Why Should I create an Account?

Accounts are complimentary, offered to help you buy and sell property. An account gives you access to tools like: saved search alerts, bookmarking your Favorite Properties, listing your property for sale or for rent. By creating an account you will be allowed to login and by-pass entering this information again. With your login you will be able to save searches, E-mail listings to friends, list your properties and more.

If you are a buyer or seeking property, the information you enter to create an account is only used to help us customize the experience and bring you better results in your search for property. You will only be contacted if you make a request for more information to any of the sellers. If you are advertising a property, the information is used to help customize your experience and to make posting and managing your listings more efficient.

E-Mail Address

In order to create your account, we need your E-mail address. This ensures your account is unique and also provides us with a way to contact you regarding your account.

Send E-mail Confirmation about your Account Information

This option allows you to control whether we E-mail you with a notice of changes to your account. This E-mail would be useful for helping you remember your login information or to simply confirm your account information was changed. Select the 'yes' option if you would like to receive these notices. Select the 'no' option if you would like not to receive these notices.

Yes, I'd like to receive mailings...

You may receive mailing of helpful announcements, advertising specials, new features, events, and special offers if you check this option.

City/State/Zip

The information you provide here will be used to customize your online experience. For example, your zip code will be used to make your property search more efficient.

Getting Started - What do I need to be able to place an ad?

Placing an online ad with us is a quick and affordable way to advertise your property. Before you start to list a property, be prepared by doing the following:

1. Gather your property information and documentation - You will need information like your property address, lot size, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.
2. Decide on a price - You may indicate a listing price and original listing price with your ad.
3. Take photos of your property - The best way to advertise your property is to include photos with your listing. If you have a digital camera, take several photos of your property both inside and from the outside. Plan to include your best 6 photos with your ad. If you don't have a digital camera, you may be able to process your film in digital format. Once you have the photos in digital format, you can include them with your listing.
4. Have your credit card ready to pay for your listing.

For Sale vs. For Rental

When posting a property you will have the option to select "For Sale" or "For Rent" in the Purchase Terms section of the postings form. There are subtle differences between the Property Details for both.

"For Sale" Property Information includes: Auction Date, Open House Date, Listing Price and Original Listing Price

"For Rent" Property Information includes: First Available Date, Rent/Month, and Are Pets Allowed?

MLS #

If you have an MLS number for your property, please include it with this ad .

What html is allowed in my profile text?

Simple html is allowed in the profile description area. This would include; bolding, underlining, italics etc.

Contact Information

You are required to include some contact information with each listing. The contact information you provide here will be displayed with your ad and you will receive buyer responses to your E-mail address.

How much of my contact information will be available to viewers of my property listing?

When posting your property listing you will include the Contact Information you would like to include with the listing under the "CONTACT INFORMATION" section of the "Listing Details" page.

When will my property listing be "live" on the site or visible to others?

There are five update times throughout the day. If your property listing is posted before the update time, it will be be "live", or visible, to others once the update is finished. The update times (Pacific Standard Time) are 4AM, 7AM, 10AM, 2PM, and 8PM. The updates usually last up to two hours.

What is "Shielding" and how does it work?

Advertisers have the ability to modify listings that come from feeds or wraps. Both feeds and wraps are updated frequently (sometimes more than once a day). The advertiser who modifies a listing from a feed or a wrap may want to prevent those changes from being overwritten by the next update. In order to do this, they must shield the listing they have edited. There are three levels of shielding. Entire record including photos can be shielded from the ad manager, or just the fielded data can be shielded, like price, description etc. or just the photos. An example of where an advertiser may only want to shield photos and not the fielded data would be an MLS listing that has only one photo, but the advertiser has uploaded six photos. The advertiser wants all the data, including any pricing updates to still match the MLS, so they do not shield the listing detail, but they do shield the photos.

All upsells will stay with the listing even if the listing is not shielded. There is no need to prevent a listing from receiving future updates just because it has an upsell. The upsell is associated to the listing id, not the listing details.

Where will the Photos appear?

Visitors to the site will be able to view each photo you upload when looking at your ad online. Your main photo will appear with your ad in the Search Results and all of your photos will appear on the Ad Details page.

See this sample ad for an example of where your photos could appear.

