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4Ward, I am not ignoring your question. I think the robust discussion that followed it probably has already answered it. If you have any other questions that remain I will be happy to ante up my 2 cents worth.
Esse quam videri
Any update as to when Agentpress might be may responsive? I started a build (not realizing it wasn't responsive) and don't want to continue working on it if responsive is a ways off. I'd rather start over on a responsive theme if it ain't gonna happen for AP for a long time.
Hey DP, I didn't think you were ignoring me. I was taking in everything being discussed here. Sounds like some differing of opinion, but it gives me some food to chew on before I make a decision. I just want to make sure that I steer my client in the right direction on which product to purchase for their IDX/RETS system.
Are you familiar with http://displet.com/idxrets-search/? This is another solution that I saw recommended out there.
Thanks for all the help.
Tyy
4WardMotion, I would suggest using a solution you know someone personally has used. The one thing about the idx solutions is that the realtor boards from location to location are difficult to work with. Sometimes they will send duplicate listings, missing listings, etc.. in their update. They don't allow idx solutions to pull sold/expired, so when their feed is flawed, so is the results on the idx; however, experienced companies that are normally in a lot of boards are accustom to coding around that.
I have used dozens of solutions. There are a lot more that are missing listings then there are those that are right. You can do a simple audit by having the agent go to his MLS and select "active" as listing type. Don't put anything else in as a parameter. You will get "X" results. Then do the same on the feed.
I wouldn't use anything other than something the agent is familiar with or something I have on good credibility. If the agent is familiar with IDX Broker (most are) then they will have the tendency to blame the solution. If you take them to something unheard of...
At this point in time our local MLS has had very little in the way of IDX solutions available in our area. IDX Broker is one of the few that is available in our area now and that is why we have been looking at that one. Other than that, the real estate office has just been using the local MLS site for sharing listings, but it is horrible. So we are basically starting from the ground up and want to make sure we make the right decision out of the gate. I have looked high and low and have had a hard time finding other agents in the area using any of these IDX solutions. Thus the reason I am on here looking for ideas. I have contacted Diverse Solutions about getting them to our area, but at this time they have no plans to come here. If IDX Broker is a great solution, then we will go with them since they are already in our area. Just wanting to do our due diligence before making a decision.
Thanks again for your help!
Tyy
IDX Broker Platinum is pretty good. You can read my reserves above. If you have no one else using idx to display listings then you should easily get a lot of first page results (from addresses) with idx broker platinum. Especially if your board isn't using Point2Agent. They are the ones that syndicate 9/10 times to trulia, zillow, homes.com. If the big companies are not in your board... Man are you lucky.
IDX Broker Platinum will get the listings indexed on your site. That is all you would need if there is that little competition.
4Ward, as Joseph said you should be extremely cautious about trying to get a new IDX provider for your clients MLS RETS feed. Also, with regard to IDX Broker Platinum. Somebody is going to have play the role of "feed tweaker" for your feed. And this is not in regard to the MLS, but in regard to IDX Broker's product. They have hundreds if not thousands of MLSs they are serving. If something is not right, you or someone else using their product locally is going to have make them aware of it. For my local MLS feed that someone is generally me. It benefits my local competitors using IDX Broker as well, and to that degree is thankless work. But, this is actually another reason to not be the only one using a particular IDX solution in your local market. When I point out a glitch that is affecting my competitors' websites as well as mine it gets immediate attention, instead of "maybe it's your fault". Thankfully, glitches do not occur often.
And Joseph, don't start discussing the ease with which IDX Broker Platinum will get 1st page results. You have no experience with it whatsoever. It has to be properly implemented to get results like that, and that seems to be an insurmountable stepping stone for a lot agents and their web designers.
Esse quam videri
I forget the pages generated by idx broker platinum are not seo optimized. I am accustomed to using http://seorets.com. Their pages are on site (not a subdomain), generate custom H1 tags, title tags, and download all the pages then rename the seo optimized titles/alt tags. Oh, the site also produced an optimized PDF that is downloadable. The pdf often ranks front page too. hehe
Sorry DP, That time I was promoting my favorite provider. LOL
That sounds great Joseph. Especially the h1 tags and PDFs. Platinum won't get you that. At least not yet 😉
Esse quam videri
I've only found it in one other offering. BoomTOwn <-- 1,500 a month.
BoomTown might be up there.
SeoRets is only in like 80 boards or something. You can check on their site.
Well, they claim to only offer their services to one broker per area. There are 2 brokers in my board that have it, but they are different "areas." That can be... very subjective. They offer support for Paid Per Click. No additional cost. They also have a built in lead management system. Their feed is a template site. No WordPress.
emeraldcoasthomehunter.com
That is the site url for the local vendor in my board.
I should not have said that about BoomTown's pricing, it's really all about return on investment.
Boomtown looks and sounds similar to something I have seen before called TigerLead.
Esse quam videri
Market Leader, Tiger Leads, and Boom Town are very similar. Seo Rets is working on a similar contact management solution. I can't wait. I don't think it's going to be 1,500 though. It's going to be made for the normal agent accounts at 40 per agent. I hope ?
Tiger Leads can be worth it. Like you said earlier DP, not many agents can take the site to rank well on google. To use Tiger Leads you either have to rank well or Paid Per Click advertising, which they manage I believe.
In regards to Boomtown, it's not as exclusive as it once was. Our brokerage has it, I use it and a REMAX brokerage 4 miles away has it as well. And BTW, Boomtown will be getting WordPress very soon 🙂 http://boomtownroi.com/newstuff/
Joseph, you said the following in post #20411:
"Your site’s structure (internal link) is perfect. It’s getting indexed on every single listing w/o bringing the page rank on your main site down. I admit, when you have the listings ON your site (literally) you can pull too much PR out of page easily if you don’t know what you are doing."
Could you elaborate, I don't quite understand what you are saying. The big downside I see to having a subdomain serve up search results rather than having it all on the primary domain, is that the Page Rank is split with each accruing their own. I would rather have one site on page one of the SERPS rather than two on the second page. So, having a subdomain with indexed pages only gives page rank to the subdomain (right?). That isn't helping me get my main site to the top of the SERPS.
I understand that with IDXbroker's service longtail address searches will be indexed and perhaps show on the first page (until everybody is doing it), but I'm more concerned to get my primary domain on the first page. This thread is virtually the only detailed discussion anywhere on the pros and cons of subdomained IDX so I am glad to see it discussed here.
By the way, having witnessed several RETS implementations, I will be using IDX Broker rather than a RETS solution simply because the amount of custom development and setup required is a literally one tenth the time and money. But I think I will always wish for a single domain solution and one day will have a RETS solution.
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