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Whats Important In An IDX Real Estate Website

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Jeff Manson

In my last post someone asked me what IDX solution I thought was the best. I let them know that we created our own. The main reason was because I could not find the complete package of what I was looking for my self and my users experience.

Here are some things I think are important for your users experience:
-    Easy to use for the consumer
-    Fast search results
-    Good interact map search that uses Ajax to display properties
-    Fully integrated solution – not framed
-    Consumer backend to manage saved searches and favorite properties
-    Simple sign up forms that do not bounce user to another page
-    Email alerts that have one link to new listings that are displayed on your site instead of the user having to click each individual property link :-)
-    Detailed advance searches

Important website features:
-    Fully Editable pages and meta tags
-    Ability to pull in properties as content
-    Search engine friendly
-    Built for high conversions
-    Built in blog

Important Lead management features:
-    Lead Capture notifications
-    Agent lead assigning functions
-    Round Robin Lead assignment for teams or brokerages
-    Auto re-assignment of leads if agent doesn’t take action
-    Follow Up features and reminders
-    Prioritize leads by motivation or urgency
-    Easy exporting feature

I would be really interested to hear what other agents think are important and why.  I am sure I am missing something important or have not yet considered. I look forward to learning something new and growing.

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  • bobgibbs

    Great list of features. I found that many of the visitors are buyers and some buyer specific features like mortgage calculaor and rent/buy decision calculator are used a lot along with any links to current real estate news

  • http://www.adrhi.com/ Jeff Manson

    Yes, I agree mortgage calculators are important for buyers to get an idea of what their monthly payments are going to be. Thanks for adding that to the list.

  • http://zolve.com Brian Wilson

    Jeff, your posts on this subject have done us all a great service. I think you nailed it. The “pulling in properties as content” can be heresy in most MLS's so be careful with that. One think you didn't mention is price. From your research, what do you think is a fair price to receive all these things in terms of setup and monthly cost?

  • http://www.thedeets.com edkohler

    Great list. It seems like some agents haven't fully grasped the differences between a framed vs. fully integrated solution. Bolt-on technology solutions have lots of shortcomings, from multiple logins, to design inconsistencies, to search engine ranking factors.

    Two that I don't see on the list are training and reporting. Too often, I see people invest in technology with the assumption that technology is the answer rather than the tool that allows them to communicate. Training and reporting help get people up to speed and prove to them what's working.

  • Kerry

    I'm curious – what do you mean by “Ability to pull in properties as content”?

  • http://www.adrhi.com/ Jeff Manson

    Brian – Price all depends on what you are getting and how effective it converts. You can get some nearly free, but they do not convert well. One that converts well is priceless ;-) I would prefer to focus on features on this post.

    Ed – Yes, most bolt-ons solutions are not a very good user experience unless it is done using the persons website header and back ground. If that is done correctly a lot of users would not even know they went to another domain. I also agree that you need a good tracking and reports. Google Analytics is great for that. You can pull in snippets of listings on the area page without indexing the actual listing page if the boarddoesn't allow that.

    Kerry – I was referring to a page something like this: http://www.adrhi.com/oahu-real-estate/diamond-h… The agent being able to create area pages and pull in listings from that area.

  • http://www.fasthomesolutions.com We Buy Home

    Really interesting and well written article. novices and experts alike will both pick up a lot of tips and ideas from reading that thanks for the information.

  • Pingback: Weekly summary of real estate news, Memphis comments, and other interesting stuff – September 23rd | Memphis Real Estate Buzz

  • Stacie Robbins

    I just signed up with an IDX provider through my web designer who is a reseller. All I can say is WOW! It's got all the feature and then some. You can pick your own templates for search pages and such, you can customize your own IDX search links, they provide stats on each property and how many times it was viewed and also the property tracker where your visitors sign up themselves to receive listings and their contact info is sent to you. Also, you can receive daily email reports of what listings were sent to who. They will also be coming out with an iPhone app in November.And the best part is that it's affordable for anyone. And that is regardless of whether they already have a data feed set up for your MLS or not. That was where I always ran into problems because there was only one idx provider who had a data feed set up for my mls. all the the other IDX providers wanted to charges thousands of dollars to set up a custom fee for me.Oh, and the price I quoted above is for a single agent. If you want IDX set up for an entire office, it's different pricing.You can check them out at IDXBroker.com.

    • Bob

      Instead of pimping a solution out there with bad attempts of comment spam, how about you tell us what features you find valuable with the IDX you are using Stacie?

      • http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com drewmeyers

        I agree Bob – I just deleted Stacie's comment.

  • http://www.startinghome.com/ pike porter, realtor

    Unfortunately, my primary board here in Vermont, with only 1600 members, doesn't get the idx attention the large boards do. so it is good to hear you're looking to provide a solution in Vermont. I think you've hit all the points I would and have even prioritized them correctly for user experience. Simplicity is most important, I've see many idx solutions that get heavy with mapping, clutter the screen, and cause difficulties with searching. I'd put seo friendly above the rest for website features.

    A feature not on your list, and would take customization I know, is the ability to combine several mls boards in one idx. Vermont has two systems so agents need both to have listings for the entire state.

    Looking forward to seeing what you can provide realtors here in vt.

  • http://www.cosmolofts.com/ Los Angeles office space

    Thanks for the great information. If you missed something I don't think it is much.

  • donorason

    Jeff,

    I have look and have tried to demo as many IDX solutions with “Lead management” and all of the other features you mentioned. I look forward to getting a look at your “new creation”…

    I am probably like a lot of others in a community like this (geek estate)…looking for the best website to draw in clients, have lower bounce rate, convert leads, have follow up and a great back end for admin. And geared for team or brokereage to handle a large number of leads.

    Hopefully we talk soon!

    Don Orason
    Silicon Valley Real Estate

  • http://www.SiliconValleyRealEstateTeam.com/ Silicon Valley Real Estate

    Jeff,

    I have look and have tried to demo as many IDX solutions with “Lead management” and all of the other features you mentioned. I look forward to getting a look at your “new creation”…

    I am probably like a lot of others in a community like this (geek estate)…looking for the best website to draw in clients, have lower bounce rate, convert leads, have follow up and a great back end for admin. And geared for team or brokereage to handle a large number of leads.

    Hopefully we talk soon!

    Don Orason
    Silicon Valley Real Estate

  • http://ridofhouse.com CrisR

    I would like an IDX solution that works well with my preexisting site. All of the ones that work with my MLS spit out very ugly pages that look like they were added as an afterthought.

    I think that most offer the same things. but very few are customizable.

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