Online Technology Helps Coquitlam Home Buyers

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(Newswire.net — December 4, 2014) Port Moody, BC –Coquitlam B.C. Realtor John Grasty has launched a Real Estate web site that capitalizes on three forms of advanced technology to make it quicker and easier for families moving into the City of Coquitlam to find homes in designated school catchment areas.

“Coquitlam is one of the few cities in BC’s Lower Mainland, and certainly the nearest to Vancouver, where the number of detached homes is actually increasing,” says Grasty, an experienced Realtor professionally licensed with Prudential Sterling Realty. “This means the area is popular with families. And one of the first priorities for most families when they move is to make sure they choose a home in the catchment area of their target school.”

Dealing with catchment areas while searching for a new home has always been a challenging task. But Grasty’s new site makes it extremely easy, thanks to a combination of advanced technologies.

The web site makes effective use of advanced Mapping technologies combined with a thorough knowledge of Coquitlam neighbourhoods, schools and catchment areas. Visitors to the site can choose any neighbourhood in Coquitlam, or any elementary, middle or secondary school, and immediately see the available homes in the catchment area.

The new web site can be found at www.coquitlam-homes.com

The search can also be filtered by a range of house characteristics – price, number of bathrooms, number of bedrooms and more – for tighter targeting and more time-saving for the home-seeker.

And because families often have children of different ages, attending different schools, Grasty made sure that the search and mapping technology provided for the overlapping catchment areas to be clearly highlighted.

“We’ve also combined this with Google Street View,” said Grasty. “With just a couple of clicks, anyone visiting my site can take a look at the street and even the house they are interested in, at street level, from within the Catchment area search.”

The detailed search is simple to use, and can be found at: www.coquitlam-homes.com/catchmentmap

The school catchment research technology has a special attraction for the many Asian families who are looking to take advantage of Coquitlam’s combination of affordability, amenities and proximity to Vancouver. “Education and the choice of schools is often a priority above all others,” says Grasty. “I work closely in the Tri-Cities with Ivy Yang, also with Prudential Sterling; Ivy speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and some Japanese. And the web site will be able to toggle between Chinese and English languages by the end of 2014.”

With 24,000 new homes slated for future construction in Coquitlam, and single detached homes in many other localities being depleted in favour of multi-family homes, Grasty is confident that his site will be in demand and providing value for many years to come.

Grasty quoted a recent independent poll commissioned by Discover Home Loans that showed 89 percent of home buyers use some form of online technology to help them with the home buying process. “The problem I saw is that a lot of the technology completely ignores school catchment areas and basically just presents lists of houses,” said Grasty. “Looking for a new home can be stressful and time-consuming. I wanted my site to be as useful as possible in terms of helping a family really home-in on exactly what they were looking for, as quickly as possible. And that meant I had to add a focus on schools.”

About John Grasty:
Having lived in the Tri-City area since 1989, and having worked from Coquitlam and (currently) Port Moody based offices, John’s local expertise on real estate matters is well recognized. He has served on the national advisory council for Canadians for Properly Built Homes since 2007, and locally he continues to volunteer for and serve on several civic boards and committees.

Prudential Sterling Realty Ltd

3137 St. Johns Street
Port Moody, BC Canada V3H 2C8

604 421 1010
jgrastybc@gmail.com
http://realestateevolved.com/