Having your MLS listings on your real estate website is more important than even before, with virtually all homebuyers and investors looking for homes for sale online. The most efficient way to display your property listings is using IDX.
But exactly what is IDX and how does it help real estate agents and brokers grow their business?
We’ll answer these and other major questions that realtors ask in the rest of this article.
Understanding IDX in Real Estate
With the advancement of real estate technology, IDX has become one of the most popular concepts in the industry. Thus, it’s crucial for real estate agents to understand what IDX is and appreciate its importance in order to be able to benefit from its advantages.
What Is IDX in Real Estate?
IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange
IDX, which stands for Internet Data Exchange, is the software system and rules that real estate agents and brokers use to publish MLS listings on their own website.
IDX has been a real game changer in the real estate industry as it’s provided an easy and cost-effective way that requires zero technical skills for realtors to share their active listings on their website and generate leads in this way.
Before the emergence of IDX in the early 2000s, it used to cost thousands of dollars to build real estate agent websites with the capability of showing MLS listings.
While, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 91% of real estate firms display property listings on their website, not all of them use IDX. Some large companies such as Zillow and Trulia use other methods to list properties for sale on their websites. The most popular alternatives to IDX integration include brokerage syndication and the MLS Systems.
However, compared to IDX listings, these other methods lead to outdated listings, some missing active listings, and incomplete property information. In comparison with other real estate listing systems, IDX emerges not only as the easier and cheapest to use but also as the most reliable and comprehensive.
What Is an IDX Website?
An IDX website is simply a real estate website which uses IDX integration to display listings from the MLS directly. This can be an existing website where a plugin is added to integrate with IDX, or it can also be a brand new real estate property website that’s built for the purpose of providing an IDX solution.
The main real estate website features associated with IDX integration is the ability to show MLS listings that are complete and always up to date.
The Benefits of IDX for Real Estate Professionals
The Internet Data Exchange system brings many important advantages to real estate brokers and agents.
The most important IDX benefits for real estate professionals include:
- More exposure for your listings: With the help of IDX, you can easily display your listings not only on the MLS database but also on your own website. As you already know, homebuyers do not have access to the MLS, while they have free full access to your website. If you have an SEO-optimized real estate website that brings thousands of visitors per month, this translates into considerable additional exposure for your properties for sale.
- Complete, up-to-date MLS listings: Unlike competitors, IDX integration extracts the exact property information and data from the MLS database and copies it to your website. This means that listings come with comprehensive information, which makes them more attractive to homebuyers and real estate investors. Moreover, IDX pulls data from the MLS every few hours, so you don’t have to deal with expired listings.
- Cheap, easy-to-use solution: The IDX solution is the most time- and cost-efficient of all existing methods to import MLS listings on your website. It is straightforward to implement, and once it’s been correctly implemented, the rest of the work including the updating is automated.
- Direct lead generation: Integrating with IDX allows realtors to generate leads directly on their website rather than on third-party websites. This means that you can get more qualified leads and apply various realtor marketing ideas to convert them into buyers.
- Real estate business growth: All in all, using the Internet Data Exchange allows agents and brokers to expand their business at virtually no cost. NAR reports that 97% of homebuyers use the internet when looking for a home. The percentage of real estate investors is likely to be similar or even higher. So, by building a solid, up-to-date IDX website, realtors significantly increase their chances of generating leads and attracting customers.
To sum up, through its many advantages over other MLS integration strategies, IDX allows real estate agents and brokers to increase their sales more than other solutions.
How IDX Works
Now that you know what IDX is and how it benefits real estate professionals, it’s time to take a look at how it works to provide the MLS integration.
How IDX Integrates with Real Estate Websites
The IDX integration with real estate websites for agents is straightforward. In most cases, all you need to do is to enter the URL of your IDX feeder into your website system so that IDX establishes a data connection between your website and the MLS.
Once this has been done, IDX imports the property listings and starts displaying them on your website. Each listing comes with the available property information and numbers like address, size, features, and description.
There is an option to add a way to be directly contacted by potential leads interested in your MLS listings. This directly accelerates your lead generation strategy without any extra effort.
Meanwhile, IDX updates properties for sale every few hours so that the most recent listings and their most recent information are always available and displayed on your website.
The seamless IDX integration optimizes the user experience and helps you boost your real estate lead generation rate.
IDX and MLS: A Powerful Combination
From an agent’s point of view, IDX and the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) are two complementary, equally important systems within the industry. They need to work seamlessly together to bring the best possible results for realtors.
The MLS is a network of private online real estate databases for agents and brokers to share their listings for sale, based on their region. MLS access is reserved only for those with a real estate license. This means that regular homebuyers and rental property investors do not have access to the database, and they cannot see your online listings unless they work with an agent.
