Real Estate Forums

Jared · 03-15-2008, 12:10 PM

I wrote this last week but just took it out of draft state and posted it. This may be of interest.
EZ Pro Realty The Standard | Open Realty | vieleRETS » Jared Ritchey Design

~ Jared

Jared · 03-20-2008, 09:37 AM

I'll be on The Brokers Edge all day re-working the design so I can't check back to answer you but in response to two PM's I received regarding this fork please find the following posts for your information.

EZ Pro Realty contributor blogs
EZ Pro Realty Features
The WordPress Plugin
EZ Pro Realty Standards

Enjoy!

~ Jared

HHI Golf Guy · 03-28-2008, 07:09 AM

Another wish list item:

The ability to add rel=nofollow tags to all outbound links. This is especially important for those of us that use products like this for commercial applications.

Jared · 03-28-2008, 09:11 AM

I've actually been helping Mick at Open Realty since we have buried the hatchet and are on good terms now.

Your request along with the new search engine friendly URL's will give you the option of adding either .html .php or / (trailing slash) in the urls. Mick also took my advise and forced lower case URL's with the ability to select either hyphens - or plus signs +

The NoFollow will also be in the editor. We have ported my commercial wordpress plugin called Innova WYSIWYG Editor ($9.95 per domain) to work with both Open Realty and the fork and the NoFollow tag feature is in the editor.

~ Jared

ductape · 10-02-2008, 10:30 PM

Hey all,

I am new here, and have recently found all this after diving into a Brokerage website project. I am a web designer, but I am also in real estate. My wife is an agent and I also do handyman work fixing up properties. Enough about me. On to my questions:

What is going on with all these projects? EZProrealty website is a disaster, and I hope I am not offending anyone. The whole frontpage is just a big image. Few links work, the download links leads to a fairly sketchy placeholder page that pissed of my spysweeper.

The Brokers Edge site is also pretty messed up, but not as bad. The main menu javascipt dropdowns are broken, none of the links work. I managed to find the contact info at the footer, in a roud-about way. I called today but I guess Mick was busy. Left a message and he didn't call back. I hope I can talk soo because I cant make any sense of the website.

I hear all the buzz about WP, it is very nice and I use it for blogs. The main reason I dont often use it for websites is the templates. I go in for the fancy stuff, I like to work with all the wonderful templates that are available for Joomla, i just wish some things like that were available for WP.

In all my days of searching and reading I have not really grasped ecatly how this integration of CMS's and Open realty is done. I have it running in a wrapper, and i can make Joomla menu links that go to different pages of the OR script. Is integration simply a matter of having a single login?

Sorry for all the questions at once, but I am really trying to figure out which of these projects is alive, dead, or soon to be active. EZProRealty seems dead. The site doesnt impress and I cant get to a download. I am about to go down the Open realty road.

What exatly is UltimateIDX? the Brokers Edge site didnt quite clear it up for me. As i understand it, IDX (internet data exchange) is for porting MLS listings to other platfroms. For some reason, the marketing for UltimateIDX moslty talks about lead management and agent assigning of leads, etc. This is not what I think IDX is. However, that being said, I am very interested in that and was thinking of using something else like SugarCRM for that aspect. If UltimateIDX can solve my needs then I want on board!

I really hope I have not offended anyone. I just really need help finding tools and you folks seem to have the best grasp of the subject.

-David

Jared · 10-03-2008, 08:17 AM

Yep no offense at all. The Brokers Edge is under developed and under development in part due to their clients projects. Its like the shoe makers kids with now shoes. Just super busy on client work which always comes first.

The project for EZProRealty is actually done, they have not released it or done anything on the site in part due to the component status. You can see the component under development by visiting EZProRealty Component Development and clicking on one of the links for the component. It is supposed to be done no later than today.

The UltimateIDX is CRM and listings manager and its already being tasked for version 3.0 which will add plenty of new features.

WordPress is my choice nearly 8 out of 10 solutions I suggest for real estate website development in part because of the inventory of plugins that The Brokers Edge has built for Realtors and the ease in which we can integrate OpenRealty, UltimateIDX, UltimateRETS and other things.

I hope that helps.
~ Jared

ductape · 10-03-2008, 11:15 AM

Jared,

You are a wealth of information and a true powerhouse in this field. No matter where I go I find your informative forum posts. Though I am looking to be a disciple, not a worshipper

I went to your blog and I noticed that many of your download links do not work. I am very interested in seeing how I can use WP instead of Joomla.

Some questions about UltimateIDX:

How much is it?
Can I install it myself?
Does it replace Open Realty or work with it?
How can I get my hands on this to test it out?

Also, the WP modules at Brokers Edge:

How much are they?
How can I get them?
Where can I read about them?

Also, EZProRealty:

I am really excited about this one. I hope its available soon. My clients of course want to start yesterday and I have started trying to integrate Open Realty and Joomla and before I go too far down that road I want to be sure I am using the latest and greatest. It sounds to me that EZProRealty and WP might be the best bet, and if thats the case I want in! I would be more than happy to help test things out, and even donate some of the money from my project to yours (within my meager means of course).

If you guys need help in keeping up with websites and all, let me know and maybe we can work something out. As I sated before I am in the Real Estate business in the SF Bay Area and I am hoping to be one of the top RE site builders here, so I potentially have access to lots of projects and agents/brokerages.

-David

Jared · 10-03-2008, 11:55 AM

Answers below;

Some questions about UltimateIDX:
* How much is it? UIDX and URETS is priced by agent, office, brokerage and starts at $39.95.
* Can I install it myself?
Not for the most part, each instance is configured on a per client basis.
* Does it replace Open Realty or work with it?
It can work with or replace Open Realty. It was developed to work with most existing website solutions in order to be broadly applicable. Now that we are moving into some more compliance features it will only get better.
* How can I get my hands on this to test it out?
There is a demo that worked a few days ago but The Brokers Edge is moving from Rackspace to its own In House servers. They are going with 12 blade servers for some redundancy now that there are new variants of the UIDX and URETS which I can't really disclose at this time.

Also, the WP modules at Brokers Edge:
* How much are they? the WP Modules are no charge, they are FREE
* How can I get them? they are available now
* Where can I read about them?
Free WordPress Menu Manager Plugin
I'll get WYSIWYG editor and the others up shortly

TBE only publishes the following WordPress and or Joomla FREE Extensions at this time although I have mentioned its full inventory elsewhere, those items are currently pending a new product release which again I can't really reveal much about. The following FREE extensions for WordPress and Joomla are as follows;

WP Realty (published by myself on WordPress just days ago and has not been approved yet, hopefully by Monday. It brings OpenRealty Listings into WP as if they were published there.)
WP Featured Listings (published by myself on WordPress just days ago and has not been approved yet, hopefully by Monday)
WP Post Manager (published by myself not quite ready for release yet)
WP Menu Creator (published by The Brokers Edge, approved by WP but not updated in the WP extensions as of yet. I'm not sure why.)
Joomla Latest WP Posts (published by The Brokers Edge and is available, should be approved by Joomla hopefully soon.)
WP Innova Studio Editor Pro (published by The Brokers Edge and designed to give integrated turnkey features for WordPress users who have limited experience in HTML. Its a turn key solution that solves a ton of issues with new bloggers. Its available now, I just have not had time to write the release page yet.)
WP Guides (published by myself on WordPress and is available, commercial version is $24.95 and has 6.5 hours of video.)
OR Guides (published by myself and is available, commercial version is $19 and has 6 hours of video)
Featured Listings External (published by myself for WordPress and Joomla and is available. This publishes OpenRealty featured listings in any external php capable page.)
OpenX Page Curl (Available but not at all current, I need to update it before re-releasing it for the latest OpenX)
OpenRealty Flash Slideshow (Its commercial and I dropped the price to $9.95. Its designed to replace the OpenRealty slideshow on the listings details page with a flash slideshow.)
WordPress Posts Anywhere (Published by The Brokers Edge to provide site owners the ability to put snippets of posts, post links, full posts, post summaries and more into things like the Search Results page of OpenRealty or other places. Its ideal where you seek to have cross linking of content with a simple solution for placing small snippets of posts. Works with WordPress MU as well.)
TBE Form Mailer (This is a full blown form management solution for WordPress that was designed for use by designers and blog owners alike. It has not been published as of yet as it is in BETA currently.)
TBE CSS Cleaner (Published as an online tool at The Brokers Edge, this tool is designed to clean and compress CSS with compliant formats. Its done, it works, but its not published as of yet.)
TBE CSS / XHTML WP Theme Generator (Published and it works well to produce CSS / XHTML based layouts of WordPress themes based on an inventory of compliant foundations I built using our own grid system called the "Rapid Template Design Series". I have a similar one for OpenRealty and will eventually have one for Joomla. They are 100% FREE! Just no link to it.

