Ah, if only they had shown my open house today, I might have had a visitor.
The site feels like a joke. Those who designed OpenHouse.com (archived: 2016) clearly are familiar with RSS, so why don’t they integrate it? Give users the option to receive either an email saying there’s an open house in their area or an RSS feed?
They might also do well to tell their affiliated agents about it.Heck, the first time I heard about OpenHouse.com (and I’m a Century 21 [Realogy (archived: 2022)] agent) was from Joel’s site.
From their press release (archived: 2007):
“In a competitive market, brokerage firms need to take every measure to maximize service levels to their clients while leveraging the internet as a tool to increase business potential,” said Phillips. “Our site is a perfect complement to a high-tech, high-touch approach to providing comprehensive real estate services.”
They have an odd definition of “perfect.” However if not showing all the open houses out there and not communicating to their franchises that this tool exists is perfect, they’ve nailed it.
What’s needed? One site. With ALL of the open houses, not just their brands. Seriously, take a hint from those Google guys – they incorporate all of the information, and it seems to have worked for them.
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I have been been representing buyers and sellers in Charlottesville, Albemarle, and Central Virginia since 2001. Get local insight born of experience.
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