Are you missing lead generation opportunities with your IDX MLS search tool?

As a real estate agent over the past few years you’ve been hearing more and more about buyers turning to the internet as part of the home search process. According to the California Association of Realtors, in 2007, 72% of home buyers actively used the Internet for home search.  Which means that you should be looking for new and innovative ways to enhance the online consumer’s shopping experience on your Website or blog.   Great user experience doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice strong lead generation tools.  Quite the opposite, you need the perfect combination of both.

If you think you may already have such a tool, ask yourself the following questions. Do you offer consumers the ability to visually search neighborhoods on an interactive map interface? Do you combine home details with state-of-the-art tools such as Google Street View? How about providing school and community information tightly bound with home details? Do you offer consumers more than one way to keep updated on new homes in your area?  Have I peaked your interest?

Recently I had the privilege of Interviewing Robert Luna, Director of Business Development for Diverse Solutions about their blistering hot IDX MLS search tool titled dsSearchAgent. With Robert, I focused my questions on lead generation, RSS and other useful areas. Please enjoy our conversation.

“Provide a better search experience get better leads.” – Robert Luna, Diverse Solutions

1. Hey Robert, thanks for setting aside some time to talk with me.  I’d like to start by exploring the “Registered User Only” features of dsSearchAgent and how they help real agents generate leads. With dsSearchAgent agent and brokers have a multitude of options when it comes to capturing a visitor’s information through registration. By default, all visitors can use dsSearchAgent completely unhindered and register only when they want to use any of the register-users-only feature. Throughout their experience, unregistered users are presented with “sticky notes” at strategic times that point out all of the benefits from registering. If an agent or broker does want to force registration, they have a number of options. One is to force visitors to register after performing a specified number of searches. A second option is to force them to register after viewing the details on a specified number of properties. Another option is to allow them to search but force registration before viewing the full details of a property. The final option is to force registration as soon as they try to search.
2. Outside of the IDX Search itself, what other tools do you offer to assist with lead generation? dsAgentChat instant messaging technology is fully integrated into our IDX solution, allowing Website visitors to easily chat via instant message directly with a real estate agent. Imagine for moment the consumer is on the detail page of your dsSearchAgent and clicks on the “chat with me button” and a few seconds later you receive a text on your phone from the consumer. That is the power of a “live lead generator” dsAgentChat can also be configured to distribute incoming chat request in a round-robin fashion among a group of agents in an office. The chat widget can also be placed on multiple pages of a website or blog or multiple websites or blog sites.
3. I’ve also noticed that dsSearchAgent comes with RSS capabilities. Can you explain how RSS adds to the search experience? To get the most out of the dsSearchAgent, the control panel allows agents and or brokers to create custom links using specific, predefined search criteria on their blog, website, or in any of their marketing material. Using the link builder, it’s easy to create a search that, say only finds townhouses within a certain map area and within a certain price range. Along similar lines, it’s also very simple to create a custom RSS feed that just shows the listings of a particular agent or office that can then be consumed on any web site or blog.
4. Explain the idea behind the Interactive Listing Modules in dsSearchAgent.The idea behind the dsSeachAgent modules was to allow agents and brokers to place a slimmed-down IDX module directly onto any website or blog they want. Each module is connected to a search link that is created in the admin area, and each link will function off the continuously updated MLS data. Links can be set up to show anything and everything. Anytime a website visitor clicks on any of the properties, the full dsSearchAgent IDX is brought up, and the property they clicked on is immediately loaded.
5. After reading this article I’m sure many real estate agents will look at their current IDX solution differently. How can those agents add dsSearchAgent to their Website or blog? What should they expect from the setup process? The controlling agents and brokers have the flexibility to change everything from the colors that are used; the way visitors narrow down their search, to what the map actually displays, to the map’s starting point, and even which panels are shown within each property’s detail area. Set up varies from MLS to MLS and is very easy usually taking 5-7 business days depending on the MLS. Ongoing customization and use however is a different story so we have fully narrated tutorial videos in the admin area, weekly webinars as well as a support center agents can call into or chat with on our company website www.diversesolutions.com.

See dsSearchAgent demo here.