Google Earth for Real Estate Professionals - E-Learning for the GIS Professional - Any Time, Any Place!

Google Earth for Real Estate
       Professionals
E-Learning for the GIS Professional –
       Any Time, Any Place!
              geospatialtraining.com

Course Outline
•   Module 1: Google Earth Pro Fundamentals
•   Module 2: Adding Properties to the Map
•   Module 3: Attaching Property Information
•   Module 4: Adding Neighborhood Information
•   Module 5: Creating Thematic and 3D Maps
•   Module 6: Presentation and Communication
•   Module 7: Adding Images to the Display
•   Module 8: Sharing your Data
•   Module 9: Terrain Information
•   Module 10: Using Historical Imagery
•   Module 11: Taking Advantage of Google Search

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GOOGLE EARTH
PRO FUNDAMENTALS

                   3

Module Outline
•   Navigation
•   Creating Features
•   Search
•   Places and Layers Panel

                              4

Navigation
• Many ways to navigate
   – User interface components
   – Mouse
   – Keyboard
• Can zoom, pan, tilt, change orientation,
  rotate
• Demonstration

                                             5

Search Panel
• Google Earth recognizes the
  following search types
   – City, State
   – City, Country
   – Number, Street, City, State
   – Zipcode or Postal Code
   – Latitude, Longitude (Decimal Degrees)
   – Latitude, Longitude (Degrees, Minutes,
     Seconds)
   – Free form (Museums in New York City)

                                              6

Places Panel
• Contains temporary datasets
  – Temporary Places folder
  – Only used for current GE session
  – Removed when you close GE
• Datasets saved to your local
  computer
  – My Places
  – Persist between sessions
  – Right click a layer from Temporary
    Places folder and select Save to My
    Places

                                          7

Layers Panel
• Contains Google provided datasets
  – Created by Google or its content
    partners
• Always available in GE
• Can’t add your layers to the Layers
  panel

                                        8

Data is Easy to Distribute
• All content contained within KML or KMZ file
• Can be distributed via
   –   Internet
   –   Network Server
   –   Email
   –   Web Services

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ADDING PROPERTIES TO THE MAP

                               10

Module Outline
• Address geocoding
• Adding all your properties to Google Earth using
  geocoding
• Adding properties manually as points
• Creating land parcels as polygons

                                                     11

What is Geocoding?
• Process of converting physical addresses into geographic
  coordinates
   – Address can’t be added to map without geographic coordinates
   – Example:
     1202 Sand Wedge, San Antonio, TX = -98.4743, 29.6618

                                                                    12

Rooftop Geocoding
• Also called “point-level” geocoding
• Most accurate determination
• More accurate for long street segments, cul-de-sacs, or
  irregularly spaced addresses
• Assigns a geographic coordinate to the actual rooftop of
  an address

                                                             13

Street Segment Geocoding
      • Assigns latitude/longitude coordinates based on know geocodes at
        the intersection of the block or street segment containing an
        address
      • Uses a process of interpolation
          – Example: If a block runs from 100-200 Main Street, then 150 Main Street would
            be approximately halfway between 100 and 200 Main Street
      • Most commonly used method at this time
      • More accurate in urban areas
          – Rural areas are less complete

                                               Longitude: -96.3462, Latitude: 20.4521

100                                    150                                  200
                                    Main St.
                                                                                            14

Geocoding in Google Earth Pro
• GE Pro can import a text file containing a batch set of
  addresses
• Text file is typically delimited by a comma or tab
• Supported countries
   – United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Germany,
     Spain
• Each address converted into a Placemark

                                                                      15

Geocoding in Google Earth Pro
• Starts with a text file containing addresses
• Address components can be in separate columns or a
  single column

                                                       16

Geocoding in Google Earth Pro
• Go to File  Import
• Find the file and open
• Data Import Wizard

                                  17

Some Addresses Won’t Geocode
• Not all addresses will geocode
   – PO Boxes, Apartments, Suite Numbers
   – New Addresses
   – Misspellings and typos
• Can repair addresses in Google Earth

                                           18

Defining the Address Placemark Icon
• Can apply a style template to the features
• Can define

    – Name
        • Defines how the Placemark will be labeled
    – Color
        • Icon color

    – Icon
        • Style

    – Height
        • Clamp features to ground or set height from a field

                                                                19

Geocoding Results
• Addresses added as Placemarks
• Saved in a KML file

                                  20

Demonstration
• Demonstration:
  Adding Addresses to Google Earth with
  Geocoding

                                          21

Adding Properties Manually
   • Use the Add Placemark tool

   • Click the location of the property
     in GE

Demonstration

                                          22

Styling the Property
• Properties can be styled by changing
  the icon
   – Click the icon button to display list of icons
   – Can also add your own custom icons

