1. Before you start

The tool needs a Google Maps API key to search for places. Open the Google Maps API Key panel in the top-right corner 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. On a phone

On a narrow screen the map fills the whole window and the Research layer panel becomes a sheet docked to the bottom edge. Drag-free: tap its header to open or close it.

The sheet closes itself once a place is found or a scan starts, so the map is never hidden behind it. To bring it back, tap the sheet header again, or tap Layer in the tool rail on the right.

The tool rail (Scan, Fit, Layer) sits under the top bar on the right. The category legend sits just above the closed sheet and scrolls sideways when there are more categories than fit.

Location findings are below the map, as on desktop — the page scrolls to them automatically when a scan finishes.

9. 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.