Latest News

MyRealPage Listing Search hits iPhone and Android

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:01:36 GMT

MyRealPage has launched a very exciting new feature: geo-location aware property searches on iPhone and Android-based phones. Last week, iPhone OS 3.0 has been released and iPhone 3GS has shipped. Just before that, Android "Cupcake" version has been released and HTC Magic launched. Hot on the heels of these events, MyRealPage releases mobile search designed for iPhone and Android based phones (such as HTC Dream and Magic). This is a very new and exciting application space for MyRealPage! We decided to deliver a fully featured set of HTML5 mobile tools that would include both useful search tools for your clients as well as powerful lead generation opportunities.

(UPDATE: want to learn more or have questions? Visit: FAQ: MyRealPage iPhone and Android mobile listing application)

(UPDATE: Read our customers' feedback here: MyRealPage iPhone/Android listing searches get first reviews)

The new mobile application is now in beta and available for public use. While in beta, the mobile search will be available FOR FREE to all current subscribers who have a Listings subscription (including Listings-only subscribers). Even though an extraordinary amount of attention has been paid to details in this application, we expect that it will evolve and change through the beta period.

Here is a quick list of what you can do in this application:

Automatically locate yourself via GPS and see all available listings for sale in up to 1km radius around you
Have the application "follow" you by updating your position and nearby listings as you walk or drive
Drag the map to pan around and see the nearby listings automatically searched for you
Manually override your current location by entering the address of your choice
Login into your Virtual Office Website (VOW) account to see and do more
See full details of each individual listing, including all photos
Email listings to family and friends
Inquire about the listing with the agent/team/broker
"Star" the listing for later review through the Virtual Office Website (VOW) account
Sign up for a Virtual Office Website (VOW) account
Make a phone call and/or send a SMS message directly from the contact forms

We have also included a special request form for your web visitors to have the mobile link sent to their phones. The link to this form is currently located at the bottom of your property search forms. (And yes, it is capable of generating and auto-creating leads for you just like all other listing forms from MyRealPage).

We hope you and your clients will enjoy and have fun using this application!

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage.com

New Listing Details pages on MyRealPage websites

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:58:38 GMT

MyRealPage has introduced new, completely overhauled Listing Details pages. The focus of this update was to transform Listing Details views into both highly functional and highly attractive pages; as well as to maximize their potential for lead generation, especially in public searches. Today's listings are often well decorated with high resolution photos and rich media, such as videos, virtual tours, and can be further enhanced with their map location and neighborhood information; so the Listing Details views needed to reflect this richness and present it in a very straightforward, accessible and attractive way. MyRealPage offers terrific tools for "enriching" your listing information, such as high-resolution photos (up to 800x800 pixels), lots of videos and virtual tours, both uploaded and embedded, Google Maps, Google Earth, Walk Score, custom listing banners, etc. Now this richness can shine through thanks to the new Listing Details templates. In particular, the following is a brief compilation of features introduced by this update:

New crisp and highly versatile way to display listing information in a well-defined grid; such that the listing information looks great regardless of how much listing data is available for display
Two great templates to choose from: one with smaller photo and more information up top; and another with large photos running in a slideshow to showcase listing images. These templates can be individually selected for "My Listings", "Office Listings" and "Search" pages. This, for example, allows you to choose "Photo centric" template for your own listings if you plan to upload your own high-resolution photos; and leave the regular template for the rest. An optional gallery with Ken Burns effect is also available.
Animated "Lightbox" effect for high-resolution photos. Now your visitors can view your photos in their highest resolution to give them the maximum impact. (Click on the photo thumbnails)
New printable view which embeds Google Map and larger thumbnails for more functional print-outs.
Separate full page tabs for Photos, Videos and Virtual Tours, Google Map, Google Earth and WalkScore
All listing details in public searches will display all available listing field names, and will only hide field values; this is useful in regions where the amount of information permitted to display without visitor login is limited. This way every field value that is hidden provides a "Signup Now" link: another path to lead generation.
Easy to use imperial and metric selectors which are located now right next to measurement values.

We hope you wil enjoy these updates.

