[Retagger]

A word of caution for home owners wishing to map their rental homes on Google maps or any other mapping program.

Based upon my twenty (20) plus years in Law Enforcement, my professional opinion is that listing your rental properties on a mapping software program and providing public access, is not a good idea for the following reasons:

• If there is a person or a gang with criminal intentions, it is extremely easy for that person to locate the property and steal the contents of the home.
• The person(s) or gang will know by using the calendar feature, when the home is not occupied and plan their crime accordingly. (This is especially easy if you list your property with Home Away, VRBO, etc.)
• The person(s) or gang will know when the home is occupied. (This is a much more dangerous situation because the renter’s materials could be stolen or they could possibly be the victim of a home invasion.)

I would strongly recommend that you not list the exact location of you rental homes on Google maps or Google Earth. We should not make it easy for the criminal to perpetuate their life of crime.

I know that renters want to see the exact location of where the rental home is located but instead, just describe the general location. Why make it easy by mapping the exact location of a rental property that may or may not be occupied.

(The above is only my professional opinion)

Regards,