After many months of work, typically late at night after my daughter falls asleep, Propertize.ca versions 4.0 is now live!

Click the image below to try it out:

As this is a new major release, I thought I would review the significant changes (for the curious folks out there).

1) Simple Searching – No More Taxing Authorities

The number one issue faced my every one living outside of Saint John, Fredericton, and Moncton is “what is my taxing authority?“.

It’s a great question, and the #1 reason why most people can not use the existing government website.  They just don’t know.  What they do know is the place that they live.

Luckily, I’ve found an open data locations file for every property in NB.  Using this file, I can now provide a very simple way for people to search for assessments – just type in the street name!

Tip: Be sure to ONLY enter your street name, such as King or Queen.  If you add the street type (drive, street, avenue) – it will not return any results.  Just remove it and try again.

How simple is this:

After you search, I can now look up matching streets for the entire province, and let you select the correct one:

2) Search Results – Ready for 2012

The search results page is generally the same; but, the columns have been tweaked to support adding the 2012 assessments when they are released in early March.

At that time, I will be able to show both the 2011 and 2012 assessment for every property in New Brunswick and be able to indicate the percentage of change (plus or minus).  I will be heavily promoting the site more once they are released.  In the meantime, you can continue to view the 2011 assessments.

Tip: Entering a civic number will cause your assessment to be highlighted in the list.  This can make it easier to spot your house in large lists!

3) Include Nearby Properties

This feature has been a little flaky in the past; but, now that I have full location data (and accurate co-ordinates), I can actually pull back all assessments within a radius of your property – up to 1km.

Tip: It’s best to specify your civic number for this (so that the search is centered on your location).  If you do not specify this, it will still work; but, the search will center on a random location on your street.

Want to try it out?  Just change the “Include Nearby Properties” dropdown to “Yes”:

Also, be sure to click the link to view the results in Google Maps, as it really shows how accurate the mapping is:

Tip: Entering your civic address will also cause your marker to be highlighted in a different color (making it easier to see in the map):

4) Search ANYTIME!

One frustrating “feature” of the government website is that it goes down for maintenance every night between midnight and 5am or so.

For all of you out there who simply must look up property tax assessments in the early hours – you will be glad to know you can do it on my site!

Going Forward

As I mentioned earlier, the 2012 assessment information will be my main focus once it’s released.

In addition to that, I’m looking to add more analytics –  perhaps some analysis on assessments by locations, county, etc.  There may be some fun trends to be discovered!

If you have ideas/suggestions, be sure to let me know.

Leave your feedback

As always – many of these changes are driven by user feedback, suggestions, and even your angry rants – so be sure to tell me what you think!

Leave a comment below, or send me an email.

The latest issue of 21inc‘s magazine 21ink was just released, and I was featured in it (talking about Propertize.ca)!

Click the image below to check out the article:

If you have any issues opening the link above, click here to download the PDF.

Also, be sure to check out Propertize.ca, and let me know what you think!

It’s that time of the year – Movember!

This year, I am participating, so feel free to follow along with me (and make a donation) here:

• http://mobro.co/SaintJohnShawn

In case you do not know what it’s all about, read on:

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in Canada and around the world. With their “Mo’s”, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words, they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

Check out the Canadian Movember website for more information:

• http://ca.movember.com

And if that’s not enough, you should also check out this great video:

• The Greatest Moustaches In History

The Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) compiles and publishes estimated fuel-consumption ratings for passenger cars, light-duty pickup trucks, vans, and special purpose vehicles sold in Canada in it’s annual Fuel Consumption Guide.

Never heard of them?  Well, I bet you have seen their numbers when looking at new vehicles (displayed in the window sticker):

While some people will disagree on the accuracy of estimating fuel consumption data (especially when it comes to comparing the estimates to real world usage) – there is a still great deal of useful data to work with – especially when it comes to comparing vehicles to each other.

The issue for me, however, is the same one I faced when trying to view Property Tax Assessment information in New Brunswick – the website used to view this data is very frustrating to use.

Viewing the Fuel Consumption Guide Data Online

OEE provides two links that anyone can use to work with their data:

1. Viewing a list of vehicles for a specific manufacturer (by a specific vehicle type for a specific year)
2. Comparing vehicles (by year, vehicle type, manufacturer, and model)

Interface Issues

I find both of the provided forms tedius to use to quickly get data for comparison purposes.  Also, don’t even think about pressing the back button to change a previously selected option, it will simply force you to start over from the beginning.