--Brought to you by MyRealPage.com

Updated "Area Search" form, better search form selector, and more

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:59:48 GMT

MyRealPage has released another update to the listings product which included more polish and improvements to the search forms. There was a lot of cleanup work done "under the hood", but primarily the following changes will be immediately visible to the website users:

Cleaner, crisper look and better usability for the MyRealPage's oldest search form: what used to be called a "Map Search" form, prior to the arrival of our Google Map Search. This form is now called "Area Search"; it now sports more streamlined single page behavior, better area navigation and bigger, more visible controls: all to let your visitors get to the listings faster.
Updated, more intuitive search form selector which we believe better reflects its use. The search form selector can be found just above the search forms: it allows a user to switch between various available search forms.

Improved listing loading in the Private Office. When the listing tab is clicked now, the listing category tree shows up immediately, allowing you access to the Listing options and the "New Listing" button right away. The listings will then load progressively from Active and Sold, to the rest. This will be most welcome by larger teams, brokers and agents with large listing inventories.
Better support for Lease and Rental properties. This includes correct "Leased/Rented" status, as well as the automatic banner. Lease and Rental properties will also show as "FOR LEASE" and "FOR RENT" instead of "ACTIVE".
Better support for IE8. We have found and resolved a number of issues that affected the new version of the Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8.
San Diego search forms have been updated to enable the search for sold properties, including a period range to limit the search (this feature was implemented to accomodate the local Real Estate Board's policy regarding the sold listings and the local market expectations).

(above is the screenshot of how the "Area Search" looks in Edmonton. Of course, each region we support gets its own regional form).

As we ramp up for more updates and improvements, we hope you will find the most recent ones useful.

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage.com

MyRealPage publishes more Listing Updates; caters to Real Estate Teams of Two

Fri, 15 May 2009 07:56:30 GMT

MyRealPage has made another instalment of product updates into its Listings solution. The focus of the udpates continues to be the improvement of the usability of the listings, as well as better support for user options and customizability. Below are the most notable changes.

Enhanced support for Teams of Two

MyRealPage now supports up to two contact configurations which are especially suited for teams of two members. Teams of two are in a very special position as they usually require equal visibility for both members. (Remember that teams of more can use MyRealPage's "Agent Directory" product which allows to easily manage more numerous members). Each contact configuration can now include a photograph as well. Both members will also be included in Craigslist postings.

Better Listing Page Navigation

MyRealPage has released improved page navigation controls. The motivation was to make it more user friendly, crisper and less verbose. We believe, the new page navigation controls will make navigating your listing search results easier and quicker.

Default Sort Order improvements

As a listings product subscribers, you will find better support for your and your office listing sorting order. You are able to specify your preference now in the Listing Options to better reflect how you would like to arrange your listings for display.

We hope you will enjoy these new updates.

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage.com

MyRealPage overhauls Virtual Office Website forms, weaves into public searches

Mon, 04 May 2009 06:32:24 GMT

MyRealPage has overhauled all of its Virtual Office Website (VOW) forms and made the whole VOW signup "choreography" a great deal simpler. The motivation behind the update was to make the signup and login process for the Virtual Office Website (VOW) as easy and fun to use, as possible. The new forms have been brought in line with the new "lightbox" look-and-feel and appear in-place in the webpage without the need to navigate to a separate place to login or signup. It is now possible to complete the entire signup process without leaving one page. A considerable amount of attention was paid to ensure that the web user was given the most expected user interface interaction and the easiest path to become a member.

Besides the visual and functional overhaul of the VOW forms, they were also tightly weaved into the public search pages (Reciprocity). In fact, it is now possible to structure the entire website without having a separate "Members Only" link but rather advertise all signup paths via public searches. The "Members Only" link can still be used for regions where Reciprocity is not allowed by the local Real Estate Board, or if the website owner chooses to "lock down" listing search access and make it available to registered users only.

The VOW forms not only sport a new fun look-and-feel, but also provide an in-depth functionality; such as, among other:

In-place lightbox effect with animations; their focus makes the signup and login flow very intuitive
Fully automated password recovery system
Fully automated signup process with the option to verify account via an email link or in-place
Tight integration with saving searches while not logged in or signed up
Tight integration with all "lead-in" links that invite a web visitor to become a member, such as "Add to Favorites"; the web visitor will never need to navigate away from their current page
Fully automated account expiry extension system
Intuitively presented options for the user in case of the account being unverified, locked, or expired
Helpful support of logged in VOW users when they try to use other listing forms, such as "Listing Inquiry" or "Email Listing": they don't need to enter image verification codes and their personal info is pre-filled.

