- Details
Here is the original article from Inman about the NAR repealing franchisor IDX display:
http://www.inman.com/news/2011/11/14/nar-repeals-franchisor-idx-display
There are many comments on the article, most from agents and brokers from around the country who are upset at the decision and are sounding off their displeasure.
A couple of notes are as follows:
01.Like most comments on stories that pertain to real estate IDX information, there's a lot of bad info included. In other words, some of the info listed is flat out inaccurate. This is really concerning especially because most of the comments were brokers and industry insiders that should know better.
02.Most, if not all, weren't involved in the process. In other words, they are so concerned about the topic that they decided to stayed silent the entire time, put no effort into process and then complain when it didn't turn out the way they wanted it. I think every developer/programmer, especially open source, can relate to that. In addition, the griping doesn't offer any solutions or directions. It's simply two-year-old's stomping feet. Grumph.
Jay Thompson, who I disagree with most of the time about web techniques, made a comment that if the complainers are so upset, they should try and influence the outcome by joining a committee. This time I say: Hear! Hear!
03.MLS's are independent, similar to States of the Union. They are suppose to follow the guidelines/rules/processes/procedures set by the National level but have freedom to include their own set of standards. This means that options are not uniform across all MLS's and will change from MLS to MLS. For example, the Regional MLS has only one option for IDX which is listed out as PUBLIC INTERNET and the options are YES or NO. Martin MLS has several options for IDX which can be any combination of the following; IDX, REALTOR.COM, FL PROPERTIES, NONE.
04.I thought "ossified" meant open-source-software-ified... LOL. I had to look that one up. It actually means stagnant or cease developing. Kinda ironic, don't you think?
05.There are many references to ZILLOW and TRULIA but none to REALTOR.COM. Hmmm...
06.There was a point of "what would the clients want"? Good point. I haven't really seen any numbers or a recent survey on this. In my limited experience, most new agents I talk to don't know what ZILLOW or TRULIA are.
07.Another pointed that the decision was based off of fear from HOMES SERVICES OF AMERICA and that the Warren Buffett owned company pressured the outcome.
08.Agent Rene Plante made what I thought was a very insightful comment mentioning that the agent does all the work and takes all the responsibility for a property but gets none of the credit when the property is listed through IDX. I think he has a point. Possibly IDX should be seen as advertising. Currently, it isn't and they are separate items.
09.There was some talk of the franchises joining the ranks of ZILLOW and TRULIA and becoming syndication sites. Apparently this will happen in the first part of 2012. I didn't know that. The claim from Victor Lund is that this is the same as the franchises getting the entire IDX from the MLS's. I disagree. I see a big difference.
I'm curious to see if this would solve anything. I don't know why brokers would want to give their listings to a national franchise site and make the franchise stronger but maybe I'm wrong. I have been before. I suppose this will be the real test for the issue if brokers/agents/sellers really want as much exposure as possible.
I know that in one of my recent dealings a $32 million listing client only wanted the property advertised on certain sites. In that particular case, they were in charge and not the broker or agent. I had to help remove the listing from syndicated web sites. In that case and many others I suppose, the MLS rules weren't "pesky" as Lund claims they are.
10.Steve Barbey's comment is one of the comments that is flat-out incorrect. While it starts out good noting that franchises are not real estate agencies, Barbey in continuation claims that the franchises will gain access to the same IDX info through syndication. The comment is similar to Lund's comment. The difference here is that originally the franchises would take the IDX information directly from the MLS's. With syndication, they must receive the info directly from other brokers. I see a big difference in taking the info without consent from originating agents/brokers/sellers and in receiving the info with their consent.
This is similar to Zillow/Trulia and Realtor.com issue which I discussed awhile back here: http://regionalidx.com/blog/24-blog/61-real-estate-web-site-roundup Except I believe the quality of info will be worse.
In my opinion, this is not the same information. I suppose the horrendous quality of the information that will gather on their sites will be proof enough whether this is true or not.
It's also important to note that licensed agents and brokers are required by law for accurate advertising and property display. While the Zillow's and Trulia's of the world are able to skate away scott free without penalty, if an agent or broker lists property info incorrectly, and people make decisions based on that info, there are serious consequences.
- Details
Jim Collins analyzed a broad range of companies when he authored a book called From Good to Great. He was searching to see what made a group of people, not just good at what they do, but great. One chapter focused on what is called a hedgehog concept. A team should ask the following:
1. What you can be the best in the world?
And as equally important, what you cannot be the best in the world. The idea revolves around a single idea that people can easily grasp.
