Tag Archive for: Wordpress RETS plugin

Moving to a new web host or upgrading.

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WordPress real estate websites are unique in the fact that they typically require some sort of 3rd party RETS plugin. When you choose a 3rd party RETS software to integrate into your website you should always have that company do all of their software/plugin setup for you instead of hiring someone else to do it.

One of the “Biggest Issues” you will probably encounter when building out your first WordPress real estate site is that you will probably forget to treat it the same way a general contractor would if he were building you your dream home. What does that mean?

If you are a General Contractor the first thing you do is line up your subcontractors to get their bids and schedules – why? because each subcontractor is a pro at their job – they know their trade and their product inside and out. If you hire some friend, web-dev or seo company then chances are they are only professionals at what they know or what they have previously used/built and are not going to know how to code or how xyz is compared to abc or even how to setup either one since they didn’t develop either one and or have never even actually used/worked with them.

Ever week we get calls or support tickets from some “new” web developer that has now taken over updating or moving someones website etc. The website owner, typically Broker or Agent has now hired yet another 3rd party seo or web designer person/firm who swears they can “do-it-all” when in-fact they typically can’t do half of what they claim in the first place. Typically the minute that they move the site, to yet another hosting provider or try to switch out to some other “better” theme, they start calling us for help.

The point that I’m trying to make here is “why would you ever hire the plumber to do the roof?” Sure he might be able to eventually get it done but its never going to get done as fast or as good as what a professional roofer would do and in the long run its always going to end up costing you more time and money every single time.

Remember to plan you project accordingly and you will end up with a great custom website built your-way via the best subcontractors available…..or …you may end up with a lot of frustration, wasted time and money.

Cheers!

Real Estate SEO

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Real Estate SEO

Real Estate SEO is a lot more complicated than it probably should be due to all of the technical source code aspects.

Here at RETS PRO we strive to take the time to assist all of our SEO minded clients in their pursuit to achieve their desired results. Why? well mainly because this is what we did ourselves prior to developing this plugin for our own SEO customers and because this is what RETS PRO does better than any other WordPress Real Estate Plugin out there!

We are building all New 2020 SEO video series this year for all of our current and future customers that will cover everything from getting started, to deep dive into advanced technical troubleshooting. This will also include a New SEO Forums section that will be a public Q&A with direct links and examples.

Working topics for February will cover the Google site/registration/analytics setup basics and xml sitemaps etc. We will lay out all of the basic steps to make sure that you are getting your site setup properly and getting all of your listing pages indexed.

This year we will also cover how to use free site tools like gtmetrix.com and cloudflare and several other free tools that will not only help you site to load faster but will also help you understand proper content writing, link descriptions, image alt tags and much much more!

If you have any SEO questions go ahead and jump into the forums https://retspro.com/forums/index.php?/forum/75-seo/ and post your questions for us – you can even create a poll on what you want to see covered first this year.

Don’t forget, we also offer Real Estate SEO services for those that want to hire us and this also includes our Auto-SEO and CRM setups – Call 888-540-9666 for more information regarding our SEO services and prices.

Cheers!

 

New WordPress Real Estate Plugins

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Seems like every few months we see new Real Estate Plugins popping up, but none of them include a “Pay Only Once” option.

When we started selling our first version back in 2009, we were then the First and “Only” Solution to not only offer a pay-once plugin years before anyone else but one that you could actually build out your very own custom website with since it’s also open php code (non-encrypted). Not a lot has changed since then, other than a couple companies that have come along to try to now catch up to us with their own inferior versions.

Everyday we get people that call us to ask about our features and options compared to some new xyz product – the simple answer is that we have built the kitchen sink and it’s up to you to now pour in all of your own features. In other words the plugins features are now only limited by your own imagination, skills or budget. We have already built out all of the core function/features needed to then be expanded upon by you or your programmer/developer.

If you are in currently seeking the best wordpress real estate plugins then give us a quick call so that we can give you a live backend screenshare of our real estate plugin to answer any questions you may have before making a decision. We are a Florida-USA based company and would love to show you all of our New Automated SEO options as well as address any questions you may have.

