Recent events reminded us how important is to ask any technology firm or consultant one simple question:

Do you have in-house developers?

It seems odd — you probably wouldn’t ask your automobile service department if it had in-house mechanics. But we are finding it to be entirely too common in technology.

Two recent events illustrate this need:

• One of our competitors, a national firm offering IDX service (one of the better ones, actually) was exploited by hackers.  Data was compromised, including buyer/seller leads.
• Several of our clients reported that their WordPress sites (hosted in various places) were hacked in a variety of ways — including redirecting all inbound traffic to foreign sites.

Picture it.  You have one or more of these products, are compromised, and you need resolution.  You call your tech consultant.  But that person isn’t actually “technical” — they can’t look at code and deduce/fix a problem.  Sometimes they have a freelance developer they can ask for help, but that person doesn’t have a vested interest in the product, only in working a bunch of hours to bill the consultant (and eventually, you).

In the past several years, technology has changed to the point that non-technical people can do things like set up a website, create/edit content, and install “plug-ins” that add cool functionality.  And this technology is great!   But beneath all of that point-and-click stuff is code — and when the doo-doo hits the fan, it takes a coder to fix it.

To be clear – there are many, many great tech firms out there.  We have collaborated with several really good ones over the years.  We just do “data,” so it’s very common that we work with designers, developers, copywriters, etc, whom our clients have hired.  The message here is to be wary and ask questions before you commit time and money to a consultant.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about what IDX gives you the best search engine benefits.  The fact is, it’s a trick question, and we’ll explain why.

There are basically 2 types of IDX products on the market now:

1. A service hosted/maintained separately from your “regular” website.  In other words, the provider harvests the MLS data and “hosts” a search site where your clients can search for homes.
2. An “integrated” IDX that plugs directly into your website and grabs MLS data behind the scenes from an external provider and “imports” it to your website.

Conversely, a “separate” IDX site means users click away from your site to search, and it means all that listing data is technically not “on your site.”  But the upside is, if your site goes down, the IDX would still be fine.  Also, because it’s a separate system, it can be designed more freely, to have a lot more features.

Okay, so where are we going with this?

An IDX & your site’s SEO are 2 totally separate things.  You want a property search that entices buyers with cool features & keeps them coming back.  But you also want good SEO so you GET buyers!    The fact is, no IDX, in and of itself, will vault you to page 1 in Google.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being honest.

The agents who get the best search results are the ones who do the best job intertwining listing data (from IDX) with good, original content of their own.  And this is possible with a simple approach:

We are proud to announce that we are going to be a Platinum sponsor of REbarcampCLT 2010, which is the premier gathering of tech-savvy real estate professionals.

REbarcamp is an “un-conference” (to borrow a phrase). Instead of a bunch of booths and predetermined topics, the attendees set the agenda “on the fly” and then break into groups to discuss topics that interest them.

We look forward to not only sponsoring the event, but also participating, and meeting lots of current (and hopefully future) clients!

You are a real estate professional, and you probably know where the deals are.  But the question is … do your potential clients know that you know where the deals are?

Let’s say there’s a buyer out there looking for the best deal in a certain part of town.  You could probably point this buyer to several houses, but this is your typical 21st century buyer, and he/she is looking online.  If you’re lucky enough to be one of the sites the buyer finds, do you have adequate resources to allow him/her to find foreclosures, short sales, etc.?

Foreclosures are a hot news topic, and will continue to be for at least a couple more years.  Even conventional, owner-occupant buyers want to shop for them these days.  So if you have no way for buyers to find deals on your website, you could be losing business.

Since 2007, Davis Farrell has offered a feature called “Deal Sniffer” in our IDX (click here for a screenshot).  Deal Sniffer allows a buyer to compare any house to the other houses listed within a radius (between 1/4 mile and 2 miles).  If a house is listed significantly lower per square foot than the average listing within the given area, that house might be a deal!

Buyers take notice of features like this, and they would be more likely to work with someone who provides good tools than someone who doesn’t.  Competition is stiff these days and the more information you can provide to potential clients, the better.