2. What drives your economic engine?
How to effectively generate profitability. In particular, a single denominator - profit per x - that had the greatest impact on their business.
3. What you are deeply passionate about?
Focus on those activities that ignite their passion. The idea here is to discover what makes you passionate.
Applied To Real Estate Industry
As I apply these to real estate groups around the country, I see real estate companies add many services and departments to be a "one stop shop" rather than choosing one single aspect of real estate and being really good at it. I see MLS's expand their services by continuously adding many items rather than selecting the one aspect of maintaining property data and being really good at it. I see real estate agents saying they'll do anything and many areas rather than holding onto a single area that they can dominate.
This is probably happening for many reasons. Wanting a piece of every action in a down market, studies showing that's what customers want and justifying fees that they currently charge or fees that they are increasing are just some aspects that come to mind.
Whether good or bad isn't the point. The point is, this is what I see. It would be interesting to see otherwise. It would be interesting to see a group of agents who only do residential real estate in narrow price range and turn away rentals and commercial.
One Versus Many Example -Google
Let me give a large non-real estate example as to not offend everyone (geez, people can be sensitive). Google. Everyone in the civilized world has heard of them. They were clicking along just grand and then something happened. They became a public company. Overnight they went from a thoughtful company asking piercing questions into a mindless zombie in search of increasing profits.
They did what anyone of us would naturally do realizing that there's a profit cap on their main product- the search engine product. They increase their divisions. They continuous add areas and products they know nothing about. They pull away from their main mission which is "To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." (What does Google Checkout have anything to do with the world's information?) They go against their core values of keeping their home page simple and begin advertising their own products like the Nexus One phone released yesterday on January 6, 2010.
The whole time this is happening, they are devaluing their own core product. Advertising is filling up the search engine results page. The top ads are moving closer to the results beginning to skew what's real results and what's paid for. Their real-time search efforts into Facebook and Twitter are mediocre at best and sometime just incorrect.
When this dissolution of core focus occurs, time is ripe for another group to overtake the core competency. In this case, if another group created a search engine product that got rid of advertising and did a better job of real time searches, they could begin to gain search engine market share. Already I can see people nodding their heads craving a better search product.
Apply To Your Real Estate
Now apply this idea to real estate. At beginning of this new year, ask yourself these questions and apply them to your real estate activities.
1. What you can be the best in the world or real estate? Is there an untapped market that no one services? Are you trying to fight a battle that is overrun with veteran agents?
2. What drives your real estate economic engine? Buying and selling is obvious but look past that. Saying "I want to profit $100 per buying side" and sticking to it, turning away deals that don't measure up is more helpful in the long run than saying "I'll take anything that comes my way."
3. What you are deeply passionate about in real estate? If your passion is first-time homebuyers and you're helping baby boomers, you need to re-align.
Apply To Real Estate Web Sites
These questions can also be applied to Real Estate Web Sites. Does your Real Estate Web Site try to be many items for everybody? Or does it focus on one single item and service a single group? Does your Real Estate Web Site drive your economic engine? Or does it have rote information coming off the boiler plate press? Does your Real Estate Web Site show what you are deeply passionate about? Or does it just brochure your possible abilities of buying or selling?
I often say to our clients that a web site is an extension of your over all marketing plan. We can't tell you what the real estate web site should be like until you tell us what you're trying to do with your marketing. The issue we run into is that the majority of real estate agents have no idea what their marketing plan is.
At beginning of this new year, ask yourself these questions and apply them to your real estate activities.
- Details
I was out to dinner with some friends recently. They have busy lives of family, children, business and travel. So when the topic of searching for real estate on web sites came around they listened closely because felt like they were talking to an expert concerning real estate web sites.
Real Estate Web Sites are popping up all the time. Apparently, the American public has a hard time understanding the differences of real estate web sites. So this article helps to sort out everything in plain terms.
Following the source of information, Real Estate Web Sites can be categorized as follows:
- Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites
- National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites
- Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites
- Agent Real Estate Web Sites
- Single Property Real Estate Web Sites
Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites
When a property is listed for sale, it is usually done so through a licensed real estate company (or broker). The license is kinda like a drivers license in the sense that a person needs one to be able to practice real estate activities. This is important step because authorities can track people who do wrong and the licensed person can lose their license.
