OpenHomez.com Goes Mobile

Recently we implemented a mobile site at m.openhomez.com. The site is designed for searching active listings from a mobile (small form factor) device. The full capabilities of OpenHomez.com are currently not available on m.openhomez.com, but we are considering extending the features.

Have a look at m.openhomez.com and see what you think.

Bing Maps and SEO Improvements

Our recent additions include adding a link (Aerial) to the property listing page that will take you to the Bing Maps bird's eye view of the property.

In addition, we have changed the TITLE of each property listing to include the address of the property. Hopefully, this will provide added Search Engine Optimization and additional coverage by the search engines.

Single RSS Feed For Multiple Agents

If you have multiple agents or listing IDs with OpenHomez.com you can now combine their listings into a single RSS feed. As an example, you might have individual agents with their Open Houses listed independently but you would also like to have a consolidated list of Open Houses for your office.

Using the URL template:

http://openhomez.com/rssmyopenhomes.php?ids=x,y,z

you can create a list of OpenHomez.com IDs to be included in the RSS feed. You can still have unique feeds by specifying a single ID after "ids=" but now you can also create a combined list. You can find your OpenHomez.com ID at the top of your Account page in OpenHomez.com

Using this syntax and free tools such as Feed2JS you can create code that can be embedded into you Web site to show a dynamic list of your Open Houses.

Features For Consumers

For some time now we have had a Features List for agents and agencies. We thought it was about time to add a list of Features For Consumers. Below is a list of OpenHomez.com features intended specifically for consumers and to assist them with their hunt for open houses. Links in the list refer to blog entries describing the feature in detail. First, the basic search:

Search
From the OpenHomez.com home page click the Search link on the left. No need to sign in. From the OpenHomez Search Page you can search by Zip code or city name or you can simply select from the list of Zip codes below the search box. The numbers in parenthesis next to the Zip codes are the number of active open houses in that Zip code.

Search Results Page
Your search will likely take you to a search results page where a list of properties matching your search are displayed. You can view the detailed listing by clicking on the thumbnail picture of the property or on the address. But wait, there's more!

• Hovering - Hover over the thumbnail picture or the icon following the address and you will see a preview of property listing.
  


• RSS Feeds of Search - Near the top of the page you will see the familiar RSS feed icon (). Clicking on this link will provide you the results of your search in RSS format. You can use this link in any RSS reader to view your search results.
  


• Download Map/GPS Data - By clicking on the Download link on the Search Page (in the text near the top of the page) you can download a file suitable for uploading into your favorite mapping program or your GPS.
  


• Map Your Search - By clicking on the map link on the Search Page (in the text near the top of the page) you can create a Google Map of your search results.
  


• Share Your Search - By clicking on the button on the left under the menu you can share the results of this search on over 50 social networks. You can also print or email the results of the search.
  


• Get Notified - At the bottom of the Search Results page you will see a Notify.me chicklet. If you click on this icon you will automatically be notified of changes in this search.
  


• Options - are presented in the form of icons at the end of individual listing in your search results. Click on the icon to view the listing, click on the icon to download map/gps data for this listing, or click on the icon to download this listing to your calendar.
  

Options When Viewing A Listing
When you are viewing an individual listing you have several other options. Here are a few.

• Map & Driving Directions - Click on this link to map and acquire directions to the property.
  


• Download to GPS - Download the listing to your GPS.
  


• Download to Calendar - Download this open house information to your calendar.
  


• Tweet/ReTweet - Use the Tweet/Retweet chicklet to send this listing to your Twitter account using TweetMeMe.
  


• Dwellicious - Use the Dwellicious chicklet to add this listing to the Dwellicious Real Estate social bookmarking site.
  


• Share The Listing - Use the Share chicklet to email, print, or share this listing to multiple social sites.
  

There are more features coming. Come back to this list often or just browse the OpenHomez.com and experiment with each of the features.

Sharing A Listing And Social Bookmarking

We've now added a social bookmarking and sharing button from AddThis to each listing. Not only does the button allow viewers to add the listing to over 60 social sites, it also allows the viewer to bookmark, print, and email the listing. The button appears near the bottom of each listing page.

We have also added this Share Button to the right sidebar of this blog. Check it out for yourself. It's over there ======>

Now You Can Search By City Too!

Prior to today OpenHomez.com search options only allow Zip code searches. Today we added the ability to search for upcoming open houses by City Name. As with the Zip code search you can use the "%" as a wild card in your search. That is, you can either enter the entire City Name such as "Sacramento" to get all the upcoming open houses in Sacramento or you could enter a search of "Sac%" which would return all the open houses in all cities starting with "sac".

A word of caution, there are hundreds of open houses in some cities. Searching by City Name may yield a large number of open houses and the results may take some time to return.

Go ahead. Give the new Search a try.

OH - Dwellicious

Dwellicious.com is a real estate social networking site that allows you to organize, share, and discuss specific properties. Today we added a Dwellicious chiclet to each OpenHomz.com listing. When a listing is viewed the viewer has the option of clicking on the chicklet and tagging the property on Dwellicious.com there by exposing the listing to the Dwellicious.com real estate social networking community and providing more eyeballs for your listings. Enjoy!