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Developing Your Own Real Estate App for the iPhone, Is Easy?

Did I just find a little known real estate technology secret?  Perhaps, read on…

In a quick search for real estate apps in iTunes, you get a menu of about 135 available applications (to do this you must have itunes installed locally).  Still surprisingly few.  By far the most interesting trend comes from enterprising agents racing to the real estate app scene with mobile access to their online IDX property search portals. Simple applications that funnel the “downloader” of the app to those personalized online real estate searches in various geographical regions.  Not a bad idea, in fact – why not?  A branded presence in the iPhone App Store – pretty darn smart.

So how are they doing it?  It seems many are using a service called MobileAppLoader.  I have no personal experience with this company so can’t give it a thorough review but a large percentage of the real estate companies listed in the iPhone App Store have used it.  This might not mean much other than that the process is easy and attainable.  It seems most of the apps they build follow a simple format:

• Contact page with one touch calling
• Info Page with active web links
• About Page with active web links
• Social networking profile pages (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube)
• Notifications which send alerts to customers
• Property Feedback function
• Loan calculator

Maybe a little clunky but a way to quickly and easily get in the game while not only branding your company but grabbing your main geographic target phrases for the name of your app – Maui Real Estate Search, Chicago Home Finder, Las Vegas Foreclosures.  There are a few different price levels for real estate as well as a fixed cost versus a monthly subscription.

I installed one of these real estate applications on my iphone just to check out the interface.  Not bad (nice graphics are important to the overall feel).  You will want to make sure that your existing IDX search website works well with mobile browsing before you jump on board.  All the app does for real estate search is provide a web link to your existing website’s IDX search page.  You will also benefit from having Facebook, Twitter, a YouTube page and a business blog setup before you jump into real estate iPhone app development.  This real estate app provides exposure to those mediums so be prepared!

Another real estate app developer visible in the app store is IDX, Inc.  These real estate applications seem more robust with potentially better connections to an IDX search interface.  They appear to really just be an IDX website search provider and serve the following MLSs.  Not too pricey; if you also need an MLS search website tool – might be worth a look.

I started this post with the intention of reviewing a few useful iPhone apps for real estate and ended up with a much different result.  Guess we’ll save that one for next time.  Perhaps this information can get you started developing your own iphone application for your real estate business, good luck!

If you need help developing your business social networks or creating a branded real estate blog, we can help – call or email us today.

Tutorial: Adding Blog Posts to A Facebook Business Page

Adding any application to your Facebook business page is not always the easiest of things to do.  Ideally you should make a connection between your blog and your Business Fan page and then “fan yourself” to get blog news to your personal Facebook profile page.  Facebook does not shine upon commercialization within your personal profile pages.

According the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities:

• You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications (such as spam) on Facebook.
• You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).
• You will not engage in unlawful multi-level marketing, such as a pyramid scheme, on Facebook.

While somewhat vague, these points suggest you should really keep business news on your Facebook business fan page.  Here’s part one and two of a video that will help you figure out how to do just that!  You can use an application called NetworkedBlogs to get the job done.

Videos require the most recent version of Adobe Flash to view.

- Adding Your Blog News to a Facebook Business Page (Part 1)

- Adding Your Blog News to a Facebook Business Page (Part 2)

Good luck!

No time to hook up your own news?  Take a look at our blogging social media package or contact Kinetic Knowledge for more information today!

Kinetic Sites Now Incorporating ds IDXPress for MLS Listings!

Hold the presses!  Here’s a new real estate blogging product alert that you can’t afford to miss.  Our friends at Diverse Solutions recently released a new Wordpress real estate plug-in for easily creating MLS listings pages, featured listings and widgets within your blog!  It’s called ds IDXPress and it’s nothing short of amazing.

All Kinetic Blogs are now capable of incorporating this Wordpress MLS listings plug-in with ease.  Real estate agents – this means with a little work you can have more great auto-generated and search indexed listings content for your blogs!

