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Technology  for Today's 

Land  Market

By Dave Tall, Managing Broker for Strait Realty in Sequim.

Real estate websites - Today the Internet is the most important means of real estate advertising and buyers most effective means of shopping. No other medium comes close to providing as much information as instantly and its gotten pretty complex. The one constant in this area is that nothing stays constant. My own websites over the last nine years have included features such as mapping, agent biography and audio greeting, new listing email alerts, mortgage calculators, aerial imaging, sales history, professional voiceovers, streaming video, photo slideshows and more.  Hundreds of buyers are browsing for land in the Sequim area every day. Many buyers are coming to the Peninsula to write real estate deals after already selecting their properties on the Net. Now almost all properties listed in the multiple listing services can be linked together so property searches can be conducted from many real estate firms and independent search sites. Buyers should try out several sites choosing one that’s features and interface work the best for them. Sellers should review a listing agents web presence before hiring them to market their properties. 

Electronic interactive maps - Land is closely controlled by governmental and environmental ordinances, regulations, rules and code. The rules imposed on landowners are usually enforced by local jurisdictions like county and city planning departments. Because of the volume and complexity of these rules the planning agencies have needed to create a electronic interactive maps that can be accessed by their employees who regulate the ordinances, professional who are responsible for developing the land and the pubic at large who’s real estate is affected by the rules and helps pay for the map. It’s your map - you should learn how to use it.  The maps give the viewers the most commonly used geographic information (GIS data). The most useful are typically critical area maps, these maps allow the reader to view any portion of terrain, whether entire county or a single building lot and overlay the map with layers depicting which critical areas effect that area as well as aerial photos, topo maps, hill shade imaging of the counties bare-earth Lidar data and much more. Interactive tools can be used to accurately measure boundary lines and distances and link to the areas chosen to its zoning codes, assessors plat maps, assessors sales and tax history and much more.

Global Positioning Systems (G.P.S.) – Knowing how to read a survey map, gauge distances and take compass bearings are the basic skills helpful to buy or sell land and necessary if one wants to be good at it.  Think of a G.P.S. as maps, survey gear and measuring devices and a personal scientist doing all the math work for you, all of it in the palm of your hand. At this time G.P.S. is especially useful when finding and walking large lots or lots in very rural areas.  G.P.S. allows users to follow or record property lines that would otherwise be unworkable in heavily wooded areas. G.P.S can be used to navigate rural and logging roads and determine distances, bearings, altitude and area. A user can even take positions called coordinates of a lot then uploading them to an earth imaging website or software such as Goggle Earth or Terra Server. This allows many applications. - for example a three dimensional map of the area can produced showing the potential for view .

For more information on how technology can help you sell or buy land e-mail me at davetall@olypen.com