Real Estate Software Features Overview

"What You See Is What You Get"

The WYSIWYG Web Site Editor empowers you to update and control the content of most pages of your web site. WYSIWYG makes updating easy by giving you a "back-end" administration system that resembles the layout of your web site.

In the WYSIWYG Editor, you can enter and update content, title tags, meta keywords, meta title, meta descriptions for every page-all very important for search engine prominence.

Searchable Property Directory

The Searchable Property Directory is the database that presents all listings on your web site and updates them automatically through an MLS Data-Feed (IDX). Using the "Real Estate" module in the back-end administration system, you can:

• Set your market area to only show listings in the towns you want to do business or refer leads.
• Control how buyers can search the MLS on your site (by town, by price min/max, by waterfront only, etc).

The Property Directory helps make your site search engine friendly through dynamic page titling. The meta information, used by search engines to help determine the content of each page, is created dynamically for each listing page from the listing data itself. This helps search engines understand the content of each listing page on your site and, consequently, helps search engines and prospective buyers find it.

Visitors to your site will search the MLS and your listings, which update daily. Listings appear on unique pages with clear action buttons enabling buyers to perform tasks such as:

• Save a property search to be notified daily of new listings and price changes (see upgrade below).
• Save a listing to a favorites list (see upgrade below).
• Email a listing to a friend or family member (see upgrade below).
• View an online video or virtual tour (created by a third party developer).
• Calculate estimated mortgage payments.
• Request an appointment to view a property.

Send Listing to a Friend

The Send Listing to a Friend lets your site visitors market your site for you! The "Send this listing to a Friend" feature allows site visitors to send a listing to a friend. The email that arrives to the friend looks like your web site and provides a photo of the listing that links to the listing detail page on your web site.

Mortgage Calculators

Mortgage Calculators allow buyers to enter in their desired down payment, interest rate, number of years of payment, etc, to help determine the affordability of listings on the site.

Agent & Office Manager

All personal information about agents and office contact information is managed through the Agent & Office Manager (required for offices). Changing contact information for an agent or office in the Manager automatically updates the contact information in all content areas of the site. The Manager also:

• Disseminates agent information to the "About Us" page (or similar section), where each agent gets an individual page with a photo, bio, contact form, and link to his/her listings.
• Pulls in agent information everywhere that agent's listings appear on the site, including in "Our Listings" and in all MLS Searches.
• Allows buyers to choose their agent when signing up for Automatic Email Updates. Thereafter, the chosen agent is cc'd on all automatic emails sent to that buyer. Also, if the buyer clicks 'reply' to the email, it arrives directly in the listing agent's mailbox.

New Listings Notification

The Automatic Email Update Feature updates your buyers with a daily email of listings that match their saved property searches. Buyers save their property searches and choose the agent that they are working with (if applicable). Once a day, buyers are sent an email from their chosen agent's email address if new properties appear on your web site that fit their specific criteria, or if the price changes on an existing property.

The email in the customer's inbox looks similar to your web site itself, and each listing in the email links directly to the listing page on your web site. Each email sent is carbon copied to the office or chosen agent. Visitors can cancel their emails anytime, and can also log into their own page on your web site to view searches, edit their searches, and change preferences.

Featured Property Manager

The Featured Property Manager allows you to feature properties on your homepage and customize your listings with extra information. In addition to the basic information on your listings that loads automatically from the MLS, you can add additional photos, description, street address, link to a virtual tour, and more.

All listing information is easily edited and updated in real time in the back-end administration system. The Featured Property Manager also empowers you to feature listings on your homepage, sidebar or other pages of your site at the click of a button.

Save To Favorites

Save To Favorites allows buyers to save particular listings to a favorites account. Listings stay in the account as long as they are active in the MLS. In creating a favorites account, buyers give their email address, converting a casual web surfer into a qualified lead. In the "back-end" administration system, you can see all users' favorites lists, and search by MLS number to see what users have a particular listing in their favorites lists.

Build Your Own Searches

The Build Your Own Searches tool allows you to create pre-set searches that are popular (for example: "Waterfront Homes under $1 million"). Searches can be easily created, categorized, and a managed in the administration system. Creating popular searches helps leverage your knowledge of the local market, creates a unique user experience for on your site, and increases the utility of your site for buyers.

Build Your Own Favorites List

The Build Your Own Favorites List makes a favorites list of MLS listings or categories that cannot be automatically sorted ("my picks", "great deals this month", "distinctive homes", "fixer-uppers" etc). Properties stay in your list as long as they are active in the MLS. You build your own lists by adding listings to your own 'favorites' lists.

Leads Tracking (Management Center)

USM's Leads Management Center leverages the data collected from buyers on your web site to create bulk email lists of interested buyers. In the leads management center you can:

• Search the "Saved Favorites" lists by MLS number to generate a list of users who have flagged a listing as a "favorite." The search generates a list of buyers to whom you can send a bulk email. If, for example, a particular listing has an open house, you can search for that listing in the database and email interested buyers of the upcoming open house in just a few clicks.
• Search the Saved Searches by MLS number to see what buyers have saved searches that would include that MLS listing in their results. A spam-filter friendly bulk email can be sent to the resulting user list to inform them of an Open House or other valuable information about the property.

Search by Map

USM's Search by Map custom-built maps make searching listings an interactive and informative experience, especially for remote buyers not intimately familiar with the area. Clickable county maps allow buyers to choose the towns they are interested by selecting them from the map.

Google Mapping

Google Mapping shows all search results on a Google map to give buyers a visual sense of the location of listings in their property search results. The Google map displays at the bottom of the page listing search results, and on the detail view page of each listing.

Google Base

Google Base Listing Syndication: Imagine being in a listing presentation and telling a prospective seller that you will literally put their home on Google. Just as we place your listings from the MLS on your site, we can now place that same listing information directly on Google for you. To see an example of a USM client's listings on Google, please visit: http://www.tinyurl.com/yx9bwr (USM client Judy Foregger's Stowe properties appear in this google base search results page). Put your listings where buyers begin their search: Google!

Real Estate Blog

Real Estate Blogs: Real Estate Blogs have become increasingly popular with many REALTORs for a number of reasons. A blog can:

• Give you and your office the ability to communicate with a number of customers for a fraction of the cost of print or mail
• Provide your visitors with timely information about your market
• Help improve search engine pick up
• Make the site "stickier" once the visitor finds the site

Union Street Media can set up a blog powered by easy-to-post blogging software. For search engine optimization purposes, USM would host the blogging site on a separate server to maximize the perceived difference between the primary site and the blogging site. However, from a design standpoint, USM would integrate the blog with current site design to provide a coherent look for site visitors.

Vermont Sold Real Estate Database

The Vermont Sold Real Estate Database provides you and your clients' access to a searchable database of every property transaction in the state of Vermont since 1987. Available information about each transaction includes the closing date & purchase price, appraised value, names of buyers and sellers, and a comprehensive list of property characteristics such as address, acreage, square footage and land usage. All transactions registered with the State of Vermont appear, including FSBO sales and inter-family transactions.

The growing database of over 550,000 property transactions automatically updates on your site every week. As a lead generator, the database can be open to visitors who set up an account on your site. Or, you can choose to have one login that you provide to select clients at your discretion.