The results are equally disappointing - a static table that can not be manipulated (no sorting) and very difficult to read.

Honestly, how many people would know a Class of P is a “Special Purpose Vehicle“, X is “Regular fuel”, and V is an “Automatic“?

Luckily, the Fuel Consumption data is actually available in PDF and HTML format for each year (they only show 2011 and 2010 inside the link below; but, you can change the year inside the URL to view other years):

• http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/tools/fuelratings/fuel-consumption.cfm

My Alternate Interface

Before I could work on an interface, I first needed data.

Using the HTML versions above, I created an Excel spreadsheet (with a tab for each year).  I then pasted in the HTML data (a very tedious process) into each tab:

I then wrote an adapter that reads the Excel spreadsheet and populates a database.

Like all government data I have ever worked with, I quickly found that the format (and those funny codes I mentioned above) change from year to year for no clear reason.  This adapter then had to be updated a great deal to read the data and populate the database in a consistent format:

Once this was completed, it was easy to stub out a ASP.NET MVC3 application that reads the data and puts it into a nice grid that clearly states what the data means.

I’ve also updated it to allow for more advanced filtering and sorting – something that can easily be done from the same screen (and the back button works too)!

Try the demo!

You can try out the demo yourself by clicking here.  Be sure to share this link with your friends.

Ideas Going Forward

While the application is generally functional, I think there is still a great deal that can still be done!

One idea was to factor in more “realistic consumption numbers” – perhaps adding 2-3 L/100KM to each number, and allowing users to enter the price of gas in their area to generate more realistic “cost per year” numbers.

Another idea was to introduce some graphs to make things more visually appealing.  I think some comparisons between manufacturers/vehicle types would be an interesting way to introduce this.

Maybe there is more open data available that could be integrated with this as well – be sure to let me know if you have ideas on this!

I’d also like to make the “Model” field into a listbox as well – to make it easier to filter the results by a list of models (opposed to limiting to specific text as exists now).

The application is also built to be localized – I just need to take some time to do it.

Add your feedback

Please comment below with your feedback (good or bad) along with any ideas or suggestions for improvement!

Additional Information

For more information on the Fuel Consumption Guide, check out the following links:

• 2011 Fuel Consumption Guide
• About fuel consumption ratings
• Testing procedures for vehicle fuel consumption

Our daughter received a gift recently, a collection of short stories about Disney princesses, that came from Costco.

While all of the stories are quite short, one in particular came with a surprise alternate ending.

Although when I say “alternate ending”, I really mean PilBooks made a printing mistake and shipped it anyway – similar to what Walter Hobbs did in the movie Elf.

Not surprisingly, his character was on the “naughty list”…

Continue on to read the story of the Little Mermaid (with the secret Costco ending)!

Read the rest of this entry »

Propertize.ca has been updated to version 3.4, and it is rocking some new features:

• Create an account or login using OpenID (will be used to support saving searches in the future).
• Friendly Share/Print buttons are now available on most pages.
• The ability to include nearby streets is now stable.
• Additional “popup” help is now available on the landing page (by popular request).
• The search results page now lists all of the streets included in the search (helpful when including nearby streets).
• The Average Last Sale Price is included on the search results page.
• Lots of tiny bug fixes.

As always, updates to Propertize.ca  are driven by your feedback – so let me know what you think!

Since Propertize.ca was listed on the front-page of the Telegraph-Journal earlier this year, there have been only minor updates to fix bugs.

That has changed with the release of version 3.2!

Finally, one highly requested feature is now included (although it’s still experimental) – the ability to include nearby streets!

Just select “Yes” from the “Include Nearby Streets?” drop-down on the search page to use this new feature.

I’m still working on improving the nearby street selections (unfortunately there is no easy way to do this); but, I want to put it out there now for everyone to try out – hopefully people will let me know if they run into any problems!

I’d also love to hear any other feedback on Propertize.ca – just send me a note!

I did a quick search today, and I found a few more newspaper articles today where my website http://propertize.ca was featured!