We hope you and your web visitors will enjoy the new forms. This functionality will benefit all current MyRealPage subscribers, as well as "Listings Only" customers.

--Brought to you by MyRealPage

New Coat of Paint for Listing Tools

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:20:17 GMT

Continuing with the focus on enhancing lead generation and usability of its Listings System, MyRealPage updated its Virtual Office Website (VOW) Toolbar and Listing Favorite Toolbar with a new look and enhanced functionality. The updates were designed to boost the usability of the Listing Tools, as well as maximize their potential to generate web leads for our website owners.

MyRealPage has been a long-term provider of Virtual Office Website (VOW) solutions for real estate agents, teams and brokers in both Canada and the United States. Most notably, as part of all MyRealPage website packages (where regionally available) and stand-alone listing subscriptions, our customers' web visitors can:

Sign up to become members of the Virtual Office Website
Save their searches, edit them at will, based on a variety of search forms; from graphical Google Map based "draw-and-search" to traditional text-oriented forms
Choose to be notified about changes in the search properties, such as price changes, new listings, etc.
Bookmark interesting listings, add comments, rate and categorize listings

These tools are now made visible in public searches in all listing pages. When selected, they will invite web visitor to sign up or login, providing an easy conversion path for an anonymous user to become a well-qualified lead and a potential real-estate client.

We hope you and your web visitors will enjoy the new and improved look and feel of the Listings Tools. These updates are provided to all MyRealPage website users with Virtual Office Website features (where regionally available), as well as "listings-only" subscribers.

--Brought to you by MyRealPage.

MyRealPage makes it easier to sign up leads from listings, introduces new search forms

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:58:01 GMT

Maintaining the focus on making your web listing searches and tools be the best they can be in generating well-qualified leads, MyRealPage updated its Listings system to bring Virtual Office Website (VOW) signups and logins closer to your listing searches and forms which are open to general public.

Traditionally, in regions where the Real Estate Board rules allow both Reciprocity and Virtual Office Website (VOW) programs, the promise of fuller, more up-to-date information, as well as a host of online tools to organize and save searches and favorite listings; be notified of market changes in saved searches, etc; provide a sufficient incentive for your web visitors to sign up for Virtual Office Website (VOW) access. By cultivating such signups, you cultivate your leads and turn them into clients and more business.

Now, MyRealPage listings pages include VOW toolbar in both Reciprocity and VOW pages, so your visitors don't need to navigate into special sections of your website to obtain VOW access: they can get it right in Reciprocity pages, including all your Predefined Searches which you publish through Reciprocity. By bringing the VOW toolbar, signup and login closer to where anonymous access to your listing searches occurs, MyRealPage brings the potential leads closer to you.

New Search forms for Greater Vancouver, Northern BC and Fraser Valley

MyRealPage has released a number of new search forms targetting Greater Vancouver, Nothern BC and Fraser Valley areas. In particular, MyRealPage has added a "Simple" search form for all three regions which provides simple traditional search controls for those that prefer such an interface to "rich" map oriented searches. In addition, Google Map Search forms have been packaged for Northern BC and Fraser Valley. As is the case with all search forms that are available by MyRealPage, all of them can be used to save searches and create Predefined Searches.

The new updates are provided to all MyRealPage customers subscribed to its Listing solution at no extra cost.

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage

Updated Google Map Template for Your Listings

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:00:15 GMT

MyRealPage has had Google Map oriented listings template for some time but now it has received an update in the way it looks and behaves. We wanted to make this template more usable and attractive and we also opened up more options for you to choose which template you would like shown for your listings.

Google Map canvas has been made to span the whole width of the template to give listings more room to show
The popup info windows' look-and-feel has been brought more in line with how they appear elsewhere in MyRealPage listing views; such as "Google Map Listing Searches", and "Find on Map". There is also an easy way to correlate the listings in the list, below the map, and the markers on the map.

It is now possible to set the "My Listings", "My Office Listings" and search results templates individually due to the update in the Private Office options. This way, you may choose to use Google Map oriented template for your listings, but regular templates for all searches in Reciprocity and Virtual Office Websites (VOW).

These new options are available at no extra charge to all Listings subscribers. We hope you and your web visitors will enjoy these new options and looks!

