Real Estate Forums

IDXSEOPRO · 02-21-2008, 01:34 PM

I looked all over the web for real estate software and the ones everyone talks about is Open Realty and EZ Realty.

I'm registered at Open Realty now and I'm a member of the EZ Realty site as well and I'm asking the same question there?

Which is better for;

Search Engine Optimization
Ease of Use
Functionality
Features
Integration with CMS's
IDX integration
Speed of the application
Overall Support.
Also, which one is easier to design for.

thank you

SEOWolf · 02-23-2008, 05:20 PM

That would be a good question for Jared. He has spent a great deal of time with Open Realty.

I know he is finishing up a large project and should be back in the forum by the middle of next week.

~VegasMack

HHI Golf Guy · 02-24-2008, 02:13 PM

EZ Realty is a nice little package that works well for individual agent sites. I found it has some limitations with large, multi-agent sites. I'm nit sure, but I don't think that it has IDX integration. The SEO capabilities of EZ Realty are primarily dependent upon the Joomla SEF package that you choose. Personally, I have with sh404SEF.

EZ Realty does offer some flexibility, but core components are encrypted so you can't do a major overhaul to tailor the operations to your needs. For most agents that should not be a problem. The package comes with many different listing layouts, or you can modify them to create your own. The language file is rather extensive, and you will need to take some time to modify it to suit your needs.

The developer of EZ Realty , Kathy (aka Pixel Bunny) at Raptor / EZ Realty offers great assistance and technical support.

EZ Realty is straightforward and easy for the average person to use. OR is fairly straightforward as well, but it's really what you make of it that makes it harder or easier to use.

I'm a fan of Open Realty mainly because it gives me the opportunity to modify not only the layout, but also the code to suit my needs. We are in the process of finishing up a multi web site project that utilizes a single OR databse. This way we can have local, regional, and national portals.

Open Realty also allowed us the flexibility to utilize that database for both real estate listings and vacation rental listings. Right now there are over 5000 listings and over 200 agents and companies and the OR component runs great. It also runs quick, even with those listings. Once we finish testing a few things, I'll post the URL later this week.

OR does allow for IDX integration. Support with OR can be found through the forums. PBFlash is knowledgeable. However, there may be some things that you want to do that require modifying the core OR files, and discussions of that nature are usually moderated on the OR forum. Also, there is a chance your question won't be answered at all.

You can integrate OR with Joomla or Mambo using CMS Realty. It works, but there can be some quirks, especially in user integration (standard Joomla integration or Community Builder). On page optimization can be tricky with OR and CMS Realty. We're in the middle of doing some testing with OR/CMS Realty and sh404SEF.

OR offers greater search capabilities. For example, you may want to create multi checkbox field for property features (i.e. pool, balcony, hot tub, bookshelves, washer/dryer, etc.) or community features (i.e. clubhouse, golf course, tennis, etc.). You can then create custom search applications that allow people to search for properties that contain these specific items. That allows for a very powerful search tool.

There are also some nice add ons available for OR. You can also create your own or have one written for you. EZ Realty is more of an out of the box solution.

If you want an out of the box, easy to set up and use system then EZ Realty is worth the 100 bucks or so that they charge. If you want more control of the application and IDX integration, then OR is your answer.

SEOWolf · 02-25-2008, 11:54 AM

Great points HHI Gulf Guy.

I really have issues with both but admit that I have played only a little with each. But enough to avoid both IMHO.

The lack of IDX integration stops me from using EZ Realty.

In monitoring OR I believe there is not as much effort made for ease of updating as there should be and often any coding that you use or modify becomes obsolete or orphaned all to often.

It could well be though that I have just not delved into either system enough to fully understand them.

~VegasMack

HHI Golf Guy · 02-25-2008, 02:27 PM

There was a response here from Jared. Either he deleted it or I'm blocked from viewing it.

I know that one of Jared's concerns with the Open Realty / CMS Realty combo for Joomla is duplicate URL's from the listings. This generally happens when you utilize multiple menu paths to get to the listings.

There are a couple of things that you can do to combat this. One is to first generate the link through the Component menu item to get the URL string. Copy that string, then use the Link/URL to generate all of your menus and links that go to the specific OR pages. You could do this for your search listings, view all listings, view class listings, etc.

But there is a better way. Instead of plugging the OR tables into your Joomla database, create a separate database for your OR listings. To be safe, you still utilize the menu method described above.

