Things You Need to Know About IDX Broker

IDX Broker is a web-based property search and marketing platform designed for real estate agents. IDX Broker provides the tools to create an online presence, automate listings, generate leads from home searches, market your business, and increase your visibility with local buyers. 

What Does IDX Mean?

IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. It is a protocol used by real estate professionals to share MLS listings between websites.

IDX is sometimes called Broker Reciprocity or IDD. It began in the early 2000s when the Internet was in its infancy. Real estate agents and brokers discovered that they could share information about their listings online in one central database.

What’s the Difference Between IDX and MLS?

MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service. This allows exclusive access to shared listings for real estate agents and brokers, but not the general public.

IDX, on the other hand, is software hosted on a website that allows real estate professionals to populate local MLS listings or listings from multiple MLS’s. Then, IDX gives access to anyone to view and perform property searches without an agent or broker’s help.

What is IDX Broker™?

To tap into the power of the IDX, you need to find an IDX provider. IDX Broker™ is the most popular IDX provider, offering agents a platform to grow their business in a plethora of ways. IDX Broker™ can be used with your existing WordPress website, a developer can build IDX Broker™ into your new web platform, or you can choose to build a site with IDX Broker™ and its features.

IDX Broker™ is a real estate search portal that provides an MLS listing data feed to websites, where homebuyers can search for homes directly on the website of a participating agent or brokerage.

You’ll have the ability to showcase your listings in an elegant fashion with fully customizable features, advanced search, modifiable SEO meta descriptions and tags, and forced registration that you can customize throughout your website to generate more leads.

And if you don’t already have an existing website to integrate with IDX Broker™, you can build one through them on a WordPress platform with a variety of templates.

Who Owns IDX Broker™?

Elm Street Technology, LLC, was founded in 2016. In June of 2020, they acquired IDX Broker™, based in Eugene, Oregon.

Elm Street Technology, LLC owns and operates IDX Broker™, the company’s search, and developer network. In addition to IDX Broker™, they have seven additional real estate-related properties, including:

• TryElevate.com: Advanced CRM, lead generation, and digital marketing
• 3sixtyfive.agency: Full service creative and digital advertising agency
• Creative.ink: Full-service print shop
• VoicePad.com: Lead generation and telecom solutions
• FlowROI.com: transaction Management
• IxactContact.com: CRM plus marketing automation
• MorrisMarketingGroup.com: automated direct mail and digital outreach.

IDX Broker™ Website Solutions for Real Estate Agents

IDX Broker websites provide advanced lead generation tools. They offer listing syndication, so potential buyers can find your properties on hundreds of other sites, including Google®, Zillow®, Trulia®, Yahoo!®, AOL®, Bing®, and more. This greatly increases your online visibility beyond your own website.

IDX Broker™ websites are mobile-friendly, so they’re easily seen on smartphones and tablets. They’re designed to engage buyers quickly with their easy-to-use property search tools, such as saved searches and custom mapping, just like the home search plans mentioned above. These features help bring in leads that can be used through 3sixtyfive.agency, an IDX Broker™ sister company, for high-quality, customized marketing and advertising services.

IDX Broker™’s website design is sleek and professional, matching the branding of your real estate business. And they offer lead capture forms to help gather leads from interested buyers on your website.

In addition to a great website, IDX Broker offers many other ways to get involved – including lead syndication, team member management, and more.

IDX Broker™ Websites come in two options: IDX Broker™ lite and IDX Broker™ Premium. Between them, there are magnetic templates with an array of features to choose from, including:

• SEO security with SSL: Secure your site with an SSL certificate for added security.
• Integrated IDX: Add IDX search to your website with just a few clicks.
• Mobile-first design: IDX Broker™ websites are compatible with all mobile devices and fully responsive, so you can draw in buyers wherever they may be.
• Customized advanced search page: Create an easy-to-use page that lets buyers search for properties by location, price, property type, and more.
• IMPress plugin widget: Attract buyers with a plugin that provides instant access to your listing.

• Virtual showings widget on the front page: impress potential buyers with a virtual home tour right on your website’s front page.
• IDX listing detail pages: Display all the pertinent details about each property, including full property information, photos, and video.
• Quick home search widget on the front page: Let potential buyers find properties quickly and easily, right from your front page.
• Featured listings showcase: Showcase your most impressive properties on a labeled section of the website.
• Polygon saved links: Allow buyers to save their favorite searches and have results emailed to them automatically.
• Home valuation: Include a useful tool for potential buyers by providing a home valuation offer.
• Mortgage calculator: Help buyers determine what their monthly payments would be on a property.

• Listing Pro details: Include all the pertinent details about each property, including MLS number, price, listing agent name, sale date, and more.
• Predefined search results: Let buyers save their favorite searches and receive updates when a new property matches their criteria.
• Neighborhood specific showcase: Showcase the most popular neighborhoods in your area and bring in buyers who are specifically interested in those areas.
• Home Atlas layout: Automatically create a map of your area and let buyers search for properties with ease.
• Map search widget: Place a customizable map search widget on your website to let buyers search for properties by location.

How Much Does IDX Broker Cost?

There are two IDX/MLS home search plans available through IDX Broker™, Lite, and Premium.

The Lite plan comes with an essential map search and saved link features. It includes a customizable map search and details page with unlimited results, a predefined saved search link, and IDX that works with any website but plays especially well with WordPress.

The Premium plan comes with Home Atlas map with modern, interactive search and display templates. It also brings to the table a seamless lead home search experience, as well as a suite of tools to assist you in managing your teams and your office.

IDX Broker™ Lite: The IDX Broker™ Lite plans are available for agents starting at $50/monthly, a team plan starting at $70 per month, and an office plan that starts at a monthly fee of $100.

