22 November . 2018
Top 5 Google Maps tricks to make finding a home easier
Whether you’re a professional real estate agent or a homebuyer determined to find the perfect new home and community, you’re in for a lot of driving, especially in newly developed areas you might not be that familiar with.
Fortunately, GOOGLE MAPS is a godsend that can make navigation pretty painless, especially since this app has many features not available in other navigation services. Here are 5 of the best but little-known GOOGLE MAPS tricks that can help homebuyers and Realtors.
Plot Multiple Locations. A new home search involves many stops, even within the same neighborhood or community. It’s easy to add multiple destinations in the GOOGLE MAPS mobile app. Just enter your starting point and final destination, then click the three dots in the top right corner. A pop-over menu will appear with an option to “Add stop.” Click on that and create a route with multiple stops.
Offline access. If you find yourself with limited or non-existent mobile coverage, don’t stress – you can access GOOGLE MAPS offline. Navigate to your desired location, then tap the bottom of the screen, causing a pop-up to appear with the option to download that map. You can then get turn-by-turn directions and info on local businesses for the downloaded section of the map.
Measure any distance. Right-click anywhere on a map to calculate the distance between two points. This is a great tool for finding a home’s distance from nearby services and amenities like schools, shopping and employment centers.
Time travel. Want to see how a street or neighborhood has changed over the years? Google’s Time Travel feature is a virtual time machine that provides a 4D cartographic experience in Street View. Just click on the stopwatch icon in the top-left corner to browse through Street Views over time.
Share real-time location. If you’re meeting someone at a property, or you’re driving to multiple properties, you can share your current location with people for specific periods of time. When you do, they’ll see your icon moving in real time on their map.
Does this leave you wanting more GOOGLE MAPS tricks? See a larger list of 33 tricks here.
Sweetwater also offers several technological tools to make your home shopping experience easier from anywhere. You can experience virtual tours, videos and photo galleries of many of our fully furnished model homes. Our interactive Homefinder lets you personalize your home search with a number of filters.