Seattle Housing Buzz

Last week I had an opportunity to volunteer for Dinner night, helping to prepare dinner at the Ronald McDonald House. The Ronald McDonald House provides accomodations for families with children who are receiving treatment at Children’s Hospital at Sand Point.

Children’s Hospital is now conducting a drive for Play Doh. The hospital goes through more than 2,000 jars of Play Doh every year. Due to the serious illnesses and compromised immune system that many of the children have, a jar of Play Doh can only be used once. And, thus is a considerable expense for the hospital.

To the readers of Seattle Condos and Lofts & Seattle Housing Buzz, please consider making a Play Doh donation to Children’s Hospital. Donations will be accepted through John L. Scott offices and not at the hospital. Our office is located at 2601 4th Avenue, Ste 100 in Belltown at the corner of 4th & Vine (map), however, all JLS offices will accept the Play Doh donations.

Tags: Children's Hospital, John L Scott, Play Doh

Today, John L. Scott Real Estate launched an new search feature allowing users to pinpoint searches to a specific neighborhood or even a city block. The new feature is called the “Neighborhood Wizard” and works by allowing users to use a polygon tool to draw their own search parameters.

Based on Microsoft’s polygon tool technology, John L. Scott is the first real estate company to utilize this feature.

John L. Scott was the first real estate company to incorporate Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology and provide sold listing data directly to the public, leading the real estate industry as one of the most forward thinking, innovative companies.

Using the new search feature

1. Start by visiting John L. Scott’s redesigned home page and click on a state:

2. Using the mouse, hover the rectangular box over the desired area to zoom to that location:

3. Above the map search screen the new “Neighborhood Wizard” button appears (You can also recenter or zoom into a specific area). Upon clicking the button, the mouse will change to a crosshairs (”+”) and instructions will appear:

4. Close Up of the “Neighborhood Wizard” button:

5. Click on a starting point and drag the mouse to begin drawing the desired search area. Click on the mouse to add a new point and continue:

6. To complete the drawing area, return and click on the point of origin (the blue dot) or click on the “Done” button”:

7. The results will automatically appear on the map when the shape is complete. You can also use the zoom in / out and scrolling options.

8. You can also refine your search future by utilizing filters on the left side of the map:

Then, view listing information by clicking on the “View property details” link.
This is a great way to narrow a search to a specific neighborhood, block or condo building, thus only showing the available properties you’re interested in.

Tags: John L Scott