During the last week I’ve been reviewing an excellent real estate listing application developed by a realtor in the fast growing market of Boise, Idaho. Bill Clark has worked long and hard and has developed a Google Earth interface which shows more information, and with more accuracy, than any other real estate listing service I’ve seen to date. Once you visit his Earthpoint listings page for finding listings, you select “Listing Category” (‘residential’ is default), and then select characteristics you are looking for (e.g. 500,000 to 2,000,000 price range). You then select “Count” to see how many listings you will get. Or, just go ahead and select “Download to Google Earth”.
Each listing is identified to roof-top accuracy (if the house is built). And, as with other listings, clicking on a placemark shows more information about the listing, usually a photo, and a link to more info at the web site. But, Earthpoint goes further, the property lines are also drawn (in yellow). Some of the developments have scanned maps overlayed as well. This is more like Geographic Information System (GIS) data than the typical placemark for a listing you see in most listing services. Earthpoint does point out on the page that this information is not guaranteed for accuracy, that the buyer is responsible for checking with legal resources for accurate property layout. But, this definitely helps when trying to understand extent of property and its relation to the nearby environment. So, if you’re looking for property in Boise, this is the best way to do it. Excellent work Bill!
By the way, Bill had an interesting problem caused by an error in the imagery surrounding Boise put in place by Google. Some of the imagery was placed incorrectly. Since he was unable to get Google to correct the mistake (after numerous attempts) he acquired his own images and overlayed them to cover the mistake. Unfortunately, this means his customers have to load an 8MByte image overlay for outlying areas of Boise. Google really needs to address this problem, because numerous people have complained at the GEC and to me directly about data errors not being fixed.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Yep, Google Earth has my house number wrong too, so when you enter my address it points to a house down the street from me. It must be the same database used by a GPS unit my friend has, which wants to send her to the wrong house too. I see people have had a hard time getting Google to correct this – any thoughts on how to attempt a correction? Thanks.
‘c foote’: Yes Google is aware that the address database does not always produce rooftop accuracy. Here is Google’s standard data error response to that type of query:
“We’re aware that some addresses are not roof-top accurate. This is the result of how addresses are matched up to an exact position on the Earth. We rely on a technique called “address interpolation,” which is a fancy way of saying that we take our best guess. More specifically, we take the total number of addresses in a given block and assume an even distribution of the addresses along that block. For example, if there are ten addresses for the 800 block of Main Street, we assume that the fifth address is located at the halfway point. ”
My address is also wrong on Google Earth. It a couple of houses over and across the street! M realtives in England where surprised that I had moved from my home with a swimming pool to an acre lot across the street. Can this be corrected please?
Thanks,
Christine
Dear Sir,
YOU have St’Lukes Road Sunderland on Google earth down as Castletown but Castletown is on the north side of the river Wear St’Luke’s Road
is in Pallion and Ford Estate on the South side of the river Wear.
Regards J. Ferguson
The name of Paracas town in Ica Peru is wrongly spelled, Google earth have wrote Parakas which is wrong (I guess is spelled as in German) as the name is Paracas, therefore is very difficult to find and Paracas is one of the most important turistic places in Peru and its a pitty we can not be located, is there a way to change that? Thanks!
Nevermind…I was looking at it from the back end, not the public view. Sorry.
I think that this program is going to far. Anyone with your address can now see your home and use it to gather information about you. Does anyone else see this as a problem? So much for privacy.
What is the point of using Google Earth if they cannot come up with the correct locations?
At least one should be able to easily report this error so that it can be corrected (pronto?)
Then again we may be asking too much. After all we ourselves know where we live and our friends and relatives can play the guessing game.
A little disappointed.
-37.994866° , -57.566714° names show
“(The River Plate) Mar del Plata”. Only the second is correct. The first is the name of the Río de la Plata, some 200 miles to the North.
Thanks!
The geographic location real estate implicates growing demands for real investments , public need to aware on accurate legal issues .
Bridgetown, Western Australia. on Google Earth there is shown the intersection of Peninsula Road and Campbell Street and some how Farmers Lane has moved half a kilometre across the valley to join them. Campbell Street in this area has been renamed Pioneer Street from Nelson Street to the Southwest Highway.
We had similar problems when adding one of our premises to google earth. They now send a letter with a cerification code to the address you give to verify you live there. It’s a bit of a pain to be honest.