For the on page SEO of the listings you then utilize the Open Realty SEF features (instead of sh404SEF or another Joomla SEF component) to set your unique title tags, keyword tags, and description tags for each listing (i.e. Title tag set to something like {listing_field_city_rawvalue} {listing_pclass}: {listing_title}, use your short description as part of the description tag, etc.).

The only caveat to this is synchronizing Joomla / Community Builder users (and agents for multi agent sites) with the OR users and agents. It can be accomplished.

Jared · 02-26-2008, 10:45 AM

No nothing deleted at all. I'm concerned that I can't find the post either.

Anyway to quickly answer your question without going into great detail I'll say this. Open Realty is my choice only because I have bridging solutions for everything related to it. I can bridge registrations, urls, and even links without the need to use CMS Realty.

Second, everyone knows my attitude on integration. Not a single professional site that isn't built by a hobby enthusiast or novice developer uses integration at all. The only thing I've ever seen a professional commercial entity use is micro apps integrated. Those micro apps include little trivial things like newsletter and maybe submission forms. BRIDGING is what professionals use.

Why Use EZ Realty?
EZ Realty is super easy to use and its simply a great product.

The developer is one of the most decent people you will ever encounter and she is generous, fast and informative in her support.

EZ Realty is also relatively easy to integrate an MLS import from either RETS or IDX using some custom PHP. I've done this on two occasions with great success. However, keep in mind that each of these projects I did were for MLS's that were very small, well under 2500 listings.

EZ Realty is also generous on features that make its integration with Joomla clean and effective. The display of featured property, agents and other real estate related features is super easy.

Why NOT Use EZ Realty?
EZ Realty is dependent on Joomla to operate and because of such its dependent on Joomla URL and structure and out of box Joomla is not ideal for search engine ready sites.

EZ Realty has a lofty learning curve for novice site managers. Although EZ Realty is an effective tool, everyone I've ever shown the demo to on my server thinks its too complex. Right or wrong, for the novice who has little experience with Joomla would likely see that. However, those who are familiar with Joomla can quickly navigate and use EZ Realty.

EZ Realty has not been tested with large databases to the best of my knowledge.

URL issues is a big one. Although many things in Joomla can have the URL's corrected as we do with our version of Joomla, the out of box solution makes URLs essentially worthless to search engines.

Lets look at Open Realty next.

Why Use Open Realty?
Open Realty started out as a small application built custom for a real estate client of Jon Roig and then one of the founding forum members named Ryan Bonham eventually ended up with the rights to the product for a song as I understand it.

The product sat stagnant for many months until user contributed code started to turn up in each successive releases until the product came alive again. This prompted the new developer and user community to build a version called 2.0 which introduced a template system among other things.

Open Realty solves many issues for a modern Real Estate site yet leaves many things unsolved likely by design. Open Realty URL's are generally SEF friendly and the use of WYSIWYG editors makes adding content and media elements very CMS like.

Open Realty also has a huge advantage over EZ Realty with the ease in expanding the product via the addon system. Customization of Open Realty for any competent programmer is a snap and many things you want the application to do within the realm of real estate listings is pretty straight forward.

Open Realty is essentially a gallery script with some search features and minimalistic member management features that is easily developed and designed for.

Open Realty is also better suited for IDX and RETS integration out of box with NO modification to the core. Products like vieleRETS for example are distributed with native features for updating an Open Realty database with RETS listings. IDX solutions however are usually done custom by first mapping the source data fields and then writing a CRON script to populate the Open Realty database automatically as I've done on literally dozens of these types of sites. Now that RETS is a Realtor.org national mandate, every MLS provider will likely adhere to the mandate and offer a RETS solution as well. This DOES NOT mean that IDX is going away. IDX is simply faster and more efficient in the long run and MLS providers know this.

Open Realty is also relatively easy to integrate with Joomla and other CMS's because of its MD5 and session handling is pretty much as basic and standard as it gets. Now that Open Realty features file uploads and RSS the application will likely continue to be a favorite choice for small to medium sized real estate offices.

Why NOT Use Open Realty?

THE #1 REASON
Support stinks period! Open Realty support is "dictated" and "controlled" by three people who are arguably the absolute worst forum managers of any forum on the internet. We have seen arguments about the REW conduct here and abroad in regard to banning of members and editing of posts. That is a joke by comparison.

Open Realty suffers tragically in this area making it the only real big reason to NOT use the product if you are not experienced in its use. The powers to be like pbflash and mick or even the_sandking will ALMOST NEVER deliver an intelligent response to your questions. When you do get a response and it fits their model of censorship you can actually get good information but it is too sparse to mention or offset the tragic opposite. I liken their conduct to internet terrorism as they frequently abuse members for asking questions and usually deliver short, pointless, and un-intelligent post spam.

If you ever want to examine the model of what a socialist censorship of posts look like, visit the Open Realty forums.

Ryan Bonham (Greengiant) however is the exception. When he does poke his head in the forums he is clear and to the point, an effective and intelligent support resource. Ryan is the developer and spends a great deal of time and patience with members as I believe him to be truly compassionate about his product and the users of his product. Unfortunately there is no reliable way to deliver your support questions directly to Ryan.

#2 Reason
There isn't really a number 2 reason. Every reason NOT to use Open Realty centers around its lousy support. Open Realty in the hands of someone who knows the product can make it sing and dance. I have no fewer than a half dozen free plugins for Open Realty, WordPress and Joomla that make the marriage between the applications seamless and effective. If you don't know the product then plan on a lofty learning curve and prepare yourself for some rude pointless answers to your questions in the forums. I'd really love to list some that I've seen in the past 6 months but I'll restrain myself.

SUMMARY
I love EZ Realty, love the developer and love the support. EZ Realty is suggested to people anytime they want to list their offices listings and manage links to those properties on an individual basis with things like our OpenSEF (security patched recently) which makes it a breeze. But EZ Realty would not be my choice to import large MLS data feeds as it is painfully dependent on Joomla which at current does not handle such things to well.

YOU NEVER ONCE heard me say that Joomla or EZ Realty were bad products but I deal with reality and reality dictates that we use the tools that work for the situations in hand. Sites with MLS data are not well suited for this marriage.

However there is an alternative. Mack and I have built demo sites with Joomla, EZ Realty, Open Realty, WordPress and the UltimateIDX and I'd have to say that IF a person has chosen Joomla / EZ Realty as a solution that our integration of UltimateIDX for MLS listings would be the ideal choice as we have tested it with all the above successfully.

A person, agent, office or whatever could use Joomla and EZ Realty for the office "Opens" or those they wish to promote with extensive details not provided in most MLS feeds. I'd thus suggest that an agency wanting to offer MLS search in their site should use UltimateIDX for MLS data and the Joomla / EZ Realty solution for those listings featured by office agents where those listings can be used in the site to better market their own properties.

However again? If a person wanted to have just a raw MLS search site then I'd suggest that IF you don't use the UltimateIDX that Open Realty would be ideal as I have personally tested it on sites with Google Maps, pre defined searches, imported photos, and large data base configurations to the tune of 50 thousand listings. (server dependent naturally)

Open Realty would be my ideal choice in situations where people wanted to control many facets of their sites listings particularly with regard to URL's, content and ease of customization.

Given the tools I already provide FREE as plugins for Open Realty, WordPress and Joomla, creating a site which features each "bridged effectively" would benefit a great deal more where large databases are concerned.

I'd finally conclude and suggest that maybe this forum feature a support area dedicated to this type of configuration where a CMS / Blog / Listing Manager (Open Realty) be provided because its NOT a supported facet in the Open Realty forums at all. Here at least you wont be treated like an idiot when you ask about core hacking a product or changing something regarding a feature above and beyond the intelligence of those natzi moderators at Open Realty.

I think I've answered all of your questions above;

~ Jared

Jared · 02-26-2008, 10:58 AM

Sorry, your questions re posted with short answers. I can get writing and never stop sometimes.

Search Engine Optimization - Open Realty Automatically and EZ Realty Manually
Ease of Use - EZ Realty out of box - Open Realty with a short learning curve.
Functionality - I love em both but Open Realty is easier to change functionality
Features - Apples to Oranges, both are fruit right? well these two have very similar features.
Integration with CMS's EZ Realty natively is built for Joomla, Open Realty with my FREE bridge makes it seamless but requires more up front work.
IDX integration Open Realty hands down. EZ Realty with UltimateIDX an ideal for sure.
Speed of the application - Open Realty
Overall Support. EZ Realty hands down.
Also, which one is easier to design for. Umm perspective on this one. What you design for Joomla you design for EZ Realty but greater control can be acquired with Open Realty and some clever hacks.

