Real Estate Forums

Jared · 04-20-2007, 09:14 AM

Busy morning; Well I just got off the phone with my friend Mark who teaches at the University of Washington and he is real close to finishing up a project I contracted him to complete for WordPress.

I'm a real big fan of WordPress not only because its used on nearly a million sites but because it is in my opinion the product with the shortest learning curve and ease of setup of all web applications I work with.

WordPress when configured correctly for SEF URL's along with the custom title and meta tags can rank faster than any other site comparatively in my experience. Facts are facts and search engines are hungry addicts stuck most the time with appetizers, but blogs are search engine food.

So, it was only natural to create a plugin that would allow a Realtor or even Brokerage a means to publish "opens" or in-house listings to their blog and write a nice post about a property much like a featured property article for instance. The idea was that after a long time building Realtor sites certain things start to stand out and the one that stands out for me is that VERY FEW Realtors manage their own sites. Blogs however can become an addiction because once a person starts to write in blogs they more often than not continue to do so.

I'm neck deep with The Brokers Edge projects at this very moment but I will publish this "Largely FREE" plugin on the TBE forums when Mark gets it wrapped up for me.

~ Jared

oops forgot the shortlist of features.
Features; WP-ADMIN controlled administration of all listings and photos, photos and listings displayed per page or multiples per page, listings can be featured in individual posts, uses ThickBox JS feature for displaying large images, automatic thumb-nailing providing your server has GD2.0 installed, each listing has contact agent link, read more link, three javascript calculators, and a few dozen small features that are largely aesthetics related.

Jade456 · 04-21-2007, 07:08 PM

Very cool. But I swear I've seen an plugin already for the Wordpress to do that very thing. Although, having a choice is always a good thing.

When is it going to be done and will it be a commercial add on?

Jared · 04-21-2007, 08:33 PM

Jade456, its intended to be free as I contracted it to be developed to provide a better method for sites and template kits.

I've not seen any plug-ins for Realtors using WordPress but I'm always interested in seeing whats out there.

~ Jared

glenng · 04-30-2007, 05:42 AM

Jared,
IMHO - the blog is a better vehicle for real agents in today's evolving world of Web 2.0. The basic Wordpress program is great for starting a blog and also creating pages as an owner wishes.

My personal experiment was to put up a page on the blog and lo and behold it was cached and indexed within 48 hours - on a web site it can take up to 2 weeks or more for the same results to occur.

"SEF URL's along with the custom title and meta tags can rank faster than any other site comparatively in my experience" - Could you explain what you mean by SEF URL's? Also what plug-in are you using for the custom title and meta tags?

Will have to keep an eye open on TBE for the new plug-in.

Jared · 04-30-2007, 05:49 AM

Glenn, I would tend to agree. Blogs are one of the best tools a Realtor could ever have but not many are fully aware of its potential.

I've been working rather long on TBE and will be publishing a collection of REALTOR or Real Estate related blog templates for WordPress that TBE will offer. Each loaded of course.

I setup two magazines on TBE last night and I'll be adding content to it and Pro Real Estate Network today all day.

Blogs are in my opinion the ideal food generator for search engines with WordPress being my all time favorite.

~ Jared