Open Realty - Joomla - ezRealty Solution

Posted on October 30, 2007
Filed Under Design, Real Estate News |

Joomla with Open Realty vs ezRealty! (an email response)

NOT a formal comparison!
This is a modified version of a response I gave to an email regarding some confusing information the person was receiving about selecting between ezRealty and Open Realty. Its important to keep in mind that this is not a comparison based on exhaustive research but a comparison based on extensive use of both applications and years of experience. So, here it is quick and a bit hasty as I’m sure I’ve made an error that someone will graciously correct me where I’m wrong and you can review the Realtors Use Open Realty with Joomla article as well..


Those who have used and admire ezRealty in this profession do suggest it to people from time to time depending on the size of the site. My general rule of thumb is that if a site is to be used where it’s likely to NOT exceed a few thousand listings then I suggest ezRealty as a fast turnkey solution. If a person intends on importing MLS data (listings from their MLS) now or in the foreseeable future then I suggest Open Realty. It has been my personal experience and belief that Open Realty leaves a great deal more options open for a Realtor / Agent and of all the integrations I do it accounts for better than 90% of tools I suggest to Realtors for listings management.

It’s only fair to give you a basic run down of comparative features in order to help you make a decision between ezRealty and Open Realty as a Joomla integrated option. I want to start by saying that BOTH are excellent applications.

1) Open Realty - ezRealty are DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

Open Realty and ezRealty are not used together ever in my experience as they are two similar yet different applications that are not designed to work with one another. Both are fine applications for entry level to mid range corporate level use. (that statement was in response to the email I received)

2) OPEN SOURCE Real Estate Software - THE DIFFERENCES

Open Realty as well as ezRealty are open source enough to modify and ultimately customize the applications within the scope of relative ease. Open Realty also provides an add-on system independent of Joomla whereas ezRealty is entirely dependent on Joomla. ezRealty, even though open source, it is a per domain licensed commercial component for Joomla. Open Source can be commercial as many know as in the case of vBulletin among others.

3) PRICE DIFFERENCE - Real Estate Scripts

Price? Well one is commercial and the other technically not but the price of ezRealty is so trivial that its not worth mention. What is worth mention is the price or should I say cost of customization via a PHP programmer should you require such customization. Open Realty is relatively easy to get out of it what you are trying to achieve while ezRealty, because of its integration with the Joomla CMS engine, it can be time consuming and a sometimes tedious venture.

4) EASE OF INTEGRATION - Aside from Joomla - (WordPress Open Realty ezRealty)

Since Open Realty is external and independent of Joomla it gives me and guys like Chad at (The South Carolina Real Estate Magazine) the option to do different things paramount to his service to Realtors who purchase ads in his magazines. Open Realty can provide more flexibility in terms of integration such as putting listings in your Realtor blog or putting listings that are featured on sister sites and so on. Open Realty can be equally integrated in sub domains like http://ourlistings.oursite.com With ezRealty that isn’t as flexible or possible to do many of those things. Via a custom script however written for ezRealty I am able to put ezRealty modules and featured listings into WordPress blogs and even external and offsite locations much in the same way we do with Open Realty. This opens the doors for cross link building for ezRealty we have enjoyed with Open Realty.

Making Open Realty work with CRMs, CMSs, Blogs, existing static or dynamic sites, is relatively similar in operation and method for the most part. ezRealty is an application designed to work with a single CMS, Joomla, and doesn’t integrate elsewhere at this time.

Since ezRealty integrates well with Joomla by design, its been my opinion that it does so better than any other component of its size and complexity. I’ve written about Hot Properties and Joomla in the past and of all the applications and components that I’ve used and or customized, ezRealty is by far the best overall solution for Joomla for Realtors as a “turnkey solution”.

5) The preponderance of differences between ezRealty and Open Realty are three fold.

Since ezRealty and Open Realty run so close neck and neck with features I’ll point out the main differences that I feel make up important things to consider. I usually look at these things before I suggest a solution to anyone and they begin by taking note of the following;

a) Open Realty URL’s are simply easier to customize and easier to control making them SEO friendly when compared to ezRealty which is dependent on the Joomla URL structure.

b) Open Realty is a stand alone application that can and should reside in its own database where ezRealty is required to be in the Joomla database.

Many people have asked me why such a thing as shared or individual database matters and my response is speed and scalability. Is that to say ezRealty slow? Absolutely Not! But if your site grows in client use, content, and link popularity a noticeable decay in search speed becomes obvious. Arguments will surface that performance is server configuration dependent which may be a valid point but its not the entire reason for slow websites. My argument rests solely with the use of separate database as to provide not only an easier to manage solution but a person will always have the option of removing and or placing Open Realty elsewhere to accommodate potential growth. Because of my concern with my client projects and database bloat I more often than not suggest Open Realty for this singularly dominant reason.

c) ezRealty is Joomla dependent; The reverse of the above statements, ezRealty uses Joomla and because of such benefits in ways that Open Realty as a stand alone can not. Open Realty with Joomla is 100% possible and emulation of ezRealty is relatively simple but only ezRealty is designed to function cleanly with Joomla first and foremost. Because of this, where clients require a lofty inventory of Joomla features, such as community features and or newsletter type integrations, ezRealty is simply better positioned out of box to work with Joomlas components and modules. This alone stands out as the defining difference when I consider ezRealty for projects. So that is the three main reasons I could think of to point out.

It is also worthy of mention that when making a decision between ezRealty and Open Realty I always ask a person what there intended structure will be. Many of my clients usually request listings data to be /mls /featuredlistings /ourlistings or some other forward slash type directory structure. Because of this I usually select Open Realty where that kind of control is possible. ezRealty can work effectively with a small inventory of SEF tools but still suffers the same pains as all Joomla components do in relation to the URL and that is the lengthy structure for the most part.

All to often I’m hired to create an integrated site where there is a listing manager, a blog or set of blogs, some means of customer support solutions, and the primary CMS for content and document management. Because of this, and the need to control with greater ability each facet of the overall design, I usually select Open Realty as part of the toolset to be used.

6) Open Realty - ezRealty - DESIGN BENEFITS

Open Realty and ezRealty have features that can go toe to toe across the board including in some part, design. However, the overall ease of templating and design control in my professional opinion goes hands down to Open Realty as well as its relative benefits in customization of the application. Open Realty integrates well with API toolsets and non proprietary code bases with a little finesse and determination vastly better than ezRealty. The reason behind this isn’t that ezRealty is incapable its that ezRealty is part of Joomla and altering code and features is a complex multi step process.

ezRealty is no slouch either as it provides generous compensation for design flexibility within the limits of the application. Open Realty also benefits greatly as a result of the control over the final appearance of things like featured listings details, search results, and integrated API toolsets like Google maps for instance. ezRealty can also be customized but not with the same design characteristics common to all web design. When I seek to compare ezRealty to another application in terms of design the one that comes to mind is vBulletin as much of vBulletin is controlled and or customized via a control panel. So too is ezRealty.

ezRealty wins hands down on user integration sharing user information as each use the same data for members. This is possible with Open Realty in some situations but does require a bit of customization to the code to emulate the feature. There is a free component for Joomla available but it is poorly coded, produces poor results, and does little to integrate the two applications in any meaningful way. Integrations where user data is important usually requires a custom login snippet to be designed depending on the location of the listing manager, in this case, Open Realty. Average price is about $200 per domain for this integration that comes standard with ezRealty.

7) MLS - IDX - RETS Integration

Years of experience with my favorite MLS tool vieleRETS, Open Realty in my opinion can be scaled quicker for FSBO (for sale by owner) MLS IDX and RETS type sites than ezRealty.

7) Support! Often the defining difference - ezRealty Real Estate Script

ezRealty support is fast and responsive as the developer (in Australia) is one of the very few that actually works with her clients. Professional, dedicated, and appears to be genuinely passionate about ezRealty, the standard for support is set with ezRealty and is difficult to challenge. By comparison, Open Realty support is largely done through its forums as most open source freely available applications are. Alternatives are usually performed by guys like me or people at The Brokers Edge or South Carolina Real Estate Magazine.

Forum support is available for both applications but such support is risky and usually rude as assistance is often viewed as a neucense when support is sought after. Tragically, support via forums isn’t what it once was as many support forums are following a dangerous yet all to predictable pattern in their practices. In our post paranoid self justified consequence escaping world of today, forums are increasingly policing and practicing routine censorship and deception in a way that is anything but open. Because of this, ezRealty wins hands down on support area by comparison. Some people do consider alternate forums like http://www.prorealestatenetwork.com for Open Realty support or the new forums at http://forums.thebrokersedge.com which each has a section dedicated to Open Realty and listing manager scripts.

