What type of mapping tools do you use?
Hey all. My firm (CRE Broker)is starting a land division from scratch (we are a small shop that focused solely on Tenant rep). I'm really new to CRE as a whole, and I'm trying to help out where I can. 

One of the things I noticed about land brokerage was that the packages my competitors are putting together have really accurate maps that show future developments, thoroughfares and projected routes for growth, major employers, etc. 

What software are they using to put these together? I've been trying to tinker with ESRI, but I feel like that software is really... big, especially for what I'm trying to do. I'd ultimately like to get there, but I feel like I'm missing some things. 

What have you experienced? 

[{"id": "e4prmr0", "text": "My shop uses GIS, but we also have a planner on staff. Post an example of a map you'd like to emulate and we can probably help more.", "replies": [{"id": "e4psi6b", "text": "see edit ", "replies": [{"id": "e4pskxr", "text": "That looks like an aerial taken into illustrator or photoshop. ", "replies": [{"id": "e4psteu", "text": "Can you share any examples of what you're able to produce with GIS?", "replies": [{"id": "e4pti5b", "text": "Working from my phone, so I can't, but it all depends on the data you have in the software. Some of that is from local government or third party providers. They are highly accurate, which we like since a lot of our work is finding overlooked sites using a data approach, allowing us to use geo-reference points to identify opportunities. A good example is we pulled permit data to find neighborhoods that had lots permits with construction numbers that were large in comparison to the property value to find gentrifying areas where there was a lot of upside. It'd be good for tracking opportunities you have across a region though too. ", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4q5cko", "text": "Check out recity.co", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4q9cxl", "text": "I use Google Earth with image overlays for my team. Easy and free.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4qlf8x", "text": "Most firms use a GIS software and then export it to photoshop to dress it up more. There are a few free lance mapping professionals in Dallas-Fort Worth (I assume that\u2019s where you are since you posted an aerial of Terrell) that do work for smaller firms that don\u2019t need someone full time. DM me and I can send you a few recs", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4r49jk", "text": "I use my county's GIS mapping system. Most counties that aren't really rural have them for free.   ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4rceko", "text": "ESRI is pretty easy to use, relatively affordable compared with the other big/robust ones. It has demos, traffic, mapping, segmentation, etc.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4tlbzt", "text": "I've been using LandVision for the past couple months. If you can look past a few issues with regards to searching up parcels, it might be very similar to what you're looking for.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4zhp3k", "text": "Check out [Carto.com](https://Carto.com) as well. They're a very capable, yet simple (in GIS terms), web-based mapping tool. You can incorporate datasets from nearly any source (a hyper link, shapefile, KML, or spreadsheet) and the styling tools are great at making beautiful layers.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]