They’ve decided to get involved in real estate in a big way through a new Google maps feature.

 

To try it out, type in

 

     Real Estate on Google Maps

 

into a Google search.

 

Choose:

 

     Rent or For Sale

 

Put in your other specifications.

 

You’ll now see a map showing the top 10 listings that match your criteria and an alphabetical icon.

 

Scroll over the icon (example, property A) to get more information about that property.

 

Should that information prick your curiosity further, you can click away for more information from the primary feeder site. In WA, that seems to be Aussie Home and REIWA.     

                                                                                                            

The 10 listings are also listed down the left hand side of the page.

 

There is also a capacity to view the next ten and so on.

 

At this stage, one of the downsides of the feature is that not all feeder sites are included in the search.

 

For example, realestate.com and domain.com (the two biggest feeders in Australia) are not part of the service.

 

And so people who upload their properties directly through them would miss out on the Google exposure.

 

However, given Google’s propensity to dominate a market, I wouldn’t be surprised if realestate.com and domain.com eventually come on board.

 

After all, if I were a seller or landlord, I’d want the maximum exposure for my property.

  

Another drawback of the present Google Real Estate feature is that at this stage, the process of getting to this page is slightly convoluted.

 

However, in time, I wouldn’t mind betting that Google refine the process like they did with business searches so that real estate listings appear on the first page of a regular search.

 

Buying and renting properties just got easier. 

 

David Fear