Showcasing Properties with Enhanced Map Views and Alternative Tools

We know that visualizing listings on a map is a vital part of the home search experience. For years, the satellite map view offered one way to explore locations, but it has recently been removed from the Sierra platform.

This was a difficult decision, and we understand this change impacts your workflow, especially if you relied on satellite view to work with leads. Our goal is to explain why this change was necessary for the platform's health and give you powerful, reliable alternatives to use moving forward.

Why This Change Was Made

While satellite imagery can be useful, the third-party service that powered it became difficult to support in a way that meets our high standards for platform speed and stability. Continuing to offer it would have led to slower load times and potential reliability issues for all users.

As part of our commitment to platform-wide optimization, we chose to focus on delivering a consistently fast and reliable standard map experience across all devices and browsers.

• Real-world Impact: Many agents work from their phones or have tight timelines for showing prep. The old satellite view could add significant lag on mobile devices. This change helps streamline the mobile experience, ensuring you can pull up listing information instantly when following up with leads or heading to an appointment.

Powerful Alternatives to Satellite Maps

Though the specific satellite layer is gone, Sierra’s high-performance standard map view remains a powerful tool for you and your clients. It provides everything you need to target and showcase properties effectively.

Your Map Toolkit Includes:

• Live MLS Data: All listings are plotted accurately and updated in real-time.

• Polygon Search Filters: Draw custom shapes on the map to create hyper-specific search boundaries for clients or marketing campaigns.

• Saved Search Widgets: Embed live, map-based listing results directly onto your community pages and blog posts to create dynamic, hyperlocal content.

Best Practices for Showcasing Properties

You can still provide rich, location-based context for your clients. Here are a few strategies to showcase your local expertise without satellite maps.

• Enhance Community Pages with Embedded Maps: Create a community page for a key neighborhood you serve. Write about the lifestyle, schools, and amenities. Then, use a Saved Search widget to embed a map showing all active listings in that specific area. This builds your SEO authority and provides immense value to buyers.

• Use Polygon Searches for Hyper-Targeted Alerts: A client says they want to live "within a 10-minute walk of downtown." Instead of sending them a city-wide search, draw a tight polygon around that exact area and set them up on a Saved Search. They'll receive highly relevant listings that prove you were listening.

• Leverage External Tools for Presentations: For buyer consultations or listing presentations where a satellite view is critical, use a tool like Google Maps. You can screen-capture a specific satellite view of a property and its surroundings and easily add it to your presentation slides or pre-showing emails.

We're Here to Help

Adjusting your workflow takes time, and we're here to support you. Whether you need help building out your community pages or want to share feedback, please reach out.