Searching for a Property Just Got Easier – Interactive Maps 2.0

As with all good things, a few well-placed improvements usually make them better for everyone! Luckily such is the case with our revamped interactive maps. You, our clients, have made the requests - submitted the tickets outlining what you want to see improved – and we have heeded your calls. Introducing our Interactive Maps 2.0, we have not only surpassed but also raised the level of standard for what an interactive map should be and what functionality it offers. First let’s take a comparative look at the style difference between the map’s previous incarnation and today’s:

For starters, we’ve created 2 mapping variations; a horizontal and a vertical layout, allowing you to choose a style that will better suit your website’s design. You can see that we’ve done away with the finicky slider bar for min and max price, replacing them with a pair of menus that offer a broad range of common price points to choose from. This change has also been carried over for the bedrooms. The bathrooms option has been relocated to the More Options section, under the Rooms tab. The ability to type a location such as Bloor West Village or Pickering has been added to compliment the list of cities and neighbourhoods menu, offering greater flexibility for how someone can search around their desired location. The map itself has been broken into quadrants that refine the number of listings that will load in any section, this helps reduce load times for those on slower computers and Internet connections. Moreover because someone can click on a quadrant to refine the search area, and then on subsequent quadrants within the refined area, they can truly hone in on their area of interest and effectively weed out many of the undesirable properties from the search results.

If you browse through the More Options, you’ll immediately be confronted with 5 tabs, defaulting on For Sale or Lease. The options within are fairly self-explanatory. The next tab is Property Type, and this too is fairly self-explanatory; the only new addition is ‘Other’ which allows you to display any type of listing that doesn’t fit within the 5 classifications from TREB. Commercial properties for example fall under this Property Type. Rooms are the third tab, and it allows you to specify the minimum number of bathrooms any property in the search results must have. Open House is the forth option; set the time range for which you want Open Houses to be displayed, such as Never, 24 or 48 Hours, upwards of 60 days – the details for any Open Houses within the allotted time range will be displayed on the listings. Amenities are the fifth and final option – choose which ones to showcase by default. Not necessary, and it can increase the map’s loading time, but it is a cool feature and who doesn’t like to know where the nearest LCBO is anyway?

Find a listing you’re interested in? Click on the icon to retrieve a detailed preview, typically including a picture, description, price, property type, and a slew of other options, such as Details, Photos, Nearby Amenities, Book Showing, Zoom and Street View. Need to find driving directions? Simply click on the Directions tab input your starting address and click Get Route.

You can place this map on ANY custom page as content and are able to specify the default criteria starting from the Property Types and Price, to which Cities and Neighbourhoods are available in the location menu, to the Amenities one can choose to populate on the map. Want a specific starting point? Use the Exact Point option. Want to disable Lease properties? Simply make sure the option isn’t checked under Property Type. Prefer the old mapping technologies colour-coded map icons? Switch the Icon Set to Colourful. Want the Horizontal Layout? Switch the Layout option to 2 Column. Choose which Features are available – Open Houses, Amenities, Extra Info, Area Search and/or History; give your clients ease-of-use features that help them learn about what’s nearby... knowing what the locale offers can help sway their decision to book a showing!

Knowledge is power, and now that you are aware of the new interactive maps – take advantage of their tools to empower you and those browsing your website for listings.

Authored By: Bryan Coughlin, Client Relations