The broker collects the home information (beds, baths, etc) and put that information into a web site called the MLS (multiple listing service). The MLS is a private web site only accessible by real estate companies (and their agents and employees). They are local sites only, so agents in West Palm Beach can't access the MLS in Miami.
There is no rhyme or reason on boundaries for the Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites but they usually center around metropolitan areas (West Palm Beach, Orlando, Miami, etc). They kind of resemble political maps and their boundaries if you've ever look at those. In some instances, the boundaries often overlap.
In the greater West Palm Beach area, the MLS's are as follows:
- Regional MLS (greater Palm Beach county)
- Martin County MLS (greater Martin county)
- Palm Beach MLS (Palm Beach Island only, darling)
- South East Florida MLS (greater Ft Lauderdale & Broward county)
In our ultra-tech world, the general public wants, and in some cases, demands free information. Afterall, the public can get music, movies, TV shows, photos and all sorts of digital information for free (despite its legality). So it seems kinda odd when you tell an average person that "yes, there is a web site that has all the properties for sale in the area" and "no, you can't have access to it, I have to look for you."
All of this is done with good intentions to protect properties in Palm Beach County area and the information that's contained during the course of a transaction. Areas across the country handle this differently. For example, in the Houston area, the MLS web site (www.har.com) is freely accessible by the general public and only the transaction details are hidden (transaction details are items such as how to access the property, the percentage of commission, etc). In other areas, such as in the Seattle area, the MLS web site (www.nwmls.com) is completely closed, forcing anyone wishing to search for properties to go through a licensed real estate company.
Most MLS's have adopted a common trend to allow the general public to access information if it is marked as public by the real estate company who listed it. This usually results in two sites for the MLS; one private -only accessible by it's members. One public -accessible by everyone. So from our list above, the public sites are below:
- Regional MLS: www.home2florida.com
- Martin County MLS: none
- Palm Beach MLS: none
- South East Florida MLS: none
As you can see from the list above, not all MLS's have public sites.
Marking a property as public has further consequences. The property becomes fair game for the following to display the property on their own sites respectively as long as they give credit to the original real estate company:
- other real estate companies.
- the state association (in this case, FAR or the Florida Association of Realtors - www.fl.living.net).
- the national association (always, NAR or the National Association of Realtors - www.realtor.com).
All of this happens as an automatic process so it requires nothing more than the agent to mark the property as public in the private MLS and the property automatically shows on the other two sites.
National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites
National Aggregate Real Estates are sites like Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com. These web sites all follow the same business model. They aquire real estate properties for sale from around the country and build a single real estate web site around them, then sell advertising on the site to both brokers and agents as well as other companies. How they acquire properties is the differating factor.
As you notice from above, Realtor.com is the national association that automatically receives property information from all local MLS real estate web sites across the country when the property becomes public. Consequently, Realtor.com has a the most properties available and the most visitors. Other companies cannot get the same information either by paying or by using technology magic. Some consider this inside track to receive public property information a monopoly. Even the US Department of Justice performed a two-year investigation before settling with NAR.
All other aggregate real estate such as Zillow.com and Trulia.com acquire their properties directly from the real estate companies. Since it is left up to the real estate companies to send the properties to these aggregate sites, usually only the larger real estate companies do so directly as they are the companies with the resources to do so (think full-time technical staff). Typically, smaller real estate companies have difficulty in having this done automatically without the assistance of an outside company.
So in recap of National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites, the information flows as follows:
-Local Real Estate Company -> Local MLS -> State Association (FAR) -> National Association (NAR, aka realtor.com)
-Local Real Estate Company -> Local MLS -> Local Real Estate Company -> National Aggregate Real Estate Web Site (ie Zillow.com, Trulia.com, etc)
Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites
Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites acquire properties either directly from their agents or from the local MLS. If the local MLS is unhelpful (which sometimes they are) the Regional Broker Real Estate company will work upstream to the State Association (FAR) or through an authorized third party.
Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites differ because they specialize in a regional area. For smaller companies, their territory is going to remain inside the boundaries of a local MLS (within a Palm Beach County) but for larger companies the territory is going to spread across multiple MLS territories (Martin County, Palm Beach County, Broward County, etc).
This provides a unique challenge for Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites because they now have to work out with each individual MLS how they are going to receive information and try to combine that information into a seamless web site for the general public. Since each MLS is independent of each other there is no uniform process for real estate companies to work with although there is a push for this to happen.
