BLOODHOUNDBLOG.COM

There’s always something to howl about
«
»

A snapshot from my world…

By: Greg Swann, Phoenix Real Estate, Post Archive, RSS Feed
Posted: Tuesday, October 26th, 2010, 8:36 am MST
Category: Marketing,Photography,Real Estate

Related posts:
  • So, you wanna be a real estate blogger?
  • Another news drought?
  • Why Web 2.0 Still Hasn’t Mastered the Real Estate Mantra: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

    • 19 comments

    19 Comments so far

    1. Mark Madsen October 26th, 2010 9:25 am

      I’d love to learn how to quickly integrate a custom map / property search into my site for individual clients. The theme I’m using for my Vegas real estate site allows for custom wigetized sidebars per page, category or tag. So, it would be awesome to create a custom web page on my site that feeds in all of the important links and details for each client.

    2. Tweets that mention BloodhoundBlog.com | A snapshot from my world… | National real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgage and investment news -- Topsy.com October 26th, 2010 9:37 am

      [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Real Estate Feeds and My REALTY, Tom Hunter. Tom Hunter said: A snapshot from my world…: http://bit.ly/coMr7m [...]

    3. Greg Swann October 26th, 2010 9:59 am

      Everything you need in two words: PHP and MySQL. It’s doable, it just takes work.

      The screenshot you’re seeing will produce this web site. The map requires further manual intervention, but everything else comes for free. It’s not everything you’re looking for, but the rest is pretty easy. We’re approaching this from the other direction, custom web sites for active clients with all of their critical documents available securely from the cloud.

      I’m writing into the IDX system right now, but soon I’m going to switch to the VOW feed. When I have that, I’ll be able to do a lot of cool stuff from software: Comp this property, Cap-Rate this property, etc.

    4. Mark Madsen October 26th, 2010 10:19 am

      Awesome, Greg.

      It reminds me of a quote you had in one of your previous articles about BarCamp:

      I’m a geek, big time. By now, I’m doing things I can’t even teach, things I can barely describe intelligibly. I’m a do-it-myself geek, too, which Jeff hates, but this is why I can do things I can’t describe to other people, because I invent every wheel I roll on.

    5. Al Lorenz October 26th, 2010 6:37 pm

      It’s long overdue for me to learn both of those, PHP and MySQL. I did notice a bit on engenu and some scenius stuff on that site. I have been playing with using scenius in a continually changing ad on another site.

      I know, I just need to run faster!

    6. Al Lorenz October 26th, 2010 6:38 pm

      I take it back, I did not see Scenius, just assumed it must be there.

    7. Cheryl Johnson October 27th, 2010 4:09 am

      Greg, is encartus stand-alone software at this point, or is it dependant on engenu? Just wondering…

    8. Greg Swann October 27th, 2010 6:33 am

      > is encartus stand-alone software at this point, or is it dependant on engenu?

      It’s always been stand-alone software, but it’s also always been integrated into the engenu universe — or, rather, our larger software universe. Everything I write works that way. In the image above, running that job creates a complete Praxis web-site with a lot of free built-in content, including many links back to FreePhoenixMLSSearch.com, another piece of our software puzzle. Since yesterday, I’ve been back through that site, re-inheriting everything through engenu, thus to add custom content to the pages. Even so, encartus can be used just to create a map or just to create a folder structure on the file server. But we use it to create Praxis or engenu pages, or, as here, first one, then the other.

    9. Jim Whatley October 27th, 2010 7:15 pm

      did the day ofter Thanksgiving get together ever congeal?

    10. Greg Swann October 27th, 2010 7:32 pm

      > did the day ofter Thanksgiving get together ever congeal?

      Nada. Sorry. I’d like to do something, but I don’t have a clear idea of what to do. I’m hugely interested in salesmanship as a topic, for what that’s worth.

    11. Jim Whatley October 27th, 2010 7:40 pm

      Why not do a for a virtual 1-2 hour, on salesmanship. do an online meetup. we can call it the 1st annual Black Friday virtual turkey shoot.

    12. Greg Swann October 27th, 2010 8:38 pm

      I do like something like this. Two years in a row we’ve gotten good scenius stuff out of that weekend. I’ve always liked it. How about 20+10 presentations, 20 minutes to present, 10 for questions?

