StickyListings

A full StickyListings subscription for our new clients is now available for only one dollar.  Try us out and if you are not satisfied with our syndication service for any reason, simply cancel your subscription before your first billing.

For your first month, you will receive our full subscription services including:

• No data input - EVER!
• All your SFR and Multi-Family listings syndicated to all of our partner sites every night
• We update your inventory nightly directly from your MLS
• Customized landing page that feeds referrals directly to your email

No long-term contracts ever, our service is only offered on a month-to-month basis. After your trial period, you pay only $24.95 per month to have your entire inventory syndicated daily.

We also offer very attractive monthly rates if you are interested in having your entire office syndicated. Email us for details, or if you have any questions about our services.

-John

As of September 15, 2009, StickyListings automated syndication subscriptions are now available to members of the Columbus Board of Realtors (CBR).

Welcome!

-John

StickyListings has added new functionality in order to assist our customers who wish to post their listings at craigslist.com.

If you visit the landing page of any of your currently active listing, you will now find a small Stickylistings logo at the lower left-hand corner of the page.  If you click this logo, a code snippet will be automatically copied to your computer’s clipboard.  If you then paste this code into the information box of your craigslist posting, your ad will then contain the same information as the landing page for your listing, apart from the two contact forms at the bottom.

In order to view the StickyListings landing page for any of your active listings, simply type the following into your web browser’s address bar:

NEOHREX:  http://www.stickylistings.com/pages/1/***your MLS number***.cfm

CBR:  http://www.stickylistings.com/pages/2/***your MLS number***.cfm

Be sure to replace the sample address with the MLS number of your listing.

If you have questions regarding this service, please contact our admin staff at admin@stickylistings.com

-John

Since the onset of the NORMLS/CRIS merger, many former NORMLS agents have discovered that they can now upload more than six property images to the MLS.  However this new capability comes with a very specific pitfall that has to be avoided.

A typical agent goes through a new listing from room to room, often times taking multiple photos of the same room.  You might end up with 40, 50, or more photos of a home that has only seven rooms!  There is nothing wrong with having multiple shots of the same room or location of a listing…however…

When your listing is syndicated, these images are pulled from the MLS in the order that they were submitted. This is important because we are now seeing more and more listings that end up having a nice face shot of the house, then half of the additional photos are all of the same room!

There is a simple way around this, just make sure that the first six photos of your listing are the six you’d show an Internet visitor if you could only show them six.  Another thing to keep in mind is that they should be in order form best to worst, as some partner sites choose to display only three additional photos, some sites even less.

You typically only get one chance with a web visitor, it’s important that you make it count.  Exposing this web traffic to your listing’s best face is one way of reaching this goal.

Make sure your office’s admin staff is aware of this if you don’t do your own MLS submissions!

Here’s an article I found regarding Trulia and the fact that their listing database now powers the real estate searches for over 100 web sites.  What this means is that having your listings on Trulia means that they are also featured on the sites that Trulia powers.  Keep in that some of these partners will be localized, so this doesn’t necessarily mean your listings will be on 100 additional sites.

Original article can be found here

Trulia’s Publisher Platform Powers Real Estate Search for More Than 100 Websites

RISMEDIA, Dec. 10, 2008-Trulia, Inc. announced the momentum of its Trulia Publisher Platform (TPP), a hosted technology solution that gives Web publishers the ability, completely free of charge, to create co-branded online real estate sections powered by Trulia’s search technology. With TPP, publishers can offer their audiences the ability to find and research homes nationwide using Trulia’s innovative search technology, award-winning user interface and useful online tools like local real estate guides, heat maps and sales comparable information.

According to the company, TPP is profitable for partners from day one because the platform is offered for free and allows partners to monetize the experience through their own display advertising. And because Trulia hosts the TPP site co-brand, implementation is turn-key and publishers always have immediate access to Trulia’s latest functionality and features.

“As newspapers, magazines and Web publishers continue to evolve their business models, the Trulia Publisher Platform is an excellent alternative to their website’s home search needs,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Because of the easy integration, best-in-class technology and favorable economics for the publishers, we’ve been able to power real estate search for over 100 websites in less than a year.”

“The Trulia Publisher Platform allows us to leverage Trulia’s technology to integrate real estate search functionality seamlessly throughout our site,” said Jennifer Simonds, VP of Audience and Business Development at U.S. News & World Report. “We can then focus on content creation and ultimately deliver a greatly enhanced product that appeals to both our visitors and advertisers.”

Trulia’s TPP now powers real estate search for large national web publishers like U.S. News & World Report, large regional newspapers like The Bakersfield Californian and smaller regional newspapers. The TPP can be utilized by almost any web publisher looking to offer Trulia’s real estate search experience to their users.

