Cliff Peskin
BuzzBuzzHome
October 8, 2009
Yesterday, Google switched on Street View in Canada. So, if you live in a city within Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia Ontario or Quebec, chances are you can now view high resolution photos of your house, driveway, and/or neighborhood grocery store, etc. on the Internet. You can check it out here at Google Maps -just click on the little orange man on left of map and drag onto map.
Google Street View first launched on May 25, 2007. Since then the technology has improved, the map layout is easier to navigate and the images are high def and crystal clear (with the exception of blurred out license plates and faces). Canadians are sure to embrace Google Street View and make it their go to spot for checking out real estate.
It seems likely that one of the first locations that purchasers will go when researching a property will become Google Street View. Whether it be a McGill University student interested in an apartment listed on Craigslist, to a home developer studying a piece of urban land, Street View is where they will obtain high res photos of the home’s exterior and become acquainted with the neighborhood.
With regard to marketing; If you have a home to sell you should hope that your house was looking sharp and the sun was shining when the Google Street View car snapped its photos this past spring. These photos may be your potential purchasers’ first impression of your property. If there was a homeless person camped out on your driveway or your windows were dirty during the photo shoot its probably not a good thing.
Real Estate professionals should be cognizant of the impact technologies such as Street View will have on their industry. They must realize that consumers now have the processing power of Google in their pocket. When listing off the amenities in a neighborhood, or explaining that a highway, train track or electrical station isn’t “that” close to the property, its a sure bet that the purchaser will be clicking through the neighborhood on Google Earth each night and verifying these claims. One may argue that in depth neighborhood research was possible before Google Street View but the truth is that purchasers often fail to complete their due diligence simply because they’re busy – scoping out neighborhoods after work, in the dark and in the dead of winter is not fun.
However, flying through the neighborhood on their personal computer, in their living room while eating a bowl of cereal is more palatable.
Informative video…
And this one is funny…
October 8, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized
