OpenRealty 2.5.8 Is Serious Competition
Posted on January 16, 2010
Filed Under General | 11 Comments
Professionally, I’d say that OpenRealty 2.5.8 is the best release they have ever had. I’ve always been a fan of OpenRealty and will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. I’ve often said to others that OpenRealty is not only well thought in terms of how it handles the listings management but the code is well thought out making the application substantially flexible and end user friendly. The Devs at OpenRealty have gone the extra mile recently with the inclusion of a feature that surfaced in the last version and is fully realized in this version which prompted my motivation to post today. That new feature is the update notification by CRON. I’m going to go all over the map in this post to articulate some finer points regarding OpenRealty and why I think it’s gotten a great deal more MLS friendly as a result.
Listing Update Notifications
For years I have been using a custom addon we built to automate the updates of MLS listings into an OpenRealty site even though there were at times an unfortunate and sometimes troubling shortcoming of the process. Giving someone the ability to bookmark and or save to favorites for types of notifications is a nice feature in OpenRealty which has been there many versions hence. The problems we encountered centered around how listings actually get added to OpenRealty via the MLS IDX and RETS integration tools we often employ. Now rather than go into great detail in how MLS data is handled I’ll quickly summarize by saying this; no two MLS’s are ever alike regardless of RETS, IDX or any other method including SQL connects. That being said, the way data is imported into OpenRealty literally varies from project to project. How does the new feature in OpenRealty solve this issue with update notifications? Why is this feature so worthy of notice? Why does it put OpenRealty into a different category per se?
Consider this to answer all three questions I present; Since some IDX / RETS inclusion methods do not always use the actual OpenRealty code or the actual OpenRealty listing generation process, MLS updates would bypass features that made update notifications possible. I wont go into how we addressed this when using previous versions but will say that it was a memory intense process we are happy to avoid. Today, by taking advantage of the time stamp in most listings data we could reduce process and get much better results with our own CRON script. Now that OpenRealty has this excellent CRON notification feature in 2.5.8 the process can be easily implemented by developers. This solves a lot of requests by Realtors that want such a feature previously not possible by default with the prior builds of OpenRealty. My professional opinion is that this puts OpenRealty into a more competitive realm with commercial solutions. I give the OpenRealty team the HIGH-5. Great Job! OpenRealty is more competitive with other solutions.
Now I want to change gears and be a bit sinister for a moment. In fact I’m getting side tracked on purpose to demonstrate a little something about OpenRealty then I’ll get back on track in conclusion.
The Competition is Afraid of OpenRealty
More needs to be said or I wouldn’t be “Retarded and Reckless Blogger” that I’ve been called in recent days by a competitor of mine. I was going to answer this guy and maybe even send him an email with the standard pre-formatted threat to sue along with THIS IMPORTANT LINK ABOUT LIBEL LAWS but realized I wasn’t dealing with just a competitor shooting his mouth off. All my associates say worry less about your competition and more about your own work because such people are unavoidable. PURE BULL! Setting the facts straight is exactly what is needed.
Everyone in the Real Estate Website business suffers from the cut-throat lies of their competitors. Its been said by a blogger in a certain forum I wont mention that the Real Estate Website business is the nastiest most underhanded business on the web. I tend to believe its true because there are more underlying loyalties in this business than in government or even organized crime. Since I was dealing with a person that has a serious medical condition (FEAR is a mental illness in some cases) I knew I must tread lightly. Being a responsible blogger I should not taunt him to the point he could suffer a heart attack or some other medical ailment. God forbid he passed away because of Fear I helped induce regarding his business future could make me legally responsible. OpenRealty renders all his proprietary solutions moot and could force him to live on welfare if the bashing campaign about me for using OpenRealty wasn’t working. What pisses me off is that some naive Realtors were starting to believe his long list of assaults and bullshit claims about OpenRealty and our alleged hatred for OpenRealty. Here are the only true facts!
We bolster OpenRealty because of reasons within this post along with its pretty robust list of features. We use a forked variant in WPRealty 2.0 only to solve specific requirements for certain types of projects. Our inclusion and fork has nothing to do with hatred of OR and in fact it bolsters OpenRealty in my opinion.