As a next step, IDX is what allows brokers and agents to show their listings from the MLS database directly on their own websites. IDX integration ensures that all work is automated so the only thing that realtors need to worry about is converting all the newly coming leads into paying customers.
Importantly, all property information appears on your website exactly as it is on the MLS. This means that buyers have all the information they need to spark their interest and encourage them to get in touch with you.
IDX Rules and Regulations
Before you turn into an IDX broker, it’s important to understand that there are some strict rules and regulations that govern the use of IDX across websites. NAR strives to regulate the usage of IDX to avoid agents’ abusing the system and gaining disproportionate advantage.
The main important IDX regulations to follow include:
- You have to get the MLS or the agent permission before showing a listing on your website.
- You cannot display listings for which the buyer refuses to have them listed in IDX.
- You cannot alter the IDX listings information to make them more attractive to homebuyers or investors.
- You cannot display outdated listings.
- You cannot publish the MLS listing on third-party websites that have not been explicitly approved by the MLS or the listing agent.
Moreover, each MLS has some additional rules, so you need to make sure what exactly is required by yours before getting started.
Optimizing Your Website with IDX
Follow these tips to optimize your real estate website with IDX
Integrating your website with IDX is an important first step, but it’s not enough to maximize the performance of your real estate website. There are certain things you can do for your real estate website optimization to bring the best possible results for your business.
Here are a few tips to help you improve your website performance:
- Ensure seamless IDX integration: You have to make sure that your IDX integration is working properly so that listings are regularly updated, with all relevant information. This will already help with search engine optimization as search engines like Google give preference to websites that are updated on an ongoing basis. This means that available information is relevant.
- Add valuable content: While displaying the MLS listings on your website is important for generating leads, it is not necessarily enough from a real estate SEO perspective to drive significant traffic. You need to add some high-quality, unique, in-depth content such as a real estate blog. You should capitalize on your professional expertise and knowledge of the local market to publish regular blog posts with tips for homebuyers and home sellers as well as with local market news and trends.
- Focus on local SEO: The real estate industry is highly localized, and you need to take this into consideration when you build your website with IDX. In specific, use the names of the markets that you cover – at the state, city, and neighborhood level – across your website, both in the content and headings and in the meta data. Depending on whether you work with homebuyers or real estate investors, incorporate phrases like homes for sale or investment properties for sale throughout your website.
- Conduct keyword research: Before you start optimizing your website for search engines, you need to use tools such as Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to find out the most relevant and valuable keywords for your business. A good first step is checking out what keywords competitor agents are ranking for. Then, you need to incorporate them naturally across your content.
- Use the best tools for real estate agents: An agent is only as good as the software tools to which they have access. Real estate technology is growing exponentially, and you need to stay on top of trends to remain competitive. There is a myriad of digital marketing tools you can use to grow your website, and most of them are very affordable.
Creating the Best IDX Website with the Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder
Related to the last point above, the Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder is one of the must-have tools for agents and brokers who want to have an IDX-integrated website with optimal performance.
This Mashvisor agent tool allows you to optimize your existing website or build a new one from scratch.
All you have to do is to:
- Add your website domain name
- Choose a design template for your IDX website
- Enter the required information in the selected theme and customize it accordingly
- Integrate with IDX by adding the URL for your IDX feed into the Mashvisor system to import your MLS data
- Create more content for search engine optimization
- Preview and test your real estate website to ensure the design and functionality are working as expected
- Update the DNS records on your existing website (if applicable)
- Publish your real estate IDX website
In a few easy steps, you are ready to launch your own real estate agent website with IDX integration.
One crucial difference between Mashvisor and other real estate website builders is that websites built with Mashvisor provide comprehensive investment-level real estate analysis for each MLS listing. This means that each listing displayed on your website will provide comprehensive, reliable data and analytics on how it is expected to perform when rented out on a long term or short term basis. Some of this data includes monthly rental income, occupancy rate, cap rate, and cash on cash return.
In this way, agents benefit from Mashvisor’s access to nationwide real estate and rental data to attract real estate investors to their website. And working with investors – rather than homeowners – offers multiple benefits such as faster closings, more sales, cash payments, and repeat business.
To build your own real estate website with IDX integration, sign up for Mashvisor.
IDX for Your Real Estate Website: Final Words
The Internet Data Exchange (IDX) is the most efficient way for both individual agents and entire brokerages to display their MLS listings on their website. It’s easy to get started, and once implemented, it provides up-to-date, comprehensive data on your property listings for sale. IDX integration holds power to truly transform your real estate business by helping you generate leads and boost sales faster than ever before.
If you’d like to work with real estate investors (instead of or addition to homeowners), you can use the Mashvisor Real Estate Builder to launch your website with IDX listings with complete investment property analysis, in a matter of minutes.
To grow your real estate business with the help of an IDX website, sign up for Mashvisor.