Making it easier to find the property you want on Google Maps

Around half of the Googlers in our Sydney headquarters are software engineers, working on some really cool things - Google Wave, App Engine, Google Docs, and of course, Google Maps.

Recently, some of us have been working on a particularly interesting project that combines Google Maps and search technology - we've been trying to work out if your search query in Google Maps means you're interested in having current real estate listings returned to you. It's nice to get to work on some 'search' engineering down here!

So here's what we've been cooking up - in the past, if you wanted to view real estate listings on Google Maps, your best bet was to select "Real Estate..." from the "More" menu at the top of the map.

Now, simply searching for "real estate" will return, well, real estate (try it)! You could also try "homes for sale sydney" or "homes for rent adelaide". Or while you're at it, check out "apartments for sale brisbane", or "homes for rent near perth". The idea is to make it really easy for you guys - you tell us what you want, and we get it back to you! Of course, we'll continue to work to return the best results for all your Google Maps queries, whether you're looking for local businesses, geographic features, or your perfect home.

We also wanted to tell you about the integration of real estate listings with Place Pages. Now clicking the "more info" link next to a listing takes you to a faster, easier-to-read page that gives you all of the information we have about a listing: photos, inspection times, videos, details, a Street View preview and nearby public transit information if available, allowing you to quickly find the listing you want and click through to the sources of the listing.


We hope you find these features improve your real estate search experience on Google Maps.

Posted by Jordan Bayliss-McCulloch and Ryan Williams, Software Engineers

More, more, more real estate in Google Maps

Since we announced a real estate search feature on Google Maps in Australia back in July, we've been working steadily to make it even easier for Australian home buyers and renters to use. At the same time, Google Maps has continued to evolve and improve, and become an even more useful tool for online real estate searching. Here are a couple of things you can look out for next time you visit Maps.

First up, we've made it easier to find real estate listings. Now, you can simply click "Real Estate" from the 'More' button on the top right of any map on Google Maps to discover listings. From there, it's a simple matter to refine your search using the left hand panel - price, bedrooms, bathrooms, and so on. Of course, you can still pan the map and it'll automatically update with more listings.


You'll also notice that Google Maps is now showing even more information about an area as you pan around and zoom in. There are small icons on the map showing the names and location of businesses and prominent features of the neighbourhood. This means that during your home search, you'll be able to tell at a glance just exactly what shops can be found down the road from where you're looking, all without typing!

Finally, we've made it easier to layer your searches over each other. If you're looking for a new place near a primary school, start by searching for "primary school". Then click More, Real Estate to see all available properties nearby overlaid on the same map. Refine your search, and find that perfect 3 bedroom apartment in walking distance of a school.

Of course, these aren't the only resources available for your new home search. You can use Street View on Google Maps to check out the neighbourhood before driving to an open home; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; and transit information to work out what your new commute might be if you went ahead and moved house.

We've also been working with a number of organisations across the real estate industry to make even more current real estate listings searchable on Google Maps. You can now find listings for rent and sale from many of the major real estate franchise groups including Ray White, LJ Hooker, First National, Harcourts and Raine & Horne.

Good luck compiling your open home lists today - here's to a fruitful weekend of real estate searching!

Posted by Andrew Foster, product manager

Mobile and Baldwin County - August 2009 Real Estate Trends and Statistics

Please check out our latest post over at the Gulf Region Properties Team Blog at the Active Rain website.

At first look the sales numbers do not look good. July was a great month as far as statistics goes and August was not too far behind.

Please let me know if you have any questions. E-mail me at Steve@GulfRegionProperties.com or call me at 251-215-9382.

Marina and Restaurant For Sale

The Grand Mariner Marina and the Mariner Restaurant located in south Mobile Alabama are available for purchase. This commercial real estate listing is being marketed and advertised by Peggy Knight in our office. Both the restaurant and marine services operations are well known in the Mobile area and are considered local landmarks. Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to put you in contact with Peggy.

For additional information, please click here to see listing information, virtual tour, and slide show on our website.

Things are Really Moving Here. REALLY !!

The Mobile Area Association of Realtors and the Gulf Coast MLS have iniated a marketing campaign to let local buyers and sellers know that regardless of what the national real estate market is doing, things here in Mobile Alabama are pretty good.

We don’t live in a vacuum. We’ve all heard reports in the national news about downturns in the country’s housing market. The effects of this among consumers are predictable: a belief that this is a bad time to buy or sell, a tendency to wait until times are better, and an overall lack of
confidence in the market.

The overall goal of the marketing campaign, Things Are Really Moving Here is designed to clarify the truth between the national story and the reality of the local housing market.

Indeed, while the housing market may be down nationally, the situation in Mobile is far different. The local housing market is holding its own—with a combination of strong sales, low interest rates and great values that make this the ideal time to buy or sell a home in Mobile Alabama.

Did you know that Real Estate sales in the Mobile Alabama are up since January, average home prices up 2.5% and average time on the market down 5%? There are many statistics like this available from the website - Things are Really Moving Here

We urge you that now is the time to get involved in our local real estate market. Click here to here a local radio advertisement that is running in the Mobile Alabama area

1) If you are thinking of buying, please give me a call at (251) 215-9382 or (251) 662-5684 and we can develop a plan for you to purchase your dream home at a great price and take advantage of the choices available.
2) As a seller, it is a good time to have your home on the market. There is a local buzz in our market and their are incentives for buyers (especially first time buyers) to buy their home this year. As the saying goes - "Your Home has to be FOR SALE, before it can be sold." We will be happy to do a Comparitive Marketing Analysis for you that will give you idea of what price your home would go for in today's market and how long it would take to sell. This analysis is free of charge and comes with no obligation. Please send me an e-mail if you are interested in this report.

