'Street View' Makes Viewing Homes in Puerto Vallarta Easy
Next-best thing to being there
By Thomas Lloyd
Puerto Vallarta has become well established as one of the favorite choices for North Americans planning on retiring, or just looking for a second home, away from all the snow. More than 50,000 Americans and Canadians have already chosen to invest in a top-of-the-line condo or home in Puerto Vallarta, and once visitors see what Puerto Vallarta has to offer, many of them decide to buy a home here and join this community in an already thriving beachfront city.
Many people fall in love with Puerto Vallarta while vacationing, but they carry out their search for a condo or villa from back home, relying heavily on the Internet for the search stage, later combining this tool with regular phone contact with an agent, and finally, visits.
One of the most powerful tools for searching the Internet is, of course, Google. This search engine provides several other useful options for property searches. One of these is the satellite view, which real estate sites can use to show buyers the exact location of the property they are buying. A relatively new tool is that of "Street View," which allows Internet users to take a "virtual walk" through neighborhoods where the option has been made available.
TOPMexicoRealEstate.com has recently become the first Web site in Latin America to add this tool to its listings pages, allowing Puerto Vallarta and other real estate buyers to see properties in the context of their neighborhoods.
Google Street View was first made available in 2007, but for only a handful of cities in the United States. From there, the service spread to other parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe, as well as a few other areas. In mid-November 2009, Street View was first made available for Mexico, providing service for Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Puebla, and Puerto Vallarta.
Property buyers who visit the TOPMexicoRealEstate Internet listings (accessible from the Listings tab on the main page) can browse listings from 11 of Mexico's key real estate destinations for international buyers. Buyers who choose to access further information for Puerto Vallarta (as well as Cancun, Playa del Carmen, or the Riviera Maya) will see pictures, a detailed description, a satellite map, and, since the end of November, a Street View image of the property (a unique feature of TOPMexicoRealEstate is that it provides an image of the property in question first). The site's visitors can click on the image to "turn around" and get a full 360-degree view of the area around the home or condo in Puerto Vallarta. They can also click on the street to "walk forward" and view more of the community.
This option allows buyers to get a better feel for what they are viewing; if they have already visited Puerto Vallarta, it will help them pinpoint exactly which part of town the property is in better than just an abstract image from a satellite. Those who haven't visited can "take a walk" through town and get a feel for the city. Of course, the most important step for buyers is to contact a reliable, experienced agent to help them find the condo or home perfect for their needs, but this tool can help, especially in the initial stages, to give buyers a better feel of what they are looking for. TOPMexicoRealEstate has taken Puerto Vallarta real estate on the Internet another important step forward in service and convenience for condo or homebuyers.
[Originally posted May 26, 2010, BoomersAbroad.com.]
Published May 28, 2010
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