How to Make a Real Estate Mashup With Google Maps

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by Brandon Cornett

If you stay on top of technological advances and Internet marketing techniques, you've probably heard about mashups being used on real estate websites.

But what is a mashup and how can you use one to enhance your website? In this tutorial I'll show you how to use Google Maps to create a real estate mashup for your website to showcase your property listings.

But first thing's first. Let's cover some basic Internet terminology here, just so we are on the same page.

What Is a Mashup Anyway?

A mashup is any type of web program or application that combines data from multiple sources for a single purpose. In other words, you "mash" two things together to create something new. Google Maps is commonly used to create mashups, and that's the model we will focus on in this tutorial. In this scenario, you would combine the Google Maps program with your own data (such as the addresses for your listed properties) to combine a web-based tool for consumers.

In fact, when you hear the phrase real estate mashup being used, this is usually what people are talking about -- some form of interactive map that shows homes for sale in a given area. There are many other types of real estate mashups, but the property map is by far the most common application. And Google Maps is the most commonly used program to create this kind of mashup.

Real Estate Uses for the Mashup

This is a great technique to use on your real estate website, and for several reasons. First and foremost, it makes your website more useful. There is no comparison between a static website and one that offers an interactive map with property listings and other useful data. So by creating a real estate mashup of this nature, you are adding value to your website. This will help keep visitors on the site longer, which also increases the likelihood that they will contact you.

The great thing about the Google Maps program is that you can use it in just about any way you want. If you can envision a certain tool in your mind, you can find a way to create it through a real estate mashup using Google Maps. I've seen web developers do some pretty cool things with this tool, but I won't go too far into web development weeds. Instead, I'll show you how to use this program to create a simple real estate mashup for your website, one that shows the location of your listed properties.

How to Use Google Maps On Your Website

Before I get to the steps involved in this process, let me give you a basic overview of what you're going to do. To create a mashup for your real estate website using the Google Maps program, you will sign in to your Google account, go to their maps application, enter data for your mapping points (your property listings, in this scenario), and them embed the resulting map onto your website for your site visitors to use.

Easy enough, right? Now let's walk through the steps involved in creating a real estate mashup with Google Maps and publishing it onto your website.

Step 1 - Sign in to your Google account. If you use AdWords, Analytics, Gmail, or any other Google application, you would log in with the same information you use to access those programs. If necessary, sign up for an account. It's free.

Step 2 - Once you have successfully logged in to your Google account, visit their maps program (visit maps.google.com).

Step 3 - Click on the "My Maps" link at the top of the page.

Step 4 - If you are creating a new real estate mashup from scratch, click on the button that says "Create new map."

Step 5 - Give your map a title and description in the fields provided.

Step 6 - Now you are ready to add the items you want to show up in your map. Within the context of a real estate mashup, this usually means putting the addresses for your property listings, open houses, maybe your office location, etc. You can do this in several ways. One way is to use the "placemark" tool.

Step 7 - I recommend zooming the map in as much as possible when adding a placemark. This allows you to put the icon exactly where you want it. It will then stay in place as you click and drag, or zoom in and out. That way, when your website visitors zoom the map in, they will seen an accurate location for each item.

Step 8 - When you add a placemark, you can also include notes. You can enter the property address, a description and more. In fact, the placemark notes work like miniature web pages. You can put HTML code into the notes, which means you can add pictures of the property, hyperlinks and more. This is the information people will see when they click on a certain placemark.

Step 9 - When you are done, be sure to save the map with a descriptive name. Your saved maps will always be there for you, so you can edit / update them as you wish.

Step 10 - To publish the map / mashup onto your real estate website, you would simply click on the link that says "link" and copy the HTML code provided. Paste the HTML code onto the web page where you want the map to appear, as I have done with my test map below.

Again, here is the very basic mashup I created while making this tutorial. I've only set up one placemark in the map below, but you can click and zoom in on it to see how the tool works. You can also begin to imagine the infinite possibilities of such a tool.

View Larger Map

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial on creating a real estate mashup to showcase your property listings. Good luck.