I used Google maps today to look for a potential customer and used the street view to get a look at the house.
Today I drove through several subdivisions putting flyers in the NP boxes. Don't put them in mail boxes. I especially targeted housed that I could see streaks from the front and the ones with for sale signs.
I didnt even know you could actually look at the street view of a house until a couple of months ago. To be honest It kind of blew my mind! Ive been using the heck out of the aerial view to look for potential neighborhoods.
As long as the address shows up right It would be a good way to get a feel for the layout and look of the house. I tried to check a job like this a while back BUT the address didnt show the right house..... actually the address were between houses if that makes sense. So to check it I pulled up my address and was 4 houses off.
Surely theyll get the kinks worked out. Then It could be real helpful. Until then ill continue to use it to get directions and search for my next fishing hole.
Unfortunettly they may be shutting down the street level shots, as many people are forming law suits against them for what was captured in those shots. The funniest example is that many people were caught leaving a house were they were cheating on their spouse.
If you go to the county auditors website alot of times they have a lot better photo than what you get with google earth, but I still look at it to help get a better Idea of what Im dealing with. I do all of my quotes this way. Saves A LOT of time driving around.
I use Google maps all the time to assist in estimating my Roof Cleaning and Pressure Washing jobs. between that and our local property appraiser web site I've cut out a huge expense in fuel cost as well as the time involved driving all over town. Be careful though. Sometimes the Roof your looking at is not always the right one on the map. It tends to pick the wrong address from time to time.
-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Palm Harbor FL 727 543 3276 on Thursday 21st of May 2009 07:38:27 PM
I too have used this feature to save windshield time. Although most sites feature the same info from the same source and format, I can usually get what I need for a pretty-accurate bid If I'm not interested in an on-site service proposal. I start out with the county parcel viewers, then zillow, then google to make sure it all adds up. It can be time consuming if you're not used to it, but it saves time and money if you're otherwise busy.
Chris, you may not be doing anything wrong. Sometimes the quality of the image is distorted at lower pixels if you zoom in. Try the other sites I mentioned.
-- Edited by PowerClean on Saturday 23rd of May 2009 12:23:27 PM
Google Map is a great tool for finding dirty roofs, I have been on it for a couple of hours and found at least 50 tile roofs that need to be cleaned in one area,I've just saved myself 3 hours of driving and money for gas, I will be using this method for now on for finding neighbourhoods to put up my signs!Great tool for the business..
-- Edited by Durham Roof Cleaning on Saturday 19th of March 2011 06:10:30 PM
View can be dated. I just use Google Maps to get a "general" idea of the homes layout,lanscaping & pitch. So that I'm not going in blind. Do not rely on for condition of the roof though.