Realtor associations generally have websites that are, to be polite, not very good. It’s like they are stuck in the early 1990s. My own association, the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors (SAAR) fell squarely at the peak of the bell curve of association websites.

Fell, as in past tense. Because as of this morning, SAARs website is now one of the best local association sites out there.

No really, it is.

For the geeks, the site is built on Drupal by NFi Studios, a leading supplier to associations of all flavors and includes its awesome MemberFuse professional networking component. The integrated database and functionality provided by Avectra allows for nifty things like online dues payment, class registration and more.

For the users, what you will find is a much cleaner site that is easy to get around in. And it will only get better with time. The networking component will allow you to create groups (both public and private), register and pay for classes and dues renewals, vote in elections, get information on committee and associations activities and much more. You can even put feeds from your favorite sites and blogs so new articles show up on your “My SAAR” page. Go ahead, add the Phoenix Real Estate Guy feed to your page. You know you want to.

The group functionality is wicked cool. Brokerages can set up what is for all practical purposes an Intranet for their agents. You can upload files, create discussions, even work collaboratively via “LiveDoc”. All at no cost. The broker will need to be a member of SAAR, but non-SAAR agents can be added to groups.

I’m excited about the social capabilities of the new site. It will allow you to create and join groups with agents that share similar interests, keep your eye on committee activities, and build contact lists. And I’m sure I’m leaving out functionality. The thing is jam packed.

Give it a whirl! Got to http://www.SAAROnline.com and log in with your old SAAR site ID and password (of note, there’s a little glitch right now – you HAVE to put the “www” into your browser. Just going to http://SAAROnline.com won’t work. Yet. That will get fixed soon).

Major kudos to the SAAR Board of Directors and SAAR staff and leadership, particularly CEO Bob Peirce, for having the vision and foresight (and faith) to bring SAARs site into the 21st century. And if you knew all the work that SAAR Director D. Patrick Lewis put into this thing, you would be amazed. Ya done good DPL!

Go, check it out. What are you waiting for? If you have any feedback, feel free to leave it in a comment here and I’ll make sure it gets to the right people.