Local Market Explorer v2 Beta Now Available
The final release of version 2 of the Local Market Explorer WordPress Plugin is still a week or so away, but for the adventurous, we’re making available a beta version to try out. I feel pretty confident that there aren’t major bugs though, so you should be perfectly safe with the upgrade (if you’re currently using version 1) or install.
The BIG change in v2 is that the plugin now supports loading data on both neighborhood AND zip code level. To see an example, take a look at the Belltown neighborhood in Seattle, WA. The module was previously limited to just being able to display data on a city level. You can add your own descriptions (including HTML now) for each city, neighborhood, and zip code that you set up. You can still also link to cities, neighborhoods, and zips that you haven’t set up / added descriptions for.
Another great new feature is the addition of more market data in the “Market Statistics” module. Data such as the median list price, median sale price, median list price per sq ft, and the number of homes for sale has been added. More data will likely be available in the very near future.
Other changes include usability improvements in the admin area, the ability to turn the Flickr panel off independently of turning off the area descriptions, and the ability to turn off the “Schools” and “Market Statistics” modules.
Anyway, please give it a whirl. You can download the zip file here. If you don’t have Local Market Explorer installed at all, you should be able to simply download the plugin and install it via the plugin upload area in your admin. If you already have Local Market Explorer installed, you’ll need to follow the steps below to upgrade for now (since it’s not officially released yet):
- Deactivate the Local Market Explorer plugin.
- Go to the “Recently Active” plugins link.
- Click the “Delete” link on the plugin to delete all of the files for the plugin. You won’t lose your settings as they’re stored in the database, not in the files.
- Install the plugin using the plugin “Upload” link.
- Activate the plugin.
That’s all! It’d be really great to get feedback before this thing is officially released, so if you have anything to say, bugs you found, features you’d like to see, etc, feel free to leave it in the comments.
LenoreWilkas
Posted at 09:58h, 02 OctoberWow, I am blown away with this and will install today. Is the data being pulled from Zillow for stats or can you select your own data, as an Altos subscriber?
Jay Thompson
Posted at 10:28h, 02 OctoberHey Lenore –
The data is pulled from various places — Zillow for stats, Yelp for local reviews, WalkScore, etc. No ability to enter your own stats source. But you can chose which “modules” to display.
Jay Thompson
Posted at 10:19h, 02 OctoberDone!
Set up a page here: http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/phoenix-are…
The “'City' Real Estate Info” links lead to LME pages.
For example:
http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/local/gilbe…
I haven't set up zip codes yet, but a sample page would be:
http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/local/85234…
Of note:
There is no school info displayed on the zip code page. There are definitely schools in that zip
The button in the WalkScore area is stretched and ugly. Do you think this is a function of my theme Andrew?
Would love to be able to use the Flickr module to pull up selected photo sets. As it is now, it pulls up random photos, and I'm concerned with it pulling something inappropriate.
James Malanowski
Posted at 10:29h, 02 OctoberDoes this upgrade fix the funkyness it did to the recent posts widgets? That's really my only problem … Except for the ugly WalkScore button.
Karen Goodman
Posted at 10:42h, 02 OctoberThanks for pointing me to this plugin. I'm getting ready to revamp my entire site in the next few weeks. I've been posting housing market reports for about 20 areas in my city for the last 2 years, pulling the data manually from my MLS. It has just become too time intensive, and I have been looking for a way to offer good information without having to spend days creating and uploading charts each month. Thanks!
I'm also excited that I can use the About section to post my description of each area, links to the public schools, photos, videos, etc. It allows me to create pages that have unique information only available on my site.
Marlow Harris
Posted at 10:30h, 03 OctoberJay, I'm just not seeing the link from your home page. How would I incorporate this into a uh…. simpler blog format? Does anyone else have any examples how to use this? If you've already downloaded this and added it to your blog, please send me the link. Thanks!
Jay Thompson
Posted at 08:49h, 06 OctoberThere is a link in the nav menu to this page:
http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/phoenix-are…
I don't think this is the “highest & best” use for this plug in. I plan to incorporate links in location specific blog posts. Along the lines of “look here for more neighborhood information”. The beauty of this is if someone comes to the post six months (or six years) from now and clicks through such a link, they'll get fresh, updated content.
kgoodman
Posted at 10:33h, 10 OctoberI just installed the plugin (version 1) and have set up some pages. I'll eventually have a page that provides links to each community, but for now they are accessible in the sidebar through the widget.