The National Association of Realtors reports the following statistics for “Information Sources Used in Home Search”

Real estate agent - 84%
Internet -84%
Yard sign - 59%
Open house - 48%
Home book/magazine - 31%
Builders - 24%
Television - 9%
Billboard - 7%
Relocation company - 5%

The source for these numbers was the 2007 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers so chances are the Internet numbers are even higher now.

An interesting item to note is the somewhat conspicuous absence of newspapers altogether.  So many real estate agents still insist on budgeting marketing dollars for print ads, however the numbers show that as an advertising medium for real estate, the paper is out and the web is in.

With listing syndication, it’s now possible for an agent to publish their listing for an entire listing period for less than it would cost to run a single ad in the paper.  Yet so many agents still hesitate to take this step.

The numbers don’t lie.  Buyers are using the Internet just as often as they are using an agent to search for a home.

When inputting MLS data on a listing, oftentimes there are opportunities to “tweak” the city name of a listing in order to make it potentially more attractive to a buyer.  A good west-side example of this is Olmsted Township.

If an agent lists a home in Olmsted Township, they are likely aware of the fact that there is no RITA tax in the township however residences in Olmsted Falls are subject to this tax.  Therefore it makes sense to enter “Olmsted Township” in the city field for your listing…right?

The answer is not clear unless you know exactly how you plan on marketing this listing.  If you feel that your buyers are well-educated and will know the difference between Falls and Township (and the tax advantages) then by all means use Olmsted Township as the city.  But there is a hidden cost to doing this.

The United States Postal Service does not officially recognize “Olmsted Township” as a valid mailing address.  What this means is that many websites (including Google, so watch it!) will end up kicking out your listing from their database if you syndicate it.  The reason for this exclusion is generally because their system will match your address to the USPS database in order to generate maps and locations.  When Google’s software tries to lookup your city of Olmsted Township match it with the ZIP Code of 44138 that doesn’t include Olmsted Township as a valid mailing address, it can’t figure this out and kicks your listing out.

Another example that will be more familiar to east-side agents is Willowick.  Again, the USPS does not recognize Willowick as a valid city for mailing; they require you to use either Wickliffe or Willoughby in order to be compliant.  If your MLS listing data has a listing with the city data being “Willowick”, Google and other sites will reject it.

The same goes for incorrectly spelled city names, so be careful!  Since NORMLS does not use “drop-down” boxes for city selection, it’s up the the data entry person to make sure this is correct.  And it’s up to you as the agent to catch it when you look over your new listing’s MLS printout.

Are there ways around this?  At this time our best suggestion is to be sure that your city name is USPS compliant, then if you have additional information, include this in the remarks field.  That way you can hopefully get the best of both worlds…full exposure via syndication while still being able to include a more “desirable” city name in the remarks.

If you have questions regarding proper USPS formatting for a city, you can use this site to check ZIP Codes and valid city names.  It’s worth the extra time in order to make sure you’re getting the most from your marketing dollars.

There’s been a lot of confusion about claims that syndication companies are making regarding craigslist.  Now don’t get me wrong, I personally feel craigslist is a great tool to have in your syndication arsenal.  IF you are willing to put the extra time into it.

You see, craigslist has a policy that nobody else is allowed to post your listings for you.  Don’t take my word for it, here’s a quick excerpt from their terms of use:

8. POSTING AGENTS

A “Posting Agent” is a third-party agent, service, or intermediary that offers to post Content to the Service on behalf of others. To moderate demands on craigslist’s resources, you may not use a Posting Agent to post Content to the Service without express permission or license from craigslist. Correspondingly, Posting Agents are not permitted to post Content on behalf of others, to cause content to be so posted, or otherwise access the Service to facilitate posting Content on behalf of others, except with express permission or license from craigslist.

And also this:

[you agree not to]

y) use any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of postings on craigslist without each posting being manually entered by the author thereof (an “automated posting device”), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.

The entire craigslist terms of use can be found here

Well to me this all seems pretty clear.  You’re not playing by the rules unless you input your craigslist ad yourself.  If someone tells you they can do it for you, please ask to see their express permission or license provided by craigslist.

Now there are services available that provide tools that assist you in the posting of craigslist ads, and these are obviously allowed.  But really bothers me is that there are syndication services out there that make it look like they will post your listing to craigslist, when this isn’t the case at all.  Some services advertise this “feature” when in reality they don’t do anything to help you, they just want to include the craigslist logo to help their marketing.

Do yourself and your clients a favor by not getting involved with a listings syndication service before you find out exactly what they have to offer you and exactly what it will cost you.  You’ll be much better off in the long run my doing your due diligence and making an informed decision.

-John

Welcome to the blog for StickyListings.  Here you will find a wide range of topics generally centered on real estate, and more specifically, Internet syndication of listings.

I’ll be talking about what I’ve learned during my in-depth research and development on the subject of automated listing syndication, the capabilities of StickyListings, as well as where I think things are headed.

Be prepared to learn, get help, help others, and most of all find out exactly how listing syndication can helps you, your clients, and your business.

-John