Support for Open Realty is none the less very good via its forums providing you don’t challenge anyone on any subject. Ryan (greengiant), Mick, and Paul (pbflash) are patient, informative and provide intelligent solutions more so then in the past and are usually responsive in a relative short periods of time. The predominant issue with Open Realty Support and its users is the users abstaining from first consulting the extensive inventory of online documentation. Redundant and quite frankly common support issues have already been answered in the documentation provided by Open Realty.

Open Realty - ezRealty - CUSTOMIZATION - Joomla CMS

Already mentioned twice above but worthy of individual note; When it comes to customization, my experience in working with Open Realty for the past 5 years tells me that it is easier to customize (in terms of PHP) than ezRealty.

Not enough can be said about the multitude of customization and scalability features Open Realty makes available. Design companies and service providers like The Brokers Edge, Transparent Technologies or even the magazine South Carolina Real Estate Magazine use Open Realty more often than not because of this feature. Most in our business use Open Realty as a base application for our own variant builds. I, like many others, maintains our own version of Open Realty for use with our clients because we have specific niches in our business practice.

Since ezRealty is a commercial application maintaining copies is in violation of their license and should be avoided as to not offend. The ezRealty customization as stated once before can be a lofty endeavor although not always. ezRealty is a beautiful application that has earned its praise but falls drastically in my list of ideal solutions where specific types of customization are required. Each change in ezRealty could be subsequently broken by an update in other areas of Joomla. With Open Realty being an independent freestanding application this is less of a problem when modifications to the code are considered.

A few final notes on Open Realty - Joomla - ezRealty (WordPress integration)

I love Open Realty as well as ezRealty. Open Realty is my usual preference because of the ease of customization and repackaging specific to my market and the nature of the license permits many things not possible elsewhere. Its my long standing bias towards Open Realty in terms of getting a real estate site marketed as it provides better control over SEO features like title tags, meta tags, and URL natively and independently of the Joomla method.

ezRealty is by far the best application for speed of integration for a turnkey solution to Real Estate sites. ezRealty setup and general configuration can be done in an afternoon in what can be truly be called a “24 hour website” (I just came up with that term by the way). ezRealty can get a Real Estate professional from zero to marketable site in much less time.

Open Realty is by far more flexible in terms of design characteristics and what can’t be designed into Open Realty, can be imitated. Open Realty has the added benefit of ease of duplication across many domains where a single database is used recursively for multiple agent sites similar in some ways to the WordPress Multi User variant. Joomla third party developers do provide a component called Multi-Sites, but using it in conjunction with ezRealty could violate its license as it is registered on a per domain basis. No options for multi domain prices were discovered at the time of this writing so I’m going to assume that this is simply a benefit specific to Open Realty.

Plainly put and summarized, ezRealty is a product with no match in the Joomla realm and of integrated scripts available it is in my professional opinion the cleanest, best implemented and robust of any integrated script as the code is elegant to look at, the structure is painfully simple to follow, and has enough features to motivate any Realtor to use it.

Open Realty has all of the above with the only added benefit WHERE NEEDED of being a stand alone application and vastly superior in the hands of a designer with minimal programming experience. Open Realty also stands out as the ONLY open source solution of its type that is easily integrated with IDX MLS RETS and other external data sources.

I hope you are bold enough to correct me where I’m wrong and patient enough to benefit from what I’ve written as it was fully unedited and off the cuff while coffee brewed this morning. Best regards in your Real Estate endeavors.

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12 Comments so far
  1. Preston Shrizzia October 30, 2007 10:59 am

    Jared, dude, this article although hastily written as you say is by far the most informative piece of information I’ve found.

    I’ve searched high and wide for details about a real estate solution for our offices and your article tells what I needed to know.

    I’m going to use ezRealty for our office opens we ourselves market and Open Realty for our mls imported listings.

    Thank you so much and keep up the good work.
    Preston Shrizzia

    P.S. Love the part about forums and their censorship. So true!

  2. Joshua Briley October 30, 2007 11:06 am

    Do you have experience pulling in MLS Listings into the EZ Realty Platform?

