Who was IProperty built for?
IProperty was built for agents, property managers, and web developers to quickly and easily launch a full-featured, effective website for their online presence. Imagine that you could have a powerful, beautiful and responsive website similar to our demo site in a matter of minutes! You don’t have to imagine - it’s a reality!
Works great out of the box, as a developer we have done a lot of customization work with ease. For real estate listings its a great extension in that the hard part has been done. The Thinkery has clearly thought out what is needed and useful for Real Estate Listings management.
I’m an agent - why IProperty?
The Thinkery built IProperty in cooperation with the best selling agents from one of the top-ranked brokerages in the United States (names withheld to protect the guilty!). Through this process we learned volumes about what an agent wants and needs – how to quickly and cleanly present the listings for potential buyers, how to provide the agent with the tools to show his or her clients how hard the website is working for them, how to connect online and cultivate relationships with users.
As an agent, you want a clean, navigable website to showcase all of your listings with no hassle, no worries, all at a reasonable price. A place where potential buyers can go and search for properties in the area, view property details and image galleries, save favorite properties and search results, and request more information or a showing. IProperty. Check.
Tech-savvy agents out there might want more functionality that isn’t included in the box. A blog. A newsletter. A Twitter feed. No problem! IProperty is built on the award winning Joomla! platform. More secure and robust than Wordpress or any other content management system out there, with thousands of free extensions at the tips of your fingers! IProperty. Check.
I’m a property manager - why IProperty?
Property managers want a website where they can upload and showcase their properties to potential short or long term renters. An admin panel where they can easily manage their listings, un-publish listings that are currently rented, or feature listings that they need to rent as soon as possible. IProperty has all of the tools to easily display your listings in a clean and appealing way, a user friendly admin panel to manage, publish, un-publish, or feature listings with a click of the button.
And for all of you property managers with hundreds or thousands of listings, the last thing you want to do is manually input each one. To save time, we have built a handy-dandy import tool which allows you to structure your listings data and import hundreds or thousands of listings in seconds! We even provide the sample files to get you started!
I’m a developer - why IProperty?
As a developer, you want a well-coded, flexible, customizable and overridable product that will make your website build easier in order to focus on the client’s needs. You want a powerful tool that does the heavy lifting so you can make your development time more efficient and put your effort into the design, navigation, and layouts that make your clients happy. IProperty. Check.
IProperty is very well coded, flexible, customizable and overridable so you can easily fine tune all layouts to match any template. Not to mention the fact that it’s built on the award winning, open source Joomla! platform, which gives you a secure, user friendly cms with thousands of free extensions to build your client’s dream websites.
Along with the extensions you can freely add to your website, IProperty also offers the ability to extend functionality from within the code without needing to modify any core code. With custom plugin event triggers throughout the product, you can build your own plugins to satisfy those unique client needs. Check out the plugin positions and arguments here.
So How Do We Get Started?
IProperty comes in a few different flavors - they’re all great but you might have an appetite for one over the other. We’ll give you a taste of them all:
The Standalone Product
The standalone product was designed for developers, property managers, or independent real estate agents. The standalone product has advantages for each of you, explained below.
Developer Advantages:
- Flexibility - Add your client’s custom categories, nested subcategories, listings, images, amenities and more to create a custom website. Take advantage of the open source world of Joomla! to leverage the tools offered in order to add blogs, newsletters, and more!
- Modules and Plugins - IProperty installs with 40+ modules and plugins. Need to show featured properties on any page of the site? Need to show a custom map module based on location or a specific category? Easy peasy! Check out the list of modules and plugins that come with the standard product.
- Extended parameters - Want to add a page for new listings?? Maybe a page that displays only recently updated listings? Well, that’s easy too! IProperty supports extended parameters that allow you to create menu items to very specific curated lists.
- Support - Sometimes even the best developers could use a hint. That’s why we offer support forums which we, as the developers of IProperty, actively moderate. And keep in mind, if you finish your project and your support subscription expires, the product will still be fully functional; however, a subscription gives you access to downloads, updates and support forums.
- Customizable - IProperty has many, many options to customize layouts, colors and more in the settings area, but sometimes you need to get your hands dirty. Maybe your client wants a completely custom property details view with a custom gallery and layout. What then? Well, IProperty is built on the Joomla! MVC framework, and template overrides are your friend!
You know as a developer, it’s a NO-NO to touch the core code. Simply create a template override, totally separate from the IProperty core, and customize to your heart’s content! Learn more about custom css and overrides. - Custom Add-ons - IProperty offers custom plugin triggers to extend functionality. Many of the plugins used are already included in the package, but maybe you have a client that wants something that doesn’t exist yet. You can tap into the core IProperty code with a custom plugin of your own, building that custom feature without touching the core code! Learn about custom triggers here.
- Data Imports - Import your customer’s listings from a csv or xml file - we even provide sample files to help you out. All you have to do is structure your client’s listings data, head over to the imports area, and import hundreds and thousands of listings in seconds!
- MLS Data - Remember, if your client has access to an MLS data feed, our Importer solution might be what you want. We also offer custom import services if needed.
Property Manager and Independent Agents Advantages:
- Flexibility - As a property manager or independent agent, maybe your categories don’t align with the typical MLS data categories. That’s okay - with IProperty, you can add your own categories and nested subcategories. Unlimited nesting capabilities gives you flexibility to organize your listings to suit your specific needs.
