Q:

Displaying information from a JSON on map using wrong method?

I'm working through a project to show information from a third party api on a map. 
I'm not very experienced figuring out what the console is telling me so I'm a little stuck on the error I'm getting. I've declared all the variables outside of the function so result is defined and all of these functions are aspects of a foursquare venue.
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'hasOwnProperty' of undefined
$.ajax({
        url:'https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/search',
        dataType: 'json',
        data: 'limit=1' +
                '&ll='+ placeItem.lat() +','+ placeItem.lng() +
                '&client_id='+ CLIENT_ID +
                '&client_secret='+ CLIENT_SECRET +
                '&v=20140806' +
                '&m=foursquare',
        async: true,

        success: function (data) {
            result = data.response.venue;
            contact = result.hasOwnProperty('contact') ? result.contact : '';
            if (contact.hasOwnProperty('formattedPhone')) {
                placeItem.phone(contact.formattedPhone || '');
            }

            location = result.hasOwnProperty('location') ? result.location : '';
            if (location.hasOwnProperty('address')) {
                placeItem.address(location.address || '');
            }

            bestPhoto = result.hasOwnProperty('bestPhoto') ? result.bestPhoto : '';
            if (bestPhoto.hasOwnProperty('prefix')) {
                placeItem.photoPrefix(bestPhoto.prefix || '');
            }
            if (bestPhoto.hasOwnProperty('suffix')) {
                placeItem.photoSuffix(bestPhoto.suffix || '');
            }

            description = result.hasOwnProperty('description') ? result.description : '';
            placeItem.description(description || '');

            rating = result.hasOwnProperty('rating') ? result.rating : '';
            placeItem.rating(rating || 'none');

            url = result.hasOwnProperty('url') ? result.url : '';
            placeItem.url(url || '');
            placeItem.canonicalUrl(result.canonicalUrl);

            // Infowindow code is in the success function so that the error message

            // Content of the infowindow
            contentString = '<div id="iWindow"><h4>' + placeItem.name() + '</h4><div id="pic"><img src="' +
                    placeItem.photoPrefix() + '110x110' + placeItem.photoSuffix() +
                    '" alt="Image Location"></div><p>Information from Foursquare:</p><p>' +
                    placeItem.phone() + '</p><p>' + placeItem.address() + '</p><p>' +
                    placeItem.description() + '</p><p>Rating: ' + placeItem.rating() +
                    '</p><p><a href=' + placeItem.url() + '>' + placeItem.url() +
                    '</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href=' + placeItem.canonicalUrl() +
                    '>Foursquare Page</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Current+Location/' +
                    placeItem.lat() + ',' + placeItem.lng() + '>Directions</a></p></div>';

            // Add infowindows
                google.maps.event.addListener(placeItem.marker, 'click', function () {
                infowindow.open(map, this);
                // Bounce animation
                placeItem.marker.setAnimation(google.maps.Animation.BOUNCE);
                setTimeout(function () {
                    placeItem.marker.setAnimation(null);
                }, 800);
                infowindow.setContent(contentString);
            });
    },

        // Alert the user on error.
        error: function (e) {
            infowindow.setContent('<h5>Foursquare data is unavailable.</h5>');
            document.getElementById("error").innerHTML = "<h4>Foursquare data is unavailable. Please try refreshing.</h4>";
    }
    });

A:

Not sure what data the call you are making is supposed to return but the error you are getting indicates that you did not get the data you were expecting.
result = data.response.venue;
"venue" is not a defined property of data.response so when you try and access result.hasOwnProperty('contact') it has no idea what to return since result is not defined.