These sites tend to lack the luster of National Aggregate Web Sites as most Regional Real Estate Companies do not have the resources to built the same items that a 70 million investment can built like it did for Zillow.com.
At the same time, these sites actually have the most potential. Why? Because real estate properties as a subject is a local community issue. What's true in South Florida has no impact on what's happening in say, Austin, TX. So the single Regional Broker Real Estate Web Site can focus on one common item, the local area's real estate properties. In addition, when someone is looking to move into greater West Palm Beach, they only consider that area and not greater West Palm Beach or greater Orlando, usually (although I did met a rocket scientist for NASA one time that travelled around the country and could live anywhere he wanted).
These web sites also differ from National Aggregate Web Sites because the goals of a Regional Real Estate Web Site is to ultimately perform a transaction through that company whereas the goals of a National Aggregate Web Site is to ultimately sell advertising. Consequently, depending on the Regional Real Estate company, the web site may lock up the information forcing you to register with an account that will lead to nagging emails and phone calls. This results in false information running rampant since some web searchers are unwilling to trade their true information and forcing the Regional Real Estate company having to "scrub" the leads.
Agent Real Estate Web Sites
Agent Real Estate Web Sites focus solely on the real estate agent. Most agents are going to have some type of identity of who they are and what they do. This is usually around a geographic area such as a particular community.
Basic Agent Real Estate Web Sites are going to allow the agent to manually input their properties themselves, adding and removing properties as she sees fit. This sometimes results in duplication of input; once for the local MLS and once for their personal real estate web site. In my experience, this leads to incorrect property information on their real estate web site over time. In general, single agent is too busy to maintain accurate information and in some cases the agent abandons the site for long periods of time resulting in blogs, articles and property information being six months old or older alienating web site visitors.
To simplify the process of getting property information, agents usually get the information through an automatic process called IDX (hence our company name, RegionalIDX, public IDX information from the Regional MLS). IDX is usually a predetermined product built based on the public information from the local MLS or the state level FAR association. It looks terrible, it's the same on every site and it doesn't integrate into the agent's Real Estate Web Site but rather is "framed" onto the site.
Because agents are trying to save budget dollars in most cases they tend to purchase lousy template web sites. These web sites tend to be a dime a dozen, produced by far away companies to sell what amounts to be a small bottle of snake oil and it shows. With terrible template layouts, common stream of senseless rote information and inaccurate property information, the sites if they ceased to exist would make the world a better place.
In some cases, the agent has a budget to spend to create a semi-custom or in rare cases a full custom real estate web site and employs a company like ours. This allows for customized property information that is automatic, true property integration into the site and allows for creative freedom. Pretty nifty.
Single Property Real Estate Web Sites
Single Property Real Estate Web Sites focus solely on one individual property. These sites are usually reserved for higher end properties. I don't see these much but could imagine that many sellers would want to have them if it were easily possible. These are usually some form of an online brochure.
Summary
Hopefully the above information was helpful to anyone looking or searching for property in the South Florida area. With so many sites, it's really difficult to know where to look or if the information is accurate.
Studies show that most buyers are going to look for property information on National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites for around 9 to 13 months. After this time, they are going to give up, simply because there's too much information to handle and try to find a real estate agent. Studies also show that more often than not that the buyer will do business with the first real estate agent they talk to.
Again, the sites are categorized as follows:
- Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites
- National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites
- Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites
- Agent Real Estate Web Sites
- Single Property Real Estate Web Sites
So go! You now are armed with the information you need to search throughout the Internet. Start with the National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites like Realtor.com, then move to the Local MLS Public Real Estate Web Sites like www.home2florida.com, then move onto a Regional Broker Real Estate Web Site (I'll leave the choice up to you) and finally check out an Agent Real Estate Web Sites like the live demos we have listed here.
My suggestion is to find an real estate agent that you know, like and trust and use that person as a guide. There are certainly enough traps, tricks and snafus that it's well worth it. Also, using an agent doesn't cost you anything and skirting around an agent doesn't save you any money.
- Details
In a recent issue of the Regional MLS publication, Regional RE-Views, an article concerning their public website, hometoflorida.com, states that the official sponsored site "includes ALL of your listings in MLXChange..." This isn't accurate.
All of the MLXchange listings are not on hometoflorda.com, only the public IDX info is available. There is a difference between the private information in Regional MLS that is only available to state-licensed real estate agents who are members of the Regional MLS and the public information that is available to the general public, the IDX.
