Why Real Estate Agents Should Use IDX
REAL ESTATE IDX
As a real estate agent you want to provide the best user experience possible. A real estate IDX website will do just that. Whether you’re a single agent or a full scale office an IDX integrated website will enable you to stand above the rest. With the increasing trend of ‘Everything Online’, having an integrated IDX solution takes your website to the next level and enables you to become a competitor within your market area. Website users are now accustom to websites they can interact with and find the information their looking for. The goal is to accomplish this with a great online experience for your website visitors.
HOW IDX WORKS
Internet Data Exchange (IDX) is a system that allows agents to display their property listings with the most recent information. IDX plugins receive a stream of listings from the MLS. Your viewable listings can be filtered by Active, Under Contract, Sold, ETC. Depending on your MLS provider and IDX source the listings update every 15 minutes, hour, and some every 24 hours. Ultimately, if you have a lot of listings and updates being made to those listings regularly you want this update time to be as fast a possible to keep your listing data current.
There are several ways to add IDX plugins to your website. You can program it yourself or use another content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, Wix, Magento or others. In most cases it’s best to contact a web developer to help you setup and build your IDX website.
GET AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION WITH A FULLY INTEGRATED IDX WEBSITE
BUSINESS BRANDING
Your website is the lifeline to branding you and your business. Decent marketing campaigns can and will help your business grow, but everything eventually comes back to your website. Having a website to call your own puts your best food forward to your target audience showing them you have a reputable business and take serious what you do. Your website speaks of you as a business and a professional.
CONVERT MORE LEADS
Another great feature of a fully integrated IDX website is you not only display your MLS listings, but all listings in your area through your MLS provider. This means house hunters can search and find all available listings in your area without ever leaving your website. This creates a Zillow style experience you get to call your own. Site visitors who interact with any of these listings, request additional information, or provide their email address become a lead for you to follow up with. This gives you an advantage to continue moving these leads through your marketing funnel with the goal of converting them into a customer. Finally having your area listings on your website allows you to cover more ground as the buyers or sellers agent.
SOCIAL PLATFORMS
Once your website has been setup with IDX you can begin to leverage the power of using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms. Drive traffic back to your website linking your listing post directly to the listing on your website. This will bring more traffic to your site, but also allow users to stay on your site longer viewing additional properties and relevant information regarding the buying / selling process.
WHY IDX?
According to industry statistics 93% of home buyers search for a home online. The home buying experience is an online experience. Contact us today for more information regarding IDX websites and more.
