Now you can add the phrase "Open House" (with quotes) to any area to see all upcoming registered open houses (this is only of the agent checke a box for an upcoming open. It will NOT look for lazy agents that just put "Open Sun" in the remarks.)
Now after a search, to the right of the map you will see an option to show School Boundary Zones, also know as School Attendance Zones.
Currently we only have Fairfax, Arlington and Washington DC. If you all like it, maybe we can add more.
Disclaimer: Don't buy a home solely based on this data. We also have a "Verify School" link. But ultimately if a school is crucial to your purchase, you need to call the district to verify that everything is up to date and nothing is changing.
Also let me know if you think anything is wrong.
Note this data IGNORES the agent school input field and is based solely on the county maps.
Cleaner layout. Moving the search box to the bottom after a search.
More clear how to search for Sold properties when you are out in the car.
Added subdivision info on the results page
See your saved favorites! You will first have to login on the front page of FranklyMLS.com from your cell phone (Yeah I know not ideal) but you will only have to do it once. Then you can save stuff on your computer and when you go out in your car, you can see all of your favorites.
Up next, GPS based "Homes Near You" and "Open Houses Near you"
This is a Step by Step for Realtors to sign up their clients and watch their progress, and edit their saved searches. Many Realtors have asked how to do this, so here is a step by step. This assumes you already signed up for a free Branded FranklyMLS search site.
1) Start from a clean slate. Click http://franklymls.com/clear to make the site act like a new user/visitor (ie no cookies).
2) Hit your branded page. Aka www.FranklyMLS.com/YOURID
3) Conduct a search, for example Arlington Condos from $500k to $600k
4) In the middle of the page it lets you "Save Search" by entering in your clients email address. Enter their email and press Join/Login (no passwords needed)
5) It will ask the user (you) to confirm the link in their email.
6) If you signed up under your branded page, YOU, the Realtor will get a copy of the confirmation email. Either you OR the client can confirm the sign up.
7) Go back to FranklyMLS.com/YourID and if it does not say "Welcome: jon@jon.com" then log in as them on the front page, upper right corner.
8) Conduct more searches and save those searches. Also if there are special homes you want them to get price change alerts on (you get a copy of all alerts) then click the RED HEART to save those homes.
9) Finish by logging out, by visiting http://franklymls.com/clear (or there is a Logout button on the search page, but don't hit the Unsubscribe button)
Done. Great! Your client will now get daily emails "From Realtor's Name" and you will get a copy of those alerts (which you should route to a folder to check periodically). They can change it to update every 15 minutes by following the directions in the alerts.
EMail me if you have any questions
To make changes to an existing account. 1) Clear out your session http://franklymls.com/clear 2) Go to your IDX Franklymls.com/USERID 3) Login with their email address 4) Conduct searches, save searches, save homes, delete saved homes, etc. 5) When done, clear out your session http://franklymls.com/clear
Let me know if that isn't clear. Let me know if you log in as a user and you don't see your branding on every page.
Chris W. emailed me about some ideas for the site and it sparked a no brainer. I was able to get it live in 4 minutes! And a blog post up in another 5 minutes. A new record.
In mobile mode, FranklyMLS.com/m, I am working on a "Near you" button so you can drive up to a home and in 1 click see all the homes near you. (I know, pretty standard in the app world).
In the meantime, I made it so the mobile mode will list the subdivision and let you click on "See more" to see all the other homes that are active/UC in that subdivision.