There Is A Difference
Properties in the MLS that are made available to the general public is the IDX data, whereas property listings that stay in the MLS is only available to licensed agents who are members in good standing.
Just because a property listing is in the MLS (referred to as MLXChange in the article) does not mean it shows on the officially sponsored website of the Regional MLS.
Private Listing Situations
While it is noted that the majority of listings in MLS are in IDX, it is important to note that not all of listings flow to the Regional IDX. There are cases where sellers don't want to publicly advertise that they are selling their home. The reasons vary. In some situations, the sellers may not want the general public to know, they may not want their neighbors to know or they simply may not want to show the inside of their home to the general public.
MLS's Need To Remain Intact
If the whole MLS becomes public, the MLS loses meaning as anyone could build a system to add other property listings whether those properties are entered by a licensed real estate agent or not.
Being licensed is a critical point because agents who display a lack of character lose their license and can no longer be a member to the Regional MLS and can no longer have access to the information.
All properties are of great value and great importance. Mistakes in property exchange can be very costly both in time and in dollars. Everyone is well aware that in today's current global climate, there are individual who are less than honest. Giving private information to those individuals is asking for trouble and opens the floodgates for private information to flow to the general public which is a security concern for physical, material and financial reasons.
Final Thoughts
Regional IDX Recognizes the importance of a private MLS system that contains private information that is only accessible by licensed real estate agents. Further, Regional IDX is also committed to character and building character in the real estate industry.
To this end, all of the Regional MLS listings are not on hometoflorda.com, only the public IDX info is available.
- Details
Here is a good article from Realtor.com that talks about lead generation systems:
http://www.realtor.com/advice/4-secrets-to-success-how-to-manage-high-volume-leads/?cid=EML301472
Basically it comes down to:
- collect the leads (tigerleads/pay-for-leads-via-realtor.com)
- respond fast (fivestreet).
- track the communication (yesware).
- pull in accurate info from other public sources (rapportive).
- distribute the leads to others and cherry pick the good leads (good-old-greedy-capitalism).
Welcome to the new world of real estate.
- Details
So we started an external ad campaign to one of our web sites. An external ad campaign is an advertising campaign that isn't sourced from Google AdWords. It's sourced from another web site like a media/news outlet.
Eventually the question is going to become, "Is the advertising working?"
Good question. The only way to see this is with Analytics. While there are many analytic tools out there, Google Analytics is what we run into most. Probably because the price tag of free and the backing of Google's brand name makes it an obvious choice.
Like our other posts about Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics is powerful. It will tell you all sorts of items about the traffic that is coming to your web site.
So if you want to know if traffic is coming from an external ad campaign, it will show that right?
Yes and No. It will show traffic from the external ad campaign but it won't show it out of the box. You have to do some work.
Create a custom URL
The first step is to create a custom URL also known as a custom link. You can do that with the Google Custom URL Builder here:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867
Basically, you're taking your web site name and you are adding nonsense at the end. This nonsense, technically called parameters, doesn't do anything other than track a few items.
It tracks the following:
- source: where the traffic came from.
- medium: what did the traffic come from (banner, newsletter, etc).
- campaign: what campaign, the one in September or the one in October.
- term: what terms were we trying to shoot for.
- content: a drill down of what was clicked.
Link it to your advertising
It should be pretty obvious but after you create a custom URL, you have to link it to your advertising. This way when someone clicks on the ad, the link will redirect to your site with the parameters. With those parameters in place, Google Analytics will pick up and track that it was traffic from the external ad campaign.
If you would like to see more about Traffic, you can do so here:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1006930?hl=en&ref_topic=1631856
- Details
One of the interesting parts of growing into a leadership role is that I have to be official representative for the organization. This means I meet with people who represent a vendor not because we have anything to discuss really but because the organization I represent has signed some high dollar per year contract and just servicing the contract isn't enough.
The vendor wants to meet face to face throughout the year to prove that they are servicing the contract and try to show value.
It has really become one of my least favorite parts about growing up corporately. These meetings create so much noise and skews the way you think about problems that sometimes it's hard to even realize if the original problem is even being solved at all.
I have a VP friend who goes about solving problems in a very interesting way to me. When she has a need or a problem, her first instinct is to survey the marketplace and create some type of graph that ranks the features of the options. The resulting graph is marred with check marks and x's for the few that make the short list. Little bubble notes and exclamation points sprinkle the page like ornaments on a Christmas Tree.
