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• A Home Search for visitors to your website, look at listings right in your web browser, no signup required.
• Visitors can choose to sign up to receive listing updates daily in their email right on your website.
• An enhanced blog based on the popular WordPress system. Show you are the neighborhood expert by writing and posting neighborhood content to your listings map including schools, parks, your favorite coffee shop and more. Visitors to your site will see your blog posts on the map right alongside the listings. It’s more than just a listings map, it’s a buyers ultimate resource.
• An intuitive online guide to help you make the most of your site

Click here to download the NWMLS Data Access agreement pre-filled out with the HomeQuest information. Simply fill the rest of the form (including Brokers signature) and fax it to NWMLS.

Why have custom icons?  As an agent, you find yourself selling a neighborhood to a family just as much as you have to sell the house.  To sell a neighborhood, just blog about it and your map posts will do the talking for you to any website visitor.

How do I get started?:

To use the special mapping icons, you must have specially named Categories added to your system.  Any post included in one of these categories will display with a special icon.

Adding the Categories (Do this step once)

Note: You must add these Categories, they do not exist by default.  Make sure to keep the exact name or the special icon will not display.

Special Category Names:

• Listing
• Miscellaneous blog post (anything that the system does not recognize)
• Coffee shop
• Shopping
• Happy hour
• Restaurants
• Schools
• Events
• Parks

Categorizing a post (Do this everytime you want a post to show on your map):

Add a post (from Write > Post) like a normal blog post.  (Note: Make sure to geocode the post, only geocoded posts appear on your map.)

When you categorize the post, make sure to use one of the pre-defined special categories listed above.

Example:

Finding your Twitter link:

Your Twitter link is the easiest link to get, its just: www.twitter.com/YOURUSERNAME

(Example: www.twitter.com/garrons)

Finding your Facebook profile link:

Once you are logged into Facebook, right click the “Profile” link at the top.  Select “Copy Link Address” from the menu.  Your link is in the clipboard and ready to be pasted.

Finding your LinkedIn profile link:

When you are writing a standard static page, you do not need to change the Page Template.  However, if you need to create a special page like a Daily Email signup page, a Recent Posts page, or an Archives page you will use their special page template.

In your HomeQuest account, click the “Websites” tab.  Click the “Site Admin” button.

It is important to note that listings that are delivered through email are displayed on the Client Looking Glass map, not on your IDX website map.

Adding a Daily Email map page to your IDX site:

Step 1:  From the “Write” menu, click “Page”.

Step 2:  Name your page, then without entering anything into the content, scroll to the very bottom of the page.

Note: Any content you enter into this field will not show on the page.  The special page we are creating will show the daily email signup map and nothing more.

Step 3: From the “Page Template” drop down, select “Page Map”

Step 4: Publish the page by clicking the “Publish” button.

Your website now has a page containing only the Daily Email signup map similar to the one displayed below.

Your HomeQuest site tools were designed with all of your clients in mind, whether they are on a PC running Windows XP or Vista or Windows 7 with Internet Explorer, or a Mac.   This way, you can reach a broad audience while providing your clients with an easy to use home search no matter what kind of computer they have.

It is important to note that if you convert an existing site to IDX, you cannot return that site to the old style and your customized text and images are not retained.

Editing the default information

About Me: Your IDX site comes with some standard default text and settings that should be customized before you have visitors to your new website.  The “About Me” text should be changed and is editable from the Dashboard, or the “About Me” widget page (pictured below).

Agent Info: The Agent contact info that appears in your Agent widget can be edited with the other widgets in your site under the “Design” menu.  Click here to see more on Adding and Editing Widgets.

Remember to save your settings using the button at the bottom.

Contact info: Your name, phone number, personal image/logo and your partner information are all edited from the “Preferences” tab of your HomeQuest account.  Any changes to your contact information in your HomeQuest account will automatically reflect on your website.

The last part of a page that is important to edit when you are setting up your site is the All In One SEO information which can be found under “Manage > All In One SEO”.  Click here to see more on All in One SEO.

We now have the ability to import your current blog into the IDX system. If you are maintaining a WordPress blog elsewhere and would like to transfer it to your HomeQuest IDX domain simply follow these 3 steps:

• Within the WordPress you wish to export from, navigate to Manage then Export
• Export your Posts and Pages following the steps on screen
• Email us the XML file to import, along with the URL and any instructions / requests.