Create & Print Custom Wall Maps Very Inexpensively

Custom wall maps

I know we’re all big huge fans of the MLS maps from the local Board of Realtors, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a close up of your niche area? Wouldn’t you love to have a map on your wall that was zoomed in enough that you could actually push pin your listings into it? Call me old school, but I love the tangibility of maps and I don’t think they should cost a fortune of be bought at the gas station and feature creases.

In steps Google Map Buddy which is software that you un-zip and run in Windows, allowing you to get a sattelite view of your custom area or a street map view. Some say the software is a little shaky, but it’s better than the vacation map taped to the wall. I’m considering getting our local area then going to Office Max to have them print up a poster sized map which is pretty inexpensive.

According to Lifehacker, “When you un-zip and run Google Map Buddy, it asks you to choose your Google Map nationality, then opens a browser to let you search out the location you’re looking at. Once you get there, hit “Select area,” then draw a rectangle around the area you want to capture. After fine-tuning the zoom level and hitting “Create Map Image,” Map Buddy goes to work grabbing, tile by tile, your area’s map. It generates a generally high-resolution PNG of your area, and provides the individual map tiles to keep and arrange yourself into a larger grid, if you’d like.”

You’ll probably see title companies using tools like this in the coming year rather than paying the big bucks for the aerial photography of the area (trust me, it’s not cheap), or you’ll use them yourself to send branded materials to local companies (roll up a branded printout with a star on the local restaurant’s location and hand deliver to them, for example). What’s a simple way you might use custom wall map technologies in your business?

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