Displet / Tribus Powered Real Estate Agent Websites
We receive a lot of calls from Realtors / Teams interested in building WordPress websites powered by Displet (Now Tribus) IDX. We highly recommend Displet and have used their product for many years. In fact, since 2012 we have partnered with Displet to power the website for BHHS’ #1 Team nationwide, The McCann Team.
A Quick (Non-official) History of Displet
Displet is unique in that it was created a Realtor. Austin Realtor Eric Bramlett (and his developers) launched Displet (pronounced “Display”) in 2010.
The original software was coded in php and was not WordPress based. For our first McCannTeam.com site Displet created a subdomain that matched the design of the main website. Users could enter a home search on the main website but the results page would be displayed on the subdomain (similar to how IDXBroker works today).
Later Displet rewrote the entire product as a WordPress plugin. That did away with the need for a subdomain, which was significant. Being entirely WordPress-based Virtual Results had full control over design. Also, widgets enabled search forms, property slideshows, properties and search results to appear within content pages / post throughout the site.
Displet was acquired by real estate software developer Tribus in 2014. That led to increased customer support and the latest product iteration which includes an integrated IDX, CRM (included lead routing), and Transaction Management. It’s currently the only such product for WordPress. Also unique is Displet’s outreach and API to enable developers (like Virtual Results) to customize and extend the core product as needed.
The Profile of A Displet User
What’s the typical Displet user profile? That’s an interesting question. Let’s face it, there are some pretty huge players in the IDX Vendor arena. The field does narrow significantly (maybe just to Displet) when a user’s criteria boils down to WordPress-based IDX / CRM / Transaction management. But the big IDX Vendors often have significant marketing budgets, may cost less and – most importantly – enjoy enormous market share.
Market share is everything as the “typical” real estate website buying process works like this: Realtor “Joe” finally becomes frustrated with the limitations (technical or aesthetic) of his free / low cost solution provided by the Brokerage or cheap national website provider, which offers sites as a loss leader for advertising or other services. “Joe’s” motivation isn’t typically a passion for providing great online tools / user experience. “Joe” doesn’t care about WordPress, doesn’t faithfully use a CRM, doesn’t care about Transaction Management. The greatest motivation for a user at this stage of technical sophistication is avoidance of embarrassment – “Joe” knows he has fallen behind and it’s causing him to look unprofessional. The fastest way to avoid the pain of embarrassment? Jump online, find a decent looking website, scroll to the site footer, click on the website vendor, order that website! Hence, why it all comes down to market share.
Needless to say, the above is not the usual Displet customer. 99% of the folks who contact me regarding Displet are preparing to rebuild their website for the 2nd or 3rd time. To the uninitiated, rebuilding a website for the 2nd+ time might sound horrible. But actually, folks at this stage have hit a sweet spot: they have come a long way in understanding what they actually want out of their website, they understand the critical importance of technology integration, they value and are willing to pay for a solution that meets their needs and – importantly – they also know what they don’t value (even if others do) and can avoid those costs / efforts. As a result, Displet’s potential users often actively seek out the solution as a result of other vendors failing to meet their unique battle-won website criteria. So conversations with potential and current Displet users can be pretty fun – their goals tend to be ambitious.
What Displet Users Want
The bottom line is users seek out Displet for leverage to achieve features only found on ground-up custom or enterprise websites.
An example would be McCann’s neighborhood based search interface, a feature costing a minimum of $100K+ in development without Displet. Why so much? Customized neighborhood boundary lines, customized neighborhood names, listing count and clustering by neighborhood, custom map design, open house version of the map – traditionally each of these items are only possible with a custom IDX written from scratch. But Displet offers an alternative, we are able to do just the custom development needed and power it via Displet. In other words, we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So what are the most common requests we get from potential and current users of Displet? Well, they are all over the place. Here are a few that come to mind:
I am just not happy with how listings / search results are displayed. I want it to look like [example website or handdrawn mockup]. Can you do that?
Within my own CRM (not Displet) I need to view user’s website and email activity. Possible?
I need an IDX that supports SSL (https://) and http2. Can Displet do that?
I want users to be able to select one of our agents from a drop-down list on signup! Easy Right?
I want to customize results pages or listing pages with banners/icons/text calling attention to New Listings, Price Reductions, Days on Market, Open Houses, or other listing attributes. Can that be done?
I want to route leads to agents based on day of the week, listing location, time of day, or whatever combination I dream up. Cool?
I want to create my own search interface based on neighborhood boundaries, school attendance zone boundaries, or whatever I dream up. I want to show the number of available listings. On click I want to only show listings in that unique (potentially custom) polygon. Humanly possible?
I need my Chat/Zillow/Realtor.com/Unbounce leads to be routed into my site CRM. No problem?
I want to use an off the shelf Website push notification service and integrate it with my CRM and IDX. I want to send Listing Alerts to users via push notifications. Piece of cake?
Lenders should be able to create an account, pay for our agreed on co-marketing budget, receive leads and followup to close loans -independant of the Agent’s success or failure to convert the lead to a client.
I need a team/broker solution that includes integrated IDX/CRM/Lead Routing/Transaction Management for 10 to 2600+ WordPress websites. But I also need a customized Dashboard to administer (create/edit/delete) user accounts and websites. Also, agent sites should have a custom dashboard branded to the company and only showing only the features they need most – and it should be graphically designed to look hip and fun to use.
Displet IDX core features (no customization needed)
Customization is great of course but it does require time and money – and upkeep. Take a look at what’s possible out of the box.
WordPress plugin & API
Select only the search fields you want. Reorder fields at will.
Customize listing urls, page titles and other SEO elements
Unlimited # of Agents can be added
Lenders can be added and receive cc on leads
Round Robin lead routing optional
Option to include only specific towns in search / search results (handy for large MLSes with homes in areas you may not work)
Zapier integration (integrate with hundreds of online services)
SSL Supported / Http2 photo delivery
Map search and user drawn polygon search support
Customize emails:
-New client signup
-New lead alert
-Saved Search Email alerts
User accounts for leads
-Signup / sign in
-Google+ / Facebook sign in supported
-Request Showing
-Favorite / Rate / add notes to a property
-Send property to friend
-Email alerts for saved listings
-Property alert email links automatically log in users to website
-Suggested listings sent to users based on history
Here are some real life examples:
Design Your Search Results Page How YOU Want.
Search Results Page Created Using Displet API
Listing Details Page Custom Design
Your turn
What would you change about your IDX if you could? What feature could you NOT live without? Leave a comment or question about Displet IDX Custom Solutions. We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences. If possible, we’ll let you know if your dream feature could be created with Displet IDX.
If you are reading this content from anywhere other than your RSS reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.