September 23rd, 2009

RE Webmasters Introduces New IDX Search Plugin

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

Yesterday Morgan Carey of Real Estate Webmasters received an astounding response following the release of REW’s Demographics for IDX Listings plugin using Onboard Informatics community, school, and amenities data. This demographic and neighborhood content accompanies each listing to give brokers and agents powerful local market expertise though REW’s optimized websites.

To accompany the release, REW is offering major production and site enhancement discounts for the first 100 subscribers to get their hands on the plugin. For those who have not yet implemented IDX and REW site design, they are also providing discounted installation packages along with the plugin.

Morgan explains the feature’s potential for site owners:

“If it isn’t obvious I am really excited about this new feature, and more importantly all the possibilities that now have opened up through our relationship with our various data vendors, in this case Onboard – now that we have this data licensed and available in raw form, this application is just the tip of the ice burg.”

Let’s take a look at an implementation on REW client Marc Rasmussen’s site. A simple IDX search led me to this luxury property in Sarasota:

When a client wants to see what surrounds the house, they can look at Local Neighborhood Info, as displayed below:

As a potential buyer (err…someone who enjoys pretending they can afford beautiful waterfront houses), I discover via Google mashup the property’s proximity to a farmer’s market, chapel, dogsitter, diamond store (perfectly suited for my imaginary lifestyle), and a bakery among local schools and other amenities. I can also infer this is a tight-knit community based on its stable population and lower turnover rates. The characteristics of my neighbors, typical temperatures, and proximity to colleges and sporting events are listed clearly for me.

Real Estate Webmasters is an Onboard value added reseller partner equipped with real estate’s most trusted local content to enhance their programming capabilities, as they have already done for Marc Rasmussen of Michael Saunders and Company. REW’s design expertise is transforming home search with the power of showcasing the look and feel of a community.

We won’t get ahead of ourselves, but there are a ton of exciting features in the works for REW customers.  Stay tuned on Morgan’s blog for details and updates.

Tags: home search, IDX search, local content, optimized websites, Real Estate Webmasters, REW, VAR.

July 27th, 2008

On Localism & Future of Online Real Estate

By Robert Hahn - VP, Marketing

Ajax and Cassandra

Over at my personal blog, I started one of those Cassandra deals speculating on the future of ActiveRain network now that Trulia has launched a blog platform. Since that post went up, I had a chance to sit down with Jonathan Washburn, the founder of ActiveRain, and learned a thing or two. A followup post was necessary. But more I thought about it, more it seemed appropriate for the OnBlog, as my thoughts on the situation are relevant to our clients past, present and future.

First, J-Dub (you Washingtonians ought to get the reference) pointed out that ActiveRain isn’t exactly a slouch in the consumer traffic side of things — as he clarified in the comments to the post, ActiveRain and Localism got 2.3 million visits in the last 30 days, and he said some 80%+ of that is consumer traffic. Second, he charted out a future view of online real estate that is rather convincing. It goes something like this (and I’m probably not doing full justice to his views):

• Consumers want listings above all else
• But listings are everywhere
• Hence, listings are a commodity
• Differentiation can only come from original content
• ActiveRain has 100,000 dedicated local real estate professionals who love creating original content, especially about their local market
• Adding listings to ActiveRain & Localism isn’t the most difficult thing in the world, especially if the trend towards aggregation and syndication continue
• Adding original content, however, is extremely difficult and time-consuming
• Therefore, Localism will dominate all

You know, that’s a pretty convincing point of view. Strategically, it’s sound. There is a trend towards listings aggregation and syndication — a trend that is taking far, far too long to develop, to be sure, but one that has the force of inevitability behind it.

However, strategy is only as good as the execution. And this is where I, as a member of Onboard Informatics, can offer some thoughts that are relevant to all of our clients (and future clients). Read More

Tags: agent blogs, local content, Localism, long tail marketing, real estate 2.0, Trulia, value-added content.