One of the things we love about it is that it is SO easy to use with your Kinetic Blogs!  Here’s a brief overview of how it works:

1. Talk to the folks at Diverse Solutions and make sure your MLS participates
2. Order the plug-in via Diverse, go through setup and get your activation key
3. Talk to us at Kinetic – have us install the plug-in and enable your widgets
4. With a little hand-holding (but this is easy we promise), start creating featured and neighborhood listings pages in your Kinetic Blogs with ease!

So what are you waiting for?  Email the Kinetic sales team to get your real estate blog with auto generated MLS listings started today!  We couldn’t be more excited for you.

Kudos to Diverse Solutions for such a great new real estate blogging tool – ds IDXPress!

CRS ‘The Residential Specialist Magazine’ Profiles Top Galveston TX Agent James Selig

Back in September 2008, we profiled James Selig for his blogging effort to try and get people information amidst the destructive aftermath of Hurricane Ike. At the time Selig decided to shift focus from business and dedicate his Galveston TX real estate business blogging to local information, progress and the recovery in Galveston. The blogging, he says, helped many folks to know him as someone trying to help get them information at a time when they really needed it.

As karma would have, we were excited to see CRS ‘The Residential Specialist Magazine’ profile James in JAN/FEB issue in their ‘Up Close Profiles of people to watch’ .  What I thought was most impressive in the piece is his lifetime dedication to the Galveston TX area, not only as citizen, local business person but nowadays  as Galveston’s leading real estate agent.  Considering the above, he certainly deserves the praise!

Interested in the article about James?   You can review it in it’s entirety here Up Close James Selig in ‘The Residential Specialist Magazine’.

When Brokerages Blog: RE/MAX Leading Edge Analysis Shows Local Consumers Want Timelier Lifestyle, Community and Market Information

Paul Mydelski, Middlesex, Suffolk & Essex County Massachusetts RE/MAX Leading Edge Broker/Owner, recently 
committed to building a custom business blogsite for his firm. Local analysis showed there was buyer and seller 
demand for more current lifestyle, community and market information, so he decided to jump in and deploy a 
platform available for their whole team. Paul was able to share some information on his decision making process, so please read on:

Frerecks: So Paul, what got RE/MAX Leading Edge Massachusetts interested in adding a business blogging platform?

Paul Mydelski: We actually became interested in adding a Middlesex, Suffolk & Essex County MA area real estate 
business blogging platform after analyzing the profile of our buyers and sellers. Our network affiliation has 
afforded us strong brand recognition, but our consumers are often looking for information about the process of  buying and /or selling. Thus direct subscriptions are definitely a goal too. Additionally, we are looking for the  search engine optimization which can be achieved with a blog over a static website.

Frerecks: What will the focus of the RE/MAX Leading Edge Mass’ Blogsite be?

Paul Mydelski: Our website handles the dissemination of listing information, but buyers and sellers want to know about things like Middlesex, Suffolk & Essex county neighborhoods, community events and schools. Thus we’re using the blog to focus on these things to enable the consumer to make lifestyle choices along with their house choices. We also feel that if people buy into a community they are excited about, they are then inclined to contribute to that community and that’s what keeps property values high in towns like Arlington, Winchester, and Woburn… where we have offices. 

Frerecks: Will agents in the Arlington, Winchester and Woburn MA offices be entitled to blog?

Paul Mydelski: Our agents will most certainly be encouraged to blog as they are our “ears on the street” and will keep our content fresh and relevant. They will be asked to submit their posts to our blog manager for review before the posts are published.

Frerecks: Results- wise, what would you like to see in a years’ time?

Paul Mydelski: Our agents strive to become their clients’ “real estate resource for life”. Thus, in a year’s time we hope our existing and potential new clients will stay connected via our new visibility online and also direct email & RSS subscriptions. We hope they will rely on our market updates and (doesn’t everyone want to know what their home is worth?) current neighborhood news and event coverage. Hopefully the blog will also become a site for healthy discussions about things going on in the community, which may affect every local homeowner.

Frerecks: Thanks Paul. And if you don’t mind, let’s have a look at your progress with the RE/MAX Leading Edge  blogsite come the end of the year. And folks, if you’d like to reach Paul you can find him @ mydelski@leadingedgeagents.com / 781-729-5505.

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