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage

New Listing Web Forms and One-Click Leads

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:14:07 GMT

MyRealPage has released updates to its Listings Web Forms. The primary focus of this update was to make listing web forms more user-friendly, interactive, and fun for web visitors to use. We also wanted to make it easier for our customers to capture and manage leads generated by these forms. As a result, the following has been put in place:

One-Click Lead Capture: If you have ever found yourself copying and pasting lead information from your notification emails and was wondering if there was an easier way; then you will be pleased to work with the One-Click Leads. Your forms will extract all lead information, including details on how the lead was captured and give you a simple link in the notification email which you can use to easily review and create the lead (don't forget that by using Outlook Synchronization and import/export functions in the Lead Manager in the Private Office, your leads become "portable").

"Listing Inquiry", "Send this Listing", and "Calculate Mortgage" forms were updated to behave and display in an attractive animated manner.
"Listing Inquiry" forms will perform as expected for Brokers and large Teams with Agent Directory subscriptions. They will display the agent photos from the directory, as well as direct the email appropriately.
Brokers' "Featured Agents" will also be honoured if they were configured to receive listing inquiries; showing their appropriate photos. Tier 3 broker agents will also benefit from Lead Capture links in their notification emails.
All forms that result in the web visitors receiving emails will benefit from MyRealPage integration with the MLXJet email branding.
Even though the web forms appear and behave in a "rich" manner in the browser, they are also "visible" and accessible to search engine bots; that is, they are SEO-friendly. They can also be accessed and used without javascript.
Our customers with "Listings Only" subscription will equally benefit from the new and improved forms.

Here are a few screenshots that show an example of a Lead Capture:

We hope you and your web visitors will enjoy the new and improved Listing Web Forms.

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage.

Semi-Custom branding with myRealPage designs!

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:15:05 GMT

Are you looking to unleash the full potential of your marketing brand? Want to stand out from the crowd. Take your myRealPage.com design to the next level by giving it a fresh new look.

myRealPage websites are fully customizable to create any look you desire. Whether it is a different take on one of our many pre-built designs, or a new look developed from scratch, myRealPage websites are "unlocked", this means you get full access to manage your sites CSS, Scripts and Layout.

Here is one of our recent clients that chose one of our themes and had us update his site to be more inline with his marketing. The client chose theme 605 as a base starting point and then had custom graphics and colors applied to his site using the tools available in all myrealpage websites.

If you would like to talk to one of our designers about how a semi-custom or custom site can help you stand out from the crowd please dont hesitate to contact us!

Listings: Images, Videos, Virtual Tours, Banners, Galleries

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:22:52 GMT

MyRealPage has just made a major update to its Listings System. The focus of this update was listings media: images, videos, virtual tours, banners, galleries, mapping, etc. It is hard to over-estimate how great of a role the visual media play in promoting your listings, so we wanted to give you the most flexible and attractive way to package your listing visuals and present them to your web public. Here, we'll give you a brief overview of the new features and we will continue to publish additional HOW-TOs on specific scenarios which you may encounter.

Flexible Handling of Auto Imported and Manual Photos

Most of our customers enjoy the benefits of auto imported listings. These listings come with photos, but, the quality of the photos often varies by Real Estate board system; and this quality may not be satisfactory if you want to showcase your listings. Now, you can take full control of your listings photos:

Add photos to the already imported listing photos, and re-order the photos. If your listing is co-listed, the co-listing agent will not be affected by your ordering choice or your additional photos.
Fully disable auto-imported photos and upload your own versions of the photos. We support higher photo resolution for better quality than most Real Estate Boards.
Convert imported listing photos to manual and edit them by removing unwanted artifacts, such as borders, white bands, etc.

Online photo editing

We have extended the photo editing capability which we have recently introduced into our Website System to your listing photos. You can now edit manual photos online: it's especially useful if you want to remove unwanted borders or "bands".

Six photo galleries to choose from

You have the ultimate control of how you would like to present your photos. We have packaged 6 different galleries: 2 javascript based ones, and 4 flash based ones to give you a wide range of photo presentation possibilities. The galleries can be easily changed for Listing Results or Listing Detail views independently. The Gallery Picker can be found in Listing Options.

Upload or Embed up to 9 Videos and up to 9 Virtual Tours

You can now feature Virtual Tours and Videos about your listings which you can either upload or embed from other video websites. There are up to 9 available slots for Virtual Tours and 9 for videos for a total of 18 (we think that should be sufficient!). The uploaded or embedded videos can be managed just like any other listing documents in your Private Office.

