Finally, a map-based Phoenix home search I can sink my teeth into. And more importantly, one that plays well with our MLS system.
For a long (long) time, the number of choices a Phoenix real estate agent had for implementing a map-based home search was woefully limited. Fortunately, the leadership at ARMLS (Arizona Multiple Listing Service) recently joined this century and new MLS/IDX search options are becoming available.
And we’re just tickled to be the first (of many, I’m sure) Phoenix area real estate web site to implement the search technology supplied by Diverse Solutions.
I’m still exploring, but this property search is wicked cool, and powerful.
From the user perspective, you can search to your hearts content, with no fear of being hounded by an agent. No calendars, no sports schedules, and no unwanted email will clog your mail box, fridge or in-box.
But, should you be so inclined, you can register and save searches, get notified of new listings on the market (daily or weekly — your choice) and more.
Want an RSS feed of listings? No problem.
Need specific info on the neighborhood, schools, or demographics? Check.
See a home you can’t live without? Make a PDF file of the listing, book mark the link, email it to yourself and your friends.
Need more info? Contact us directly from the listing page, initiate a chat, or schedule a showing. All just a click or two away.
Fully integrated Google Maps, including Google Street View (where Big G has filmed) allow you to search for and map right there with the home listings things like shopping, pizza joints, Starbucks, churches, schools and more.
It takes a little getting used to compared to our old home search solution. Chiefly because our old solution was lame. Some (OK, me) even said, “This sucks!”
Not any more. I’ve watched some folks go into the new search for the first time and swiftly search and locate homes that fit their criteria. The more you play with it, the more you find it can do, and the easier it gets. And hey, if it’s good enough for Kris and Steve Berg, it’s good enough for me.
Feel free to give it a whirl right here on the blog, or on our “traditional” site.
For the agents out there, the back end of this thing is slick. You can set up unlimited “filters” (WAY better than KillerIDX filters) and there are some cool tools you can use, like this:
Or this:
There’s more to come. Much more.
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I remember seeing this a short while back on their site. Nice to see it in full bloom on your site were I could dink around with it for a minute. The UI is VERY cool… and RSS feeds. Are you kidding me? Dustin tells me he’s had RSS on his custom sight for 2 yrs. now. But I have not seen one built into an IDX like this before. I’ve been waiting to offer something up to clients that I could believe in for search on a personal site. This looks like something I could get behind.
This is really neat – but hopefully it’s not dependent upon agents to put the property in the right location…I know on our MLS you have to manually locate the property and unfortunately, a lot of agents don’t realize that and just leave it at the default setting, which is the postal center for the listing.
Or maybe I’m naive…maybe they do that on purpose. Anyway, it would be nice for buyers to be able to save searches. Our current system does not allow that; if they want to do that they have to go to Realtor.com…and then they may be saving (and sending) stuff from different boards of realtors, to make things interesting.
This looks great! I have seen Diverse Solutions before but not with an ARMLS solution.
Is this dependent on the broker, though? If I recall, each broker is only allowed to “outsource” 2 IDX solutions with ARMLS… which I think is BS. I mean, we wouldn’t want competition and innovation – would we?
Four out of every damn site out there is Superlative – props to Superlative’s marketing team I guess … but I think they suck and solutions like Diverse are where people should be giving their money.
It was about time for Killer IDX to loose their monopoly! The map based search looks great, however the ARMLS logo is a bit too “pronounced” on the property pictures. For some reason the option to display full size photos is not working on my end. Most likely it has something to do with the original upload size of the photos to ARMLS. This may be a viable solution, however I am still pursuing the idea of building and custom IDX solution for “down the road”.
Hey all, I’m a senior software engineer over here at Diverse Solutions, and I played a very large role in developing the IDX itself, so I can answer all of your questions relating to our products.
@Karen: We get all of our location information for each property from Google. If Google can’t find it, we then go to one of our backup “geocoder” services to see if they can locate the property. We only match to address level accuracy, so we never put any properties in the middle of a postal code or city. Finally, each agent has control over where their own properties appear on the map, so they can move them around as they see fit if they need to.
