Looking for Property Lines on Google Earth? Wondering How Accurate Are the Google Maps Property Lines?
Although the parcel data has been removed from Google Earth for over a year, less frequent Google Earth users are still turning to the tool for property lines and asking where did the property line layer go on Google Earth Pro? After a quick Google search the Google Property Lines feature is no longer available through Google Earth or Google Earth Pro. However, they will surely be pleased to learn about ReportAll’s PARLAY, a parcel layer that works with any version of Google Earth. PARLAY (combination of the words “parcel” and “layer”) provides parcel data including property lines, or parcel boundaries, as well as a variety of attributes such as owner, address, and other details as well as links to the property record at the local assessor/auditor site. Real estate professionals, loan officers, insurance companies and other relevant professions will be happy to take advantage of this FREE 14-day trial.
Google Maps Property Lines
So what about the property lines in Google Maps? Are they accurate? As providers of online property lines and parcel data we would advise that all online property lines are subject to further investigation for any legal matters, but that they are great resources for a general idea. Before building on your property or accusing a neighbor of building on yours, a professional property surveyor should be consulted. See how property surveyors and civil engineers use our online property lines to save time and provide a general starting point for their legal property line survey. However, if you’re looking for general property line data and continuously updated property information including property owner, ReportAll offers a number of options: use ReportAll Online for searching a property by name or address and getting instant access to property data and property lines in that area, and once you see multiple properties for which you want to download data into an Esri Shapefile, KMZ/KML, CSV or Excel format, use the ReportAll Parcel Data Store and pay a discounted rate based on the number of properties you are downloading. This ReportAll product allows you to buy property line and property data for entire counties, states and more – all across the US.
Will the Parcel Data Layer Return to Google Earth?
Although ReportAll does not have a relationship with Google, and can’t speak to Google’s operations, we feel relatively confident that Google Earth’s subscription will not include US parcel data in the near future (or any future). The Google Earth Team sent a notification to Google Earth Pro users that included the following verbiage:
“The following three layers and Parcel (APN) Search feature will be removed from Google Earth Pro on January 29, 2016:
• U.S. Demographics
• U.S. Parcels Data
• U.S. Daily Traffic Counts”
The announcement was met with hundreds of posts on Google Earth Help Forums from Google Earth users negatively affected by the removal of the parcel data which continues almost two years later. Many of the comments are from realtors, land developers, municipality employees, insurance professionals and other users relying on parcel data for their daily business routine. ReportAll’s PARLAY tool was developed before the parcel data layer became available on Google Earth therefor we can relate to the parcel data layer’s importance and convenience in many industries affected by property lines and data.
It appears that Google Earth was using parcel data, similar to the data we provide in PARLAY 2.0, supplied through a relationship with DataQuick. On June 30th, 2013 it was announced that CoreLogic, the nation’s largest provider of real estate and parcel data, was acquiring DataQuick, a $661M acquisition made official in March of 2014 after CoreLogic agreed to conditions set by the FTC to settle concerns about “the risk of anticompetitive coordination.”
Google Earth released the notice of the parcel data layer removal less than nine months later (Changes to Google Earth Pro 12/22/2015 in Google Earth Help Forum). It appears very unlikely that Google Earth will be adding boundary lines and parcel data information to their available layers, however it is more likely that partnering with a company specializing in parcel data, like ReportAll, will ensure continuous access to updated data with even more accuracy, support and features than Google Earth was providing.
ReportAll: Providing Parcel Data Before and After Google Earth
As GIS technology (geographic information system) continues to advance and professionals in fields including real estate, city planning, insurance, land development and countless others turn towards technology for solutions to improve decision making, marketing, communication and other efficiencies, the same professionals that once drove to the county seat for parcel documentation and relied on plat map books are benefiting from GIS data layers and applications. It is critical for these professionals to choose a parcel data partner with history and longevity – someone like ReportAll. ReportAll developed PARLAY before the parcel data was made available on Google Earth that will not disrupt the day to day efficiencies gained by becoming reliant on the convenience of parcel data across the US.