Google Earth: Helping You Buy Your New Home

By Rebecca Williamson · July 16th, 2008

Raymond has talked a lot about doing your homework when shopping for a home, but we all know that takes time — and time is not a luxury I usually have. So what do you do when you’re stuck at your desk? How do you still buy a house to come home to?… Get creative on the internet!

It’s true that nothing takes the place of actually visiting the house yourself, but you can do a lot of filtering before you start making trips. By now, you’re probably signed up for email searches of homes that match your criteria (and if you’re not, you can sign up right here at LivingWell), but as you may have figured out, pictures of the house can’t help you determine how busy the street is or how close the neighbors are, etc.

But thanks to our friends at Google, there’s now a great way to figure this out — Google Earth!

Before you take the time to see the property, run a quick search for it using Google Earth. From the comfort of your computer, you can check out the street, general location of the home, even the backyard! Be warned though… it’s addictive.

GoogleEarth