Create your own custom listing banners

MyRealPage has provided automatic listing banners, such as "NEW" and "SOLD" for some time now, but now you are able to create your own, along with your custom text and your choice of color. This is a great way to feature your listing and make sure it stands out. The banners will show up on your listing photos in both Listing Results and Listing Detail views; and they will also slide out as a tab in your galleries for greater visibility.

New exciting mapping options: Google Earth (in the browser) and WalkScore

We have also added new exciting mapping options which are automatically provided to your web visitors. If they have Google Earth plugin installed (very easy to do), they can experience the total 3D "fly-through" to your property in the Google's Earth virtual environment. This is truly a futuristic experience! In addition, we have integrated with the WalkScore service which shows how "walkable" your listing's location is: it shows amenities close to the property and gives it an overall score:

We hope you will enjoy these new features which are included free of charge in your standard Listings package. (Our customers that have subscribed to our "listings-only" option, will also be able to enjoy all the benefits of these improvements).

Your Listings on Craigslist in a Jiffy

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:02:54 GMT

The Problem: When you promote your listings and decide that you would like to post them on Craigslist, you may find yourself needing to re-enter listing information into web forms and also needing to format it to make it presentable. Even if you copy-and-paste this information (there are 8-9 fields on the craigslist form!), you will still probably find it too repetitive and unnecessary when you multiply it by the number of listings you want to post.

The Solution: MyRealPage has created an easy tool to "paste" one or more of your listings into Craigslist while avoiding any repetitive chores. The process is still manual and tagets one listing at a time (as dictated by the Craigslist terms of use) but it is now reduced to just a few clicks per listing, without any typing or copying-and -pasting. This makes it possible for you to post a listing in just a few seconds!

Each listing that you post is nicely formatted and includes all the listing photos. It also contains links that connect the posting to its full details view on your website, as well as links that take the reader to your listing searches and your other listings. In addition, you can specify a default header and footer, as well as custom contact banner for each posting. This may be useful if you decide to brand your listings on craigslist in a consistent banner (TIP: do you have an image that you use for your email banner? why not use it for craigslist default header?)

It is hard to underestimate how important it is to give your listings maximum exposure to the public. Craigslist is a very popular classifieds website and by posting there, you are likely to catch the eye of many home sellers and buyers who frequent it. Having your website links in each of your listing postings will help drive web traffic to your website, create leads and increase sales. We hope that we are able to make your job easier for you with this helpful tool.

Watch this helpful video that shows you how quickly you can post your listings on craigslist:

MyRealPage adds MLXJet support to give you consistent Branding

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:24:59 GMT

We know that your branding is important to you and your business and keeping it consistent cannot be underestimated.

That is why we have released support for email branding provided by MLXJet (www.mlxjet.com). This support ensures that all automated emails that our servers send out on your behalf are branded with your MLXJet email template.

Such communications include:

Automatic Listing notifications that go out to your clients and leads
Website Sign-Up confirmation and welcome emails
VOW (Virtual Office Website) Sign-Up and other communication emails

So now, even the emails which you don't physically send out yourself, still carry your brand.

It is easy to set up your MLXJet branding with MyRealPage. All you have to do is go to your "Contacts" tab in the Private Office and click "Branding Options". There, provide the email address you used to sign up with MLXJet.

If you are not an MLXJet user, you should check them out. MLXJet offers a comprehensive suite of email branding tools, which include:

Great Looking Templates
Invisible Email Tracking
Live Links to your website
Referral Royalties Program

Best of all, MLXJet provides you with a means to have your emails branded from anywhere you send them, including Outlook, webmails, and MLS systems such as MLXchange, Tempo, and others.

MLXJet support is provided for free and we hope you will find it useful! (Please note: you will need to purchase MLXJet subscription separately)

Smart Images and Image Editing for MyRealPage websites

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:19:22 GMT

Have you ever tried to insert an image into your webpage only to find out that the image was WAY too large and completely "blew up" your page! If you have, and found yourself scratching your head how to make this image work, read on...

