Laravel. Controller not getting the values from the Form - laravel

Question

The controller is not getting the data from the FORM. I realise that the Form has by default a Post method, while the Route is using a Get, but if I change that, then the form will not display the form fields. Validation fails as the "required" does not get any values, so it returns to the same page. If I remove the validation filter, then it does go to the results page, but all it does is show ALL of the content of the table, since it is getting no parameters (where) from the Form. The weird thing is that in the past, it worked, but I must have messed up with some part of the code and now it doesn't. To save space here I have left out many fields which dont play a role in the problem.
The Form has three interdependent Fields Country, Region and Town, which are filled up alright.
FORM:
<form action = "{{URL::route('sacapropiedades')}} "class="form-horizontal" id="my_form" name="my_form">
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-3">
<label for="country">Pays</label>
<select name ="country" {{ (Input::old('country')) ?' value ="' . e(Input::old('country')). '"' : '' }} id = "country" class="form-control">
#foreach($countries as $country)
<option value="{{$country->country}}">{{$country->country}}</option>
#endforeach
</select>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-3">
<label for="town">Ville</label>
<select name ="town" {{ (Input::old('town')) ?' value ="' . e(Input::old('town')). '"' : '' }}id = "town" class="form-control">
</select>
</div>
</div><!-- END OF THIRD FORMGROUP -->
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-4">
</div>
<div class="col-sm-2">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Enviar</button>
<button type="reset" class="btn btn-danger">Borrar</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>
ROUTES
Route::get('realestate/listproperty', array(
'as' =>'sacapropiedades',
'uses' =>'countriesregionstownsController#findproperty'
));
CONTROLLER
public function findproperty(){
/*IT REPEATS THE COUNTRY QUERY ABOVE BECAUSE IT IS GOING TO USE IT
*ON THE RESULTS PAGE AND IT GIVES THE USER TO SELECT AGAIN OTHER COUNTRIES
*WITHOUT HAVING TO RETURN TO THE FIRST PAST PAGE*/
$countries = DB::table('properties')
->select('country')
->distinct()
->get();
/*FIRST VALIDATE INPUT DATA*/
$validator = Validator::make(Input::all(),
array(
'country' =>'required',
'regions' =>'required',
'transaction' =>'required',
'town' =>'required'
));
if($validator->fails()){
return Redirect::route('showrealestate')
->withErrors($validator)
->withInput();
}
else{
$country = Input::get('country');
$region = Input::get('regions');
$town = Input::get('town');
$transaction = Input::get('transaction');
$pricefrom = Input::get('pricefrom');
$priceto = Input::get('priceto');
$roomsfrom = Input::get('roomsfrom');
$roomsto = Input::get('roomsto');
$builtyear = Input::get('builtyear');
$swimming = Input::get('swimming');
$garden = Input::get('garden');
$garage = Input::get('garage');
$message = Input::get('message');
}
$country = DB::table('countries')->where('id_pais', $country)->pluck('nombre_pais');
$region = DB::table('regions')->where('id_region', $region)->pluck('nombre_region');
$town = DB::table('cities')->where('id_localidad', $town)->pluck('nombre_localidad');
$users = DB::table('users')
->join('properties', 'users.id', '=', 'properties.id_user_fk')
->select('users.email', 'properties.id_user_fk', 'properties.country', 'properties.region', 'properties.town',
'properties.price', 'properties.rooms','properties.m2','properties.swimming',
'properties.garden','properties.garage','properties.builtyear','properties.message',
'properties.pic1',
'properties.pic2', 'properties.pic3','properties.pic4','properties.pic5','properties.pic6');
if (!empty($country)) {
$users = $users->where('country', '=', $country);
}
if (!empty($region)) {
$users = $users->where('region', '=', $region);
}
if (!empty($town)) {
$users = $users->where('town', '=', $town);
}
if (!empty($transaction)) {
$users = $users->where('transaction', '=', $transaction);
}
if (!empty($pricefrom)) {
$users = $users->where('price', '>', $pricefrom);
}
if (!empty($priceto)) {
$users = $users->where('price', '<', $priceto);
}
if (!empty($roomsfrom)) {
$users = $users->where('rooms', '>', $roomsfrom);
}
if (!empty($roomsto)) {
$users = $users->where('rooms', '<', $roomsto);
}
if (!empty($builtyear)) {
$users = $users->where('builtyear', '>', $builtyear);
}
if (!empty($swimming)) {
$users = $users->where('swimming', '=', $swimming);
}
if (!empty($garage)) {
$users = $users->where('garage', '=', $garage);
}
if (!empty($garden)) {
$users = $users->where('garden', '=', $garden);
}
if (!empty($message)) {
$users = $users->where('message', '=', $message);
}
$users = $users->get();
return View::make('realestate.externa.listproperty', compact('users','countries'));
}

Answer 1

A post method is mandatory, otherwise Laravel will not redirect it to the correct method with the correct data. How was it working before? By luck, probably. :)
Route::get('realestate/listproperty', array(
'as' =>'sacapropiedades',
'uses' =>'countriesregionstownsController#findproperty'
));
Route::post('realestate/listproperty', array(
'as' =>'sacapropiedades',
'uses' =>'countriesregionstownsController#findproperty'
));
or
Route::match(array('GET', 'POST'), 'realestate/listproperty', array(
'as' =>'sacapropiedades',
'uses' =>'countriesregionstownsController#findproperty'
));
or
Route::any('realestate/listproperty', array(
'as' =>'sacapropiedades',
'uses' =>'countriesregionstownsController#findproperty'
));
Then you'll probably need to not validate on GET:
if (Request::getMethod() == 'POST')
{
$validator = Validator::...
}
EDIT:
Sorry I overlooked this problem:
Instead of writing your FORM tag manually, use Laravel's FormBuilder class:
<?php Form::open(array('route' => 'sacapropiedades', 'class' => 'form-horizontal', 'id' => 'my_form', 'name' => 'my_form')); ?>
The difference is that it will add the method for you and it will also add a csrf token to your form.