In the meantime we are offering a FREE license upgrade all month this month (June-2019) So anyone wanting to buy a $999 single site license you will automatically get upgraded to the $1999 +License that includes unlimited subdomains and MU compatibilities. Note* If you buy the $1999 +License you will automatically get upgraded to our Unlimited Developers License valued at $2999.

Give us a call @ 866-540-9666
Skype = RETS PRO

Google Maps Geocode Plugin | RETS PRO Geocode Module

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For many years the Google Maps API never required any form of credit cards or payment arrangements, but that changed not to long ago.

With the New requirement to put up a Credit Card it made things A-LOT-MORE complicated for “non-techy” website owners that need to Geocode a lot of addresses for their real estate websites. Instead of just know that you would get x-number of geocodes done per 24 hrs (2500) was great! – but – no more.

Now you have to enter daily quotas so that you do not exceed your free monthly “pre-credit” of $200 dollars. Not only that but every single thing has been broken down to a per api parse such as “did customer use your drag and drop on your maps and then use street view and “places” etc etc. All to the point where managing your own RE websites for average agents trying to do a DIY Real Estate Solution has become even harder for newbies.

We have just completed a new “How-to-gecode” video to walk you through all of the needed steps of both Setting Up Your Google Maps API – to How to Geocode with RETS PRO’s Geocode Module. Be sure to check both of those links to get you guys through all of the How-To’s without getting hammered by huge Google Maps bill for not paying attention.

To make things even easier for our customers we’re adding in a new “max-limit” setting to prevent the cron from running any more than what you set. Hopefully this should save everyone a ton of time and possibly some “oops” money.

And in case you’re reading this and wondering what we recommend setting the geocode limit/quota to?
Well if your Google pre-credit = $200 and then their monthly calculations says that = to 40,000 geocoded Per-Month.

Divide that by 30 and you will get 1,333.33 per-day.  Since you would typically never have more than a few hundred to maybe just over 1000 new listings being added to your RETS feed in a 24-hr period – but you need to also get all of the rest of the listings geocoded due to this maybe being a “new-install” then we would recommend going with setting limit/quota to a maximum of “1200” per day via your cron job.

The good news though for those that are located in the USA because you can pre-run the free Tiger geocode service with our solution and it will geocode approximately 75-85% of all the listings – only minor note though, the pins are placed on the side of the street instead of like google does it where it’s located over the center of the actual building/lot – but its thousands of “free” geocodes that are going to be on your site “today”. Then we typically switch right over to google and then let it run its daily limit for the rest of the 15-25% of listings that were not coded by Tiger.

Cheers –
RETS PRO.

WordPress Real Estate Plugin – Coming in April – New 4.0.5

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Now that the new version is going through its final testing we are excited to mention some of the newest features coming in this new version.

  1. RETS Module – Added a NEW Multi-RETS Option to handle Duplicate Removal.

    Select preferred RETS-ID  – Next –  Select RETS-Field(typically address)  –  SET[]checkbox   [Run Now Button]
    [text box here shows your cron path to execute]

    So that way anyone with neighboring RETS providers i.e. Miami/Ft.Lauderdale where the same listings are in both mls they can now have an easy option to match anything i.e “address” and select their preferred RETS-id to keep and delete all others. Our RETS Module has a couple of other NEW items we are keeping under wraps until we get them done but they are regarding how to deal with Sold Data in a way that I know every developer out there will want to take advantage of. (another RETS PRO exclusive).

