April 2011 IDX Broker Office Newsletter

Thank you again for choosing IDX Broker!

As noted in last month's newsletter (you may view past newsletters here), we have added many new servers to our infrastructure, 24/7 monitoring, and other infrastructure enhancements.

Now that we have enhanced our infrastructure, it's time to enhance our tools. We have taken several steps to do just that :
  • A New Control Panel for the myAgent Mobile App is only a few weeks from Alpha, with Beta soon to follow. More to come in next month's newsletter!
  • An Android App is currently under development. This App will launch soon after the launch of the iOS myAgent App version 2.6, a major App upgrade that will include several important new features. Again, more to come in next month's newsletter.
This is just the beginning of our product development plans. Fortunately, you can expect the same great services and all NEW features at the same flat-rate price.

Please take some time to review the training articles below. Leverage your IDX Broker subscription to acquire more business and more Agents!

Best regards,
The IDX Team
@idxbroker


Add Listing Agent Info to Featured Listings

One of the main features available within an IDX Broker Office Account is the ability to display your Agents' listings as Featured listings - both on the Featured listings page, and at the top of standard search results.

IDX Broker matches Agent ID's provided by the MLS to match agents with listings. There's one catch - you need to associate their membership ID with a specific Agent Bio profile. The MLS doesn't provide us with the Agent's email address or contact information, therefore IDX Broker relies on you to enter that information into each Agent's Bio page.

Aside from name and email address, the most important detail that you need to add, or have the Agent add if you've provided them with a login, is the MLS Membership ID field. This ID field is how IDX Broker pairs up the Agent's listings with their Bio information (name, photo, phone, etc). Here's how you do that:
  1. First, login to IDX Broker and go to Manage Users/Offices -> Manage Users. Here, you should see a list of agents set up on your account. If you have yet to add your agents, you will find instructions on how to do that in our Knowledge Base.
  2. Click on the name of one of your agents to bring up their profile page. Use the "MLS Membership ID" field on this screen to enter your agent's MLS ID#. If you have multiple MLSs on the account, enter one ID for each.
  3. Once you've entered the ID, be sure to save your settings.
  4. Visit any of your featured listings. A listing Agent Bio subheader should automatically appear to the right of the property details (depending on your CSS and template). Contact links are also provided, so your site visitors can contact your agents directly with a single click.
  5. Congratulations! Now that your Listing Agent Bio contains their MLS membership ID, IDX Broker will automatically associate this Agent with ALL of their listings in the MLS.


Intra-Day Listing Changes (Updates)

Every 24 hours, IDX Broker automatically updates your Office listings with the latest update from the MLS. These listings are displayed on your Featured Properties page link, and may be managed using the Listings tab in your control panel.

Yet there may be some times when you need to change the price or other details about your listing in the middle of the day. Price changes, property descriptions, and photo updates sometimes cannot wait until the next MLS data update. We understand this, and have provide you with a set of listing management tools to display accurate intra-day MLS listing information (for featured listings only).

Your active Featured Listings are located under Listings -> Active in IDX Broker. Click on a listing address to visit the listing management screen for that listing. Below are some of the changes you can make to an Active listing in order to display intra-day changes to that listing:
  • Custom Property Description - Enter a custom property description into this field, and it will display in place of the description provided by the MLS.
  • Custom Price - Enter a new price for the listing here, and it will display on your results and details pages immediately.
  • Display as Featured -This preference allows you to choose which listings you would like to display on your Featured Properties page. Toggle this preference to No if the listing is pending sale, or to otherwise remove the listing from the Featured Properties page.
  • Display on Slideshow - Switching this preference to No will also remove this listing from your Featured Property Slideshow.
  • Latitude & Longitude - If the map location for your listing is incorrect, new latitude and longitude coordinates can be entered in here to adjust the map location. You can look up the latitude and longitude of a street address by using a free tool like iTouchMap.com.


There are additional options available in the menu to the upper left corner of this page. These options allow you to add extra content to your listings:
  • Add/Modify Photos - Edit which MLS photos are displayed or upload new photos for your listing.
  • Add/Modify Virtual Tour - Some MLSs provide Virtual Tours in their IDX data, but many do not. Using this tool, you can manually add Virtual Tour links to your listings.
  • Add/Modify Open House - Add an open house schedule to your listing. Listings with open houses will display on your Featured Open Houses page.
  • Add/Modify Custom Link - Use this tool to add an additional link of your choosing. Many use this feature to link to listing PDF brochures, floor plans, rental applications, etc.



Agent Control Panel

IDX Broker gives your agents an easy way to login to a limited "agent-level" version of the IDX control panel where they can manage their own leads and listings. You can educate your agents by becoming familiar with what your agents will see when they login to IDX Broker. Simply login as an Agent from any Agent Bio profile edit page.

Unless you choose not to authorize your Agents to view certain details, your agents will have access to the following areas:
  • Mobile - Each agent has their own code for myAgent, our iPhone app. Links and banners are available here for your agents to use to promote the app online. The Agent's information will display in the name, phone #, and email areas of the App. Your company URL and logo branding will display as well.
  • Lead Management - Your agents may view any leads that have been assigned to them, either automatically by the system (lead routing), or manually, by you. Agents can use this area to collect contact information about their leads, sign up leads for email updates, and manage leads' saved searches and saved properties.
  • Listing Management - If your agents have any active featured or supplemental listings, they will be able to manage those listing details here. Photos, virtual tours, and open houses may be added at any time.
  • Bio - Any information appearing on an agent's bio page may be edited here, by the Agent. Unless otherwise specified by you, Agents may manage and update their own contact information, photo, MLS membership ID or bio details.
  • Change Password - Agents may change their own passwords from the original password set up for their account. As the Broker, these passwords may be changed by you at any time.