Been making a bunch of changes today to the Full View (1 home per page) http://franklymls.com/FX7665108 including, 1) Clearing out the junk in the upper left and right 2) Moving the HEART saving option next to the Status=Active (before it made no sense to be in the upper right part of the page since it didnt look like part of the listing),http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif 3) Add a Mobile mode icon and moved it down near the multiple photos 4) Moved the Neighborhood reviews and House Wiki comments to another location lower on the page 5) Added a printer Icon to let you know you can print a 1 page version of the site 6) And for people that are NOT on a branded version of the site, I added more Frankly logos and chat windows. 7) Moved private notes and View Count to middle left of screen 8) More details for what Under Contract means. (We get a ton of "Can I see this home that is Under Contract") 9) More ads featuring recommended local buyers agents (if you have your owner agent, great, but have them get a free IDX so their name is on each page) 10) Annoying photo of me lurching on the left side of the page ready to chat (already got one complaint on this today, you hate it too?)
I offer several free services for Realtors in other firms. Easy to convince them because it is free? Nope, I spend a lot of time easing their fears & untrustingness (is that a word?).
So here I will list what Realtors from other firms can do with this site to help themselves and WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME.
Ways Realtors can benefit from FranklyMLS.com:
1) Join and get your free branded IDX. Even if you "already have one." With the branded IDX, the logos of my firm get dropped and replaced with your image and banner. All "request a showings" go to you. When your client signs up for email alerts you are notified and each alert has YOUR branding. Also you get a BCC of each email alert of your client. Over 250 agents have joined. Many stopped paying their 2003 garbage $50/mo IDX and others have dropped even the "high tech and latest" IDXes.
Why do they ditch their IDX? a) FranklyMLS.com does so much more. I can't list them here, but recently an "I already have one"-type agent got the "oh mine doesn't do that" moment about 5 times and finally the lightbulb went off that this might actually help HER and her client.
b) Your clients are probably already using the site anyhow, so why not have your name on each page (and stop having them bug me instead of you, but I will get to my benefits later)
2) Contribute to the MLS Wiki (Rules). 200,000 Photos already added by buyer's agents! Land free clients. No referral fees. A couple agents have closed $1M clients from this. Buyer agents can add reviews (once your client decides not to buy it) and photo albums (this is why you should be taking buyer agent photo albums for your clients anyhow) to most MLS homes (about 95% of MRIS listings allow blogging/comments).
With these reviews a buyer agent can add photos from the buyer agent perspective. Add information about distance to a noisy highway or something the listing agent might have left out. This is REALLY killer for photoless REOS. This can even save a Realtor (and their client) a 1 hour drive if another buyer agent took 30 photos of a photoless listing (this happened to me once). Hum, imagine agents helping agents. A novel concept.
Agents get points for adding reviews (10 with photos) and top contributors get featured on the front page. With this service, many get more traffic than Google! And if a buyer is looking in a particular area and they keep seeing helpful comments (not annoying ads) they say "hum, maybe I should use that agent".
Also agents can LINK to all of their reviewed homes in 1 click. So people on your blog can see the areas you have recently visited and your comments.
3) Join the referral network. FranklyMLS.com is a hugely trafficked site, but FranklyRealty.com is a smaller firm. So having a network of agents in other areas, I can send clients your way.
Ok, finally, the big question. FRANK WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU?
Again, I have no interest in stealing your client. It isn't some trick.
Benefits to ME: 1) Your clients are already using the site! So brand it & save me time. It is kind of annoying to get a request for information on a home, for the user to say "I love my buyer agent Patrick." Ok great, so why did you contact us? It would be easier on me if Patrick had his branded FranklyMLS so I wouldn't waste time with a happily represented buyer. And yes this happens a lot. Recently at a [Large Real Estate Firm's] technology meeting it went like this: "Are you all noticing that half your clients are using FranklyMLS?"
2) A Branded Agent might start contributing to the WIKI. The Free IDX is also the bait to come check out the site. Once agents get the IDX and give their custom link to their clients (that are wildly happy with the link see one non-Frankly agent's review). And even though the Wiki sends THEM tons of traffic, it helps build a better site for all to use. Having 200,000 MORE photos than ANY other MLS... that is valuable since photos are key. Why go anywhere else?
3) Expanded referral network Those that I see contributing, are perfect candidates to send business their way. It lets me meet agents from areas I would never have reached out to.
