Using Google Maps to Save Time

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As a real estate wholesaler, one of the websites I’ve grown increasingly fond of over the last year or so is Google Maps– particularly the “Street View” function they provide.  In fact, unless I am already intimately familiar with the neighborhood where a potential deal is located, Google Maps is the first place I go to when I start my due diligence, and it has proven to be a real time-saver!

Aside from the fact that you can get a close up view of the property itself, when using Street View, you can also get a pretty good feel for the neighborhood where the property is located.  While nothing can take the place of actually going to check out the neighborhood yourself, Street View is definitely the next best thing!

There have been numerous occasions where, after checking out a property via Google Maps, I have decided against even going out to look at it.  If you value your time as much as I do, saving an extra 30 minutes (or more) in the car just by doing a quick search online is priceless!

Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a screenshot taken from Google Map’s Street View of a potential deal that I was presented with a few weeks ago:

At first glance, the house doesn’t look too bad- good curb appeal, and a white picket fence. Nice.

Then I looked at what was across the street and this is what I found:

Golden Arches!

And then right next door there was a payment center for electric bills, cell phone bills, etc:

Being that this deal was already on the skinny side, I decided to not even bother going out to look at the interior of the property. The house was about 15 minutes away from mine, so thanks to Google Maps I saved a half hour of my time to devote to other more profitable activities.

If you aren’t already using Google Maps in your real estate business, I recommend you give it a shot- it’s a resource that’s definitely worth it’s weight in gold, and you sure can’t beat the price!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.