OpenRealty is Professional Solution
Although very early in our testing, I’ve yet to find a bug in the process with the NEW OpenRealty release. After careful examination I’d say this release from OpenRealty is one of their more aggressive ones at keeping the application current with features necessary to make it competitive with more costly solutions. OpenRealty has been a well thought out product from the early stages of its development and even though there were unusual setbacks, it still remains as the ONLY truly open source freely available listings manager of its type any where.
If someone were to ask me today what I thought they should use for a stand alone listings manager, I would not go beyond one word. OpenRealty! Its one word I promise, or is it two? Anyway, I would make that statement or suggestion even though I am directly affiliated with the UltimateIDX team and the WPRealty team and PMG for IDX / RETS. Someone may ask why I would suggest OpenRealty in light of my ventures and the answer is painfully simple. Each of those fill a special niche market not really in competition with other types of solutions. Quite frankly not technically in competition with any proprietary solution. WPRealty is simply a software tool more so than a solution for WordPress real estate websites and UltimateIDX is quite literally a global IDX/RETS integration tool with clever back office features such as sales and lead management.
Picking the right real estate website solution
Under this sub title it should be an entire post all of its own. I’ll get to that later but before you consider the competition, specifically a proprietary one that happens to be in the practice of bashing OpenRealty and WPRealty with regular efforts to defame them; ask youself why so much effort to debunk OpenRealty and WPRealty is even being spent.
What I think I’m going to do is this. I’m going to make a chart comparing OpenRealty with other solutions, WPRealty with other solutions and UltimateIDX with other solutions and then you decide for yourself. I only affiliate myself with solutions that “SOLVE” what clients are seeking solutions too. I’d like to put emphasis on “solutions” because OpenRealty SOLVES!
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Jared I thought you guys hated Open Realty isn’t that why you created WP Realty?
I was under the impression you didn’t want anyone to use Open Realty from that post in your other site.
Well?
Btina, you would be hard pressed to find a single post where I said I do not like OpenRealty and I’ve never told anyone NOT to use it. I have said that I’m not very happy with the OpenRealty team as two of them without any detective work what soever outright called us thieves and one individual at OpenRealty called other members of their forum thieves. This in my opinion is reckless. It should also be noted that there was a brief time that OpenRealty was so buggy I did tell people to hold off until we figure out what they are doing.
My problem isn’t with OpenRealty or Ryan Bonham for that matter, its a few members of his admin team that seem to have bitter hatred for us.
We built WPRealty with a forked version of OpenRealty only after they integrated a blog. We built it for a specific solution, not to debunk them or anything at all close. WPRealty 2.0 was our way of bringing WPRealty 1.0 under more controllable circumstances so we didn’t have to try and maintain an ever evolving solution in regard to compatibility issues. Its all over the web where we have published our intent.
Jared I was actually considering using a commercial product that would have cost me thousands of dollars. Do you think OpenRealty can really provide a professional result?
I want SEO friendly and nice clean features that look like the commercial solution i am considering. I would post its name but not sure that is a good idea.
Maria, I rarely find any commercial solution that can not be replicated in terms of features and functionality with OpenRealty. The addon system in OpenRealty allows for a great deal of customization and as far as design goes its really pretty darn flexible. I’m a fan of OpenRealty primarily because the way the code was well thought out for an endless array of unique possibilities when it comes to design and presentation of your listings data. Cost wise, pound for pound, OpenRealty is the only solution that I’d suggest as a stand alone listings manager for any site with up to 30 thousand listings. Go ahead and email me the name of the other solution I’m curious which one you are considering.
Jared, how does WPRealty and OpenRealty deal with Duplicate Content with the MLS pages? I spoke to a top SEO company and they dont know of a way to automate MLS/Realty sites for SEO purposes other than just creating unique content on each of these pages. Please give me detailed feedback as to how your code handles this. Thanks!
Steve I need to first describe the technique we use to handle de-indexing of expired listings and such.
In WordPress what I do in all real estate websites regardless of the plugins I use (ie All In One SEO etc..) I always create a separate file called the 404.php in the theme directory. I then include a header customized specifically for this purpose by adding in the top. In my actuall error.header.php file I have settings to deal with each “BOT” individually for things such as no-follow and so on. People have asked us many times how it is that we have almost zero 404’s for indexed listings in highly active markets and the answer is taking care of the 404 responsibly.
