Real Estate Tools Page

Required Software:

“Front-End” and “Back-End” Examples

“What You See Is What You Get”

The WYSIWYG Web Site Editor empowers you to update and control the content of most pages of your web site. WYSIWYG makes updating easy by giving you a “back-end” administration system that resembles the layout of your web site.

In the WYSIWYG Editor, you can enter and update content, title tags, meta keywords, meta title, meta descriptions for every page—all very important for search engine prominence.

Here’s the actual home page of a web site.

This is the WYSIWYG Web Site Editor view of the same page. Changes made here are immediately visible online.

Searchable Property Directory

The Searchable Property Directory is the database that presents all listings on your web site and updates them automatically through an MLS Data-Feed (IDX). Using the “Real Estate” module in the back-end administration system, you can:

• Set your market area to only show listings in the towns you want to do business or refer leads.
• Control how buyers can search the MLS on your site (by town, by price min/max, by waterfront only, etc).

The Property Directory helps make your site search engine friendly through dynamic page titling. The meta information, used by search engines to help determine the content of each page, is created dynamically for each listing page from the listing data itself. This helps search engines understand the content of each listing page on your site and, consequently, helps search engines and prospective buyers find it.

Visitors to your site will search the MLS and your listings, which update daily. Listings appear on unique pages with clear action buttons enabling buyers to perform tasks such as:

• Save a property search to be notified daily of new listings and price changes (see upgrade below).
• Save a listing to a favorites list (see upgrade below).
• Email a listing to a friend or family member (see upgrade below).
• View an online video or virtual tour (created by a third party developer).
• Calculate estimated mortgage payments.
• Request an appointment to view a property.

With the “Searchable Property Directory”, a prospective buyer may enter specific search criteria in order to locate property listings of his or her preference. Buyers may search properties via MLS numbers, towns, prices (min/max), and waterfront locations, etc. The search by map (shown above) is also available as a premium upgrade.

This is how search results will look on your site. The tools on the right depict the ways you can control how buyers can search the MLS on your site (by town, by price (min/max), by waterfront only, etc.).

Listings appear on unique pages with clear action buttons. On this site, the actions buttons appear on the lower left part of the page. From here buyers can email the listing to a friend, calculate the mortgage payment for this property, etc.

This is the back-end view showing one of the ways you can manage your listings. Here you can indicate whether a listing will appear on your home page, or as a featured listing.

Send Listing to a Friend

The Send Listing to a Friend lets your site visitors market your site for you! The “Send this listing to a Friend” feature allows site visitors to send a listing to a friend. The email that arrives to the friend looks like your web site and provides a photo of the listing that links to the listing detail page on your web site.

Buyers can easily email listings to friends using this feature.

Agent & Office Manager

All personal information about agents and office contact information is managed through the Agent & Office Manager (required for offices). Changing contact information for an agent or office in the Manager automatically updates the contact information in all content areas of the site. The Manager also:

• Disseminates agent information to the “About Us” page (or similar section), where each agent gets an individual page with a photo, bio, contact form, and link to his/her listings.
• Pulls in agent information everywhere that agent’s listings appear on the site, including in “Our Listings” and in all MLS Searches.
• Allows buyers to choose their agent when signing up for Automatic Email Updates. Thereafter, the chosen agent is cc’d on all automatic emails sent to that buyer. Also, if the buyer clicks ‘reply’ to the email, it arrives directly in the listing agent’s mailbox.

This “About Us” page shows all the agents within a particular office. From here, buyers can choose which agent they prefer to work with, click on that agent’s bio or email him/her directly.

Here is an example of an agent’s bio page. Personal information about the agent can raise the buyer’s confidence level, and foster a good relationship between the buyer and the agent.

This is what the back-end of the Agent & Office section looks like. Here is where you’ll enter information about each agent in your office. This information is displayed on each agent’s bio page.

Optional Software:

Automatic Email Update Feature

The Automatic Email Update Feature updates your buyers with a daily email of listings that match their saved property searches. Buyers save their property searches and choose the agent that they are working with (if applicable). Once a day, buyers are sent an email from their chosen agent’s email address if new properties appear on your web site that fit their specific criteria, or if the price changes on an existing property.

