Going over plans for the debut of Property Maps at the 2006 Realtors Conference and Expo Nov. 10-13 in New Orleans are the firm’s founders, from left, John Beck, CEO; Chris Latko, CTO. Heather Beck, director of business development; and Keith Hanenian, general counsel. Not pictured is Eddie Wong, creative director.

Property Maps, a service that legally merges MLS data with Google mapping technology, will publicly launch this month during the 2006 Realtors Conference and Expo Nov. 10-13 in New Orleans. Simple to use and uniform in appearance, it allows individuals to get specific information and directions while brokers get leads and a sophisticated management tool. The monthly fee of $1,000 provides a broker exclusive rights to one of the country’s nearly 1,500 MLS markets on propertymaps.com. In San Diego, the North County market already has been reserved.

Property Maps also will unveil for the mobile phone a Java-based version of its service. It works like this: Drive into an area where you want to live and activate the program on your phone. If the phone’s GPS is enabled, the program already knows your location. Select some details about the type of house you are interested in and then be guided by an on-screen map to each location. If you like a place, click another button and arrange with the sponsoring agent for a tour.

Discussions are under way with a national real estate firm for a large role on the Web site and with venture capitalists for developing the mobile version.

The programming skill behind Property Maps’ service comes from Chris Latko, the Webmaster who took sandiegometro.com online in July 1997 and continues to care for the site. He also was one of the first to reverse-engineer Google’s mapping code, a process called a map mash up.

Latko’s partners in the company include John Beck, CEO; Heather Beck, director of new business development; Keith Hanenian, general counsel and Eddie Wong, creative director. Latko is CTO.

Property Maps is located in Sarasota, Fla., a place Latko, 33, came to circuitously. He moved from San Diego to Tokyo where he worked for six years, including on a property management project for his old Indiana college schoolmate, John Beck. When Beck saw how a precursor product worked with his rentals, the new venture was born.

In the crowded and competitive Internet and telecom space, we have no idea how successful Latko will be with this venture. We do know he has promised to keep working on our site. It is, he says, relaxing.