• Increase or decrease size of icon
   – Use Scale property
       • Default is 1.1 (higher number increases size)

                                                         23

Custom Icons
• Can add your own custom icons
• Many available on the web
• Map icons collection
  http://mapicons.nicolasmollet.com
• KML4Earth
  http://kml4earth.appspot.com/icons.html

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Creating Land Parcels

        Demonstration

                        25

Perimeter and Area of a Parcel
• Measurements tab
• Automatically determines perimeter and area
• Can change units of measurement
   – Feet, miles, meters, etc

                                                26

Exercise
• Demonstration:
  Manually Creating Properties with Google
  Earth

                                             27

ADDING PROPERTY INFORMATION

                              28

Module Outline
• Introduction to info balloons
• Adding text, photos, video, links to info
  balloons
• Using templates to create info balloons

                                              29

Introduction to Balloons
• Balloons provide a way of
  communicating information about a
  place to your users
    – Attached to Placemarks
    – Can include
        • Plain text, HTML, photos, video, links
          to files
• Excellent tool for presenting property
  information to users
    – Pricing, detailed property information,
      photos, video, your logo

                                                   30

Adding Information to Info Balloons
• Add information to balloons by editing Placemark
   – Select Placemark and then Get Info

• Description tab

                                                     31

Adding a Link to the Info Balloon
•   The  HTML element used to add a link to the balloon

                                                             32

Adding a Link to a PDF File to an Info
               Balloon
• Can also link to PDF and other file formats
• Use  HTML element
    – Provide a URL to the file

                                                33

Adding a Photo to an Info Balloon
• The  HTML element adds an image to the balloon

                                                        34

Adding Video to an Info Balloon
• Use  HTML element to add
  video to an info balloon

                                     35

Exercise
• Demonstration:
 Adding Property Information to Info Balloons

                                                36

ADDING NEIGHBORHOOD
    INFORMATION

                      37

Module Outline
• Demographic information
• Parcel information
• Traffic counts

                            38

Demographic Information
•   Google Earth Pro includes census demographic
    information
•   Layers  Earth Pro  US Demographics
•   Various Levels
     –   State
     –   County
     –   Census Tract
     –   Census Block
•   Most current year (2011)
•   Projections (2016)
•   Age, education, gender, households, income,
    marital status, vehicle availability

                                                   39

Demographic Information
• Can also create a thematic map from any of the demographic
  variables

                                                               40

Exercise
• Demonstration:
  Displaying Demographic Data in Google
  Earth Pro

                                          41

Parcel Information
•   Earth Pro dataset
•   Parcel boundaries
•   Parcel information
•   Layers  Earth Pro  US Parcel Data

                                          42

Traffic Counts
• Google Earth Pro dataset
• Layers  Earth Pro  US Daily Traffic
  Counts
• Lists traffic counts by year for that
  location

                                          43

ADDING IMAGES TO THE DISPLAY

                               44

Module Outline
• Overview of adding images to Google Earth
• Add Image Overlay tool
• Defining coordinates for the image

                                              45

Adding Images to the Google Earth
                Display
•   Graphic files can be imported
    to GE as overlays
•   Drape across the underlying
    terrain
•   Image file formats include jpeg,
    bmp, gif, tiff, tga, and png
•   You can also set a transparency
    on the image to see the
    underlying terrain.

                                        46

Add Image Overlay Tool
•   Use the Add Image Overlay
    tool
•   Browse to an image file
•   GE doesn’t necessarily know
    where to place the image on
    the earth
     – Need to know bounding
       coordinates of image
       OR
     – Use the tools to center,
       rotate, and stretch the
       image

                                     47

Add Image Overlay Dialog

                           48

Add Image Overlay - Location

                               49

Add Image Overlay - Location

                               50

Exercise
• Demonstration:
  Adding an Image Overlay to Google Earth

                                            51

Google Earth for Real Estate
                     Professionals
• 1 Day Self-Paced Online Course - $129.00
• http://geospatialtraining.com – Link to course
•   Learn how to import all your properties into Google Earth in seconds
•   Symbolize your properties with built in real estate icons or custom icons that represent your agency
•   Add property information including photos, videos, links to files and websites, sales information, detailed property information
•   Display neighborhood information including census demographics, school districts, traffic counts, detailed tax appraisal
    information
•   Provide driving directions to properties
•   Email information to clients or place on a web server
•   Printing maps
•   Embed maps into presentations
•   Get terrain information

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ERIC PIMPLER
210.260.4992
GeoSpatial Training Services
eric@geospatialtraining.com
http://geospatialtraining.com

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