Workflows
From a real-estate tab to a shortlist
Some relocations start with a quiz and end with a town. Others start with a town that caught your eye on a listing site and back-fill the rest. This workflow is for the second kind: the move that began as house-hunting before it admitted it was a move.
The stages
- 01Collect the listings
Plain text or CSV with address, price, URL. Anything you spent five seconds reading deserves a row in the file. Save the ones you almost saved too — they are evidence of what your eye keeps coming back to.
- 02Bulk-import to the map
Two hundred rows per submission, so split a longer file. Watch the progress bar. Nominatim is polite but slow — a hundred and fifty rows take about two and a half minutes.
- 03Read the clusters
Pins cluster where listings cluster. The shape of the cluster tells you more than any single pin does. A long thin cluster along a coast is a different story from a tight blob around one town.
- 04Pick two clusters to shortlist
Save one location per cluster into a shortlist. You are saving the cluster, not the listing. The listing will be gone in three weeks; the cluster will not.
- 05Compare the cluster centres
The compare table strips listings back to the underlying location. If the cluster you fell in love with loses on cost, internet, or hospital distance, that is exactly the information you wanted before signing anything.
- 06Cross-reference the visa article
Before going any further, check the Atlas country page. A move you cannot legally complete is not a move worth refining.
Checkpoints
- After import: a map of pins. Most clusters sit around towns you expected. One or two are surprises.
- After shortlisting: two cluster representatives saved. Listings stay underneath on the map as supporting evidence.
- After comparison: a winner among the clusters. Often it is not the one with the largest listing density, which is itself useful to know.
Where this stumbles
A second stumble: forgetting to check visa eligibility for the country at all. People who start from listings often discover a town and only then ask whether they are allowed to live in it. Check the Atlas before you put earnest money on anything.
Frequently asked
Do I delete the pins after I have the shortlist?
No. Keep them. They are evidence of the search and useful as a backdrop during the visit. The shortlist sits above them; the pins remain underneath.
What if my listings are split across two countries?
Two imports, two shortlists. The map is structured one country at a time, and so is this workflow.
How many listings is a healthy starting point?
Between fifteen and forty. Below fifteen the clusters do not form clearly. Above forty you are spending too much time on listings and not enough on the underlying place.
Verified · 2026-05-26