Global Positioning

[airphoto]

New Poll:

I use GPS quite regularly .. in fact seldom leave home without it (either in the airplane, or in the car .. Garmin GPSIII.) But then, I'm in the Thule Bushes of upstate NY where the woodchucks far outnumber people .. (of course, many of the woodchucks ARE people!)

Curious as to whether or how many others find this so useful .. so I've (attempted) a poll ..

Cheers! :lol:

 

[airphoto]

Kewl!

 

[jtrotta]

Been told it's great if your outside suburban area's, but in CT. we can almost everywhere on the back roads, so we can even avoid all you New Yorkers on the weekends :lol:

Of course it gets even worse when those NJ 8O people come over the line for their trips (one of my best friends is from NJ -get all the time)

 

[Bill S]

Don't use it for appraisals but I do use it for sailing. It would be cool if a handheld could be linked to map software and downloaded into the location sketch

 

[Callan]

Here just outside of Washington D.C. we don't need GPS. We just call the government they can find anyone.

 

[Anonymous]

I use one on my bassboat. I use a Lowrance with mapping. Pretty cool really. It is neat to be watching the map scoll as you run 70mph down the lake into the bank it said you were still 10 feet away from!

Seriously, I do use it on myboat, I have a hand held one, but have never had a use for it apprasing. Do you use your appraising? how?

 

[airphoto]

New York has an indexing system, in feet, for the geographic center of every tax parcel. 0,0 is somewhere in western Pennsylvania. Given a known position (eg: my own home) and a number of secondary positions it's possible to swing a measured circle around each of the positions and locate any property on a mapping program (I use DeLorem.)

We have a number of outlying counties where the realtors are not penalized (negligence on the part of the MLS) for failing to put proper addresses or locating instructions in their listings. On occasion pictures are reversed in the MLS, or missing or just wrong house.

Spent hours out in the hinterlands looking for poorly described properties (the listing signs were, of course, long gone.) "Route 8" is a poor address in Hamilton County .. dummies couldn't even put east or west side. How'd you like to drive 12 miles (each way), searching both sides, and still not find what you're looking for?

In any case, rather than break the knees of the listing idiots, went to GPS and plotting sales before leaving home. It's a pretty effective system. Will generally get me within a few hundred yards (multi-acre parcels will be centered fairly far off'n the road) and have an idea which side of the road to search on. Then, it just becomes a choice of one of 5-6 double-wide tin houses that fits the description. If I'm really fortunate, it'll be a real house (rare) among the tin houses ..

Especially useful if it's a nice day and I can use the airplane .. can't read street addresses from the air, but can cover much more ground, more quickly and enjoy myself. Don't get much joy from driving the car anymore ..

Spent under $300 on GPS three years ago, and am well ahead in dollars and aggravation ..

 

[Neil (Texas)]

Hey, Bill S,

Good to find there is another tack and jibe nut around here. If you are using a GPS you must be sailing coastal/deep water, if so I envy you. Being 250 miles from the coast means I have to play on Lake Texoma. Some day, maybe...

Have you tried alamode's Athena? It uses the subject and comp addresses to automatically pull in the map, place the location data/arrows on the map, and transfers the distances to the sales grid.

Jibe Ho!

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Mine is an older Magellan GPS 2000. Used it a few times tournament bass fishing but then it went into the desk and hasn't been used in a couple of years. Probably lost all it's memory by now.

I have been thinking about getting it out since our MLS has coordinates on them and it would be somewhat helpful on rural properties. As I recall, it eats batteries real well! :roll:

 

[Ray Ohler]

I know some appraisers (as well as non-appraisers) around here who could use a HELMET MOUNTED GPS unit. I personally, do not need such a device. I use the compass in my head and I lick my finger and put it up in the air (and I can BET I know what some readers of this forum are thinking - I'm also clairvoyant).