Dealing with duplicate content is not really a super creative process and it goes something like this.
In the actual listings details you display (regardless of OpenRealty or WPRealty) what I generally do is as follows;
Replace any repeat text with images, this includes removing the standard MLS disclaimer and footer text and simply replacing it with a gif image. This way the same message isn’t showing time and time again and I may randomize the ALT tag for the gif image using an array. YES! I’ll give you the code if you want it.
Take advantage of the features to add random links to relevant posts in your details and or search results. I have dug sites out of the hole using this.
Via an addon in OpenRealty or standard feature in WPRealty, be sure to use the “Similar Listings Options” which are randomized, where you also include a small snippet from the remarks field.
Take advantage of the class specific search results and listings details template option. This requires you to create a template file for each class which should have enough unique about it to at least be casually different from other class themes. This does help in our experience although we have mixed reviews.
According to those that know, they say that your images should have alt tags that reflect something appropriate. In most of my projects I’ll use the caption field if possible.
One of my favorite ways to make each listing unique is google maps among other types of dynamically generated widgets. Why this works I’m not sure, but I consistently rank higher where I have walk score, google maps and street view as opposed to those that are void of this. I also notice that when the tag on the listings details randomizes between address and say subdivision, city state, I tend to get more props ranked.
Take advantage of the Title, Meta and Keyword features even though some experts are starting to say there is a diminishing level of actual importance.
Use our plugin called “OR Dwellicious” along with other social networking links. Again, what you present differs from market to market.
Good markup! People call us petty about this but I promise it does matter, what you show and how you show it do matter. For instance I hide all search forms with AJAX especially if they are site wide. All markup is XHTML compliant and containers and block elements are always appropriate for the data. This involves using the address tag and the proper ol vs ul etc, these little things matter.
Open Realty Bashing? I found on Open Realty people actively bash you but i dont see you doing the same thng to thhem. i would go with you because of this can i buy Open Realty from you?
Yeah we never bash OpenRealty. I love what Ryan has built. Its his staff that we have had conflicts with. They are petty and reckless, kinda like high school kids on a drinking binge.
I look forward to your product comparison matrix! It should be interesting.
To add for SEO of any integrated IDX:
- Whenever IDX/RETS search summary results are to be embedded in a page, present the most recent listings first if possible. This way, especially in active areas, the SE crawlers will see fresh results daily, as the newest listings appear on the page.
- If your IDX product has dynamic Title, Description, Keyword tag generation capability, be sure to use it effectively. Try different combinations of IDX data elements in the tags, and if possible, add other frequently searched keywords and data element identifiers to the generated tags.
- Realize that no integrated IDX product, commercial or open source, will result in instantly better SEO and SERPs. Creating and maintaining lots of relevant content, and getting better SERPS still takes time and effort, and lots of both!
Hey Ron, went by your site just a few days ago with a mutual associate. Thanks for commenting in the blog here.
The features you mention are the same thing we do with the featured plugin we built. It pulls based on date and can be set to randomize (with page refresh) a set number of listings. Since it is also easy to assign as a widget, if the Realtor has a theme that is widgetized then can easily specify where the random listings show.
Also your last statement is so true it sickens me to see “So Called Professionals” tell people that blogging is of little importance and then boldly claim that less than “X amount” of Realtors even bother. I agree with you 100% and people need to blog. I guarantee (thats a dangerous thing to say) that I could outrank almost any real estate site out there not employing a blog by simply installing a blog and bringing in the listings via some module. I wish more people thought like you do Ron.
My comment about lots of content was not specifically directed toward blogging, though on a WP site the differentiation is probably minimal.
Rather, I meant just content in general, whether it is community specific and property type specific pages on a Joomla site like mine, or blog posts or pages on a WP site. I rarely blog myself, maybe once a week lately, and mostly on technical topics, so it has little effect on ranking or traffic to my real estate website. But I do add 15-20 new content pages to my real estate site every month, generally subdivision specific these days. Because of lots of community and subdivision specific content pages on my real estate site, each with its own custom search and integrated “newest listings”, my non-blog pages get indexed pretty quickly and get good SERPs for searches on their topics and communities.
So, whether it is blogging or just basic website content pages, adding content on a regular basis, and regular updating of that content, as the SEs see the new listings showing up every day, is what I meant to emphasize.