How to build real estate websites in ExpressionEngine

Building a real estate website isn’t an easy task, by far the most complex and confusing part of any real estate website is building the search and display of real estate listings (also called the IDX search or feed).

The issue is that there are nearly a thousand multiple listing services in the United States, each with their own unique way of storing real estate information with little to no accepted standard of how to share and release that data. Also the average real estate agent or brokerage likely has little or no knowledge about their board’s MLS IDX policies or technology. Finding out how you can get access to the IDX service for your board requires you to wade through an alphabet soup of terms and contacts at MLS boards.

Once you get access, your options are likely limited. Most IDX solutions either require an iframe, or redirect users to a separate domain that you will have little ability to modify or design. The IDX solutions that give you complete access to the data require you to import and manage hundreds of thousands of listings and photos yourself. Leading to increased costs and longer timelines that could cost you the client.

At Anecka we’ve solved this problem by creating a unique cloud service for real estate listings called Rets Rabbit. We handle importing listings from MLS boards across the country and give you a simple service that handles the searching, displaying, and managing of real estate listing data. We handle the listings so you can focus on building a great web experience.

Don’t just take my word for it, using Rets Rabbit and the ExpressionEngine CMS we built a fully featured IDX powered website in less than a week.

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One of the most used features of any real estate website is the search. If you’ve ever built a search in ExpressionEngine, you’ll find building a search with Rets Rabbit to be familiar:

As our demo site shows, using Rets Rabbit you can create real estate websites that:

This is great news for real estate companies: all of these will translate to more leads, more property searches, and more customers. Your website will increase your business and can be built at a lower cost and in less time. If you’re an agency or freelancer you can now sell real estate projects without fear and uncertainty. You can stop losing opportunities because you aren’t sure of how to handle the listing/IDX search.

If you are an agency that wants to work more with real estate clients or if you’re a brokerage looking to improve your web leads, contact us for a free consultation.