In addition to the monthly fees, there’s a one-time setup fee of $100.00. This enables HTTPS or SSL, syndication, and an Agent Roster Page.

HTTPS or SSL provides privacy for your visitors, making them feel comfortable on your site. URLs with HTTPS or SSL begin with HTTPS rather than just HTTP in the address bar. This is an important security feature that helps protect people’s information when they send it to you through a link in an email or on your website.

Syndication allows you to share your listings with other websites. When you syndicate your listings, they will automatically be updated when you make changes on your website. This saves you time and keeps your listings looking their best.

The Agent Roster Page is a great way to keep track of who is working with IDX Broker and makes it easy for buyers to find an agent who can help them with their search.

IDX Broker™ Premium: The premium package offers an agent plan for $80 a month and up, a team plan with a minimum monthly subscription of $100 or more, and the office plan starts as low as $130 a month and higher.

In addition to the monthly fee, there’s a one-time $1-00 setup fee. It includes every feature that the Lite plan offers but also features a Polygon Search Tool, social logins, and map search widgets.

A polygon search tool is a valuable asset for real estate agents. It allows agents to save searches and have them emailed automatically to clients who have expressed an interest in a particular area, property type, or price range.

Social logins are a great way to keep your leads’ information organized and easily accessible. When a lead signs in with one of their social media accounts, all of their contact information will automatically be saved in your system.

The map search widget is customizable and allows agents to place a map of the area they are working in on their website. This makes it simple for buyers to search by location, so the agent doesn’t have to do any extra work.

What is IDX Broker’s™ IMPress WordPress Plugin?

The IMPress plugin is a WordPress plugin that allows you to embed IDX Broker™ listings on your website with an Omnibar search feature. It’s easy to use and lets you customize how your listings are displayed on your website. You can also use the IMPress plugin to create custom search pages, property pages, and more. This encourages users to engage in property searches and creates more leads for you. It’s also mobile-responsive for a great user experience. Potential buyers can search by:

• City
• County
• Postal code
• MLS number
• Address
• Maximum price
• Minimum price
• Number of beds/baths

There’s no setup for the IMPress for IDX Broker plugin. Just insert the widget anywhere in your pages and posts with the IDX toolbar on the WordPress admin section of the editor.

To install the IMPress widget with Omnibar, login to WordPress, then choose Plugins from your dashboard, and click “add new.”

Next, search the plugins for “IDX Broker,” then search for “IMPress for IDX Broker WordPress Plugin,” then click “install now.”

Once you’ve installed the IMPress plugin, make sure to activate it.

When it’s activated, you’ve got to connect it to your IDX Broker account by logging in to your WordPress dashboard and clicking on “IMPress” and “General Settings.”

Open another tab on your browser and log in to your IDX Broker account, then click on “Home,” then “Access Control.” You’ll see a green box that displays your IDX Broker API Key. Copy that key, then return to the browser you had open with your WordPress account.

On WordPress, under “General Setting,” you’ll find a field that reads, “Enter Your API Key.” That’s where you’ll paste your API key. When you’re finished, click “Refresh Plugin Options.

What is an IDX Broker™ Page Wrapper Tool?

The IDX Broker page wrapper tool is a handy tool that helps you quickly and easily create and maintain an IDX-powered real estate website. It gives you a customizable template for your website, plus the ability to add listings, search tools, and more. You can also use it to create landing pages for specific neighborhoods or subdivisions. Plus, the page wrapper tool is mobile-responsive for a great user experience and automatically updates whenever you make a change to your website design.

To get started with Wrappers, go to your control panel, select design, then website, and then wrappers. Next, you’ll create the template, add the start and stop tags, and save your work in the control panel.

The Wonderful World of Widgets in IDX Broker

Within IDX Broker, you can access a plethora of widgets to add to your website to display IDX content. A widget is a small piece of code generated from your IDX Control Panel. You’ll copy and paste that code onto your web page, which will show the desired IDX content, such as:

• Slideshow
• Showcase
• Carousel
• Quick search
• Map search
• Lead login
• Lead signup
• Featured agent
• Market report
• Virtual showings

You can preview, edit, duplicate or delete existing widgets from your IDX Control Panel under the “Widgets and Legacy section.

IDX Broker™ and Your Facebook Business Page and Dynamic Ads

If your real estate Facebook Business Page has more than 2,000 followers, you can access a Featured Listing tab.

Right from your IDX Broker™ account, you can set up Facebook integration so you can show your featured listings on the social media powerhouse. This feature will not work with a personal profile; it must be a business page.

For people selling some kind of inventory, Facebook offers dynamic ads. IDX Broker™ is established to work directly with Facebook real estate dynamic ads.

Lead Management with IDX Broker™

If you have a Top Producer account, you can send new leads to it from IDX Broker™ automatically. Through your IDX Broker™ control panel, you can manage, create, import, export, and manage contact routing. You can sort and filter leads by:

• Flag
• Signup
• Name/Email
• Saved Searches (S)
• Saved Properties (P)
• Status

• Last Update
• Last Activity
• Traffic History
• Agent
• Tools to further manage your leads

The Status category includes:

• Unverified
• Verified
• No Account
• Blacklisted
• Disabled
• Unsubscribed

You can also log in as a lead so that you can have the exact same view that they see on your website.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a lead-generation and marketing tool that can help your real estate business stand out, IDX Broker is a perfect choice. It’s designed to make it easy for agents to elegantly display their properties with photo galleries, virtual tours, detailed property information, market reports, and more. When you’re ready to maximize IDX in your business, consider IDX Broker as your provider.

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