MyRealPage Website System has received a new update which injected some "smarts" into its images. It turns out that many users upload images directly from their cameras and these images are too big for the web pages and create a very unsavory effect of "destroying" the page layout. It also turns out that, in many cases, MyRealPage system can make a pretty good judgment as to how large the image should be at the time when you are inserting it. So now, when you try to place an image into a webpage and MyRealPage Website System thinks the image is too big, it will alert you with a few friendly options:

Choosing to automatically resize the image is a quick and easy way to move on. However, we didn't stop there. We have integrated an online Image Editor which allows you to do more! For example, in this Image Editor you can:

Crop your image
Add a nice-looking border to your image
Change your image's contrast, lightness, etc.
Even apply some effects, like "tint"
And it seemlessly co-operates with MyRealPage WebDrive where your images are kept

The Online Image Editor can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate button in the dialog above, or by right-clicking on any image in your WebDrive and selecting "Edit Image...".

Here is a screenshot of the Online Image Editor with a few options:

Below is also a short video demonstrating the new image resizing and editing facilities in MyRealPage Website Sytem:

RSS: Old Dog, New Tricks!

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:37:03 GMT

Let's start with the problem: Have you ever wanted to inter-connect content on your website better? For example: how about showing a random Customer Testimonial on your front web page; or a "Quote of the Day", or event better, one or more listings (but not from your own listings, but, say, from your Office Listings, or even from a Predefined Search which you had put together).

MyRealPage has created an interesting mechanism to enable just that. Many of MyRealPage weblets (the little building blocks out of which your web pages are composed) are list oriented. For example:

Testimonials
Awards
Reports
Links
Snippets (the new addition)

These list-oriented weblets lend themselves very well to be represented by an RSS feed. Read a quick primer on RSS and Feeds on MyRealPage Web Cookbook blog. Now when you combine the power of RSS feeds with the power of having an RSS Reader (which is what our "News Weblet" essentially is); you can start doing some interesting "magic" of "featuring" feed-enabled content on your website on any web page, such as your home page, for example!

How do you do it? The process is simple and requires that:

You have a feed-enabled page, such as your Testimonials page, Awards, Reports, or your special custom page with the Snippets weblet (that contains favorite quotes, for example); OR you have your own listings, office listings, or predefined public searches.
You add a "News Weblet" to the page where you would like to "feature" your content and connect the "News Weblet" to the feed-enabled page or listings in step 1.

(Hint: even if you have multiple list-oriented weblets on your web page, ALL of them will be included in the feed, hence, you can break up your Links page into sections with several Links weblets, and they will still all create one feed).

We have enhanced our "News Weblet" now to make it possible to "randomize" items before displaying them, making for a neat dynamic rotation of content. We have also optimized it for speed.

Watch a video below which demonstrates how to "feature" Testimonials and Predefined Search Listings on your home page. Experiment! We expect to publish more neat tricks with this technology on MyRealPage Web Cookbook Blog. And, of course, this feature is included in your standard Website Package. Enjoy!

[Special thanks to Peter Colak of Sutton Group West Coast in Vancouver (http://www.homesproperties.ca) for causing some "chain reactions" that lead to this release! Thanks, Peter! We appreciate your input.]

Welcome a new Weblet: Snippets!

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:48:36 GMT

MyRealPage Website System has just welcomed a new weblet arrival: Snippets! Snippets is designed to let you quickly create and maintain a "List of Things", such as Home Improvement Tips, Seller/Buyer Tips, Favorite Quotes, Recipes, etc. You will find Snippets interface very familiar, as it is based on the same underlying technology that drives other weblets, such as "Testimonials", "Awards", "Reports", "Links". Snippets allows you to open the door on what exactly you would like to list. Each snippet in the list can contain the following information:

Title
Description
Optional Image
Optional Link
Optional Link Text

Here is what a fully filled out Snippet may look like:

You will find Snippets under the "General" category in your weblet list:

Snippets also gives you quick and easy formatting options, such as, whether to organize your items in one, two, or three columns, whether to make them appear grid like, and even apply a different style for each items.

There is actually much more to Snippets than we have covered here, but we will explore that in the subsequent post in this blog. Stay tuned and experiment!

MyRealPage and Outlook Contacts: They Sync!

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:51:55 GMT

The Problem: One of the challenges everyone has is keeping their contacts up to date in a number of different programs. If you use Outlook in the office, you might have contacts stored there. As people sign up on your website, you will have lead and client information stored in MyRealPage Private Office. When you are out of the office or on the road, you may use Webmail and would like to have your contacts there as well.

