How to inspect a whole suburb from satellite imagery and find the properties that need you.
Being filmed. The written lesson, the steps, the action task and the downloads below are complete — work through those now and the footage will appear here.
Free. The desktop version has the ruler, the polygon area tool and the ability to save pins and folders, which the browser version does not do as well.
Press R to reset the tilt. At that height you can see a whole street at once and still make out roof discolouration.
Street by street, not randomly. Work a grid so you do not cover the same ground twice or miss a block.
Dark streaking running down tile roofs, uniform grey-green on concrete, dark patches on the south side of a roof, shadowed driveways under canopy, black staining around downpipe outlets.
5 — roof visibly streaked or green, driveway grey-green, heavy tree cover. 4 — clear discolouration on one large surface. 3 — some staining, worth a knock if you are passing. 2 — recently done or new. 1 — nothing to clean.
Into a named folder for that suburb, so the list persists and you can build on it over months.
Bottom of the screen. Five-year-old imagery of a new estate is useless, and a property that was dirty in 2021 may have been cleaned. Cross-check the best ones in Street View.
Driving a suburb shows you the front of a house. Satellite shows you the roof — which is the biggest single ticket on the property and the thing the owner cannot see at all.
A homeowner walks past their driveway every day and their eye has adjusted. They have never seen their roof.
From above, roof discolouration is the most obvious thing on a property — and a roof clean is a $1,600–$2,400 job rather than a $340 one. Satellite prospecting is how you find the highest-value jobs in a suburb, from your kitchen table, for free.
| Score | What it looks like from above |
|---|---|
| 5 | Roof visibly dark-streaked or green. Driveway grey-green. Heavy tree cover. |
| 4 | Clear discolouration on one large surface. Shaded south side. |
| 3 | Some staining. Worth a knock if you are in the street anyway. |
| 2 | Looks recently done or newly built. Skip. |
| 1 | Nothing to clean. Skip. |
Steps 1 to 5 happen at home, in about ninety minutes, and produce a full day of work.
In the portal these tick off and save as you go.
These come with the lesson when you enrol.