Last few days I have been pocking around RealBird’s latest product – Property Search Engine. To put it as simply as I can their new product is impressive. With a few clicks and a “copy and paste” – you can be featuring thousands of listings on your blog or website. Just as you see in the examples at the end of this post as well as to your left. The search query for a zip code with 3 miles radius can return hundreds of listings. I have limited my widget to only 16 properties because I do not have an active licenses and do not look to get it active any time soon. The 16 properties listed in my widget are the listing of good friends of mine Pat and Wayne Harriman- so if I receive a lead or two as a result of this post, the leads will not be wasted. This also gave me an opportunity to discover a flaw in the search results which RealBird might want to address in the future updates to their system. The number (16) of course can change as RealBrid works on eliminating the duplicate results and/or my friends take in or sell some listings.

Embedding RealBird’s Property Search Results.
There are two ways you can currently embed the search results into your website. A side bar widget which you can see in action to your left. And a wider widget which can be embedded in to a post/page or other parts of your website. You can specify a custom width for both widgets to accommodate your websites look and feel. You are free to brand your widgets and full page results by adding you logo/pictuire along with contact information.

Email Inquiries Are Sent To The Publisher Not The Listing Agent…

Each property detail page of RealBird’s search results has an contact form. Once a visitor decides to use the form to inquire about further details, the e-mail sent to the listing publisher rather than the agent who owns the listing. For example, all the listings I am showing in the widgets belong to Wayne and Pat Harriman of Wallingford, CT. If a visitor happens to use the contact form from the detail page the e-mail will be sent to me. I think this is important to know for any agents hesitant to publish RealBird’s property search results on their websites.

Use Google Analytics To Analise The Traffic To Your RealBird’s Property Search Engine.

Once you have decided to publish and promote the property search engine, RealBird offers you an option to use your own Google Analytics code to track and examine the traffic.

The Widgets Are Fast.
Unlike RealBird’s Virtual Tour, I reviewed in the past, the property search widgets are extremely fast. It is rather obvious RealBird is reinvesting to improve their product.

Things RealBird Might Want To Improve On
It appears as if RealBird is pulling in results from several different sources. While it is not noticeable when your widget is showing hundreds or thousands of listing- it sure catches your eye when you limit your search results. Some listings can appear two or three times. It would be good idea to develop some sort of filters to eliminate the duplicate results.

About RealBird
RealBird is a technology leader with a solid track record in the real estate industry. The founders of RealBsird have pioneered some of the tools that are now ubiquitous on the Web: they built the first real estate websites back in 1994, first MLS email alert and CRM tools, and invented the patented wireless access to MLSs.

The company was established in 2003, and our initial emphasis was to provide affordable and powerful GIS (Geographical Information Systems),s mapping and aerial photos to the real estate industry.

Disclosure
As of this morning (April 22, 2009) the RealBird is an active sponsor of Go Beyond MLS. However this post was in the working since the end of last week and is not related to RealBird’s decision to sponsor Go Beyond MLS.

8 Comments

• 

  By Wayne Harriman, April 22, 2009 @ 7:20 pm

  Thanks for the mention, Vlad! RealBird pulls listing data from Google Base to display in the widget. Some of our listings are duplicated because we use listing syndication services like Postlets, vFlyers and of course RealBird itself to promote our listings. Each of these syndicators, as well as our Point 2 web sites, send the listings to Google Base, which is probably why they appear more than once in the widget. As you pointed out, a filter would prevent that. We could also uncheck some of the boxes on the syndicators; for example, use Postlets to syndicate to CraigsList, Oodle, Backpage and Google Base, and use RealBird or vFlyer to syndicate the listing to the remaining services. This would most likely eliminate the duplicates as well.
• 

  By Vlad Zablotskyy, April 22, 2009 @ 7:49 pm

  Wayne,

  Thanks for stopping by and sorry that your comment was held in moderation.

  Initially I was planing to use listings from my own zip code for this post. But I realized that I may actually ed up with a inquiry about the listings so I chose you as I can easily forward the e-mails to you and Pat.

  I think RealBird is doing very good job with their product and the widget can enhance a blog or website.

  I hope you do not mind I used your listing as a showcase for this post.
• 

  By Wayne Harriman, April 23, 2009 @ 12:43 am

  I don’t mind at all, Vlad. Maybe we’ll get some inquiries from this, who knows? Thanks again!
• 

  By denver real estate, April 26, 2009 @ 12:30 am

  Special thanks to Realbird for introducing property search engine. I will be helpful for everyone who are searching for house. Good work.
• 

  By Panama Real Estate, June 11, 2009 @ 12:34 am

  I read This blog it is really very wonderful thinking, because everyone find easily house thanks for post its nice blog.

Other Links to this Post

1. RealBird Launches Property Search Engine · Real-Estate.ExplainedHere.Com — April 22, 2009 @ 1:57 pm

2. Posts about Wordpress Widgets as of April 22, 2009 Wordpress Theme | Free Quality Wordpress Themes @ List-Your-Blog.com — April 22, 2009 @ 6:05 pm

3. Topics about Houses-for-sale » Archive » RealBird Launches Property Search Engine — April 23, 2009 @ 2:38 am

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