1. Before you start

The tool needs a Google Maps API key to search for places. Open the Research layer panel and paste a key that starts with AIza. The key is stored only in your browser for this session — it is never sent anywhere except Google's own servers, and it disappears when you close the tab.

The key needs three Google Cloud APIs enabled: Maps JavaScript API, Places API (New), and Geocoding API. If search fails immediately after saving a key, this is the first thing to check.

The map itself (streets, pan, zoom) works even without a key or if Google search is unavailable — it uses OpenStreetMap, which has no key or billing requirement.

2. Search a place

You can search three ways:

• Address or place name — type an address, or the name of a villa, hotel, or landmark, and press Enter or click Find Place.
• School name — type an international school's name. The tool resolves the school, then automatically opens the Villa Explorer for that school.
• Coordinates — switch to the Coordinates tab and enter latitude and longitude directly. Useful when an address won't resolve.

Once a place is found, it becomes the anchor — every distance and every amenity search is measured from that point.

3. Read the findings

Click Run 15-Min Scan to check the area around the anchor. The page scrolls down automatically and shows a score, then one card per category:

• International Schools — searched within 15 minutes first; if none is found, the search quietly widens to 25 minutes and says so.
• Hospital Access — hospitals are always shown ahead of clinics. If no hospital exists within 25 minutes, the card says so plainly instead of hiding the gap behind a nearby clinic.
• International Groceries — limited to genuine supermarkets, filtered to exclude convenience stores such as Circle K or Indomaret.
• Gyms & Fitness, International Dining, Beaches — same 15-minute radius, with dining searched using visitor/expat-oriented terms (these are Google Maps results, not TripAdvisor rankings, even when the search wording mentions TripAdvisor).

Each place in a card shows its distance and an estimated walking time. Click any place row to jump to it on the map.

A green check means the category passed within range. Orange/red marks a gap. A grey spinner means that category is still searching.

4. Use the map

The map shows two rings around the anchor: a solid green ring for the 15-minute core radius, and a dashed orange ring for the 25-minute tolerance used by schools and hospitals.

Every found amenity appears as a colored pin — schools blue, hospitals red, groceries green, gyms purple, dining orange, beaches cyan, villas gold. Click a pin for its name and distance.

The legend at the bottom of the map lets you hide or show one category at a time — click a chip to toggle it. Use the Fit button in the map's tool rail to re-center the map on every result at once.

5. Villa explorer

When a school search resolves, the tool automatically looks for villas within 1.2 km of that school and lists them with their distance. This is meant for browsing what's nearby, not as a live listings feed — always confirm availability directly with the property.

6. On-site review

Below the map findings, the review section holds two checklists for an in-person visit:

• Inspection checklist — mold, water leaks, structural integrity, electrical, and plumbing. Tick each item off as it's checked on site.
• Permits — IMB, PBG, and SLF status, each with a note field for what was actually seen or told on site.

None of this data is saved automatically — it lives in the page only until you reset or close the tab.

7. Reports and reset

Generate Report opens a clean, printable summary of the current listing in a new tab, ready to save as a PDF. New Listing clears everything — anchor, findings, checklists — after a confirmation, so you can start the next property from a blank state.

8. Troubleshooting

"Place not found" or a Google error message — the tool shows the real Google API error rather than a generic message, so read it carefully:

• RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED — the API quota for the day has been used up.
• REQUEST_DENIED — usually a billing or API-enablement problem on the Google Cloud project behind the key.
• A generic "not found" with no error code usually means the place genuinely has no match — try a more specific name or an address instead.

Map has no streets or amenity pins — the base map runs on OpenStreetMap and should always show streets. If pins never appear after a scan, the Google key or its billing is the likely cause, not the map itself.

Nothing happens after pressing Enter — make sure a key has been saved first; search cannot run until the Maps script has finished loading.