@Christoph: I’ve shrunk the size of the ARMLS logo — you may need to clear your browser cache to see the change. It does have to be there, but I don’t think it had to be that large. As far as the full-size photos go, it’s an issue were trying to work out with ARMLS directly. For some reason, those “full size” photos are the largest photos we can get from them right now.
Congrats, Jay. I agree that this is a most awesome spin on the old IDX search. We still have some hanger-ons continuing to use our old, tired IDX app, but for the most part, I think the transition was well received. I am even still figuring out all of the features.
Seems like a very well put together IDX I would love to be able have that in Tucson.
Very timely post. I have been looking at a few options for an easy map search. I was seriously considering mlsfinder.com to replace killer idx but this map search features seems to be much more robust and pleasing to the eye. Thanks for sharing with the community.
Pretty slick find Jay! Glad to see you implementing the latest technology, especially from the good old guys and gals at Diverse Solutions… I remember quite a few of them from back when I had my first AA site. Keep up the good work Jay, oh and since we last talked on the phone the week before you opened your own brokerage… CONGRATULATIONS! You deserve it!
@Andrew: nice man, nice.
Haven’t seen you at Max’ forum in a while, maybe it’s because you’ve been so busy writing for this project eh?
@Matt: You got it! I want to have both hands in software development AND the RE community at the same time, but then I’d need four hands!
As soon as I wrap up taxes, I’m jumping in with both feet.
Or maybe I’ll blow off the taxes some more.
Don’t ya just love it when you get a new tech toy
. I will check it out- it looks like a great tool. I really like how you can zero in on a subdivision- works great for the local posts about neighborhoods.
Really brings home how much inventory there is out there! I still like ziprealty’s site better though.
Thanks so much for sharing! I was days away from giving my money to killer idx, thinking they were the only game in town. This looks & feels a whole lot better – and if it will make my users happy, it will make me happy..
The more I explore this, the more I like it — from both a user perspective and from the agent side. There are some powerful uses for it.
Mister Dommidge – it does indeed highlight the excess of inventory. As for the Zip Realty search, it’s a great one. They have just a bit larger web development budget than I do though…
@Matt – thanks!
For the agents subscribed to this comment thread, Diverse Solutions has a webinar demo of the IDX solution on Friday, April 11 at 2:00pm PST. You can sign up here: http://www.diversesolutions.com/webinar-request.aspx
Thanks Jay! Looks awesome. I still have a ways to go on my KillerIDX subscription, but this may be worth dumping it now.
Wow – that looks incredible and user friendly. I like the layout and it looks like there are tons of features – I’ll give it a try.
Just looks really easy to use; everything is on one inviting page.
Good choice. After much research, we ended up at Diverse Solutions for our web search too. Though deep down I wanted the BlueRoof or Estately search but that wasn’t happening. Dollar for dollar this works pretty well. Good luck.
This is a very cool feature for those who are searching for a home in a particular neighborhood or area. I assume this company can take this code and ability and add it to real estate sites in other areas.?.
I am glad that unlike the usual, I am a bit late in reading this post and all the comments. This is truly fantastic and my compliments to Andrew Mattie. A comment to him – we all wish that we had four hands! This is however very good and you and whoever else was involved, deserve congratulations.
That looks pretty sweet. Would love to have that for our site.
@Andrew: I feel your pain… I love showings homes and I love working on websites. Think I need to clone myself, one for RE and one for the Web.
@Jay: You’re welcome!
Pretty sure I’m in the right time zone (PST) on the right date 4/11/08. 2:24 and no show for the Webinar demo…. ?
Wanted to send you all a quick note in regards to your previous blog comments on here, we have just purchased the rights to blueroof.com in Arizona! We are very excited, and it is still in a beta stage but thought you might want to take a look. http://arizona.blueroof360.com/site/search.php?