Latitude and Longitude location

[Doug Wegener]

aerial

I appraiser a lot of vacant land - much of it far from any populated area, and of course no street addresses exist.

The MLS I belong to used to have Smart Map, a really nice feature which allowed one to call up an aerial map by parcel number (or owner's name). It would present the aerial with the parcel map overlay. I could then move the pointer with my mouse, to each of the property's corners and write down the latitude and longitude readings. In this way, I could easily locate the actual property using my handheld GPS.

The MLS has dropped Smart Map and gone to PinPoint - which, as far as I can tell - does not offer this feature.

Does anyone know of an alternative that would give me what I am looking for?

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

Jerry:

That information is available free in riverside county. Good aerial maps including topographic overlays.


http://www3.tlma.co.riverside.ca.us/pa/rclis/viewer.htm

 

[DaveH]

Jerry,
You can download a GIS viewer from ESRI called ArcGIS Explorer, it's free and you can then get the information for any number of public sources to get parcel, aerial photos and other types of info. I use it here in Ohio when I need to look at parcels and easements, Butler County provides a disc with all of the information that I needed. I olny cost $10 for the disc for the entire county. So try you luck that way, seems to work for us here so hopefully your local county government has a GIS department and you can get the information there.

Dave

 

[Jerry Lieb]

Nixonjf - Thanks for the info - I'll check into Digital Map Products to see what they have.

Doug - I use the Riverside County system frequently and it's really nice. Wish all counties had such a setup. My primary problem, now that SmartMaps is gone, is with San Bernardino County.

DaveH - I'll check into the GIS viewer and ESRI. Thanks for the tip.


You guys have all been very helpful - again, I appreciate all of your replies...!

Jerry Lieb

 

[Wayne Tomlinson]

I just returned from a meeting with another CG who is mostly a farm appraiser. I discussed with him the USDA maps that I have mentioned above.

He told me that the new farm bill just passed, makes all that stuff confidential, and will no longer be available even to appraisers.

If so, I am going to have to revise my information sources.

Wayne Tomlinson

 

[David Beasley]

Does your local tax office not have an up-to-date GIS system in place? I guess I'm lucky in that all 3 of my primary counties have great online GIS systems in place, complete with aerial photography. Once you locate the parcel in question, you can get long and lat right then and there (at ANY point you so choose, just by clicking or hovering over the parcel on the online map).

Otherwise, you've been given good advice IMO. Google maps is a good resource, and can also give you long and lat for GPS use. I personally use my hand-held GPS in reverse of your case: I do so many new construction homes in my area that I locate my subject and comps via GPS and feed those coordinates to WinTotal's mapping application so they can be placed precisely, even when the roads don't yet exist on their Microsoft-supplied maps. But I have used the local GIS to find parcels, get their long and lat and let my GPS lead me to them. Works nicely. Especially when the aerial photos are upwards of 5-7 years old and the landscape has changed during that time.

 

[Joseph Elfelt]

Wayne,

Yes, the Farm Bill has made certain info confidential. That info can no longer
be obtained under FOIA.

http://www.mulchblog.com/2008/05/farm_bill_blocks_court-ordered.php#more

Do an 'advanced' google for last 6 months with search terms: "farm bill" foia
You will find more news articles. I hope that the stuff that is now confidential will not affect your work or the work of other appraisers.

Executive summary: In early 2008 the USDA lost a court case and had to release certain info under FOIA. The farm bill undoes that court decision.

For the curious, here is the court decision http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200802/06-5231a.pdf

This is my first post in these appraiser forums. I do have some more thoughts relevant to the issue raised by the OP and hope to have time to share them tomorrow.

 

[Wayne Tomlinson]

Joseph, Welcome to the forum.

It will be good to have more information on that front.

I really have a problem with the secrecy. The lack of this valuable source can only act to reduce the accuracy of appraisals. We can get, usually from the owner a letter to USDA to get the subject information, but we cannot know about the comparables. The customers of the USDA FSA programs are the ones benefitting from appraisers having the information.

Now I have a question for you. You don't say what your position is, but maybe you can lend a hand.

The same appraiser who told me about the new law, also told me that it would not bother his business because he has all the data from all the farms in his area on his own computer.

Using ArcSoft software he has acquired this info. Such a storehouse would be extremely important. How is this possible. I actually saw a folder of aerials, soil maps etc, so I believe that he has it. How did he do it?

Wayne Tomlinson

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

don't yet have a scanner

why that's unamerican....I have 5 of them. maybe i should loan you one. I continue to be amazed that 30 years after FOI became the law in the U. S. and virtually every state, you occasionally have to beg for information from public sources. Aerial photos typical. I use a digital camera (which has a copy setting) to copy deeds, etc. at the courthouse. Got run out of one although she (the County Clerk) couldn't specify why I shouldn't take a pix except she wasn't getting her buck a copy to put in the office slush fund.
Street Atlas has a setting on it where you can track the coordinates. Note there are different coordinate settings on a GPS in addition to decimal and degree-minute-second. Gotta match the setting to what was used.

Our county has instituted GIS mapping and we can now lay the parcel tracts over the aerial photo, so I can identify, within reason, the parcel using the map.

 

[EDWARD BERRY]

If There Is A Topo(some Call Them Quads) After Plotting The Legal, There Is A Formula For Obtaining The Long. An Lat. From The "tic" Marks On The Side Of The Maps.

Been A While Since I Used It But Most Any Surveyor Can Explain.

Good Luck,

Arkie In The Woods Ed.

 

[Thomas N. Morgan]

3-D Topo Maps by DeLorme shows coordinates each time you move your cursor.

Tom