After eight years with the same real estate website provider, another real estate agent recently decided it was time to move on. He switched to Point2 Agent just two weeks ago.

The reason? Fully integrated listing syndication, which was brought to this agent’s attention by his MLS – one of the over 240 that have partnered with Point2.

But there’s more to syndication than meets the eye.

Syndication as a trend took off around three years ago. Adoption continues to accelerate today, with one of the key drivers being that automating the publishing of listing data eliminates manual data entry and updates on third party websites, both very time consuming, error prone processes that can legally expose the agent and the broker, and unnecessarily tax productivity.

Data accuracy online and agent security are therefore two critical benefits that syndication helps the broker, the agent and their MLS (Multiple Listing Service) to manage more effectively.

Inaccurate or conflicting listings with two different prices, on two different websites, for example, can also create confusion amongst consumers.

Last but not least is wider exposure to more buyers online. Around one third of home buyers start their property search on the Internet, and over 90 percent today use the web as part of the overall property process! With the number of consumer real estate portals on the increase, syndication using an integrated website platform allows the agent to expand their advertising, access online traffic reports and generate leads without having to as much as lift a finger.

And if the syndication service is offered through the agent’s MLS, such as the case with the customer we mentioned earlier, listings also get uploaded on his own website as well, further cutting down the work needed to establish and maintain his website.

The MLS as such becomes the single point of data entry. Enter the data once, publish many times.

But it’s no fun letting the video do all the talking, so I’ll just come out and say it.

We have new themes.

6 of them to be exact – each complete with a new graphics library…and they are available to all membership levels.

As always you can find answers to your questions on the FAQ page right here.  And if you want to know the specifics on each theme, you can have a look at the details for each theme by clicking any of the links below:

Revolution
Wave
Expedition
Socialite
Radium
Victoria

Now I know you might be asking this:

“What about drop down menus?” “What about custom forms?”

We know you want more, and so do we.

You’ve been asking for fresher, more modern themes for a long time, and you’ve probably wondered if we’ve been listening.  We have.  Consider this just one of the first steps of many to come.

Now enough of my talking, check out the video:

Enjoy!

It seems like just yesterday everyone in the marketing department was gathered around our designer Shaynne’s desk, ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘ah-ing’ over the latest mock ups before the site went live for everyone to see.

Since that time we have been feverishly monitoring the site to see what was working, what wasn’t, and what could be improved upon in future iterations – all to provide our users with the best possible experience.

Also – and let’s not kid ourselves here – we are looking to improve our conversion rate.  That is, the percentage of users that are ultimately moved to click the “sign up” button and start a three month free trial to check out what Point2′s swell real estate software can do for their business.

So what changed since the original launch?  I’d like to think the changes fall into two categories: fun changes & call-to-action changes.

In the category of “fun changes” we have additions like the animated syndication graphic (truth be told, this has been there for a little while now) which is just begging to be spun around and played with, or the addition of the Real Estate Confidence Index widget in the footer.

Where as in the category of “call-to-action” changes we have done things like increased the prominence of the “create your account” button or changed our sign-up process so registration takes just one page to complete.

As always, we would love to hear what you think of the changes.  Great?  Awful?  Some where in between?  Leave us a comment, or drop us a tweet @Point2Agent.