HOME SEARCH/IDX SolutionsDifferent people like different types of home search websites.
Click on the links for examples.
People who are browsing want big photos and no clutter or interference. SEO spiders like these too. For agents these are cheap.
www.RealBird.com ($99 per year or Free) Great single property websites with features and clean design. It has a Map Search which draws properties from Oodle. If you are in an area that does not have so few properties that they’ll notice the lack of properties, then I’ve heard of it getting great results. Another awesome benefit is that you can install the search on dozens of niche market sites on say a WordPress Multisite network.
dsIDXpress.com ($99 setup and $29/mo. great SEO but no lead capture and less customization. It is still our favorite for generating traffic. The key is to have a DIFFERENT search product like IDXBroker or SpatialMatch that DOES have lead capture, OR )
IDXBroker.com ($149 setup and $39 – $79 per mo. lead capture customization and lead distribution. IDXBroker has a really full set of features BUT doesn’t integrate into wordpress fully for SEO purposes. That downside is sort of offset by the fact that you can install it’s widgets/search boxes in more than one site and the visitor will end up on the same search. It also DOES allow a pretty decent amount of customization.)
RealGeeks.com ($400 setup, $150/mo. Appears to have decent lead capture. It IS simple to use and fast loading.)
Zurple (claims a huge lead capture rate but is ugly as hell and my impression from talking to owner is that they are basically building network to then sell leads/take commission. Advanta Realty down in Palm Beach uses them and broker is ex-Zip Realty Exec., so he should know what he’s doing so I don’t get it.)
idxpro.com ($249 set up, $40/mo. simple for agents and consumers. nice interface but small thumbnail photos)
RealEstateWebMasters (REW). They have an iframed solution for $25 that does have lead follow-up backend. It’s a lead into much muchhigher priced packages. For a long time the set the standard for great design, SEO, and custom IDX but have slipped to people like BoomtownROI and many lower end solutions. I haven’t really dug into their system in awhile so it’s definitely something to look into.
www.AgentImage.com discussed earlier in this document DOES have a WordPress Plugin. Their ‘flash’ sites can look great on home page but fall apart on the inside and they usually just iframe in IDXBroker.com. But to get a hold of that would let me do somethings in terms of SEO that would be better than the dsIDXpress plugin.
Right now I’m totally psyched about SpatialMatch. Unique and powerful though more complex. Gives you a Unique Value Proposition in terms of finding the perfect home that is the perfect distance to people and places the buyer loves. (Most agents describe it as a ‘lifestyle’ search but I think that generic term misses the point.) DOES have lead capture but they haven’t built out a CRM/backend which is a really complex task that is an enormous hassle. Front end search vs backend admin is really two very very different systems.
People who are Comparing need more details, map search, and save functions and Agents really need a way to track what they are looking at, as well as following up quickly, and Brokers need a way to see what agents are doing and hold them accountable for follow-up.
DiverseSolutions (decent map search. no customization. feeds into crm and email broadcast system. Haven’t dug around in it for a long time. When I did have it, it captured leads off fairly targeted ppc ads at about 1-2%. At the time it had very small photos and the registration page was atrociously unfriendly)
BoomtownROI (gorgeous front end. Very good CRM with friendly tracking of lead activity and contacts to leads made by agent. Prettier and easier for the average agent to use but not as powerful.)
TigerLead (Probably the best backend system. More complex but tells you everything you need to know within the system. Was $1,400 /month + cost of Google ad spend. Now charging just $500 per month if they don’t coordinate ad spend.)
MarketLeader (nice enough front end has become very popular especially since company acquired ActiveRain. Most agents I’ve talked to say they haven’t received very good results — of course who really can tell the reason for that.
InfinityArts : Great front end and backend. Very high lead capture rate. May be best all around but very limited in where they provide it. Company isn’t really committed to product except for larger brokers where they get paid $15,000+ for build out and $5,000 a month for SEO work which we can come close to beating with the $29/mo dsIDXpress plugin.
www.RealEstateWebMasters.com (see above): I haven’t really gotten into their systemS in a long time. They were know for kick-ass SEO (and some tricky tricks to get the results they did) as well as a very beautiful design style. But, the last thing I saw has them going back to the BIG Search Form and very simple lead capture design. Dunno.
BUYER FOCUSED SITES
http://www.miamibeachcondosandhomes.com/ (custom IDX)
http://www.hartanovteam.com/ (Real Estate Webmasters)
The Battle for Buyers in Charleston
http://www.findallcharlestonhomes.com/ (Zurple)
http://www.viewallcharlestonhomesnow.com/Charleston (Tiger)
http://www.searchforcharlestonrealestate.com/ (RealEstateWebmasters)
www.TheCassinaGroup.com (BoomtownROI)
http://www.lennarcharleston.com/ (New Homes)