  2. We have some great changes coming with our Search Form builder that will take a video to cover all of it.
    1. Fixed search form to now “instant-load” so that only the html is loaded and none of the values are called until on-click of that box.
    2. Also added custom message box that you can also include html etc for your own custom 404-not-found message/template.
    3.  Added in new option to join multiple fields into single pipe|value|values|  will = single Caption name (needed when doing multi-rets).
    4. Added a new option to Set Custom Submit Button settings – Great for setting default sortby options as well as now being able to Select RETS-id as well so that if you wanted to select the jquery tabs for displaying Active/Sold or Residential/Land or RETS#1/RETS#2 then you will ALSO be able to SET the SUBMIT BUTTON settings to select which RETS-ID as well as other button options.  BOOM! #1 Search form builder out there!
  3. Maps Module has some new features – Set a default Property Type and min-price – Cleaned up interface as well.
  4. GeoCoder modules with new google Api links and Api key checker as well as Cleaned up the interface.
  5. Fixed broken Print Friendly template path.
  6. Fixed broken RSS in shortcode templates
  7. Added and fixed New Pagination {tag} – add pagination any place you want now within shortcode templates.
  8. Fixed php 7.1x compatibility issues.
  9. Fixed subdirectory installation path issues that were due toMikes lazy code written by .
  10. New – Added  {logged_in}{/logged_in} check tags so that you can now wrap them around anything in our templates to hide unless logged in and we also have them as conditionals so that you can SHOW something else unless logged in – CTA – Unlimited!
  11. New – listing fields editor option that allows you to select ANY field(s) to be hidden unless user logged in – CTA/VOW – Unlimited!
  12. New – Added new Show Current Count for Search Page
  13. New – Added  UI panel for Registration options that also include Social registration options via your api-keys.
  14. New – Forced Registration UI panel with a limited set of options but is now part of our core plugin.

So all of that is where we are and what we are testing – anything missing?  um ..yeah!  – Favorite listings and Saved Search alerts!
That’s all coming and I’ll be following up with a new promo video of what all we’ve reworked and new features as well.

Realtyna Alternatives | WordPress Real Estate Plugin

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Realtyna Alternatives

*SEE NEW UPDATE BELOW

Several times a month we get calls asking us what are the key differences between our RETS PRO WordPress Real Estate Plugin and the Realtyna solution.

So let me point out the obvious key Realtyna Alternative differences that set us apart:

  1. Most import key difference (License Branding Limitations) –
    (We) offer 3 options – Basic License bound to single domain @ 999 that includes ALL add-on modules. Basic+Plus License bound to single domain but unlimited MU and subdomains @ 1999 or our Developers License bound only to the IP address @ 2999
    (They) “Per-Site/domain-License” with a license key that must be validated.
    **UPDATE – They have “changed” their license policy on 04-26-2017 …so you’ll need to call them to verify what they have in place now – but either way we have confirmed that they still do not offer any “non-license-keyed” versions as of this update made here on 4-28-2017.
  2. (We) also offer Additional site license keys that can be purchased at $499 each.  All our add-on modules can be used on unlimited sites. (We) Also allow a Basic License owner the ability to upgrade to an Unlimited Use Developers License at any time and we will deduct the originally purchased base price from the upgrade cost so no penalty for starting with our basic and then upgrading later if you decide to upgrade.
    (They) call them to ask them how much they charge for more than one site license.
    **UPDATE – They have “changed” their license policy on 04-26-2017 …so you’ll need to call them to verify what they have in place now.
  3. (We) are a SEO first company aimed at providing Professional Developers/Programmers looking for a “Limitless Expandable Software Solution” with more SEO goodies than any other software out there.
    (They) well….If You’re a SEO guru then call them and then call us and decide for yourself who’s solution has the most SEO options.
  4. (We) have the ability to do Commercial applications such as running hundreds of websites off a single db, joining multiple db’s into a large master db, and also hot-linking listing images from a media server as opposed to being forced to only downloading them which requires a dedicated server or VPS.
    (They) if you want anything mentioned above then you’d better call them first to confirm with them that they can deliver your requirements.
  5. (We) have been actively developing RETS data since 2003 – Our RETS script works with 100% of all RETS providers right out of the box – period!
    (They) ? Call them.

I hope this outlines the basic “key differences” of our Realtyna alternative. If you would still like more information about our WordPress Real Estate Plugin, just give us a call and we’ll be happy to give you all the information you need to get you on the right path with your project.

– Cheers –

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**UPDATE – February – 2018
=========================

We have just reviewed the latest version of Realtyna PRO version that has a fully functioning MLS addon as well as their own WordPress theme called WPL28 and here’s the general opinion on what makes us different in one word – “Options“.

If you are looking for something that gives you TONS of customization options then all we have to say about that is to Contact Them and let them give you a Full 100% Complete Sales Pitch with Live Screen Share etc….. then be sure to ask to have these main items answered and let them show you how you would go about implementing any of this yourself – (yourself) – being the key-word here.