    We have a client using iHomefinder and it’s quite a nightmare for them.

    I’d like to propose the EZ Realty solution, if someone can bridge the MLS listings. I’d be interested in visiting any sites you have available that demonstrate your capabilities.

    Sincerely,

    Joshua Briley
    ^^ edited to remove phone number ^^

  3. Jared Ritchey October 30, 2007 12:02 pm

    Preston;

    Thanks for your kind words, I’m glad the article was of some use.

    Joshua;

    Yes we have experience and I’m sending you an email with a contact that works with iHomefinder frequently. I’ve examined enough of iHomefinder to say I like it but its not for novice users.

    I’ll send you an email momentarily.

  4. James February 22, 2008 5:41 am

    I would like to know that whether ezreality has inbuilt feature to pull datas from MLS.

    Uregent Pls advise!!!

    James

  5. Jared Ritchey February 23, 2008 9:01 am

    This article was a bit tossed together very late at night so I’ll need to make some corrections but in answer to your question here is what I’ve understood.

    EZ Realty nor Open Realty have default features for import of IDX Data. It has been told to me that EZ Realty is planning such a feature but no word on time frame.

    Open Realty also has no plans as best I can discover to offer IDX import as a default feature.

    The IDX Scripts we use are generally written specifically for each MLS and setup to operate via a CRON so the MLS import is automated. We usually charge about $100 per class.

  6. Edna February 23, 2008 6:28 pm

    Hi Jared … Thank you for this helpful article. I want to do exactly what you’re talking about with and Open Realty website and automated import of VOW data. What are the scripts you mentioned that make this possible? Do they work with a RETS server? Can you point me toward some info that will help me figure out how to get these scripts?

  7. Jared Ritchey February 23, 2008 8:31 pm

    Edna I just sent you an email. Look to those details to better assist you.

  8. Dalt April 4, 2008 3:14 pm

    Your details on ezrealty need updating. Major files are zend/encoded and it has back to base licencing. The script is not being developed anymore for Joomla and there will never be a joomla 1.5 version as the licencing/encoding breaches joomla’s new guidelines. Developer is moving development to mambo so all Joomla owners will eventually have a lame duck unless they move you mambo.

    Try and make a basic change to the search engine that doesn’t include suburbs for christ sake. You can’t as it is encoded and the developer can’t give a stuff.

    I recommend that you don’t go there. The price has doubled. Open realty is the only option.

  9. Real Estate June 18, 2008 2:18 am

    Hi Jared. Can you put me in touch with one or more coders in Australia as I need someone local to work on an open realty project with me, for a commercial purpose.

    This will involve paid work and / or profit share ( for the smarter coder )

    I have been using Paul Bouchard and he is a gem, nothing is too much trouble and I recommend him highly.

    My problem is the time difference between Australia and New York and so therefore Ineed some Australian options.

    Anywway thanks for the great article you wrote in 2007 Jared.

    I hope you can put me in touch with someone in ozand thanks in advance.

    Andrew Blachut

  10. brett June 18, 2008 10:08 am

    Great comparison! I have worked with both solutions and have yet to find one that does everything I need.

    As far as the IDX solution, I would be VERY interested if you have something to import data into either system.

    Also, does it do updates for changes in status and price or does that need to be done manually? Any help you have is greatly appreciated.

  11. Don June 22, 2008 11:41 pm

    Jared,

    After days of searching and reading your enlightening article was a breath of fresh air in a sea of unless information.

    Thanks for a very taking the time to publish your honest opinion on Open Realty. I had decided to pass it up and purchase a “canned” script but took one last shot and found your site.

    Can you take the page up one more level and tell us uninformed and unknowing what files need to be revised before uploading to our servers?

    Regards

    Don Johnson
    Latitude 8 Realty
    Playa Zancudo, Costa Rica

  12. Lee Meere July 3, 2008 5:54 pm

    Hi. I would just like to point out that Dalt’s comments are completely misinformed. There are 3 or 4 encyrpted files, but these in no way affect the use of the product, or the customisation of it. The developer supports both Mambo and Joomla, and has recently released several updates for the component for, wait for it, yep Joomla.

    EZ Realty already uses suburbs, and can already be customised if you know what you are doing, despite the encrypted files.


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