Module Dev- IDX for Real Estate Websites

[GGSuper3]

Hi All,

I am interested in integrating IDX(Internet Data Exchange) for the Real Estate Multiple Listing Service into PW for realtor websites. Wordpress has such premium($$$) templates available but (having been a realtor years ago and more recently a realtors administrative assistant) I would like to offer such a set of templates built on a better framework-PW(!) which the realtors can easily upload, update, etc...self-manage. I just finished a website using processwire based off the included template to learn PW better and I love it! My desire is to offer sets of templates for real estate agent clients requiring websites with the IDX. My limited knowledge of code restrict my ability to do this on my own. So I want to know if anyone has an idea if;

1- Could this be best achieved by a module?

2- How much is entailed for such a project?

Any/all suggestions from the PW community will be most helpful...

Cheers,

Grant

[arjen]

I've learned most things (and beyond) are possible in PW, but don't except a plug-and-play solution. What do you mean by entailed? Could you provide some links to the WordPress plug-ins you are referring to?

[Pete]

Well I've just watched the video here: http://spotonconnect.com/wordpress-idx/

I'm interested in doing something myself for the UK and the INEA would seem to be my point of contact (they're suggesting the above service).

The only thing I'm not sure about Grant is where the data comes from? Surely it#s querying some central web service, but since my plans are at the pre-planning stage () I don't know how it all works - but I'm keen to find out!

[GGSuper3]

Thanks for the responses Pete and argen! Some of my research suggests the live feed code comes direct from the real estate boards, locally, in the area you want it from, eg, I live in the Vancouver area I would get the code feed from the Vancouver Real Estate Board MLS(which has in inter-exchange agreement with all other boards). I believe each board approves a webmaster to access (through an active realtor requiring such a site) the code required to be placed into the site.

I realize to a certain degree I might be answering my own question! The templating wordpress has available is the construct to implement the code smartly into the site for functioning utilization(local listings, target market types and areas, geo-locations(google map), 2 bedroom, swimming pool, 2 storey, etc.) Maybe the code is input into a custom field(s)? Instead of a module like I was thinking? I might be grouping the wrong thing together here. I'll dig a little more and report my findings. One thing I do know is I do not like the presentation layouts I see with most existing plates. A fresher, simpler more intuitive templating that is iphone and ipad compatible for the searching buyers and sellers. Any all suggestions rock! Let's get some of these types of sites actively kicking butt here at Processwire, the more of us the better!

Cheers,

Grant

[ryan]

No doubt if something can be built in WordPress, it can be built a whole lot better and more easily in ProcessWire. That's my opinion anyway. But as to the best approach here, I think a lot depends on these services that power all the data. I don't have enough background on those services and data to make informed statements about best strategies here. But I think there is at least a good chance that such a setup might be built out most easily as a site profile.

[Pete]

From what I can gather from the video in my previous post, no data seems to be stored locally - it all comes from these central feeds on the fly which is interesting, but if it were me I'd love to see stats like who clicked through on which property and I assume there's data on which property belongs to which real estate company.

The whole point seems to be that there's a central feed of data from various Estate Agents (to use the UK term ) and as an agent yourself you get paid commission somehow from listing other agent's data.

I can't wrap my head around it just now but it's getting late so it might all click tomorrow, but if there's no local stored data and we're talking about pulling in data from an external source and simply formatting it against a template then this is ridiculously easy and technically you wouldn't need anything as fancy as a CMS even since your own properties would be listed on this central feed (IDX if I'm using the correct acoronym) anyway

Of course the advantage of using a CMS like ProcessWire for the rest of your site is obvious, but pulling in these feeds and not storing anything locally means you don't get the benefit of the PW API to easily manipulate the data - you're back to basic PHP. That's not to say that you couldn't create something that lets you manipulate the data in as easy a way as the PW API - I'm sure I saw an example of a module that added on API functionality but can't find the link - it's just that I'm not sure how to do if off-hand. It would certainly be neat to be able to have a module parse this external data and allow you to do something like this in the property list template:

<?php
foreach ($properties as $property) {
   echo "<p>Address: $property->address</p>";
   echo "<p>Price: $property->price</p>";
   echo "<p>" . $property->images->first()->url . "</p>";
}

It's easy enough to do this in normal PHP, but in an ideal world the module would present a lovely PW style way of accessing the data

The ideal module would allow you to set config settings to the relevant feed URL (assuming all the feeds are supposed to have the same structure) and set up the templates and pages for search results, property details etc.

My only worry with this sort of thing is we're in the territory of commercial modules I think - the folks behind the module in the video I linked to make a reasonable amount of money every month by selling that module and whilst it would be nice to blow open whole markets with free modules for all I'm a believer in trying to make a profit from modules like this where there's a huge market (dozens of estate agents in every town/city around the world) and I assume estate agents turn a decent enough profit if they're shifting property at a reasonable rate?

[GGSuper3]

I searched through my stuff and found 2 sites I saved as favs from old research. Wordpress has a plugin for IDX. I think I read the activation for the plugin is with a user code given to the realtor for their own site.

http://www.diversesolutions.com/

http://wordpressreal...-idx-theme.html

And your right Pete, everyone shares the same live data feeds. For example, five realtors can show and sell the same target listings for a given location area, regardless of what company and realtor has it listed or for sale. I also read somewhere that after 3 impressions on a single property triggers a event (a popup box)offering the viewer to get more info on properties(by email, I think) in the same area of like-kind. Thereby placing them into the database as a client to work with through the system with target specific information streamed automatically, as a feed. I think they can request more info, a call back, chat message, etc. immediately.

Just a little more to chew on...I am going to contact some realtors I know and see what info I can get to aid this.

Cheers,

Grant

[GGSuper3]

Just a little update. I discovered a company here in Vancouver that has really integrated/meshed together the template/IDX concept into monthly packages specifically for realtors. Check it out at www.realtyninja.com. Crunchbase did an article on them here http://www.crunchbase.com/company/realtyninja

Cheers for now,

Grant

[OrganizedFellow]

Just a little update. I discovered a company here in Vancouver that has really integrated/meshed together the template/IDX concept into monthly packages specifically for realtors. Check it out at www.realtyninja.com. Crunchbase did an article on them here http://www.crunchbas...any/realtyninja

Cheers for now,

Grant

Incredibly interesting.

Thanks Grant!

[Nico Knoll]

-- Moved into development --

Please create a separate topic in "modules" when the module is finished.