Open Realty Web Hosting

Open Realty Web Hosting

Open-Realty is a free web based listing management application for real estate websites. It is written in PHP and is designed to be extremely fast, flexible as well as easy to use and set up. Open-Realty® is released free of charge and an active community contributes towards this highly utilizable application and is backed by the solid management from Transparent Technologies. Transparent Technologies is owned by Ryan Bonham, the lead developer for Open-Realty. Open-Realty® is a registered trademark of Transparent Technologies, Inc.

It is an open source product and the complete source code and documentation is available for download at their website. The license permits the users to use the software completely free of chare while adhering to the following conditions:

1. Users have to leave the html comment that reads “”" intact.
2. If Open-Realty is used in an application that is redistributed, the complete source code for the application must be available and freely redistributable under reasonable conditions.

Here redistribution implies that the application is distributed to one or more third parties. Giving an application to customers, even in alpha or beta releases, is redistribution. Giving contractors, affiliates, parent organizations or subsidiaries, business partners or support vendors a copy of the application is generally redistribution.
Before installing Open-Realty; the user needs to make certain that their their web hosting provider meets the following specifications for the application to run smoothly:

• Runs PHP 4.3.0 or higher
• Runs MySQL (4.0.2 or higher). PostgreSQL 7 may also work with the older versions, although this remains untested.
• Has Session and GD support compiled into PHP.

The product offers robust and versatile set of features and these are evolving to enhance the product’s functionality:
Open-Realty® Features for Realtors include:

• Easy installation and configuration.
• Ability to add an unlimited number of fields to listings.
• Support multiple property classes in a single install. (Residential, Commercial, etc.)
• Ability to define different fields for each property class.
• You can define which fields are searchable, through our easy to use administrative interface.
• Upload multiple images at once to listings.
• Open-Realty automatically creates image thumbnail for you.
• Upload Virtual Tours for your listings.
• Visitors to your site can signup as members, where they can save searches and get email notifications when new properties are added that match their search criteria.
• You can choose to display listing fields to all users, only members who have registered on your site, or to only other agents who have logged into your site
• Open-Realty Automatically places map, school, and neighborhood information links on your site for you.
• Built in contact form provides an easy way for interested parties to contact you, without you having to place your email address on the site for spammers to gather and use.
• WYSIYG Editor allows you to edit pages such as the contact and about us pages on your site, without any HTML knowledge.
• Built in search engine optimizations help, ensure that your listings appear on the search engines, when buyers are looking.

Open-Realty® Features for Designers & Programmers include:

• Easy installation and configuration.
• XHTML 1.0 Compliant Design
• Template System to allow easy customization of the main site.
• Template system allows customization of listing pages, view agents pages, search results, featured listings, and more.
• WYSIYG Editor allows you to give agents the ability to customize pages without being able to change your site design.
• PHP code design is object oriented.
• Add-on system allows you to build many new features for clients, without modifying any core files, allowing them to easily upgrade down the road.
• Source code is open-source and actively maintained with a large support community.

The following commercial add-ons have been released for Open-Realty:

1. CSV Loader: This add-on allows agents to import listings from CSV files. Includes the ability to import images from URL(s) in the CSV file.
2. IDXManager: This is essentially designed to import IDX listing data and photos into Open-RealtyTM and assign the listings to the site owner’s individual agents that are set up in Open-RealtyTM (if they in fact have any listings in the IDX). IDX repositories from FNIS, PlanetRealtor, Rapattoni, TriangleMLS, ARMLS, Sandicor, and others are supported. Both hosted idx solution and non-hosted idx solutions are offered.
3. TransparentRETS: This add-on is designed to make importing data from MLS’s RETS server easy.
4. TransparentMaps: The TransparentMaps™ Addon uses the Google Maps API and allows the user to embed maps into various pages of Open-Realty or optionally use links to the maps in Open-Realty or use popup windows.
5. Advanced Contact Form: This enables the user to create fully configurable forms like agent contact, email a friend, and contact us forms.

Complete support is offered through the community based support forums which are a great reserve and rich source of information and these forums are constantly monitored by the developers.