RealBird Blog

Map-based REO Search available in 5 MLS markets

We have been a bit quiet on this blog for a month or so. To jump-start the conversation again, let me announce the immediate availability of the RealBird Map-based REO Search service in the following 5 MLS markets:

• REIL - RE InfoLink, California - San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito counties and includes Central Valley MLS data
• EBRD/MAXMLS - California - Alameda and Contra Costa counties
• BAREIS - California - Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Solano and Mendocino counties
• SANDICOR - California - San Diego county
• MRIS - DC, Maryland and part of Virginia and Pennsylvania

As more and more properties go into foreclosure and eventually end up being bank owned, savvy home buyers and real estate investors seek bargain deals in REOs. Demand for bank owned properties has increased dramatically. With the new RealBird Map-based REO Search tool, you can now service this large home buyer segment and tap into the lucrative business.

Live examples:

MRLBayArea.com

Bay-Area-REO.com

Features:

• Embed live, interactive REO map-based search into your website, blog or even into your ActiveRain blog.
• Unlimited localized searches: create REO maps for your local neighborhoods. Great for SEO.
• REO photo and blog sidebar widgets - automatically updated
• Niche REO searches: luxury bank owned properties, bargain bank owned lands etc.
• RSS feed for every search: your client will never miss a great deal again
• Configuration options: show or hide property address, link it to your full property information or use it with the built-in email lead collector

For more information, pricing and to get your REO map-search up and running, please call (866) 551-2934 or email [email protected]

Map-based MLS Search 2.0

Introducing the RealBird Map-based MLS Search 2.0

It's been a while since our last major update of the RealBird Map-based MLS Search service. I am pleased to announce that the new version is now available for real estate agents and brokers in our current MLS coverage areas. (More MLS coverage is added ongoing)

There are many, many new features and novel benefits of this new release. I am going to post tutorials on a regular basis of concepts and techniques about how to best utilize these features. At this time, let me  emphasize a unique marketing concept, which enables real estate agents to reach out for home buyers beyond their website, via syndicated featured listings, viral marketing and social networks.

The problem

Your IDX solution is only as good as the level of traffic you receive on your website. Unless you have sufficient traffic coming to your site, the most advanced technology locked up on your site will not bring you business, simply because nobody knows about the value it provides. One of the most powerful real estate marketing techniques is blogging and not just because you can show off your expertise and niche while building brand and trust (the content), but for being a technology solution which reaches out for buyers and pulls them back to your online presence, your blog or website, where you can provide them with additional services (the reach). Since blogs are syndicated by default, expressed via machine readable RSS and loved by search engines, your content (and online business identity) can go a really long way to reach consumers by feed readers, aggregators, fellow bloggers sharing and tracking back your content and most importantly by search engines. In short: you "push" your information via blogs to meaningful destinations where consumers search and research and "pull" them back to your website for more. This is very powerful, no question about it.

Following this marketing concept established by real estate blogs, we decided to port the technique to single property websites:

The solution

For the first time in the industry, the RealBird Listing Publisher enables you to create Single Property Websites with Map-based MLS Search embedded for instant, live showcase of nearby for sale properties.  Take the following scenario for example:

1. You create a single property website with RealBird and embed the Map-based MLS Search application
2. Your listing site is automatically syndicated to Google Base, Zillow, Trulia, Geebo, Oodle, Vast and more and you can easily post it to Craigslist, Kijiji and Backpage for even more traffic
3. A home buyer finds your featured listing on any of those highly popular portals
4. The home buyer clicks thru to visit your RealBird single property website
5. If your featured listing is not a perfect match, the home buyer is provided with an instant option to see similar for sale properties without ever leaving your site. In other words, you capture a portion of the traffic of home buyers from major portals. That portion can be huge relative to your regular website traffic.

Your IDX search solution (the home buyer lead capturing tool) is pushed one click closer to high profile destinations, to portals where most of the online home buyers start their search. Similar to blogging, the RealBird Listing Publisher pushes your information to 3rd party sites with high consumer traffic (portals and search engines) and "pulls" home buyers back to your full IDX solution.

Since the RealBird Listing Publisher also allows you to manage and promote your pending and sold inventory, listings sites which are already indexed by major search engines will continue to bring cumulative traffic and leads to your IDX solutions via your single property websites even after your own listing is sold !

The Listing Publisher is available for agents and brokers in the US, nationwide. For the embedded MLS Search option, please check the coverage on RealBird .com (You can also request coverage there. We'll do our best to implement new MLSs as soon as possible, based on user demand)

Below are a few examples of live single property websites with the Map-based Search integrated:

Stay tuned for the upcoming tutorials on other new features such the visually stunning MLS Hotlist widgets.

-- Zoltan Szendro

RealBird.com

Map-based MLS Search widget integration - the right way

Continuing our case studies of the best RealBird implementations, I review two sites, which demonstrate innovative and effective ways of integrating the RealBird Map-based Search widget into their overall user experience.

SeattleHome.com

What we like:

• Deep integration in terms of content and graphical design
  The site has a consistent overall look and the RealBird service is an integrated part of it, across the whole site. The second option of the quick search methods on the homepage is powered by the RealBird Map-based Search service and the clean design drives user interaction to the desired result the fastest way possible. This is user experience engineering at its best.
• Separate map-based search widgets for all cities
  The site is fully utilizing one of the key feature of our map-based search widget, i.e., the option to set up multiple maps for a certain geographic locations or search criteria. Every major neighborhood served has it's own "quick search" page for searching by price, searching by map and market stats.

The service is using the NWMLS IDX feed.

See it for yourself

1SiliconValley.com

Steve Leung is using his popular real estate blog as the front end for his online real estate presence. This is a new trend among real estate websites and I believe this is where the industry is heading. Using a blogging platform with regularly updated hyper-local content delivers search engine traffic and provides information as a real, distinct value for visitors (vs. static, canned content pages of regular websites). Blogging platforms also enable collaboration with home buyers, sellers and prospects via comments and widgets and therefore significantly increases the user engagement. That eventually leads to better lead conversion. Steve integrates the RealBird Map-based Search widget as the MLS search tool under the "Search Inventory of Homes". I love the simple but highly effective content design and the no non-sense approach to providing the value for home buyers and seller without overloading the site with irrelevant stuff and canned content. It's focused and that 's why it works.

Both of the above examples demonstrate another feature of the RealBird Map-based Search service: RealBird works nicely with other IDX vendors.  Both Brian and Steve have set up the RealBird service in a way that  the "More Info" link in the property's popup window leads to the IDX property detail page provided via their existing IDX vendor. Having such set up utilizes the easy-to-use, advanced user experience the RealBird Map-based Search widget provides, while providing more functionalities via the IDX backend (such as full details, property and search saving and notification services.) I think such integration of the full search cycle creates a perfect combination for great user experience.

The service is using the REIL IDX feed..

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We are interested in your way of integrating the RealBird service into your blog and website. If you think, you are utilizing the service in a unique and effective way, drop us a email or leave a comment below. We'd love to hear your success stories and to feature your site.

-- Zoltan Szendro
RealBird.com

Sign up for a RealBird Map-based Search trial or request MLS coverage here

or try the RealBird Listing Publisher - our next generation online listing marketing tool, with syndication and advanced listing presentation features