The Solution: MyRealPage has integrated its Private Office and Webmail Contacts to synchronize with Outlook, as well as a number of other applications, including mobile, such as Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Windows Mobile. The synchronization to these different programs is provided by the technology developed by Funambol (http://www.funambol.com/), a company offering both commercial and open-source versions of this product. (Funambol plugins can be downoaded from here:

http://www.forge.funambol.org/download)

Using Funambol plugins along with MyRealPage Synchronization Server, you will be able to keep your contacts up to date in your Private Office, Outlook, Webmail, and other programs.

We are starting out by launching a public beta of Outlook Synchronization. Please watch the video below about how to get started. For anyone wishing to test out mobile solutions and/or other programs, you will need to use the following settings for the synchronization server:

Server: http://sync.myrealpage.com:8888/funambol/ds

Username: [Your Private Office username]

Password: [Your Private Office password]

With these settings, the configuration of any of the offered Funambol plugins is straightforward.

Watch the following video for a demonstration of this Outlook Contact Synchronization with MyRealPage Private Office and Webmail:

Funambol Outlook plugin can be downloaded from here:

http://www.forge.funambol.org/download

MyRealPage launches a Web Cookbook

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 06:50:41 GMT

MyRealPage Technical Director, Bill Skrypnyk, has launched a Blog, entitled "MyRealPage: The Web Cookbook". The purpose of this blog is to assemble useful tutorials and how-to's demonstrating how to use MyRealPage websites and listings to the fullest. The blog will attempt to leverage the video medium as much as possible to make tutorials easy to follow. It will also welcome comments and suggestions.

Please visit the following first articles:

Broker's Featured Agents: More Power to Them!

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:19:59 GMT

Our Broker clients have enjoyed MyRealPage "Agent Directory" product with full website integration for some time now, including the ability to "Feature An Agent" on any rotation schedule, manual, automatic, or random.

Now, the "Featured Agent" has even more power.

As a broker, you may decide to register a domain and associate it with an Instant Agent Website. You can now do that from your "Domains" module.
As a broker, you may decide to forward all listing inquiries from your website to your feature agent; equally, you may decide that the featured agent should also screen and process Virtual Office Website (VOW) sign-ups. Now you can easily enable this function and you can even copy all communication to your main email account, just in case...

Now, you can also specify which forms on your website, when submitted, should be forwarded to your Featured Agent. Some forms, such as "Home Evaluation", are good candidates, whereas others, such as "Become an Agent", may be left to go to the main broker email account: the choice is yours!

To round-off this new suite of features, you can also "delegate" any contact or lead in your Contact/Lead Manager to any one of your agents which has a MyRealPage account. The contact or lead is transferred fully, including their Virtual Office Website (VOW) subscription (if any), username and password:

Latest News

MyRealPage Listing Search hits iPhone and Android

New Listing Details pages on MyRealPage websites

Updated "Area Search" form, better search form selector, and more

More options for Pre-defined Searches and Forms

MyRealPage publishes more Listing Updates; caters to Real Estate Teams of Two

Enhanced support for Teams of Two

Better Listing Page Navigation

Default Sort Order improvements

MyRealPage overhauls Virtual Office Website forms, weaves into public searches

New Coat of Paint for Listing Tools

MyRealPage makes it easier to sign up leads from listings, introduces new search forms

New Search forms for Greater Vancouver, Northern BC and Fraser Valley

Updated Google Map Template for Your Listings

New Listing Web Forms and One-Click Leads

Semi-Custom branding with myRealPage designs!

Listings: Images, Videos, Virtual Tours, Banners, Galleries

Flexible Handling of Auto Imported and Manual Photos

Online photo editing

Six photo galleries to choose from

Upload or Embed up to 9 Videos and up to 9 Virtual Tours

Create your own custom listing banners

New exciting mapping options: Google Earth (in the browser) and WalkScore

Your Listings on Craigslist in a Jiffy

MyRealPage adds MLXJet support to give you consistent Branding

Smart Images and Image Editing for MyRealPage websites

RSS: Old Dog, New Tricks!

Welcome a new Weblet: Snippets!

MyRealPage and Outlook Contacts: They Sync!

MyRealPage launches a Web Cookbook

Broker's Featured Agents: More Power to Them!