The issue with going about fixing a problem this way is simple; it doesn't necessarily address your particular problem. So the problem is either half solved or the solution is merely a band aid to the real problem. In either case, gaps are left and problem continues on.
You may go about solving problems this way too. For example, you need a mass email marketing solution, so you survey the market and rank their features. After finally selecting one, you give it your best go at it. The solution doesn't work as expected. Why?
It's all about approach
It's all about how you approach the problem. If you want to solve, and I mean really solve, your problems, you're going to have to change the way you approach the problem. By resisting your initial gut reaction to find a solution right away will save you in both time and resources.
Define the problem
A problem is nothing more than pain. This pain is because something isn't working right or there's a void in the landscape that makes up the company or your life. At this point, do your best to emulate the fictional Sherlock Holmes and figuratively sit in a dark room and think about the problem. I actually pace back and forth, back and forth in a dimly light room by natural light but you get the idea. Ask yourself questions or better yet, if you have a friend to help you through the process ask them for an hour of their time.
Why is this happening? What is source cause of this, really? What action or event took place that brought this to my attention?
Often times, you'll find out that what you thought was the problem isn't really the problem at all but rather a symptom to the core issue.
So going back to our example, the original problem was a need for a mass email solution. After you go through defining the problem, you may find out the event that caused pain was that your clients told you that they never hear from you and as a result chose another agent. So the problem isn't needing a mass email solution, the problem is keeping in contact with your customers and email is only one way in which they communicate.
Find the opposite positive
If you asking these questions, it may come up that problem is a negative. For example, our clients are saying they never hear from us. That's only one way to look at it. Everything has an opposite and usually that opposite is a positive. Instead of focusing on what you don't want, state the positive of what you want. In our example, the positive of what you want is that you want your clients to hear from you on a regular basis.
Get a vision
The next step is so often overlooked I really believe that it's what separates the leaders from the managers. Here it is... get a vision of what you want. In other words, if the scenario could be anything where time, money and resources didn't matter, tell me what a solution would look like? How would it feel like? You need to catch a vision of the larger picture because all of our problems aren't in a vacuum, they are part of a larger portrait. Trying to solve the problem without taking account of the larger picture will often cause disruption in the larger picture.
List your features
List out on paper what you want. Take the vision from the previous step and try to solidify that to something tangible. So instead of looking at the features of the solutions, first you define the features you want.
I want the solution to be automatic. I want the solution to be regularly scheduled. I want everyone to be on their own schedule rather than putting everyone on the same schedule.
Putting it all together
See where this is different? If you go directly to the features of the option, it might be a good feature as in you like it but it isn't a feature you're looking for. It simply becomes noise. When you first define your features, you have a litmus test to measure the options by and it pulls you out of the feature race and it becomes easy to disqualify options that you thought were good or it allows you to consider options that normally you wouldn't.
So from our example, we're not looking for a mass email partner to fill a void, we're looking for a customer relationship management application in which mass emailing everyone is a feature.
Through this small example, I tried to show you how to approach and solve problems by defining the problem, finding the positive, catching a vision, listing your features and finally putting it all together.
When you do this, you'll be able to see a little clearer and people from the outside will recognize that you've really taken many factors into consideration. They'll appreciate the thought process and hopefully find the beauty in the solution.
- Details
Can a Realtor be in trouble for content in an IDX listing? In a recent law suit in Tampa, FL, an agent was named as a defendant because of an IDX listing on his web site. The listing contained information in the "public remarks" field which was allegedly discriminatory against age, violating fair housing laws.
Once the plaintiff performed due diligence research and discovered that the agent involved in the case was not the listing agent, they dropped the charged against the agent.
Still, NAR suggests to remove the "public remarks" field for listings showing on web sites as a precaution. In fact, following their own advice, NAR doesn't show this field on their web site, realtor.com.
You can listen to the podcast by clicking below.
- Details
Here's something that I find odd. If your site is over maximized and gets thunked by Google or they drop you in rankings in a noticeable way, you can have your site reconsidered.
I find it odd because even though it's a part of Google Webmaster Tools but it doesn't show in Google Webmaster Tools.
Just for reference, it's here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration
- Details
Ugh, even after writing about it, searching challenges my original position. You can submit your content to Google here: http://www.google.com/submityourcontent/
You just don't have to submit your content to Google. It isn't required. In fact, I'm not sure if this really does anything other than some type of placebo effect.