Our San Diego home search provider just got better. We have been using a platform from Diverse Solutions for the better part of the past year. I love it, and I can only assume that our users appreciate it as well. I can only assume, that is, because I have long adopted a contrarian approach among real estate agents to allow free comings and goings without requiring registration. More on that crazy, self-defeating way of earning your business in a minute, but first for some of the cool new features. Visitors can now search by:
- School district
- Days on market
- Price change
- Nature of sale (foreclosure, pre-foreclosurem short sale)
In addition, visitors can make notes on specific homes for later reference. The searches seem to be loading faster, and the navigation is more intuitive.
Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, is a fellow disciple of my church of laid-back information delivery and a fellow Diverse Solutions customer. He wrote:
I (once) experimented with requiring user registration. While there is no question that the number of “leads” produced in this manner increased greatly, the fact is that I don’t follow up / call / email anyone that simply wants to search for homes. (I know for a fact that many real estate agents and brokers are shaking their heads in disbelief right now). The way I figure it, you guys are pretty smart. If you need help, you’ll ask for it. And I’m more than happy to help.
Since I don’t “follow up” there seems little reason to force people to register. So that functionality has been turned off. Now if you want access to some wicked cool things like saved searches, the ability to get automatic updates of new homes, build your own RSS feeds for specific home searches and more, then you will need to supply an email address and password. You still won’t be hassled or get newsletters, refrigerator magnets or any other trinkets real estate agents are prone to distribute. That’s not how we roll. But to access things like auto-updates and saved searches, there has to be a way to identify you from the other several hundred that are using this tool. Email is the way that is done. Trust me, I loathe spam and your email address will never, ever, be sold or compromised.
Amen, brother! This describes our philosophy to a T.
Take it for a test drive. I promise not to put you in a headlock and make you buy something.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kris Berg is Co-Owner and Designated Broker of San Diego Castles Realty. If not-so static web sites are your thing, go here at once where you will find loads of real estate information including homes for sale, market trends, floor plans and more. Kris's hobbies include fencing and spot welding. She likes kittens. 
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I am also with Diverse Solutions and am excited about some of the upgrades they have completed. I think there may still be a few glitches with the new system. I am going to wait a few days before I publicize the upgrades to my clients.Interesting take on registration. I will need to think about that.
Amen, sister!
I love the Diverse Solutions upgrade.
As for the age-old registration.no registration debate…. I don’t know what to say. To each their own? There is no “right” or “wrong” way. It really just boils down to a philosophy thing, dontcha think?
I think.
Nice. Best of all the realtor sites I’ve seen, and faster than redfin. I wish it expanded to fill the browser and I wish it had previous sale data.
Smart move not making people sign in. I run headlong away from any site that makes me register.
I am working on expanding the frame – My whole site is “dated skinny.” Previous sale data is something I can’t do much about for now – IDX feeds rely on MLS active listing feeds.
I’m shifting our property search site to something more sophisticated this week and DS is one of the systems I’m evaluating.
Thanks for the input!
Jon Boyd
Exclusive Buyer’s Broker
The Home Buyers Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
Nice stuff! I’ve emailed, hoping they’ll do Denver.
Glad to know I’m not the only one that doesn’t like to market that way. Just not my style.
Love your blog!
Cool, Kris. Extra-skinny is never sexy.
My favorite site for checking listings is by far sdlookup.com. The site simply rocks. I think a major reason is it is blindly fast, and uses almost 100% plain html. It has a simple page of daily changes. And each listing page has everything I want to see, including past sales. The pictures are presented on a single page, all full size so I can see everything just by scrolling without waiting for a slideshow or clicking next or listening to cheesy elevator music.
Sdlookup also has something a maybe little controversial. It lets people post anything they want on each home. People will just post their comments from visiting an open house. Or say something funny about the pictures or the next. More controversially, there are also frequently posts about NODs on the property, or property tax defaults. Very useful info for determining the motivation of the seller. So to me, everyone else is second place to sdlookup for keeping tabs on the market.