- Image Management - IProperty’s image gallery allows you to upload multiple images which are re-sized to the dimensions you specify. Upload 20 photos to a single listing by dragging them into the uploads area or selecting them all at once.
- Share and Clone - IProperty offers the ability to share images between listings, and clone listings (including images and amenities)! For you property managers, this makes listing duplexes or apartment complexes a breeze! No duplicating and manually entering the same content for multiple listings. Just clone or share images and each listing can be tweaked to be unique if needed!
- Support - If building websites isn’t your full time gig, we understand. We’re always available on the support forums if you have questions.
- Services - Not tech-savvy? If you get in over your head or need some custom functionality, we are also happy to help with custom development services. Need a starter site with everything already set up so you can hit the ground running? Shoot us an email or contact us and we’d be happy to discuss!
Import Package
The import package was designed for agents with access to MLS data, or developers building a website for an agent who has access to MLS data. Who wants to manually add hundreds and thousands of listings, or for that matter, format all of that data to be imported manually on a timed basis? That’s why we came up with a better solution. An importer that populates your entire IProperty website with companies, agents, listings, images, open houses and more from the MLS data feed. Set up a simple cron job to update listings every hour, day, or whatever makes sense and you never have to touch it again!
Developers Advantages:
- Turn key website - The IProperty importer does the work for you. After the initial import, your entire IProperty website will be populated with data from the MLS. Company information, agents, listings, photos, and more. All that’s left is building the website to suit your client’s needs - set up your menu items and configure some modules/plugins and you have a full featured website displaying all of your client’s MLS data!
- Modules and Plugins - Need to show featured properties on any page of the site? Need to show a custom map module based on location or a specific category? Easy peasy! Take advantage of the assortment of modules and plugins that come with the product!
- Custom Add-ons - IProperty offers custom plugin triggers to extend functionality. Many of the plugins used are already included in the package, but maybe you have a client that wants something that doesn’t exist yet. You can tap into the core IProperty code with a custom plugin of your own, building that custom feature without touching the core code! Learn about custom triggers here.
- Extended parameters - Want to add a page for new listings?? Maybe a page that displays only recently updated listings? Well, that’s easy too! IProperty supports extended parameters that allow you to create menu items to very specific curated lists.
- Support - Sometimes even the best developers could use a hint. That’s why we offer support forums which we, as the developers of IProperty, actively moderate. And keep in mind, if you finish your project and your support subscription expires, the product will still be fully functional; however, a subscription gives you access to downloads, updates and support forums.
- Customizable - IProperty has many, many options to customize layouts, colors and more in the settings area, but sometimes you need to get your hands dirty. Maybe your client wants a completely custom property details view with a custom gallery and layout. What then? Well, IProperty is built on the Joomla! MVC framework, and template overrides are your friend!
You know as a developer, it’s a NO-NO to touch the core code. Simply create a template override, totally separate from the IProperty core, and customize to your heart’s content! Learn more about custom css and overrides.
Agent Advantages:
- Turn key website - The IProperty importer does the work for you. After the initial import, your entire IProperty website will be populated with data from the MLS. Company information, agents, listings, photos, and more. You never have to touch a thing if you don’t want to - configure your menu items and modules/plugins and you have a full featured website displaying all of your MLS data!
- Support - If building websites isn’t your full time gig, we understand. We’re always available on the support forums if you have questions.
- Services - Not tech-savvy? If you get in over your head or need some custom functionality, we are also happy to help with custom development services. Need a starter site with everything already set up so you can hit the ground running? Shoot us an email or contact us and we’d be happy to discuss!
The Flex Product (Powered by SparkAPI from FBS)
Now this is where it gets even more fun! Are you an agent or developer building a site for an agent who qualifies to be a FlexMLS customer? If so, you’re in luck, because we have the ideal real estate solution for you!
Agents and Developers Advantage:
- No Iframed Content - Many agents use cookie-cutter sites provided by their broker which is basically just a wrapper of the parent site’s content. Agents who are new to internet marketing and real estate websites in general are missing out on a crucial fact – iframed (or “smart framed”) real estate listings on their site don’t do them any good at all! Learn more here.
- Turn key website - With IProperty Flex, no joke, you could have a turn key, fully functional real estate website in a matter of minutes. We’re not saying you wouldn’t want to put some time into customizing it since you have the option to do that, but we’re just saying. Search engine friendly and fully integrated with the Flex dashboard in a couple simple steps.
- Integrations - As an agent, we know it’s important to keep a pulse on your website to track leads and strike up potential buyer conversations. IProperty’s integration with the Flex dashboard saves you a step. When somebody requests information through your IProperty website, we send it to your Flex dashboard. All of your data in one place. Doesn’t that sound nice?
- Simplicity - So simple a baby agent could do it - just enter your Flex api key in the IProperty admin configuration, click ‘Save’ and you have a full blown Flex api driven site!
- Custom Add-ons - IProperty offers custom plugin triggers to extend functionality. Many of the plugins used are already included in the package, but maybe you have a client that wants something that doesn’t exist yet. You can tap into the core IProperty code with a custom plugin of your own, building that custom feature without touching the core code! Learn about custom triggers here.