Customization –

  1. How do you do any CUSTOM changes to any of the plugin templates – say I wanted to change or add something, where and how is that done?
  2. If I make any custom template changes/edits to the plugins (listings templates) will they be overwritten on updates?
  3. How difficult would it be to create my own custom designed layouts for my Advanced Search Forms for my site?
  4. Does your Search Forms have options to allow them to auto-populate data from database AND or autosuggest as I type?
  5. How do I add-in any (statistical-data) by combining RETS fields into my pages or post? ……and without using a 3rd party to do it.
  6. How easy is it to create polygon drawn area maps to include with my featured listings?
  7. How easy is it to fully integrate the plugins RETS data into other themes while using that themes own html/css? in other words “seamless integration”
  8. Just how much can you do with their ShortCode builder to insert Custom Templates/Features/Statistics into Page/Post/Widget?

SEO –

  1. How easy is it to modify plugin Listings-Templates to include schema.org structured data wrappers around each individual RETS field(s) for Best SEO Practices? – In other words, if you can’t easily open up a template that contains listing data and custom modify this then you’re SEO handicapped.
  2. How would I go about custom editing templates to include Additional Dynamically Generated SEO Content Within Listing Details – yeah this is also HUGE for those of us who actually DO SEO for a living and is one of the main things WE built into our system years ago.
  3. How much control do I have over the downloaded listing images? can I set min/max size and SEO compression quality? Can I opt to also hotlink them from a separate media server location?
  4. Are the included plugin listing templates AMP ready/compatible?
  5. How does the plugin handle Yoast SEO canonical urls on the Listing Details pages?

RETS data mapping –

  1. Is this something that can I can handle myself or do I always need to rely on someone else to make changes/updates?
  2. Is it Possible to Combine (2) or more Different RETS providers into the Same Database? and if so how are images handled when the first RETS requires media url format and the other requires Download Only? – For Example, California RETS (CARETS) doesn’t allow for Downloaded Images but CLAW does.
  3. How are fields that say Pool: Y/N but produce 0/1 data outputs handled? – no one wants to see Pool: “0 or 1” on the details page
  4. How are number formats and Price formats handled per field and how easy is it to override with changes?
  5. How are listings Lat/Long GEO-Coded if they are not already provided by the Data Provider? if only by Google then will I have to wait up to 10-days to complete 25k listings?

Summary –

After you get a full backend tour of their product and answers to questions above – Give US a Call (888) 540-9666 – so that we can then show you a side-by-side product comparison so that you can make your own “informed” decision as to what product suits your needs for your own Website Project.

 

Cheers –

WordPress Real Estate Plugin | Multi RETS Data Merge | Multi Office

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Multi RETS Data Merge | Multi Office

This is a RE/MAX Multi RETS Data Merge, Multi Office site that we are currently building out with our WordPress Real Estate Plugin. Beautiful, large scale photos are just one of the highlights of the site. The RE/MAX  Sea to Sky franchise is out of the Vancouver, Canada area with 3 office locations including one in the stunning ski resort area of Whistler, BC. The broker has a vibrant and long standing blog that we will incorporate into her main site / landing page and then break the site down into three distinctive sites per office location, along with distinctive Agent Rosters, Featured Listings, Area Information, and other pertinent details. The main site will also include the capability of searching for property throughout all three markets with a single data base merge.

This is being built on the WordPress MU frame so that the broker can offer all of her agents their own distinct websites using the integrated RETS data via subdomains or the agent template site can be copied onto an agent’s own independent domain. Our WordPress Real Estate Plugin allows data to be pushed to any site via the broker’s RETS credentials. This is a great marketing tool for brokers and agents. All of this is available using our Developer License with Broker Build Out. 

WordPress Real Estate Plugin | Multi RETS Data Merge

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Multi RETS Data Merge | 5 Major Markets


This project has been a real test for our WordPress Real Estate Plugin and our Multi Rets Data Merge capabilities. We’re calling it “the Mother of All Data Feed Projects.” Several month’s ago, this client approached us with a request for a site build-out that merged 5 major market RETS feeds across Texas into a single database. In addition, they wanted to incorporate some slick statistical information for communities, neighborhoods, areas of interest and more. They also wanted to incorporate sold data, which is only available from a couple of the RETS providers. They are a unique brokerage who obviously handles transactions statewide. They have agents statewide working from virtual offices so they needed WordPress MU capabilities as well along with Agent Site Templates so their agents can have their own sites with all of the aforementioned features. And to top it all off, they were looking for an alternative to a Real Estate Webmasters site they had seen (plus the merged data feed and other extras) for a price they could actually afford.

