ahead an begin your OpenID registration.

If you don’t have an OpenID yet, or want to learn more about it, head on over to the OpenID website.

OpenID Sign In Now Available

We whipped up a quick neighborhood finder with polygon overlays to display Zillow’s recently released ESRI neighborhood shapefiles. I applaud the effort to release this information under a Creative Commons license and the attempt to crowdsource future development.

I’ve been looking at neighborhood boundary information for ages and there really is no standardized classification of what defines a “neighborhood”. The most common method of defining a neighborhood is to group tract data by subpopulation and aggregate data in an attempt to create homogenized areas. The NCDB (Neighborhood Change Database) by GeoLytics does this. I’m not an expert in this area yet, so I’d be curious to find out what other methods are employed to define a neighborhood.

Check out the Neighborhood Boundaries.

Neighborhood Boundaries

We’ve partnered with RealtyTrac to bring you hundreds of thousands of foreclosure listings in all 50 states. Not only can you view authentic MLS property listings, you have access to foreclosure properties nationwide. On the foreclosure details pages, you can see the foreclosure status and a detailed explanation of what that status means, along with definitions of common foreclosure related terms.

For any of these properties, you can see full details, plus access a plethora of tools, by subscribing to RealtyTrac. They also offer a free 7-day trial so you can test out the system before you subscribe. For the amount of information/tools they offer, the benefits of membership far outweigh the costs. For more info on what you get, check out the member benefits.

Foreclosures Now Available!

Our CEO was interviewed by mergermarket.com an independent Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) intelligence service that specializes in providing forward-looking origination and deal flow opportunities with a comprehensive deals database resulting in real revenues for clients. We were contacted to discuss the current and ongoing capitalization plans of PropertyMaps. See excerpts below:

“PropertyMaps, a Florida-based real estate website, expects to seek a first round of venture capital this year to fund aggressive growth plans, chief executive Keith Hanenian said. The business could be ready to consider an exit strategy in two years or less, he added.
The privately held company should close on a round of angel investing in the next week or so, the CEO said, and will probably seek USD 10m to 20m of venture capital in the next three to six months. Merrick Capital of Texas is advising the company….”Its growth plan includes adding the listings from the nation’s top 100 MLS markets within the next three to six months, Hanenian said. After building and marketing the site, the founders will look to exit through an IPO or sale, the CEO added, pointing to technology companies such as Google and Microsoft as possible suitors.” by Chris Marr in Atlanta

To review the entire article you will need to subscribe to mergermarket.com.

Through our partnership with eppraisal.com, we have added a free property valuation tool to the website. For properties with valuation data, you will see a new section labeled “Comparative Market Analysis”. Unlike other sites out there, we provide a valuation range so you can see three distinct property values - low, medium, and high. This valuation tool is also provided as a link on each property summary (on the map page), so you can quickly access valuation info. We also provide a stand-alone “Free Home Appraisal” tool, allowing you to enter any address you like.

As stated in the press release, “eppraisal.com pulls together public record data from over 120 million homes to quickly and easily give you an estimated value range.” You can read more in our Free Home Value Data press release.

Property Details Comparative Market Analysis

The Location Information pages have been updated with area sports information. Now, by clicking on the “Sports Teams” tab, you can see high school, college, league, and professional sports teams and information. Also, we have a listing of stadiums in that state. All sports teams and stadiums have a link to their respective websites so you can get more information.

In addition, we added a submenu with links to the neighborhood’s population demographics, recent home sales, climate and weather, employment and finance, and crime statistics. Many people did not realize this data exists at the bottom of the page so we’ve made it easier to find.

Sports Information Page

We are pleased to announce the availability of the PropertyMaps Map Widget. If you are broker signed up with us, just log into the Broker Toolbox and click the Widget Setup link on the left nav bar. After configuring the look and feel, we will provide you with the code to insert into your pages. All leads that come in through the widget are tracked so you will not be charged for leads originating from your website. The widget is still in a beta stage, so if you run across any problems, please make sure to let us know about it. If you are a broker and haven’t signed up with us yet, make sure you do before your MLS area fills up.

PropertyMaps Map Widget

We’ve added a new tool the the PropertyMaps.com Broker CRM (called Tool Box) - driving directions for MLS properties. If you are a broker with us, you will see a new link on the left nav called “MLS Mapping Directions”, click on this to enter your starting point and the list of properties you want to make a route for. Clicking “Map Route” will produce directions with each MLS listed as a waypoint along you route. Unfortunately, the Google Maps API does not allow us to do the cool polyline dragging to change up the route - hopefully this will be rolled out soon. If you are a broker and your area has not already been taken (or even if it has), you can sign up with us on our Broker Sign Up page.

Driving Direction For PropertyMaps’ Brokers

Quite surprisingly, Google added the new Terrain feature to the API (2.94) in a very timely manner. Even though I talked it down a bit in a previous post, I still think this feature adds a bit of value to the home searching experience. It could look better if it were a proper relief map, but it does give you an idea of the lay of the land. The screenshot below is of some of our listings in hilly San Francisco (there are no hills in Florida). It doesn’t show the altitude contrast as clearly as it could and I still feel a bit like I’m on the moon, but at the zoom levels Google provides, I’m not complaining.

Also, somewhere along the line, Google added the 3Dish (2.5D) buildings to the API tiles. I am guessing this occurred somewhere in the late 2.8x updates. You can read about my 3Dish tile rant. The API still does not have the zoom level that Google Maps does, but the 3Dishness is a start.

San Francisco using Google Terrain

The kind folks at Startup Schwag created PropertyMaps wink stickers for their subscribers (and us). For $14.95/mo. you can subscribe to receive the tshirt of the month, plus miscellaneous items like stickers, pens, buttons, etc. For startups, you can submit your logo and tshirt specs and they will create shirts for you (or in our case, stickers) or send them schwag for distribution. Once the schwag goes to the monthly subscribers, they send you the leftovers. We have a box of cool PM wink stickers so if anyone is interested in a few free stickers, email or contact us. Thanks Roddy for the great service.

PropertyMaps Sticker