RealBird Blog

Summary of new RealBird features launched in 2011

Today is the last business day of 2011 and we thought it is the good time to summarize the main new RealBird features that we launched in 2011. 

Switched the RealBird Property Search from Google Base to Oodle data

As you may recall Google suddenly announced in January '11 the discontinuation of Google Base. Because the RealBird Property Search was based on data from Google Base, we had to find another solution. We successfully ported the application to use real estate data from Oodle, soft launched in March and made it available for all RealBird members in June. The new search application has been working great ever since and has delivered thousands and thousands of buyer leads to RealBird members.

New listing inventory widget replaced the old version, with color themes and custom transition effects

We retired one of our legacy sidebar listing inventory widgets and replaced it with a brand new one, which can be configured with custom color theme and custom transition effects.

The first version of the RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website was launched

In March, we launched the first version of the RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website service with vanity domain name and QR code support. Within weeks, thousands of mobile sites were set up by RealBird PRO members. It also received coverage from Inman News.  

The second version of the Mobile Real Estate Website added Property Search support

Soon after the initial launch, we also completed the mobile user interface for the RealBird Property Search and added to the RealBird Mobile Property Website service. Update to the platform (and the new desktop IE support) also made it possible from then on to embed the mobile real estate website on regular blogs and pages with the handy RealBird widget, including the inclusion of the QR code and a call-for-action message.

Default Property Website Theme editor added

One of the powerful features of the RealBird single property websites has always been the versatile theme editor. We realized however that even with the easy-to-use interface, it has been an unnecessary hassle to set up the custom design for each listing one by one, so we introduced the same powerful theme editor tool as a global configuration option. In other words, RealBird members can now set up a default custom design once and all new property sites will inherit this theme.

Introduced 3 Facebook Real Estate Page applications

Just in time for Facebook's application platform overhaul during the summer, we released three Facebook applications for different RealBird services. You can now easily add your listing inventory widget, map-based property search and your mobile real estate website to your Facebook business page.

Diligent SEO work brought major results: video thumbnails of your property websites are now shown on Google

We've been always focusing on SEO best practices, but 2011 brought some break throughs: Finally, over 1 million pages on RealBird has been indexed by Google and to our great surprise, RealBird became one of the few real estate information providers whose pages have been enhanced with video thumbnails on the Google search result pages. This is a very positive and stunning SEO news and together with the high ranking of the RealBird property websites, it represents a major improvement in visibility for our members.

Tighter integration of your RealBird featured listings and map-based property search

We also introduced a small, but powerful feature for RealBird PRO members. The RealBird map-based property search can now be configured to show your own featured listings as "sticky", highlighted icons on the map. We call them "sticky" icons, because they are shown on the map independently from the actual search criteria, as long as their location falls within the current map boundaries. This a great, non-intrusive advertisement of your own properties to home buyers using your map search.

United Kingdom coverage added to RealBird

We also extended support for most of the RealBird services for estate agents in the United Kingdom. With this launch, RealBird now provides online marketing services to US, Canada and UK agents and brokers. 

Brand new, major redesign of the flagship RealBird single property website platform launched

It's been a long time coming and finally, in October, we launched a major redesign of our flagship RealBird Listing Publisher property website platform. The system has many, many improvements and new features, while remaining fully backward compatible: new layout design, improved SEO, improved load speed, deeper social media integration, better lead capture, more automatic integration with 3rd party services such as Walkscore, ability to add more custom pages and content and many more features. We were very happy to receive an overwhelmingly positive response from all of our members regarding this major update.

New Craigslist property ad generator released

A revamped Craigslist property ad generator was launched in November, making it much easier for RealBird members to create a Craigslist ad with unlimited color theme options. Craigslist is one of the most popular classifieds ad platforms and this new tool makes it way easier to create much better looking ads for your RealBird listings. 

SMS keyword property marketing added to your mobile marketing toolkit

Just in time for the holiday season, we added a new listing marketing service to the RealBird mobile toolkit. We integrated RealBird with the leading SMS technology provider, Twilio and introduced SMS keyword marketing for your properties with an amazing, automatic lead capture feature.

Last but not least, 7,616 real estate professionals joined RealBird in 2011. This is our highest yearly registration number ever and we thank you all very much (long time and new members as well) for trusting your real estate marketing on the RealBird platform. 

We Wish You All A Very Happy & Successful New Year !

-- The RealBird Team
RealBird.com 

RealBird is now available in the United Kingdom

We are very pleased to announce that the RealBird real estate marketing platform is now available for real estate agents in the United Kingdom. While the RealBird Property Search has been supporting UK search widgets for a while, with this new release, UK based agents can use the Listing Publisher to market their own listings as well. 