Both the Times & Transcript and the Daily Gleaner featured the same article that appeared in the Telegraph-Journal on Friday.

It didn’t make the front page in these papers; but, it’s great to see it out there making news and getting people talking about the property tax assessment system in New Brunswick

I also made it into the news section on the PropelICT website.

I also love getting feedback from people using it – please keep sending it to me!

If you haven’t checked out Propertize.ca yet, what are you waiting for?

Today’s Telegraph-Journal featured my website Propertize.ca, and it was listed on the front-page!

Read on for the full article:

Trying to make sense of his property tax bills after buying his first home, Shawn Peterson decided to take matters into his own hands.

The computer-savvy Saint Johner designed a website that takes public information from a government database and presents it in a more user-friendly way, allowing people to compare their property assessments with their neighbours’.

“It’s human nature,” Peterson says.

“Everyone wants to put in their street and see where their house is in relation to their neighbours’.”

It’s the second year the website has been online and now has the updated assessment and tax numbers for 2011.

Peterson says the frustration with the property tax system drives people’s curiosity.

“People are dealing with crazy, crazy assessments right now,” he says.

“In Saint John, there are an insane amount of houses for sale right now and nothing’s moving. But while housing prices aren’t really changing,” he says.

“My house is almost going down. I probably couldn’t put it on the market and sell it for what I paid for it a couple years ago when the market was hot. But that doesn’t mean my assessment’s going to start going down.”

Originally just for his own use, then for his friends and family, Propertize.ca covers homes across the entire province.

“After we bought our home, we were interested in the whole property tax system and how houses were assessed,” he says.

“I was talking to a few people at work and they were interested in it, so I sent it along to them. They sent it along to some of their friends and it kind of spiralled out of control from there.”

Since property tax bills started appearing in mailboxes this week, the number of visitors has begun to skyrocket. About 1,300 unique users have logged on this week, with 600 of those coming on Wednesday alone.

“It’s all straight word of mouth. This isn’t something I’m advertising or making money off,” he says.

Service New Brunswick offers the same information on its own website, but the design makes it harder to navigate, Peterson says.

“New Brunswick does have one which is barely accessible. It’s pretty open, it’s just a pain to use,” he says, since it makes users look up neighbours one house at a time rather than presenting a comprehensive comparison on one page.

“It’s a very painful process.”

Peterson’s site doesn’t have its own database, but rather instantly retrieves the information entered from the government website, along with relevant figures for nearby houses.

Brent Staeben, spokesman for Service New Brunswick, says he’s aware of the limitations of the government’s website.

“That’s certainly in our plan right now to improve that front interface to make it a little easier to use,” in time for next year’s tax season, he says, adding that Peterson’s version is a welcome addition.

“The more people see sale prices and compare assessments, the better they can gauge the fairness of their assessment, which is the foundation of the system.”

Premier David Alward has said his government will meet with stakeholders to improve the current system, while also instituting a two-year cap that limits assessment increases in the meantime.

Staeben says the cap resulted in a total of $6.5 million of savings across the province’s 450,000 properties this year. Property taxes provide about $1 billion in revenue each year.

Contrary to popular belief, Staeben says property values do occasionally go down – three per cent of properties decreased in value in 2011.

“It’s kind of an urban myth that property assessments don’t go down. There were actually 13,506 properties in the province whose assessments went down,” due to decreases in market value, he says.

The rest of the properties saw increases, with 66 per cent increasing by less than three per cent, 20 per cent by three to five per cent and seven per cent were between five and 10 per cent.

Staeben says the four per cent that increased by more than 10 per cent mostly consist of a specific type of home.

“If you look at the amount of properties that had renovations in the province in the past year and also the amount of new properties that are built, that pretty much reflects people who are doing renovations and building new properties.”

If you haven’t checked out Propertize.ca yet; do so – and let me know what you think!

To prepare for upcoming 2011 Property Tax Assessment letters in New Brunswick (and the eventual flood of people who can’t believe their eyes), I’ve re-written Propertize.ca from the ground up to be faster at searching and compiling results, and more stable then ever.

I’m continually updating Propertize.ca based on YOUR feedback!

So contact me today and let me know what you like, what you hate, and what you want to see added.

To see what all the fuss is about, check out http://propertize.ca, and start comparing NB Property Tax Assessments on your street!