Integrating with the right industry services can make all the difference.

Service integration: In the world of web design, it’s one of the skills that separates the amateurs from the pros.

It’s also one of the skills that some businesses require in order to make their web presence effective. In the real estate industry you’re not reaching all of your potential buyers and renters if you’re not listing your properties in sites like Zillow and Trulia, but manually entering a large property portfolio is slow and tedious. Fortunately, Zillow and Trulia provide the ability to serve them feeds: documents specially crafted to provide listings in bulk.

By utilizing the property management database I built for Savidge Housing Group years ago, I was able to build a dynamic feed of their available properties that gets parsed by Zillow and Trulia every 24 hours. Katie Savidge, co-owner of the company, has said their online leads have skyrocketed and,

The visibility being in Trulia and Zillow has given us makes us feel secure in a way we’ve never known.

This integration is not without it’s quirks. Zillow specifically is a difficult company to work with. They don’t update their feeds regularly. They will deny updates for no reason and without notice. Setting this expectation up front is key to a successful Zillow integration.

Savidge Housing Group

Savidge Housing Group is a family owned and operated apartment rental service located in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

Savidge Housing Group Website:http://www.savidgehousinggroup.com

Task

Utilize the existing property management system I developed for Savidge Housing Group years ago to feed their available properties to real estate search services Trulia and Zillow.

Skills

  • PHP, Zend Framework
  • XML
  • Zillow and Trulia XML Formatting
  • Zillow Integration “quirks”