Below is the list of the unique features of RealBird PRO for the UK:

• Unlimited single property websites and virtual tours for your listings 
• Single property website widgets for your blog and website
• Listing inventory widgets for your blog and website
• Listing syndication (currently UK listings are only syndicated to Oodle,
  but more destinations will be added ongoing)
• Auto-generated QR codes and mobile property websites
• Exceptional search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media listing marketing tools
• Custom Facebook Real Estate Page tabs
• Facebook Listing Pages
• Property search widgets including map-based property search 
• Private labeled mobile real estate website with your own city domain name and QR code
• Browser toolbar for your buyers including the unique cross-site property inquiry tool

With this new release, RealBird PRO now provides coverage for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. We'll post some UK examples later as they appear in our system.

Stay tuned for the upcoming feature releases including a brand new and highly social single property website platform.

-- RealBird.com 

Real estate property websites on mobile devices

Did you know that RealBird has been providing an iPhone optimized presentation for your property websites since 2007? Chances are, not many of our new members know that the RealBird single property websites render differently on iPhone than on regular desktop browsers; mainly because we did not promote this feature much. We had a few recent discussions with some of our members regarding adding more support for mobile listing presentations and the time has come to put priorities on these features. 

We will post a poll on our Facebook Page shortly to see which smartphones do you want us to focus on.

There are two segments of users to consider: 

1. Supporting the majority of smart phones that consumers use who may end up looking at your listing presentations on their mobile devices and 
2. Supporting the platforms that are widely used by real estate professionals who could benefit from these mobile features at listing presentations

Below is a pie chart that shows the distribution of the mobile devices used to access the RealBird single property websites in the last 90 days (I assume the chart represents mostly consumer traffic)

 

As expected, iPhone and Android rules the pie, followed by Blackberry. There is nothing surprising here, but it's worth noting that Blackberry is either 1) less used by consumers or 2) less used for browsing for homes for sale or 3) both. Also, Clicky did not show any stats for iPad, I am not sure why, not even one view over a 3-month period and I am sure there were some (like myself). 

There is no special link or action that is required to see the special iPhone version of your listing website. The same Url will render the user interface differently on an iPhone and on a desktop browser. So if you have an IPhone, just pull up your regular RealBird listing websites (e.g. email it to yourself) and see the iPhone layout.

So here is the poll question: Which smartphone do you use?
Just add as a comment here or on our Facebook Page

Thanks !

RealBird.com

Facebook Profile listing widget, new ActiveRain and blog embed code and other feature updates

We had many feature releases in the last couple of weeks, plus many improvements of existing features. The article below summarizes the result of the last month R&D efforts here at RealBird. I organized the new and updated features by products, but note that some of the improvements are interconnected, hence providing additional benefits by channeling visitors from one of your RealBird services to the other.

But first thing first. Check out these examples of the just released embed code optimized for ActiveRain, Localism and your regular blog with SEO in mind. Just enter your listings in RealBird as usual and use the new link on the member management page called "Embed it in ActiveRain & blog post". You can configure the width and show or hide contact info and center or left align the widget.

New RealBird embed code examples

PGA NATIONAL GOLF ESTATE - Escape To Your Private Oasis

Overview Maps Photos Features Description Video Neighborhood Market Stats

$2,499,777 Single Family Home For Sale Main Features 7 Bedrooms 6 Bathrooms 1 Partial Bathroom Lot: 0.86 acre(s) Location 5 Rabbits Run Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418

---

Nestor and Katerina Gasset International Properties and Investments, Inc (561) 753-0135 [email protected] http://www.wellington-luxury-homes.com Listed by: International Properties and Investments Inc.

Our recent listings Short Sale Historic Grand View Heights-West Palm Beach FL 33401 Short Sale Condo with Ocean-IntraCoastal and Pool Views! Short Sale -14289 Calypso Ln Wellington Florida 33414 Short Sale - 752 Lake Wellington Drive Wellington 33414 3419 Pony Run Wellington Florida 33467 Short Sale Subscribe to our listing feed

See more Palm Beach Gardens, FL real estate for sale

Unforgettable Views Olympia Waterfront

Overview Maps Photos Features Description About Olympia

$999,000 Single Family Home For Sale Main Features 4 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms Interior: 3551 sqft Lot: 0.64 acre(s) Location 7500 Sandy Point Beach Rd. NE Olympia, WA 98516

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Mike Conner City Realty, Inc. (360) 970-4408 [email protected] http://www.cityrealtyinc.com Listed by: City Realty, Inc.