)
OpenRealty Print Friendly PDF Generator (Published by myself and is available FREE of charge. I HAVE NOT tested it with the latest version of OpenRealty.)
WP UIDX (Designed to put UltimateIDX or UltimateRETS listings in your WordPress blog, its available now.)

Feel free to request any of those items above for your use or testing. The only ones NOT production ready are those I mention are either not updated or in BETA. The WP Post Manager is beyond BETA but I'm not really publishing that until its 100% ready. Its FREE and does provide a cleaner way for managing posts, organizing research and assembling media elements but documentation is NON existent as of yet.

As per the theme generator, its ready and it works, and I've tested it in three browsers, there is NO documentation so it sits until I can get to that. Again, its 100% FREE and fully XHTML / CSS compliant. As Geico puts it, "so simple to use a caveman can do it".

For the WP Realty or WP Featured visit my site at Jared Ritchey Design
I have a brand spanking new design for my site which will be up this weekend and the links for downloads will then work. I know for sure the download works for my three main plugins. All others just request them via email from me.

~ Jared

ductape · 10-03-2008, 12:33 PM

Jared,

Thanks! I am looking forward to seeing some of these in action.

I have two big decisions in front of me, and they are to use Open Realty or the new (unreleased?) EZProRealty. I realize that EZPRoRealty will likely have a different database structure and so switching over later for this client may not be easy. Since it is in non-release status today, and you have a slideshow plugin for Open Realty, I think I will go with Open Realty. Though this decision is somewhat hesitant.

I just cant get behind WP at this time. I love Joomla and all the wonderful templates out. Wordpress templates look like Wordpress templates and they just cant stack up to the features of Joomla. I did a search just now looking for commercial WP templates that have all the cool stuff Joomla does, and they just werent there.

Check out these Joomla tempate sites:

demo.rockettheme.com
demo.yootheme.com
shape5.com/demo/index.php

If you know any WP themes that can stack up against these I would be interested.

I love Joomla and I love Joomla 1.5. Theres no way around it. I know the new MVC code structure is a pain for some developers, as well as the license, but it really is the future and we need to get on board if possible.

I plan to use Joomla, and I plan to use J!1.5. So, the problem is integration. Currently I have considered NO ACTUAL INTEGRATION. Just run Open Realty in a wrapper, make some Joomla menus using links to Open Realty pages, and presto I'm done. I imagine my major hangups will be SEF URLs and the like. Also styling. Should I use the cms-integartion template? Any advice?

I am interested in the OR slideshow add-on, unless you can get me a copy of EZProRealty to start with.

I also want theUltimate IDX and will pay for now if you have a working copy.

I am going to PM you my email address.

Thanks Jared! Anything I can do to help, I will be around.

-David

Jared · 10-03-2008, 01:15 PM

David, why exactly would you use OpenRealty for pages when you plan on using Joomla?

The idea behind integration is that OpenRealty serves as a listings manager and Joomla serves as a CMS for content. OpenRealty does not handle content well and a key motive behind EZProRealty was the way OpenRealty handles content.

with the EZProRealty component, it will work with OpenRealty and Joomla as its been tested for such but there really isn't a need to use OpenRealty for its content features.

~ Jared