Please visit our websites www.GulfRegionProperties.com or www.AlabamaBestHomes for additional information about the Mobile Alabama area real estate market.

Making Google Maps even more useful with real estate search

Ever since Google Maps launched in Australia in February 2007, we've been committed to adding more and more useful and up-to-date information to make it a truly valuable resource for Australians. From within Google Maps you can now search for a local plumber or chemist; get driving directions to a friend's place; check out the location of a restaurant before making a booking with Street View; view terrain and satellite data for a given area; and even plan travel using public transport in some cities in Australia.

And the pace of innovation around Google Maps hasn't slowed. We recently added Monorail and Light Rail transit information to Google Maps in Sydney; and introduced a pretty neat way of navigating around Street View images that has inspired some of our users to very cool creative endeavours.

Today we're adding a feature to Google Maps in Australia that we think will make Maps an even more invaluable resource to Aussies as they go about their busy lives. Increasingly, people are heading online when looking for a new house to rent or buy, and from today, we're adding the ability to search for properties on Google Maps. We've worked with partners across the real estate industry to provide up-to-date listings, which you can search for directly from the Google Maps search box.

You can check it out by entering a search like 'real estate crows nest' and clicking through to search real estate listings. A marker will appear on the map for every available listing, using our new search results feature, so you can get a really good idea of the distribution of the properties for sale or rent. This also means you can perform a search and see all the properties for sale close to, for example, a local school you're interested in your kids attending. You can click on each marker and each small circle to get more detailed information about the property, including the listing agent's website and contact details.


It's also easy to refine your search further by criteria like bedrooms, bathrooms, garaging and price. And if you decide that Seaforth is more your speed, you can pan the map to another area entirely to see the listings there, and the map will automatically update, without typing anything new.

This isn't the only resource available for your new home search. You can use Street View on Google Maps to check out the neighbourhood before driving to an open home; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; and transit information to work out what your new commute might be if you went ahead and moved house.

Check out the video below for more information on how we're making it easy to find real estate listings on Google Maps in Australia. It's part of our commitment to bringing the most useful and relevant information to Google Maps users in Australia, and we'll keep working on this to make it even more useful over time.



Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager

Mobile Real Estate MLS Statistics and Trends - November 2007

The table below contains real estate statistics extracted from the Mobile Area Association of Realtors MLS Data reflecting sales data as of October 2007 for Mobile County. The spreadsheet will not fit in the window. You can use the scroll bar on the bottom of the spreadsheet to see the data on the right of the screen. Click on the tabs to see the different types of analysis - Units Sold, Median Sales Price, Units Available, Days on Market, and Absorption Rate which reports the number of months supply of homes available.



Please feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or would like for us to do a custom analysis of your neighborhood.

Mobile Real Estate MLS Statistics and Trends - October 2007

The table below contains statistics extracted from the Mobile Area Association of Realtors MLS Data reflecting sales data as of September 2007. The spreadsheet will not fit in the window. You can use the scroll bar on the bottom of the spreadsheet to see the data on the right of the screen. Click on the tabs to see the different types of analysis - Units Sold, Median Sales Price, Units Available, Days on Market, and Absorption Rate which reports the number of months supply of homes available.



In summary, September showed a drop of 22% in number of units sold in Mobile County. This trend was also apparent at the time last year. In looking at median sales price, the sales price of a home in Mobile County has taken a drastic turn down in past two months. The statistics show a drop of $18,000. The statistics still show an increase of $3000 when compared to December of 2005. The statistics show that there was a drop in median sales price last September and then it went up again in October. Next month's report will be monitored to see if median sales price increases like it did last October. The Mobile area inventory level has doubled since December of 2005. The inventory level at that time were depleted as a result of the migration of people moving here after Hurricane Katrina and the demand on the local real estate market that the storm created. The Days on Market of 59 days is a great number when compared to other parts of the country. The number has been pretty steady in Mobile County for the last 2 years. Absorption Rate is calculated by taking the number of homes available and divide it by the number of homes sold. The absorption rate result for September is the highest that is has been in over 2 years. Based on the number of 8.35 months number, Mobile can be considered a buyer's market because most professionals consider the threshold to be 7 months.

The next few months will be interesting. We feel that the sales numbers in the next few months will be down because traditionally that is what we have seen in the Mobile real estate market. The tightening of the mortgage approval process should logically reduce the number of potential buyers as well. There are a number of new industries coming to Mobile. There is also many existing companies that are expanding their existing operations. The employment picture in Mobile is very bright. I do not see the effect of the of the business expansion on Mobile until after the first of the year.

Please drop us a line if you have any questions or visit our website for other real estate information regarding Mobile.

Blog Site Has Been Launched

Welcome to the Mobile Real Estate Blog!

Cristy and I hope to use this forum to share information about Mobile, AL and surrounding communities. Most of the information will be real estate related, but every now and then I may start talking my other passion which is sports.

Please check back for various reports.

You can always visit us at http://www.GulfRegionProperties.com/