4) Frankly brand respect amongst other agents. Helping my full time agents have a respected brand to work under is huge. By offering a free IDX to 250 agents, and helping other agents get a ton of free business, it helps build the FranklyRealty.com brand. When my agent has a bidding war against 3 other no-name firms... it helps when the listing agent is like "Yeah I know about Frankly Realty, your company, you help other agents out." Or "Oh you guys only have the highest quality full time agents with gorgeous 30 photo listings 100% of the time" That is a big plus. Come on, you know when you get a contract from a firm with a bad reputation, or all weekend warrior agents. You are like "darn, this might be a nightmare deal."
5) Recruiting. AHA! Ok, everyone will now probably ignore all of the above and say "AHA". Well it isn't like that. While I have interest in growing Frankly Realty, I only want to do so SLOWLY and in select areas. Like maybe adding 1 great and high producing agent a year that is looking to upgrade from their "national brand" firm. (note that most firms recruit 20 agents to get 1 real producer). This site lets them get an introduction to Frankly and 1 in the 200 might join (I turn down many requests). But that is NOT my main motivation. Prove it? In 4 years of free IDXing, last month was the first time I emailed them in batch about an update to the site.
6) Doing Cool Stuff I just love doing cool stuff. Like building the Frankly I Wish concept in 24 hours from idea to creation to Agent Genius featured story. And it is more fun to do stuff in a large scale with many agents. If I can come up with a way that helps everyone, then why not! And it does create indirect and unexpected benefits like winning the 2009 Inman News Innovator of the Year award. Couldn't have done it without everyone's cooperation.
Ok, so I hope you will join FranklyMLS and see what you are missing. It is free.
Thank you for your time, please report typos
Frank Founder FranklyMLS.com Broker FranklyRealty.com Better Technology, Better Agents
Excited to learn more about what Days on the Market is, and specifically the difference between DOMM and DOMP? Well check out this video I made to explain it to FranklyMLS users.
Update 3 days after launch: Featured in Agent Genius (kinda with a unnecessary provoking title of cutting out listing agents, but that is not the goal) and 20 buyer neighborhood sign ups and 2 seller contacts (no matches yet).
Background, Frankly MLS gets a ton of traffic. But that traffic isn't just buyers. Many are SELLERs looking at solds and active comps. So based on the suggestion of a user and a Frankly agent, I created Frankly I Wish ads. And when I say "I" created it, I was too impatient to wait for the programmers to do it, that is why it looks to ugly, I did the coding. But who cares, the traffic speaks for itself, it is all about content!
With this system, I will be posting very targeted needs for specific buyers (sponsored by a buyer agent).
Here is one example where Realtor Jay's client was dying to buy in The Clara Barton Condos. Now his ad shows up in all of Penn Quarter.
Dying for a home in XYZ hood? If you already have an agent, great!, tell them to email me, it is free (no slice even) iWish@FranklyRealty.net. Don't have an agent, then email me directly, no obligation to use our agents. Even though our motto is Better Technology, Better Agents.
I always hated the lazy agent "Call School Board" entry. Don't you know that people search based on schools and if you leave them out, people will miss your home?
Well now we have a "Verify Schools" link. It shows up in about 60% of the counties. Some are simple links to a page with more info, but many will include the home address in the link and immediately pull up the exact schools for that address.
Like everything though, if a school is a 100% crucial factor, you need to triple check in case the boundaries just got moved.
Now you can enter in a work address or school address and when you do a search in spreadsheet mode, it will show you the driving distance to each home for sale. Super cool new feature. Soon you can add two addresses and it will cookie so you don't need to reenter it each time.
Now, on FranklyMLS.com buyers (via an agent) can post ads on specific wishlist neighborhoods to find sellers Pre-MLS. Both sides win. One gets a jump on the market and the other saves paying a listing agent.
