ROUTE OPTIMIZATION

I find the hardest part of booking a lot of showings is organizing the route. I used to use Google Maps, by adding each address separately:

1. Enter first address.
2. Click the ‘Directions’ button to add a second address.
3. Enter second address.
4. Click to accept Google’s auto suggested address from the address you entered.
5. Click ‘Add Destination’.
6. Enter third address.
7. Click to accept Google’s auto suggested address.
8. Click ‘Add Destination’.
9. Enter fourth address.
10. Click to accept Google’s auto suggested address.

After completing the above TEN steps, I have only added four addresses to my list!

Next, I drag the addresses around until they ‘look’ as if they are organized in the shortest route. But are they actually?

I would have preferred it if I could just:

1. Copy and paste a list of addresses into a box.

2. Click a button and have all the addresses automatically arranged in the shortest route.

That would have saved me lots of time and frustration!

GOOGLE’S ROUTE OPTIMIZER

I was really excited when I discovered Google’s ‘Route Optimizer’.

It’s a browser extention, which I happily installed and it did a pretty decent job.

BUT I would have preferred it if:

1. It hadn’t made a mistake in the Geo Coordinates of one of the addresses, which meant I needed to manually reorder two of the addresses to get a true route optimization.

2. The addresses were numbered on the map, which would have made it easy to work out which address I would be going to next.

3. The addresses were clearly marked on the map. The black font made the addresses difficult to read.

And my biggest gripe:

If anything went wrong with my computer, and I had to shut down my browser, I had to start the whole process again, FROM SCRATCH!

If you’d like to try it out Google’s route optimization browser extension, it’s called Google Maps Extended Routes, and here are the links:

Google Maps Extended Routes – Chrome Extension

Google Maps Extended Routes – Firefox Extension

Google Maps Extended Routes – Microsoft Edge Extension

MY ROUTE OPTIMIZATION SOFTWARE

I built my own ‘quick and easy’ route optimization software. I hope you find it useful too!

HOW TO USE

1. Copy and paste your list of addresses (one address per line), with the first address as the starting point and the last address as your final destination.

2. Click the optimize route button.

Wait a few seconds for the route to optimize after clicking the button!
Optimized route will appear below.