Thread: Best Idx Solution - Freeeeeeee!!!

Hello,

I would like to share the BEST IDX solution and it's called "Open-Realty".

http://open-realty.org/ It's completely FREE!!! The templates are easy to install... Check out what I did with my site. Most Programmers charge up to $5k for a site like this. I did this one myself. Barely any HTML or PHP knowledge required.

Look what I did with it.

http://www.nycbrokerfree.com

I wouldn't say this is the best idx solution out there, but anything for Free can't be too bad, at least until you can afford to have customized Idx integrated into your site.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to say that it isn't the best one I've seen, however it is certainly worth a look.

The one thing I didn't like on the site was the Google ads, IMO monetizing a R.E. website, no matter what type of real estate you practice, comes across tacky. I'm not sure if the ads are a part of the template or if you added them yourself.

Without having searched for this topic on the forum, how do y'all feel about adding Google Ads to your R.E. websites?

Michael.

One thing I learned is that there is nothing in life that is for free. If the site has google ads then you are advertising for them and possibly driving away from your site.

I tried adding adsense to website a few years back but quickly learned that the small income produced was not worth loosing potential clients. If you are going to use adsense, I would recommend creating specific websites to market these ads

There is no denying the power of advertising on the Internet. I just think, why would you put ads on your real estate website that may end up annoying or, worse yet, leading the potential client away from your site. It is beyond me.

I support using these type of ads to get folks to your site, but I am against having them on the site itself.

Michael .

OK - a couple of things here.

If a developer charged or anyone paid $5k for a site like that they should both be flogged.

Second, Open Realty is not an IDX solution. It is a listing management system. If you're up on your PHP programming and database management you can integrate your IDX with OR.

There are also commercial IDX and RETS packages that you can purchase to utilize with OR.

Open Realty is a nice product and I have used it with a number of sites. However, I did have to hack a lot of the OR core components to get it to work the way that it should work.

I guess, if you think about it there is much out there that is good for free.. But this seems to be to bad if you are on a budget.

I put the google ads because I get a lot of hits and it's worth it for me..
It didn't come with the template. As far as adding an IDX to Open Realty, it's a sinch. Just need a $50 addon. I think I have one of the best realty sites on the net now. My competitor is Rent-Direct.com and...

I would be interested in seeing some additional examples of websites using the open realty management system. I was thinking of integrating into my property management company and apartment locating company. From what I've found on net and feedback in forums, most have good things to say about open realty. Demo does not work on site but I assumed this as many open source code lost financing and interest at some point and there is no one to manage and update