Since Sam was talking about the difference he saw when he added a fully-functional IDX MLS search to his website, I thought I’d continue with that theme.  It’s true – the better home search you have on your site, the more loyalty you’ll get from your visitors!

Custom MLS Searches

Getting someone to build a search for you is one option.  Since this option is a bit pricey for many, and since there are third-party vendors that provide good searches, this post will focus on the MLS and third-party vendor alternatives.   

Home Search from Your MLS

The easiest way to get an MLS search on your website is to get one from your MLS organization.  It might even be free.  There are some MLS organizations that are providing a feature-rich search, but those are few and far between.  Since I don’t want to pick on any one MLS, there are no examples in this post.

At a very basic level, a home search will typically let the visitor select criteria such as location, home price, etc.  But, it’s difficult to be really competitive in your market with such a search because there are usually other much more helpful searches available.

Note that I said usually.  There are still MLSs that do not share their data with any third-party vendors.  There are also MLSs that say they don’t share with third-party vendors, but actually they do.  So, it’s always best to research the issue before you decide you don’t have any alternatives.

Third-Party Vendors

Third-party vendors are companies who do nothing but create IDX MLS search facilities for use in real estate websites.  There are lots of them out there.  In some less-populated areas, you may find local third-party vendors.  And, some of those folks do a good job – pretty similar to the large vendors in the industry.

For larger MLSs, there are a number of national vendors that may have an existing agreement with your MLS to provide a search for your area.  I won’t try to list them all here.  There are a couple that I think are especially worth considering because they have good support, feature-rich searches and reasonable prices.  The objective is to give you an idea of what may be available to you if you’re currently using a pretty simple search.

Advantages of a Feature-Rich IDX MLS Search

There are all kinds of functions available through third-party vendors.  At a basic level, a feature-rich search offers benefits for your visitors and for you:

1. Saving Searches – Your visitors will save a lot of time because they won’t have to select all the criteria they have for their home search every time they hit your site.  They can simply reuse whatever searches they’ve already saved.
2. Saving Favorite Listings – Your visitors won’t have to try and remember which listings they liked or try to find the two listings they wanted to compare.  They can save listings in a “Favorites” type set up and find them easily.
3. New Listing Alerts – Your visitors can request an email alert when homes that match one of their saved searches are added to the MLS.  This saves time for your visitors, encourages them to reuse the search because they can control this function themselves, and you aren’t burdened with setting up a search for them manually.
4. Contact Database – You’ll be able to track your visitors who sign up on your site.  Depending on the vendor, you’ll have access to the searches visitors save, etc.  This gives you a real insight into their needs so you can be more helpful to them.
5. Flexible Registration Options – The debate over whether to require registration for a home search rages on.  At a minimum, you need flexible registration options so that you can determine which option works best for you and your market.  Flexibility includes the option to require registration: a) before searching, b) after a set amount of activity, c) to access key pieces of information such as an address, etc.
6. Custom Searches – You will be able to set up custom search pages on your website.  So, if you have a community page about ABC Community, you can direct visitors to a search that is already set up showing only homes in that community.  Or, if your visitors want to search by home price, you can set up search pages that show only homes in a range of $300-350,000 and so forth.  This can make your site much easier to use and attract more loyalty from your visitors.

A Couple Examples

WolfNet – This company provides a good range of capabilities, their support is great, and they have one of the largest number of MLS agreements to provide wide coverage in the US.  This is an example of their Map Search.

Diverse Solutions – This company doesn’t have as wide an MLS coverage as WolfNet, but they have some very innovative capabilities, and good support.

The bottom line is, if your website’s home search doesn’t provide your visitors with features to help them save time and simplify their search, you’re losing out on visitor loyalty!