I've also created a post for one of the areas, and plan to do a community post for each one. The post offers basic community info, links (including a link to the plugin page), and links to properties for sale.
So far I just did one. Would love everyone's feedback on ways to improve the page while still keeping it brief.
http://www.archcityhomes.com/2009/10/brentwood-…
Andrew Mattie
Posted at 12:41h, 03 October(I'm posting this technical comment publicly rather than following up with Jay directly in case anyone else has these same issues.)
@Jay:
For zip code support, the URL's need to look like this: http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/local/85234/ — you had the state after it in the URL. I'll take the rap for that one though as I didn't explain it in the blog post, and without the release documentation, it wasn't really clear how it worked. You should see the links for the areas you set up in your admin now though as part of the usability improvements. I'll save you the longer explanation, but that's why the schools weren't coming through.
As far as the blown-out Walk Score buttons and the messed up “Schools” panel, it seems that it's something in your template. On line 206 of your layout.css file (in the /wp-content/themes/thesis/ directory), you have a line that looks like this:
.format_text input, #commentform input, #commentform textarea { width: 45%; padding: 0.2em; border-width: 0.067em 0.067em 0.067em 0.067em; }
The “width: 45%” is blowing out all of those input elements in the plugin. I used a debugging tool to remove the width attribute from my display and everything looked just fine. Removing that didn't seem to affect anything else on your blog either, so you may want to give it a shot. Let me know if that doesn't work for you.
Jay Thompson
Posted at 08:52h, 06 October@Andrew – Since I use the Disqus comment system, removing that width attribute shouldn't affect anything. But I suspect it WOULD affect the standard Thesis comment form… And Thesis is a pretty widely used theme.
janedowd
Posted at 12:48h, 03 OctoberWhat a great application. I am always looking for useful information and this will be a good addition to the site.
Andrew Mattie
Posted at 12:58h, 03 October@James: Now that I'm looking at your blog, it seems that you're also having the same issues as Jay. I'm going to have to figure out a way to prevent that from happening as it appears to be a larger issue with the Thesis theme itself rather than just with Jay's or your template. I'll make sure to work around it in v2.0 final.
@Lenore, Karen: I'm really excited to hear that you find it useful!
@Marlow: One of the thoughts we had when building this plugin is that you'd be able to contextually link to different cities, neighborhoods, and zips from within your blog posts about those areas. For example, if you're talking about an event in Belltown in Seattle in one of your posts, you could just link that text to the plugin so that a curious visitor would see all of that data loaded in the context in your own blog. That's just one of the many ways you could use it of course, but of all the ways that I've seen people use the plugin, it seems to me that that's one of the more useful things you can do with it. Another idea is to do what Arbour Realty (http://www.arbourrealty.com) did with it and just link to the different areas they service directly from their blog.
The Harriman Team
Posted at 12:57h, 06 OctoberAndrew, I followed the installation instructions and thought I had done it right, but I'm not seeing any of the map, Yelp, or Walkscore. Can you look and see what I messed up?
http://wallingfordwired.com/?page_id=949
Thanks!
Andrew Mattie
Posted at 19:58h, 06 OctoberI think perhaps you forgot to re-activate the plugin after uploading it. Can you double-check that it's in your active plugins area in your WordPress admin?
The Harriman Team
Posted at 20:11h, 06 OctoberHi Andrew, the plug-in is absolutely activated. I have the API keys for Zillow, Walkscore and Yelp entered. Anything else I can check? why am I getting an “Oops! Page Not Found” message? I'm positive I installed everything right, but it doesn't work. Very frustrating. Thanks for your help!
The Harriman Team
Posted at 09:04h, 08 OctoberWell, I don't know why I can't get this plug-in to work, so I guess I'll have to remove it. Too bad too, cuz it could be very beneficial.
Andrew Mattie
Posted at 10:40h, 08 OctoberI have another idea. It seems that either your server doesn't have URL rewriting on or you specifically disabled URL rewriting in your WordPress install. Either way, I think I can help you work through it. Could you send me an email at amattie at gmail dot com so that we can work through it better?
The Harriman Team
Posted at 13:36h, 08 OctoberThanks Andrew, will do.
