Our passion for the earth, makes us a huge fan of maps, and thus we are attempting to build the worlds most useful maps to navigate your lifes adventures. The journey starts with "Where do you sleep?" - Real Estate! Or more specifically "Adventure Real Estate", meaning what can do HERE. This website: "FernieRealEstate.app" is a working prototype of our vision of what a map should do. A map offers "Visual Search". You can find things without knowing what "keywords" to type into a search box. This is huge!
There are two maps, kept in sync, that cover 100% of the screen - VIVID and MUTED. The vivid map is rich in colored information that seemlessly blends into satellite imagrey as you zoom in. It displays color coded land parcels for the RDEK (Regional District of East Kootenay) and all the property civic addresses labels. You can easily browse, or use the search box to find specific addresses, places or parcels by nine digit provincial PID (Property ID). But sometimes you need to find specific information. The muted map is a simpler greyscale map where select information can "Pop" off the screen and easily be found at higher zoom levels. There are several layers of data that you can toggle on/off and vary the opacity on, including the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve), parcel ownership, parcel Title status, etc.
There is a lot of information on this website, and it is not always obvious how to use it. We are working on a "Help" page that will explain how to use the website. In the meantime, here are some tips:
There is no button to switch between "Terrain" view and "Satellite" view. As you zoom in/out, the map will blend the two views automatically. Some data layers do not show up until you zoom in.
The CIVIC HOUSE NUMBERS display for most of the RDEK. If you click one, you can get more information and save the data to the URL for a permanent, sharable resourse.
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is a string of characters that identifies the location of a resource, such as a webpage or a file, on the internet. A URL typically consists of several parts, including a protocol (such as HTTP or HTTPS), a domain name (such as www.example.com), a path (which specifies the location of the resource on the server), and any additional parameters or queries. URLs are used to access web pages, download files, and perform other actions on the internet.
Using the MUTED MAP, if you DOUBLE CLICK on a parcel, the data is saved to the URL. You can copy the URL and paste it into an email or other document. You can also bookmark the URL. When you return to the website, the data will be restored from the URL.
Our URLs are friendly and very useful. They follow a logical hierarchial structure like:
https://fernierealestate.app/property/rdek/fernie/the-cedars/1-huckleberry-pl
So you get a lot of information about the location and administrative layers the property belongs to, just by looking at the URL. Many of our competitors use a criptic string of numbers and letters that are meaningless to the user, which is a database ID needed to lookup the real informatio. Our URLs will control the website without the use of an external database or cookies. This is a big advantage, in speed, privacy, security and our app can work offline (if you have visited and cached the views). You can also traverse up the URL hierarchy to get web pages with more information.
We own and operate a licenced real estate brokerage, "Specialist Real Estate Ltd", which does business as "Landmax Realty" in British Columbia, Canada. (soon to be also in Alberta). Therefore we have access to all the MLS® data most of BC. We are also a member of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA).
The our main source of public MLS® data is via our membership with the Interior Association of Realtors.
The generic data portal can be found here: https://listings.kar.realtor/userId_22634.
We can also set you up with a personal data portal, which will allow you to save your searches and get email notifications when new listings are added. Unfortuantely, the data portal the data portal does not sync automatically with our more advanced map. We are working on a solution to this problem.
Real Estate Professionals are licenced with BC Financial Services Authority You can verify my "Managing Broker" licence #134955 here: James Harvey Swansburg for the services of "Trading, Rental Property Management"
Business Address:
4704 Spruce Road, Box 122, Wasa British Columbia V0B 2K0
Cheers, good job if you made it this far. If you have any questions, please contact us at:
FernieRealEstateApp@gmail.com
If you need help with real estate transactions or need custom mapping services, please reach out.