~ Jared

IDXSEOPRO · 02-26-2008, 12:52 PM

Jared you certainly know your products. I have spent two hours on your blog today and can't find any reason to leave yet. You have so much detail and good information.

Anyway I still don't know what to use in my situation. I want to possibly buy or sign up for Ultimate IDX but I also want to keep my Property Management Listings / Rentals that are not in the MLS on my site as well. I read about your plug ins and I've seen some of your work from doing extensive searches but I can't really find any of your examples.

Also, I have a question that if I don't ask someone else will. In the Open Realty forums it shows you as banned yet when I look at your posts I can't see where you have done anything bad. I went back almost a year and find only good posts by you. Can I ask what happened?

Jared · 02-26-2008, 01:21 PM

In your situation I'd suggest a WordPress front end, Open Realty for Opens with my free plugin and UltimateIDX for your MLS. You may want to put some of your MLS listings into your WordPress posts. Well UltimateIDX now has a WordPress plugin similar to my WP-OR plugin that allows you to do just that.

As to the OR forums and me being banned. Well I'm annoyed over it for sure and its not anyones fault other than the forum mod that imposed it. I'll dig out the email and post it here for you to see so there is NO chance someone could come in and lie that it was for another reason. Anyway on the day I was banned from that forum, I sent an email and asked that same question. The only answer I got stated that the link in my signature (same as you see here) lead people to my blog where I discussed competing products. Thats it!

Let us know if you want to demo UltimateIDX

Jared · 02-26-2008, 01:50 PM

I thought I could walk away! Then I remembered something.

I forgot to mention WHY I did not advise you to use Joomla in the above suggestion. I've built literally dozens and dozens of Joomla sites and in my opinion Joomla is overkill to the outer most extreme.

IF HOWEVER you have a site like the site I built for a Utah Realtor that needs Joomla's more advanced features then by all means use Joomla. IF you only want a CMS with features for posting pages, posts, downloads, property listings and some menu management then I suggest you use WordPress-CMS which I write about all the time in WordPress.com among many other forums and blogs.

WordPress as a CMS is an ideal solution where you have only a few things to download and will do little more than write content for clients and search engines. I've sent thousands of people (link stats of course) to this post from Adobe where I submit guest articles and its a pretty good example of a WordPress CMS Adobe Edge WordPress CMS Article

If however you want to have a site where you have an office full of agents, you want agents to have blogs, you want agents to access agent only real estate documents like listing agreements and other things and you want agents to have CMA forms and numerous other features like the ability to submit articles, photographs, content all of which would require approval than Joomla works well for this.

The Utah site I built for example has the following features using Joomla, Open Realty and WordPress.

Agent Blogs as Subdomains so agentblog.domain.com
Document management separated as either agent accessible or visitor accessible
MLS integrated using a custom IDX Cron Script for Open Realty
A custom featured property presentation management solution
Video Uploads and Dynamic Virtual Tour features
Custom URL's via a hacked version of Open Realty
Custom templates per site category using Joomlas custom template assignment feature
A custom commercial WYSIWYG editor (A download on my site now)
A custom article submission feature for agents
A school and regional resource directory
Guided navigation link management
WordPress with listings from the Open Realty listings Manager in agent blogs
Agents can display featured listings that they own in their blog
Menu's are cross managed and all aspects are managed from within Joomla
They use my Open Realty featured listings anywhere (now a freebie for link bait)
They use my Open Realty dynamic slide show generator
They use my WordPress Listings Plugin (in beta but FREE none the less)
Agents can display featured listings that they own in their blog
They use my Featured Listings Slider (Free but being updated for 2.4)
They use my External Joomla modules script; this allows you to display Joomla components outside of Joomla like polls or even menu's inside of WordPress for instance. This makes managing things like Menus across an entire site easy because if you update the menu in Joomla then the menu is updated in WordPress, Open Realty, or whatever else you want.
They use my registration bridge so when someone registers to an agent blog they are automatically registered to Open Realty to save searches.
A custom pre-defined search form using Ajax and MooTools for MLS listings.
Lots more I cant mention but three days after their site went live they got 14 contacts from the site.

The above site owner will be using the UltimateIDX as well for their new sites and agent blogs which are going to be built once UltimateIDX has more to show. Were working on UltimateIDX to make that happen.

In that instance that is a Joomla instance. Anything shy would be a WordPress instance.

I hope you find enough information to make a good decision.