Google Maps

[squilla]

I was shocked to learn how many people don't know about these!

For those heading to completely new areas, or house-shopping from afar, try out the google maps to get a sense of a location without physically being there.
maps.google.com
Simply type in the name of a city (Chicago, IL) or an address (123 Main St, Chicago, IL), hit [enter] and click "satellite." You'll get a great satellite image of the area so you can see first hand if there are parks, golf courses, lakes, etc.
**Smaller cities will not have the satellite feature.

Wow .. 123 main St, Chicago, IL really exists 

[rider06]

I was shocked to learn how many people don't know about these!

For those heading to completely new areas, or house-shopping from afar, try out the google maps to get a sense of a location without physically being there.
maps.google.com
Simply type in the name of a city (Chicago, IL) or an address (123 Main St, Chicago, IL), hit [enter] and click "satellite." You'll get a great satellite image of the area so you can see first hand if there are parks, golf courses, lakes, etc.
**Smaller cities will not have the satellite feature.

Wow .. 123 main St, Chicago, IL really exists 

Google Maps is the best

True Dat...double TRU!!

[Evo]

Google Maps is the best

True Dat...double TRU!!

bhahaha...

Gimme the Chronic-WHAT-cles of narnia!

[okayplayer]

You can call us Aaron Burr....from the way we droppin' Hamiltons

[dococ23]

You can call us Aaron Burr....from the way we droppin' Hamiltons

mr. pibb + red vines = crazy delicious

[wunder]

If you are looking for information about apartment buildings, check out the county auditor's website (or whoever assesses property taxes) and a lot of times they will have property descriptions, blueprints and/or actual pictures of the property on the web for each address in the county.  This comes majorly in handy because property values can be related to how good/bad the neighborhood is.  My county auditor has photos taken from the street of every property in the county.

[bass]

google earth = even better than google maps

[Ceggon]

Damn, Bass beat me to it...

It's very true though, Google Earth is the BOMB!! You do have to downlaod/install it, but its free and is pretty much as good as an expensive geographic infomation system (at least from the user end).

I work in part of NOAA where we do alot of GIS maping and data development, and we have just started using Google Earth professional for some of our projects. Not only is it a great way to chack out an area... but there is also a really motivated user community coming up with crazy good extensions and applications. The Hi-Res imagery is so good, I could (no joke) see my mother-in-law's dog in her backyard (she's all white and was outside when the satellite image was shot).

Check it out, you'll get hooked earth.google.com

[tk42schleg]

Another good time waster along the same lines.

http://www.googlesightseeing.com/

[squilla]

Damn, Bass beat me to it...

It's very true though, Google Earth is the BOMB!! You do have to downlaod/install it, but its free and is pretty much as good as an expensive geographic infomation system (at least from the user end).

I work in part of NOAA where we do alot of GIS maping and data development, and we have just started using Google Earth professional for some of our projects. Not only is it a great way to chack out an area... but there is also a really motivated user community coming up with crazy good extensions and applications. The Hi-Res imagery is so good, I could (no joke) see my mother-in-law's dog in her backyard (she's all white and was outside when the satellite image was shot).

Check it out, you'll get hooked earth.google.com

<---- downloading right now!