The email in the customer’s inbox looks similar to your web site itself, and each listing in the email links directly to the listing page on your web site. Each email sent is carbon copied to the office or chosen agent. Visitors can cancel their emails anytime, and can also log into their own page on your web site to view searches, edit their searches, and change preferences.

Here is an example of what a daily email update looks like. It is personalized to the buyer, carries the look and feel or your site, and it links to your web site, making it easy for the buyer to contact you.

This is an example of the information you can give on your web site to help buyers sign up to automatically receive emails about properties that meet their search criteria.

Save To Favorites

Save To Favorites allows buyers to save particular listings to a favorites account. Listings stay in the account as long as they are active in the MLS. In creating a favorites account, buyers give their email address, converting a casual web surfer into a qualified lead. In the “back-end” administration system, you can see all users’ favorites lists, and search by MLS number to see what users have a particular listing in their favorites lists.

Prospective buyers can save particular listings to a favorites “account” on your site. This keeps them coming back time and again to view “their” properties. Return visitors are much more likely to become clients.

Build Your Own Searches

The Build Your Own Searches tool allows you to create pre-set searches that are popular (for example: “Waterfront Homes under $1 million”). Searches can be easily created, categorized, and a managed in the administration system. Creating popular searches helps leverage your knowledge of the local market, creates a unique user experience for on your site, and increases the utility of your site for buyers.

Here is an example of a “Build Your Own Search” for a popular town. These kinds of pre-saved searches make it easy for prospective buyers to find popular search results.

This is what the back-end of the Build Your Own Search looks like. Here you can manage your pre-saved searches, edit property descriptions, or use the activate button to add or remove a property.

Build Your Own Favorites List

The Build Your Own Favorites List makes a favorites list of MLS listings or categories that cannot be automatically sorted (“my picks”, “great deals this month”, “distinctive homes”, “fixer-uppers” etc). Properties stay in your list as long as they are active in the MLS. You build your own lists by adding listings to your own ‘favorites’ lists.

Leads Tracking (Management Center)

USM’s Leads Management Center leverages the data collected from buyers on your web site to create bulk email lists of interested buyers. In the leads management center you can:

• Search the “Saved Favorites” lists by MLS number to generate a list of users who have flagged a listing as a “favorite.” The search generates a list of buyers to whom you can send a bulk email. If, for example, a particular listing has an open house, you can search for that listing in the database and email interested buyers of the upcoming open house in just a few clicks.
• Search the Saved Searches by MLS number to see what buyers have saved searches that would include that MLS listing in their results. A spam-filter friendly bulk email can be sent to the resulting user list to inform them of an Open House or other valuable information about the property.

Premium Software:

Search by Map

USM’s Search by Map custom-built maps make searching listings an interactive and informative experience, especially for remote buyers not intimately familiar with the area. Clickable county maps allow buyers to choose the towns they are interested by selecting them from the map.

Google Mapping

Google Mapping shows all search results on a Google map to give buyers a visual sense of the location of listings in their property search results. The Google map displays at the bottom of the page listing search results, and on the detail view page of each listing.

Google Base

Google Base Listing Syndication: Imagine being in a listing presentation and telling a prospective seller that you will literally put their home on Google. Just as we place your listings from the MLS on your site, we can now place that same listing information directly on Google for you. To see an example of a USM client’s listings on Google, please visit: http://www.tinyurl.com/yx9bwr (USM client Judy Foregger’s Stowe properties appear in this google base search results page). Put your listings where buyers begin their search: Google!

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Real Estate Blog

Real Estate Blogs: Real Estate Blogs have become increasingly popular with many REALTORs for a number of reasons. A blog can:

• Give you and your office the ability to communicate with a number of customers for a fraction of the cost of print or mail
• Provide your visitors with timely information about your market
• Help improve search engine pick up
• Make the site “stickier” once the visitor finds the site

View an example at http://blog.peggysmithvt.com/blog/.