Our recent listings Stylish New West Olympia Condo Unforgettable Views Olympia Waterfront Perfect West Olympia Starter Multi-Family Zoning Near Downtown Olympia Gorgeous Olympia Rambler Subscribe to our listing feed

See more Olympia, WA real estate for sale

Live Work TownHome in Market Common - Incredible Location and Price

Overview Maps Photos Description

$329,900 Townhouse For Sale Main Features 2 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 2 Partial Bathrooms Interior: 2150 sqft Location Howard Avenue 2834-D Myrtle Beach, SC 29588

---

MIRELA MONTE BUYERS' CHOICE REALTY (843) 251-2378 [email protected] http://www.MyrtleBeachHomes.US Listed by: Mirela Monte

Our recent listings Windy Hill Dunes Oceanfront Condo for Sale in N. Myrtle Beach SC Kenley Court - Apartments for Sale in Loris, SC Live Work TownHome in Market Common - Incredible Location and Price Adorable Home in Cherry Grove Beach The Best of Both Worlds: Ocean and Marsh Merger Subscribe to our listing feed

See more Myrtle Beach, SC real estate for sale

RealBird Listing Publisher - new features

• "Homes for Sale" tab widget for both your Facebook Profile and Facebook Page
• New ActiveRain and Localism optimized embed code with stunningly good looking slideshows (see examples above)
• New Photowall listing inventory widget
• Updated configuration tool for the Featured Listings Map widget with Google Earth 3D view and options to generate maps for your sold and pending inventory as well
• iPromote integration
• Your RealBird single property websites now link to your RealBird Property Search, providing more comparable properties for your visitors. All leads go to you.

RealBird Property Search - new features

• The search RSS now includes MediaRSS extension
  Photos are now attached to the RSS items with the industry standard machine readable MediaRSS extension, hence allows advanced reusability, e.g. tou can use it now to create slideshow and other media widgets using 3rd party services
• Mapped search results as default option
  PRO subscribers can now configure the service to show the mapped results by default.
• Advanced configuration options.

• Configure the service so that clicking on the property search result keeps the details page in the same iframe. The default behavior is to break out of the embedded frame into new window.
• Hiding header and footer for smooth integration.
• These are PRO options as well. Please contact us for instructions.

• Your featured listings are now promoted on your Property Search interface.
• Cross-market and showcase your own listings under a prominent "Featured Listings" tab. This is a PRO feature also.
• The RealBird widget for Facebook Pages and Facebook Profiles also links to your RealBird Property Search

New PRO subscription option - go monthly for only $11.95

Some of the new features are RealBird PRO only options, like the industry-first Facebook Profile and Facebook Page widget, MLS-compatible unbranded virtual tours, ad-free Property Search. To make your upgrade decision easier, we introduced a monthly payment option for only $11.95/month. You can upgrade instantly through the member area. Just log in and click the Upgrade link either on the member landing page or on the listing management page

If you like these new features, please consider upgrading to the PRO account in the RealBird member area. It's only $11.95 per month (equals only a few bucks or less per listing per month)

-- Zoltan 
RealBird.com

 

ActiveRain closes on to reach the 100,000 members mark

ActiveRain - one of the leading and certainly the most dynamic  real estate social networks - has 91,690 members, as of the time of writing this post. ActiveRain is free service and the value is unprecedented in terms of access to the vast amount of information shared by other real estate professionals and online marketing in general.

We call on all of you, real estate professionals (agents, brokers, appraisals, stager, mortgage lenders etc.) to join for free and let's help them together to reach the 100,000 members count.

• ActiveRain is a blogging system in the sense that it
  enables you to write articles, it lists them in chronological order,
  syndicates it via RSS and feeds the search engine monster for maximum
  exposure and clearly identifies you as the author and authority.
• ActiveRain is a training ground:
  Many of us come to ActiveRain for advice, discussions and to learn from
  each other. Training each other on business, marketing etc. is what
  creates the loyalty and incremental benefit, and this sets ActiveRain
  apart from other services.
• ActiveRain is an ecosystem and a team marketing platform:
  One participant's success depends on the success of the overall
  ecosystem and AR members directly and indirectly enhance each others
  marketing efforts. For example, there is such a deep interconnection
  between the 1 million+ AR pages Google knows about, that search engines
  pay extra attention to content published via ActiveRain and value the
  content as highly relevant.
• ActiveRain is a unique social network:
  Valuable social networks are those, where the connections between the
  participants create a value-add, which would not exist without these
  connections. That is, there are 1) new and 2) valuable information born
  from these relationships. In other words, the relationships between
  ActiveRainers are as important as the content generated by individuals.

To celebrate ActiveRain's contribution to the real estate industry, we - at RealBird - have released an ActiveRain Social Network Widget, which can be used to merge your ActiveRain and RealBird account into a handy, great looking, team marketing platform.  Market your ActiveRain associates (the ActiveRain members you selected as your inner circle), each other's business profile, each other's listings (published through RealBird) and each other blog posts!

Below is an example of the widget with viral marketing capability built into it:

The widget above shows our own RealBird ActiveRain associates, their RealBird listings and the blog posts. To get your own, join ActiveRain and RealBird (both for free) and get your own widget from the RealBird member area.

Enjoy the benefits and let's give ActiveRain a helping hand to reach the 100,000 member mark.

-- Zoltan Szendro
RealBird.com