What photos should I use with my ad?

The photo uploaded to position #1 is the main photo. This will be the first photo shown with your ad and the photo shown in the search results. We recommend you use a photo of the full exterior of your property for the main photo or your best photo to represent your property. For your other photos, try using a combination of exterior and interior photos that highlight your property's best features.

What file formats do you recommend? What type of files can I upload?

We recommend that you upload image files that are:

• JPG, JPEG (most digital cameras use this format)
• GIF

You can tell if your photo is this file type by checking that the filename ends in either '.gif' or '.jpg'.

What size or dimension of photos should I upload?

Most cameras have settings to control photo size. Select a size or quality setting that makes the image 320 x 240 for best results. Keep in mind, we resize and optimize all images for presentation and speed on our site.

Should I worry about resolution?

The higher the resolution is, the better image quality it may be but this also creates a larger image file. You may have trouble uploading large image files. If you have a slow Internet connection or a dial-up connection, we recommend you upload files of size 100Kb or less. You can reduce the quality setting on your camera to reduce the image file size. If you have a cable modem or DSL you can probably upload larger files without delay.

When you list your property, after completing the Ad Details page, select the 'Upload Photos' button to go to the Choose Photos page. From this page, you can upload as many as six (6) photos to your property listing.

Begin by selecting the 'Browse' button and then find the directory that your photo is in. Double click the name of the file (your photo) or highlight the name and select the 'Open' button. The browse window will go away and your directory and file name should appear in the blank. Now select the 'Upload' button . After a few seconds, a small version of the photo will appear in the photo section. Repeat those steps until you have uploaded all the desired photos. Remember, the more photos you include, the better chance you have at attracting buyers' attention. To remove a photo from your property listing, simply select the 'Delete' button in the box of the photo you wish to remove.

When you are done, select the 'Save' button or the 'Continue' button found at the bottom of the page, to save your changes.

If you have already posted your property listing, from the My Listings page, find the property listing you want to edit and select the 'Edit Listing' icon. The first page you see will be the Ad Details page, scroll to the bottom of this page and select the 'Upload Photos' button .

Remember that the photo in Position #1 (the top left-most position) is your main photo and will appear in the search results.

Upload Photos Section:

Can I edit my photos after I upload them?

You will be able to add photos and remove photos from your property listing at any time but you should edit your photos prior to uploading them to the listing simply because we do not provide you with an image editor.

Try to upload photos of high quality and the correct aspect ratio. The best aspect ratio to use is 4:3 which is a typical aspect ratio for most digital cameras. You should not have to resize your photos if they were taken with a digital camera.

How long will it take for my images to appear on the site?

All edits to your listings will be published at the next update.

Checking Responses to your Listings

Within the Members page of your account there is a link in the Advertising section "Check Responses to your Listings." This report helps you gauge the amount of interest your property listings have generated.

Response Report Information

• Listings - A count of how many listings you have posted on the site.
• Times Listings were Viewed - Number of times ad details have been viewed.
• Times Listings were Forwarded by E-mail - The number of times users used the "E-mail to a Friend" option.
• Times Listings' Contact E-mail was Selected - A count of how many times users clicked on the "Contact E-mail" address from within the ad.

Property For Sale vs. Rentals

There are two tabs to choose from at the top of the search form, Property For Sale and Rentals. If you are looking to buy a property you would conduct your search from the "Property For Sale tab" and if you are looking for a rental you would conduct your search from the "Rentals" tab.

City/State/Zip/Country/Search Radius

You can select the location and the radius from that location you are willing to view/purchase a property.

Types of Properties

For every search you conduct, there is the option of selecting, via checkboxes, what type of property you are looking to purchase or rent. The options include; Single Family, Condos, Farm/Ranch, Town Homes, Mobile Homes, Land, Apartment/Coop/Loft, New Development, Commercial.

Price Range

The price of the property you are looking for can be entered from a low range to a high range. There is no need to use dollar signs, commas or decimal points.

Bedrooms/Bath

There are two dropdowns associated with these fields. The first dropdown should be used to select the number of bedrooms required. The second dropdown should be used to select the number of bathrooms required for the search.

Square Footage

Square footage is broken down in increments and is selected via the dropdown provided for this field.