James Malanowski
Posted at 00:31h, 08 OctoberThanks for checking in to the issue … I hope that there is an easy solution. I'm liking what I see and I'm planning on utilizing the plugin as soon as the issues are ironed out.
zillow.com Updates Local Market Explorer | propertyadguru.com
Posted at 16:10h, 05 October[…] post on geekestateblog.com explains the second version supports loading data at both a neighbourhood and zip code level. […]
kgoodman
Posted at 10:42h, 10 OctoberI've got it all set up on my site now, though I'm still waiting for API upgrades from Zillow and Flickr. Still, I like what I see. I'm using ver 1, and noticed that the link of my recent posts in the about page (Brentwood report) pulls the right title but just links back to the plugin page. Is there a fix for this or do I just need to wait until I get the upgrade?
http://www.archcityhomes.com/local/brentwood/mo/
drewmeyers
Posted at 12:10h, 10 OctoberIt might take a few minutes to kick in, but you should be all set now with the recently sold module Karen.
kgoodman
Posted at 12:33h, 10 OctoberThanks. It hasn't kicked in yet but I'll keep checking back.
Question – do you know if there is a way to make the page longer on the plug-in pages? With the widget in the sidebar, my sidebar is longer than the post, and it has pushed a slideshow on top of my recent posts.
drewmeyers
Posted at 08:47h, 11 OctoberI notice the recent sales module is still not populating — what API key are you using? please DM it to me or e-mail it (drewm at zillow).
Not sure about your other question.
drewmeyers
Posted at 11:18h, 12 OctoberLooks like there is a software bug in our system causing this that we are currently investigating. I'll keep you posted as to when we can get it resolved.
drewmeyers
Posted at 11:22h, 19 OctoberHey Karen-
just FYI that your recently sold module is now populating.
kgoodman
Posted at 14:23h, 19 OctoberThanks! I got so busy that I hadn't followed up and checked this out. I'm definitely planning to showcase the market reports through the plugin on my newly revamped website that is coming soon. I appreciate you staying on top of it and keeping me posted. Thanks again!
J Johnson
Posted at 13:57h, 09 DecemberAndrew, will lme work if your domain has an extension? my is http://mydomainname.com/realestate. I have having problems setting up lme – any insight would be appreciated.
Andrew Mattie
Posted at 22:58h, 09 DecemberI'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but this unfortunately won't work at the moment. I promise you though that this issue (or rather series of issues) is #1 on my priority list for the next major release.
J Johnson
Posted at 09:13h, 10 DecemberThanks for the quick reply. I am very impressed with the product, disappointed it can't support my domain at this time. I wasn't sure what was going on. Will next release also support the following format as well – http://andrew.domain.com (subdomain in front of main domain)? I ask because I have agents that will have their own page?
rhodiola rosenwurz
Posted at 21:47h, 06 JanuaryHi,
v2.0 thru v3.0 (ETA — late February 2010 to 4th Quarter of 2010) the company has committed itself to adding three major American cities to the “SOLVE” doorway before the end of 2010
derekdavis
Posted at 19:22h, 03 FebruaryHi! I have used this plugin before with no problems and LOVED IT! I recently tried to use it on a new site and I cannot get it to work. I installed it and entered in all API addresses on the settings page in the admin section. But when I try to call a report using link formatted as http://www.southpointtn.com/local/brentwood/tn it gives me a NOT FOUND ERROR. Can anyone give any suggestions? Thanks!!
derekdavis
Posted at 20:46h, 03 FebruaryGood News!! I found solution. I thought I would post it in case someone else is experiencing same problem… I changed permilink to custom structure: /%postname%/ and now it works. I think it is because setting custom permalinks effects the .htaccess file and somehow alters it allowing the url.com/local/town/state to work. But in any event… it works : )
derekdavis
Posted at 03:22h, 04 FebruaryHi! I have used this plugin before with no problems and LOVED IT! I recently tried to use it on a new site and I cannot get it to work. I installed it and entered in all API addresses on the settings page in the admin section. But when I try to call a report using link formatted as http://www.southpointtn.com/local/brentwood/tn it gives me a NOT FOUND ERROR. Can anyone give any suggestions? Thanks!!
derekdavis
Posted at 04:46h, 04 FebruaryGood News!! I found solution. I thought I would post it in case someone else is experiencing same problem… I changed permilink to custom structure: /%postname%/ and now it works. I think it is because setting custom permalinks effects the .htaccess file and somehow alters it allowing the url.com/local/town/state to work. But in any event… it works : )