Smartphones such as the iphone and Android with GPS built-in have seen developers create a host of ‘apps’ to take advantage of the capabilities of these phones. Some of these apps are just for fun like the popular Four Square game, while others are aimed at more serious uses.
The whizzes at Waikato District Council have come up with an app aimed at more serious users. It provide smartphone users with instant mobile access to property valuation information on their smartphones.
WDC claims that all you need to do is stand outside a Waikato district property, hold up their mobile phone so it’s facing the property and have a summary of its rating information appear on the screen over a live camera image.
In our road test we found that the property information that came up was often not the property you were outside but an adjacent property. But it was fairly simple to use the LIST command and get a list of all properties in the area – and that list had the right property on it.
Waikato District Council Chief Executive, Gavin Ion, said local authorities are required by law to provide rating information to the public. But while most councils display rating information through a Rating Information Database (RID) on their website, Waikato District Council has taken this one step further with Mobile RID.
“Our council is committed to making information accessible to our customers. Mobile RID provides rating information in the right place, at the right time, and is an excellent tool for real estate agents and home buyers who can visualise rating information when they are standing near a property.
“Mobile RID provides another way to access Waikato District Council’s rating information, in addition to our website, visiting or phoning council,” he said.
Mobile RID provides information such as a property’s land value, improvement value, capital value and assessment number. There is also a link through to Waikato District Council’s website should a person want to see the full information in the Rating Information Database.
Mobile RID works on Iphones and android mobile phones. Council used Layar, an augmented reality application to build Mobile RID.
To use Mobile RID all you have to do is download Layar from the App Store onto your mobile phone, search for the WDC RID Layar, install it and then you are ready to use the tool.
Here’s how to use the WDC Mobile RID Smartphone Application to get et instant access to rating information through your Smartphone.
To use Mobile RID all you have to do is download and install Layar from the Apple App Store or the Android Market Place onto your mobile phone, search for the WDC RID Layar, save it to your Layar favourites then you are ready to browse the Mobile RID.
To use the application you require a Smartphone with GPS capabilities such as the iphone or Samsung Galaxy.
To get this Application you require Layar.
Information on the layer that WDC provides is available here.
Finding out the land value or capital value of a property is now available on the spot. With the Mobile RID application on your smart phone, simply stand outside a Waikato district property to receive a summary of its rating information.
This is accomplished through geographic co-ordinates from your Smartphone’s GPS device.