Have you ever wondered how you can make your listings gain more interest?  Did you ever feel that you’re not using the Internet to its fullest potential, when it comes to maximizing your income? Have you ever wanted to start your very own Real Estate Classifieds site?  Has fear of configuring web based technology kept you from your online presence?  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions we have the solution you have been looking for.

Top agents are using the Internet to attract buyers to their listings, and as we all know more activity on a listings leads to more closed sales.  According to a National Association of Realtors (NAR) survey conducted back in 2003, 87% of real estate firms have a website to market their services.  As well it states that 71% of buyers use the Internet either frequently or occasionally during their home search.

So how do you create a Real Estate website that is informational, easy to navigate and professional without having to invest a large amount of capital?  The answer is webClassifieds.  With the powerful solution webClassifieds you can have a fully functional Real Estate web site up in no time, with professional features only found on many top real estate sites.   Such as the ability to search for listings via a radius from a zip code, create professional looking signs and flyers, and post a variety of information about the listing right on the web.

It’s easy to do.  Here is a step by step guide on how to get your real estate web site up quickly and efficiently.

First, the program includes two main sections, the administrative area and the front end.  The administrative section is where you will customize your web site.  The main focus of this article will be on the administrative section of the software. The second section that the software encompasses is the front end.  This is what your users will see when they visit your site.

Once you log into the admin section you will find many different options.  The one we are concerned with at this time will be the categories selection found under the Customization tab.

Once you click on that selection you will find another important section.  Click on the category management icon.  Once inside of here, you can create an unlimited number of categories, and subcategories.  Depending on your situation you may want to set up your main categories as the major cities in your area.  If your market only encompasses one large city, you can set up different subsections of that city as your main categories.  See the structure example below.

State of New York

• Albany
• Binghamton
• Buffalo
• Rochester
• Syracuse

After you have your main and sub categories set up, you will need to set up the fields that you would like to display.  These fields being the various attributes of the property you wish to have buyers see.  I would recommend setting up the same fields that you would find on the MLS.

Here’s an example of what the frontend will look like once it’s all setup. That’s it, you’re on your way to a successful Real Estate web site!

Web Scribble Solutions, Inc. today announced the release of webClassifieds 1.1, the highly popular and feature-filled classified ads software package. webClassifieds allows webmasters to easily start their own classified ads site. webClassifieds automates many of the tedious tasks involved in running a classified ads web site, including billing management, ad creation, searching, internal messaging, and more!

We are excited to announce the release of webClassifieds 1.1 BETA! This is a beta version of webClassifieds 1.1. Our developers have tested the new features in this version, but we need your help. If you are interested in running the beta version and reporting to us any problems or bugs you find, please send an e-mail to beta@webscribble.com with your name and serial number. We will get back to you as soon as possible with instructions on how to download the beta version upgrade.

webClassifieds 1.1 BETA has the following new features:

General

• Added support for thumbnails using GD (if installed)
• Added new “sold” status – sellers can mark ads as sold, view ad page is updated
• Added a count of listings in each category on the front and browse pages

Advanced Search

• Subcategories of a chosen category are dynamically shown
• Visitors can search by category-specific custom fields

View Ad

• Counters
  • For users:
    • Added hit counter which tracks the number of views the ad has received
    • Users can purchase different hit counter styles
  • For administrator:
    • Ability to charge different amounts for different counters
    • Ability to upload new counter styles/images
• Ad Themes
  • For users:
    • Seller can choose different designs (themes) to use for the ad
    • Seller can be charged for specific themes
  • For administrator:
    • Create new themes by uploading images and border images
    • View/edit/delete existing themes
    • Assign themes to specific billing plans and assign costs

Administrative Area

• E-mail Alerts
  • E-mail alert can be sent when ad is added
  • E-mail alert can be sent when ad is edited
  • E-mail alert can be sent when user registers
• Category Management
  • Breadcrumb trail of categories in Create Category page

Billing

• Added ability to force users to pay before posting an ad
• Added new billing type “counter”
• Added new billing type “ad theme”
• Promotional Codes
  • For users:
    • Users can redeem promotional codes during registration or balance payment
  • For administrators:
    • Site owner can create promotional codes to be used on the site
    • Promotional codes configurable to be used during registration or balance payment
    • Promotional codes can be an amount or a percentage of the total
    • A minimum balance can be required for a promotional code to be used
    • A minimum balance can be required for a promotional code to be used
    • A coupon code can be set to be used a set number of times, or an unlimited amount
    • Promotional codes can be set to automatically expire on a specified date

User ratings system

• For users:
  • Members can leave each other ratings with feedback comments
  • Members can be rated as: positive, negative, neutral
  • Members can edit existing comments/ratings
  • Each user has a feedback score by time periods: all time, past month, past 6 months, past 12 months
  • Feedback percentage and score is shown on the view ad page
  • Number of ratings shown next to member’s username
  • Members can view a rating/comment history for each member
  • Icons shown next to member’s username indicating number of ratings
• For administrator:
  • View all pending user feedback needing approval
  • Configure system so that all ratings are automatically approved
  • Ability to approve/decline ratings
  • Ability to delete/edit previous ratings
  • Create feedback icons that signify the number of ratings a user has received

Ask a question

• For users:
  • Members can ask the seller a question regarding item being sold
  • Seller’s answer is e-mailed to the inquiring member
  • Questions can be posted on the view ad page for others to see
  • Great for handling commonly asked questions on items
  • Sellers can see which questions have/have not been answered
• For administrator:
  • View/approve/decline pending questions and answers
  • Configure system so that all questions/answers are automatically approved
  • View complete history of questions/answers
  • Edit existing comments

Ad Finder

• For users:
  • Create an Ad Finder using criteria similar to advanced search
  • Users are e-mailed when ads are posted meeting their Ad Finder criteria
  • Users can choose criteria based on category-specific custom fields
• For administrator:
  • Edit Ad Finder e-mail template
  • Choose interval on which Ad Finder e-mails are sent out
  • Choose number of ads included with each e-mail