      Who has ideas for presentations?

      What’s the optimax conferencing/webinar software? I’m a bop ’til I drop kind of guy, so we can rock on for as long as we have content, for all of me. I could dig “show me more” sessions ad libitum at the end. Multiple rooms?

      I’m kind of eager to pick up on things I’ve been missing or misapplying, so a “show” like this is very appealing to me: Low cost, low effort on my part, and I will probably be able to take in the content, which has not been the case for me at Unchained in real life.

      Here’s a whole category of content: I been trading email with An Bui of DocuSign, and I realized that I would love a very robust demonstration of DocuSign. I don’t want forever, 20 minutes is perfect, but expert presentations of good software would be beyond perfect: How this works and why it’s useful for roasting turkeys, as it were. Video-capture everything and we’ve made a permanent improvement to the real estate industry.

      Inlookers (My first net.meme, BTW, all the way back to the 1980s.): If you want a piece of this, speak up.

    13. Greg Swann October 27th, 2010 8:52 pm

      > It’s long overdue for me to learn both of those, PHP and MySQL. I did notice a bit on engenu and some scenius stuff on that site.

      Here’s one of my pets: Distinctive Paradise Valley. Nothing but RE.porn, around the clock, but it has all kinds of cool stuff making it happen.

    14. Julie Kinnear October 28th, 2010 1:32 pm

      Oh… with my IT skills, I think I’m still better off having someone around to help me with this kind of stuff…

    15. Terence Richardson October 29th, 2010 8:34 pm

      Wow that’s pretty cool, I didn’t know about encartus until this post. I’ve been adding our listings manually to a custom google map I’ve customized with links to the IDX search result page on our site but if I’m understanding this correctly, the amount of customization you can do with encartus is 100x better.

      Greg: When you enter the list of addresses, because of how you have it coded, it looks like you’re just putting in the MLS numbers and it positions the markers on the map, is that because you have it coded and tied into the IDX you use?

    16. Greg Swann October 29th, 2010 9:40 pm

      > When you enter the list of addresses, because of how you have it coded, it looks like you’re just putting in the MLS numbers and it positions the markers on the map, is that because you have it coded and tied into the IDX you use?

      That’s right. The off-the-rack version of encartus will take street addresses and use them to create a Google maps KML file. It will also build a folder structure on your file server, if you like, and link the folders to the map markers.

      The version you’re seeing here does three new things: It will identify entries that consist of MLS numbers and do a look-up into the FlexMLS IDX feed to get the street address of the property, using that to set up the KML file. It will also extract a mission-critical subset of data from the MLS listing, coding that in conjunction with other APIs to make a fairly robust brief summary of the property. And it will seed the folders it creates on our file server with Praxis code, so that the site it creates is instantly “live,” with no additional manual effort needed. A Praxis site is inherently an engenu-able site, so we can go back in later, if we like, to add or edit the content with engenu.

    17. Jim Whatley October 30th, 2010 6:18 am

      Here is the 10,000 question. Would encartus be able to build from a whole MLS IDX feed that followed the Rets.org standards? Could I coming from a small MLS maybe at the top end 7-10,000 listing that DSF,ASF,CNDO ect.

    18. Greg Swann October 30th, 2010 7:35 am

      > Would encartus be able to build from a whole MLS IDX feed that followed the Rets.org standards?

      In principle, yes. In practice, that would be a poor idea. A project that large wants a very different architecture. It’s doable — I’ve thought about doing something more limited — but it’s too big a job for a working Realtor to worry about. I’m interested in getting people into our universe, then dishing the serious searches into the FlexMLS IDX system. Building the whole store is a huge job. I’m more interested, for now, in building an army of sandwich men to drive traffic into the store.

    19. Jim Whatley October 30th, 2010 8:02 am

      It sounds like it would so what I’m doing at http://www.homesinshalimar.com/ ect.
      I Posting each new listing off the hot sheet each day about 10 for 4 small towns in our area. I then later want to single out the neighborhoods/subdivisions. I then link back to my Idx feed page with a link to the listing which has more pictures all the other bells and whistles. I think the keys is to be the guy with the info on each active. I’m hoping to own the address/mls # in googles eyes. My approach is more caveman like but if you can only make a arrowhead, if used properly it can still kill. I do not have the skills you have but I would love to learn how.