The tool allowing homeowners to display pins on the map next to the homes for sale, in order to “sell their neighborhood” is a freakin’ success! More than 1500 pins were added on the map in various areas of Canada!

This success however created a problem in some areas where it was too popular. That’s why we’ve implemented a new fonction in the map search. A on/off “NEIGHBORHOOD” button is now available on top of the map, allowing the visitors to hide or show the neighborhood pins.

Here’s an example :

The Open Houses feature will be redesigned in the following weeks.

Organizing an open house day is a great way to attract visitors and potential buyers. If you got any suggestions concerning this tool, now is the moment!

When you’re looking for a new home, you are searching for a house. But you’re also searching for a place where you’ll feel great and which will correspond to your lifestyle. So we’ve decided to develop a new tool that will allow our customers to “sell their neighborhood” to potential buyers!

In their online account, our clients have access to a new web page where they’ll be able to describe places of interest around their home. Schools, restaurants, parks, hospitals… It can be anything, as long as you feel like it is part of the reason why you love your area. You can see below for instructions on how to use this new tool.

The items saved by the private home sellers will be displayed to the website’s visitors in the map search interface. Arrow markers will show up next to the other markers. Clicking on those markers will open an info window with all the information entered by the home owner.

How to add my places of interest on the map ?

Here’s a little tutorial guiding you through the basic steps of adding neighborhood markers on the map :

1. Take a walk down the street and take some pictures of the cool places around; (640×480 would be perfect);
2. In your ByTheOwner account, click on the Your Neighborhood button;
3. Optional : Fill in the address fields, the map will then position a marker automatically;
4. Click on the map to make sure the marker is on the right spot;
5. Type in a brief description that will communicate your passion for your neighborhood to potential buyers;
6. Click the “Add” button. Voilà!

Note that you’ll be able to complete and modify the description later. Now, let’s see how to add your pictures :

1. Click on the “Browse” button;
2. Go get the picture on your computer and click “Open”;
3. Press the “Go” button;
4. You can select your pictures order by dragging them (if you have more than one, eh!);

So… where is Canada’s coolest city?

ByTheOwner.com will be integrating in the next days the use of RSS feeds for the diffusion of the ByTheOwner Alerts. The visitors searching for a property will be able, with a single click, to create a RSS feed corresponding to their search criteria, and thus to be the first to know when the house of their dream gets live on the website.

RSS feeds are soooo cool ! But… why?

A RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication), is a XML file which a Web site diffuses in order to spread easily its contents. From the feed’s url, one can daily consult the new contents of the site without being forced to go on the website. Okay… so what? Why wouldn’t you want to go to the website?

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The past few weeks at ByTheOwner’s web development offices were focused on upgrading the search tools available under the Find a property tab. The advanced search, map search and search by phone number (which becomes the search for a specific property) all received important changes.

Advanced search

This page’s layout has been re-designed so that you can get a quick look of all the parameters chosen without having to scroll down. Instead of displaying a long list of checkboxes for the cities and types of properties, we’ve decided to roll back and use a control we had in the past : The available cities are displayed in a list-box. The visitor then clicks on the cities he’s interested in and sends them to a second list-box, using arrow buttons. Note that you can send multiple properties using the CTRL and SHIFT buttons or by clicking and dragging your mouse over the cities.

A keyword field was also added just below the options so you can be even more specific in your search. Simply type in the words you search for, separated by spaces and click on the search button.

Google Map search

The map search also received a lot of upgrades.

The provinces, regions, and cities markers were all replaced by a red target icon whose size represents the number of properties available in it. Keeping the same marker icon for those 3 steps makes it clearer and more intuitive to use.

The posted markers adjust themselves now automatically according to the zoom level and the map movements. In the past, it was necessary to click on the markers to enter a province, then in an area, a city, etc… Now, if a visitor uses directly the google maps controls to explore the map, the areas, cities or properties are displayed automatically.

A Jump to city field above the map makes it possible for visitors to quickly position the map on a city of their choice. Simply type in the city name and push Enter.

The filters you can apply to the map are now available under the button Modify my search criteria.

We have also decided to double the size of the map. This makes the map a lot more interesting to use.

Finally, a maximum of information on the properties is now available directly in the map. When you rollover a property, you get it’s photograph, price and city. When you click on the marker, an infoWindow containing part of the listing, the 320×240 pictures, the owner remarks and contact information opens. The visitor does not have to go back and forth any more from the map to a listing, the map, the listing, the map…

Also, in each search mode, a navigation bar allows the user to go to the other modes quickly in order to use that one that is appropriate to his needs.

Your comments?

Frédérick Dubois, ByTheOwner.com
Web development and programming