Leverage Aerial Imagery to Show Your Clients Everything!

The Canadian real-estate market continues to thrive, despite the challenges that folks south of the border have faced post-recession. If you work in real-estate, then you know just how much competition there is, and you know that today’s client is more educated than ever before. Clients require more information, and have higher expectations than ever when it comes to making the decision to make an offer on a home. Listing agents and agents who represent buyers benefit from being able to provide their clients with the most information possible.

When we speak of information, this includes imagery of the home that you would not normally see on a typical real-estate listing.

Imagine if you had the ability to fly your client in a helicopter over a particular neighbourhood, providing aerial imagery and views of not only the home that they are thinking about purchasing, but of the entire neighbourhood the property is located in? Well you can provide them with this aerial imagery – and your office becomes the cockpit!

Why is aerial imagery so important? Because it will allow you to quickly highlight valuable information that will help your clients make the decision to buy, and provide sellers with the ability to highlight positive attributes about their community.

Aerial imagery will identify building structures and help you uncover information such as whether or not a community is highly industrial or if a property backs onto a factory – something that a young family for example may not find appealing.

This technology can also uncover the proximity of a property to railway systems, highways and transit, which may be a positive attribute for a prospective buyer who commutes to work. Perhaps your client is retired and would prefer to live in a community that is somewhat distant from traffic.

Aerial imagery can also show proximity to parklands, schools, shopping centres and other important attributes of a community that a seller may want to highlight to a buyer.

Whether it is January or June, aerial imagery can also help you to sell no matter what season it is and no matter what the weather is like. During the winter, aerial imagery can show you what a property and neighbourhood looks like when it is not covered with snow, or in the fall, aerial imagery can enable you to view a neighbourhood that is covered with leaves. This is a huge asset for real-estate agents to be able to show what a home’s backyard looks like where you otherwise may not be able to see it.

Aerial imagery is an essential tool in any real-estate professional’s toolkit!

For more information about how you can leverage aerial imagery to show your clients even more property information please visit www.geowarehouse.ca or call 866-237-5937.

Real-Estate Demographics Focus: Neighbourhoods in Toronto

There are so many wonderful neighbourhoods in Toronto to buy in. According to the City of Toronto, this city is vast with a population of over 2.4 million people. Ethnic diversity is something that Torontonians take pride in, and according to the 2006 census, Toronto is home to approximately 16 predominant ethnic groups. Touted as the “City of Neighbourhoods” on Wikipedia, Toronto boasts over 240 distinct neighbourhoods.

If you are a real-estate professional in Toronto, then you know how much demographics can differ from one neighbourhood to another, as well as how competitive the real-estate market in Toronto is. Knowing the demographics of the different neighbourhoods in Toronto is very important to compete in this market.

Easier said than done, right? No – it is actually very simple! Knowing the demographics of neighbourhoods in Toronto can be quickly achieved by using the web-based technology made available through GeoWarehouse.

When you access GeoWarehouse, you can perform searches of properties in different neighbourhoods in Toronto. You can generate a Neighbourhood Demographics Report that will show your clients neighbourhood information which includes:

·         Age distribution and marital status of residents – your clients can learn if there are other families like theirs. For example, a client with a young family may see more benefits in purchasing in a neighbourhood that has an abundance of other young families.
·         Structural types of housing and the percentage of owned and rented properties – knowing this information is very useful. For example, if your client wants to purchase an investment/rental property in neighbourhoods in Toronto that have a high population of renters, you can highlight this.
·         Average household income.
·         Dominant languages spoken, religions, ethnicities, and more.

You can also view aerial imagery of the property and surrounding properties, distance to schools, parks and other amenities in the neighbourhood. This could help you spot the desirable attributes about a neighbourhood or the less desirable attributes. If your client is looking for a home in a quiet neighbourhood for example, and then aerial imagery shows that a property your client is interested in is near a railroad, it may be an indicator that the property they are considering may not offer the peace and quiet that your client desires.

Accessing this information will improve your expertise of the different neighbourhoods in Toronto and will enable you to serve a wider range of clients more knowledgably.

For more information about how you can access neighbourhood demographic information about neighbourhoods in Toronto please visit www.geowarehouse.ca or call 866-237-5937.