Allow Pets (Rentals Only)

This dropdown allows the rental seeker to specify if there is a preference for the results to display properties that allow pets.

Keywords

The "Keywords" field should be used to search for amenities like fireplace, garage, etc.

Sort By

The "Sort By" feature allows the results to be sorted by Price, Sq. Ft., Lot Size, Date Posted and Number Of Bedrooms.

Open House Events and Auctions

The checkboxes for "Open House Events" and "Auctions" can be selected to narrow down the search results to include ONLY these options.

These locations/directions don't look quite right. What now?

Google Maps may occasionally display incorrect locations or directions. You may also find that the icon for a location you've mapped on a satellite image is off by a house or two. Please be assured that we're continually working to improve the accuracy of this service. Report an invalid location.

No Saved Properties

When you first create an account you will have no saved searches. When you visit the Manage your Saved Searches for the first time you will get a message "You have no Saved Property Searches at this time" and a button will show at the bottom of the page which will allow you to conduct a new search that can be saved or set as an automated E-mail alert.

Creating a Saved Property

Once you have viewed the Listing Details page you will see a button at the top of the screen to . After you have saved a property you will have access to that saved property by clicking on the button or the link "View your Saved Properties" within the Searching section on the Members page..

Saved Properties Folder

Once you have saved the property it is accessible in the Saved Properties folder. From the saved folder the user has access to the properties that have been saved. This allows the user to view the properties at a later time without having to conduct a search again.

Your Saved Properties

Your Saved Properties folder will hold all properties that you have saved during your search. The initial page when you arrive at your saved properties gives you the basic information about each property: Price, Picture, BD, BA, Location, Date Posted, and the Brokerage. Within your "Saved Properties" folder you can organize the properties as you see fit.

To view the detail page of your saved properties simply click on either the Price or the Picture for that particular ad.

Your ads can also be sorted by utilizing the dropdown located above the "Brokerage" column. The default is to sort by "Date Posted", however, you have the options of also sorting by "Brokerage" and "Price." Simply select the desired sorting method from the dropdown and click on the button.

Marketing Profile

This information may help promote your business or your brokerage. Your marketing profile information will be displayed with every property listing you have posted. The marketing profile information appears when someone views the details of your property listings. You can see a sample of where this information appears in the illustration below.

Website Address

Your property listings can also generate leads to your Web site. Enter the full address of the Web site you would like to include with your marketing profile in the field for 'Website Address'. A link to this url will appear with your profile information on each property listing.

Please make sure the address is correct by previewing one of your ads and selecting the 'Web site' link shown in the Contact Information.

Website Banner

You can add a Website Banner or an image to your profile so that it appears with your profile information on each property listing. We recommend you create and upload an image that is 478 x 60 pixels in size. This is the size it will be displayed at.

To add an image for the first time, select the 'Browse' button from the Marketing Profile page next to the area for the 'Website Banner' and browse the files on your computer for the image you would like to upload. Once you have found the image, click on the name of that file. You may also need to select an 'OK/Open' button. A preview of your image should appear on the Marketing Profile page.

If you already have an image for your Website Banner, you will need to remove that image first by selecting the 'Delete' button . Once the image is removed, follow the steps above for adding an image for the first time.

Remember, your Website Banner will be resized to 478 x 60 pixels when displayed with your ad. For optimal display quality, you should create a Website Banner that is 478 x 60 pixels.

Logo/Your Picture

You can add a logo or an image to your profile so that it appears with your profile information on each property listing. We recommend you create and upload an image that is 120 x 160 pixels in size. This is the size it will be displayed at.

To add an image for the first time, select the 'Browse' button from the Marketing Profile page next to the area for the 'Logo/Picture' and browse the files on your computer for the image you would like to upload. Once you have found the image, click on the name of that file. You may also need to select an 'OK/Open' button. A preview of your image should appear on the Marketing Profile page.

If you already have an image for your marketing profile, you will need to remove that image first by selecting the 'Remove' button . Once the image is removed, follow the steps above for adding an image for the first time.

Remember, your logo/picture will be resized to 120 x 160 pixels when displayed with your ad. For optimal display quality, you should create a logo that is 120 x 160 pixels.