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December 15th, 2005
GEOVISTAŽ Web Service automatically integrates valuable property dimension data into homes for sale database
| Challenge: |
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Realtors were not typically providing parcel dimensions and boundaries with listings due to the difficulty in obtaining the data.
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| Business: |
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GEOVISTAŽ Web Service Provided for The Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois
The Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois (MLSNI) is one of the largest MLS organizations in the United States representing over 38,000 Realtor members located in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, Will, McHenry, Grundy and Kendall Counties. For years the MLSNI had been investigating ways of providing convenient access to County plat maps as part of their information portal. Plat maps are the best source for obtaining lot dimensions and the property boundaries, which became increasingly more important in a residential property sale due to the escalating value of land. |
| Problem: |
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The challenge for an organization of this size representing realtors in eight counties was that each County had their own plat map data formats and differing policies for licensing the data. All of the Counties had facilities that realtors could use to purchase copies of maps, however this was a very time consuming process which led to limited use of plat map information associated with listings. Some of the Counties launched public web sites that offered a more convenient method to obtain the maps, however navigating through various County web sites still limited the frequency with which realtors were providing lot dimensions and the property boundaries with listings.
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| Solution: |
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IN 2003, GEOSPAN first introduced the ability to web browser enable plat map data from multiple Counties through a common interface that could be linked right into their listing databases. This capability was demonstrated as an extension of the GEOVISTA Neighborhood Tours that were already integrated into their listings.
In 2004, MLSNI contracted with GEOSPAN to launch the GEOVISTA web portal service beginning with coverage for nearly 2 million parcels. This service displays the specific parcel area of a scanned paper map by simply clicking on the link that is automatically established as listings are created. Plat map retrieval by entering in an address or Property ID # is also supported for properties that are not on the market. Parcel data from additional counties were subsequently added that had source data in digital GIS data formats. The retrieval capabilities were simplified to a point that the members did not even have to know what County the property resided in and the user interface was the same regardless of the County source data format. |
| Benefit: |
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The MLSNI surpassed their goal of significantly increasing the inclusion of parcel boundary and dimension information with each listing since the link was automatically established at time of entering a new listing into the MLS database.
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| ROI: |
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By entering into a contract with GEOSPAN to provide unlimited access to all MLSNI members at a nominal monthly fee per member, the MLSNI was able to save their membership time and money since the individual members no longer needed to purchase the data from the Counties or from third party vendors.
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About GEOSPAN
GEOSPAN is the provider of the technology leading spatially accurate GEOVISTA® Multi-Angle Imagery™ and GEOVISTA® 3D Spatial Imagery™ products. GEOSPAN patented technology offers fully integrated high-resolution 360º oblique aerial and street-level GEOVISTA® imagery. GEOVISTA® panoramic imagery solutions support a variety of state and local government GIS applications including E9-1-1, emergency management, homeland security, law enforcement, planning, property assessing, infrastructure inventory, pavement analysis, and transportation. GEOVISTA® solutions also serve a variety of private sector markets including real estate buying and selling, visual mapping, insurance, mortgage lending and micro marketing.
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