Sunday, April 29, 2007

Google Earth Experiment

With the Sacramento FIT listings rapidly approaching 1,000, I'm finding I spend a lot more time each week preparing and posting to this blog. Rather than burn myself out, I thought I'd try an experiment.

Many of you are familiar with Google Earth. For those that aren't, it is an incredible free software application that allows you to view geocoded information superimposed on a satellite view of the Earth's surface. You can take any data, like Flippers In Trouble listings, for instance, and place them in Google Earth in a browseable format. Here's a screenshot:

Here are the files you need to get started:

Download Google Earth
Flippers In Trouble Data File

Please let me know what you think of this format (love, hate, indifferent) and if you can think of any improvements.

20 comments :

Anonymous said...

Max,

I downloaded Google Earth, then tried to open the FIT file, but it would not load. Not sure what to do. Can you give us some more direction about how this is suppose to work?

Josh said...

Can you give us some more direction about how this is suppose to work?

Hmmm... I assume you've installed GE and were able to get it running. If that's the case, in GE, did you try "File", then "Open", then select the file?

If you post your system details, I might be able to help a little more...

Damon said...

This format is great! I woukld love to get this format for all MLS listings across the region.

patski said...

NICE!! Thanks a lot, that makes all the difference!

Anonymous said...

Max,
Your comment was all I needed.... just a pointer in the right direction. That is a fascinating program. One thing is clear, looking at real time, real sites, real property..... it is easy to see there are about 20 times more FITs than are currently identified on your program.

You only show 16 FITs in Rancho Cordova off South Sunrise, for example. It is easy to identify about 200 more FB's who are upside down but still listed at 2005 prices, or in pre foreclosure, or a FSBO off MLS, or lender owned but not listed, etc.

I see the potential for many many more FITs in the next 24 months.

Fascinating. And thank you for introducing a new technology. I still like the list to go peruse in sequence of lost dollars, but it is always nice to see a new perspective.

Anonymous said...

FANTASTIC!
Thanks for all the work you do.

-Casey,
(NO not THAT Casey!)

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see you keep the data over time. In other words, a data file with information through 4/30, then another data file with data through 5/31, etc. It would be very interesting to see how (and whether) the pain spreads through the region.

Perfect Storm said...

I like it, I hope this saves you time and trouble because it is really really slick. It gives me ideal comps for most areas, with the exception of a few, but soon even those areas will be become one with the rest of FIT's, no area will be exempt.

Cmyst said...

OMG, I love this!
I'm visually oriented in learning, and it was incredibly easy for me to pick out the areas I'm interested in.
Scrolling through the list before was interesting in terms of total $ losses, but boring otherwise. This is great! I also found out something: one of the 6 or so Streng homes that I track has been on the market over twice as long as ZipRealty indicates (probably switched agents, etc.) and the price was steadily decreased until the first of the year. I had wondered why some of these places on the market for months didn't lower their price -- now, I know this one lowered it, following the market down, and is now hanging on for dear life just trying to keep what they're going to LOSE under 15 K. Likely, a losing battle. Wonder when it will hit foreclosure?
Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this site.

Josh said...

I'm glad you all like it. As of today, there were over 200 downloads, so I must be doing something right.

I plan on continuing to publish the aggregate stats on the front page, with a link to the latest file as well.

If you have any other ideas, please post them here!

Anonymous said...

Actually, I'm still having trouble. I've got GE up, having already downloaded the zip file. Then in GE I hit File Open and the zip file, and am told GE does not support the file.

Thoughts?

Josh said...

I've got GE up, having already downloaded the zip file.

This is an odd one. Although the flipper data file is a "zip" format, it should have a "kmz" suffix. Try changing the ".zip" to ".kmz" and see what happens.

David and Amber said...

I tried downloading the file also but it is shown on my desktop as a .kmz.txt file??

Please post a walk through for those of us who are technically challenged.

Also are there any different steps for a mac or pc??

Big Rig said...

This format is great!

Some of the links to Realtor.com did not appear to be working.

Josh said...

I tried downloading the file also but it is shown on my desktop as a .kmz.txt file??

Delete the ".txt" from the filename, and try it again.

Josh said...

Some of the links to Realtor.com did not appear to be working.

This happens over time as the listings expire or are sold. Since the file is a few day old now, you will see more of these errors crop in.

Unknown said...

Really like what you did with google earth. One request, if you add that you could turn off different price ranges.

Adam said...

Yeah, great job on the integration with Google.

Here's my fear, however: one of the best features of your website before was that you presented examples of flippers in trouble that showed examples of losses in an easily-understandable format, i.e. a big read % that showed % loss.....

I'm afraid the Google approach is a more complicated process that'll impede users, where many casual visitors won't hassle with (or know how to) download Google Earth AND the data tables. Then they have to click on the 'more info' MLS, and see the information for themselves.

My concern is that while it allows MORE data to be seen, it isn't as dramatic, or as telling (for example, I clicked on a few listings, and they showed 5% below what they paid. While the flipper is in trouble, it's not so dramatic as to make an impression, like the older format did...)

As a suggestion, I'm wondering if it would be possible for the pop-up colored legend to show not just house prices (i.e. 0-$200k), but to show the % change from their buying to asking prices? OR, to show the pop-up values as actual DOLLAR loss IF they were to get their asking price?

That kind of presentation of data would give a quick snapshot of how screwed some of these flippers actually are, IMO.

If not, then tanks for all the hard work. IMO, your site IS the best I've seen for presenting this kind of real-time data, and I hate to think it would lose it's impact....

Anonymous said...

Love your site. I cannot figure out how to use your new system. I downloaded your file, opened earth and tried to open your file, to no avail. Will you please give us step by step directions. Thanks

Anonymous said...

Love it. Great Job.
Well Done and thanks for the hard work.