If you’ve never done any work on a real estate website, I have to say, you may want to think about it again. This is one we’ve been involved in developing for a Park City Utah Real Estate Agent. The real estate market is extremely guarded by the companies that specialize in real estate websites. It’s amazing what some of these companies charge for real estate websites, even though it’s not rocket science. The biggest hurdle is getting an IDX or RETS feed on the website. Most companies that provide an IDX solution apparently think there code is gold, and apparently it is. We’ve talked with some of these companies that want $350.00 / month just to provide the software that serves up the data feed, and they require you to host your site on their server since they don’t want anyone stealing their code. Then, there’s the frameset method, which is just the other companies website framed into your website, therefore giving them all the benefits of SEO, while getting nothing for the hosts real estate website.
I know I sound like I’m ranting and I suppose I am. If anyone out there knows of a good solution for IDX feeds for Real Estate Websites, feel free to add your comments here.