House shopping with Google Street View
Posted by Jacque on April 10th, 2008
Trulia real estate search site and Google Maps Street View bring a new experience to to actual and potential home buyers. Trulia announced yesterday that folks can now “walk the neighborhoods from the comfort of their very own couches.” Google’s Street View and Trulia now make 40 places explorable, and Trulia plans to expand its service as Street View expands.
“We’re excited to use the new Street View API to add efficiency to the real estate search experience and help home buyers discover more information about particular neighborhoods,” said Google Lat Long Blog.
If you are one of those very busy people trying to fit in open houses and new neighborhood trolling in one of the covered cities, you can preview homes and surrounding areas with Street View. You not only see the home for sale, you can also pan around to view surrounding properties. Trulia now gives you the “true view” of an area so you can discover surprises lurking around the corner and save your trips for those homes that truly meet your expectations.
“For example,” Trulia says, “People can uncover information about an area that might not be readily available or visible in property descriptions and still photos (railroad tracks across the street, obstructions of a view, or heavy traffic at nearby intersections). This is another unbiased tool on Trulia – along with comparables, real estate market stats and trends, and the Trulia Voices community – that adds transparency to the real estate search process.”
You’ll need a recent Adobe Flash Player to use Street View.