We’re not going to lie, it’s been a bear. A long haul…several months to be exact, a bit stressful, some high emotions, and a ridiculous amount of coffee. In order for this site to run smoothly and efficiently, it had to be built on our 4x version…which was still under development so the project took much longer than it would have if our 4x version had already been complete. It has now been about 5 months since we received their RETS credentials from all of the markets and we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. 4x is almost out of beta. Data feeds are merged. Statistical data can be displayed using polygon map draw tools and our customized shortcode. Programmers are tweaking the customized map search and we are looking forward to a final punch list soon. We’re anxious to see the final project and looking forward to showing off some of the exciting new, custom features.

BRAND NEW 4X beta released!

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After nearly (6) straight months of rewriting and testing we think we have something special to show you!
NOTE** = This beta version is currently only available to our developers license owners =
What are the key differences between 3x and 4x?
Here’s a quick list of “main points”:
  • Brand New admin UI – future proofing ourselves for the next 4+ years.
  • Brand New Multi-RETS Solution – Now you can import/export all of your RETS and can even join multiple RETS into single data base now – while still maintaining their own custom image settings/paths – and YES you can still hot-link images as well!
  • Brand New Search Form Builder – We took a bootstrap 12 column grid-stack and made you a custom drag/drop/size option to make building custom responsive “Advanced Search Forms” a snap using Select2 w/bootstrap3 forms that now includes autosuggest text boxes and ajax loaded selects and multi-selects.
  • Brand New Auto Suggest builder – Now you can easily configure your own custom Auto Suggest box on your home page (watch our new video – pending).
  • Brand New Stats Options for the Short Code Builder for creating Area stats that can even be applied to the polygon drawn areas  (watch our new video – pending).
  • Brand New Listing Alerts Beta – Will be released with first stable 4x version (about a week away – watch our new video – pending).

What to expect with the beta release?

  1. Not much in the way of documentation >YET<  as this is the very first “beta release” – but – those of you who want to check out our https://youtube.com/retspro channel will be able to get up to speed fairly quick.  –   We are currently working on a New [in-line tool (?) tips] that are going to popup every place needed in the UI to either provide “basic info” or “embedded samples” or “direct links either to a FAQ or to the video” for technical items that require more details.
  2. Possible cosmetic CSS/HTML or “possible” minor bugs that we are already flushing out.  Any bugs currently within this release are going to be minor, nothing is currently preventing us from using the plugin to build out our projects so we felt its time to share.

PLEASE NOTE**
If you are currently using 3x then – Do Not Overwrite it with this 4x Version!

How to test and what needs to be tested?:

We would like all of our developers who are “real” developer/programmers to download and install the plugin according to the Install/Setup video below.

  1. First is the new Multi-RETS – check out new tab-1 settings and options to pre-set the mapping box (i’ll post video here later)
  2. Check out new image options are now in tab-2 for downloading or hot linking (i’ll post video here later)
  3. Check out new tab-3 option – ONLY OPEN 1st RESI property class – then spend the time to do 100% of your your fields you want and set the rest to trash etc and get everything to successfully SAVE. – THEN – open another property class and you will discover that all the trash fields are already gone and all the matched fields that were already mapped are now mapped for you in the new property class as well.
  4. NEXT – we need you to try out the new Search Form Builder – We know we have a few ideas left to apply to that but we would LOVE some good feedback on it as well so we can wrap up any request prior to next weeks first release.
  5. For those of you who have already have a great deal of experience with our 3x will not ever want to go back to it after this – so go ahead and test everything out and you will find that the overall time to setup and do a project has just been cut by more than half with this new version –
  6. Also – New stats shortcode in this version and NEW auto suggest builder and New Listing alerts is currently being beta tested and should be ready for next weeks first stable 4x release.