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Question to land owners and real estate sellers...


Gabe Nubalo
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I've been working on a real estate plugin for WordPress geared directly towards Second Life.  The thing is, I'm at a crossroads.  I currently have two versions in my head.  One being that users can list land for sale in the similar form, yet more in-depth search, of the current SL style.  The other form is one of public distribution of the WordPress/SL plugin. For instance, once the plugin is created I would then distribute the source code, along with other pertinent modules publicly.  

So my question to you is, would you buy such a system, or would you rather list on a website and have them manage your listings for you?  Furthermore, what features would you like to see in such a system?  

 

p.s. i do have a video of the admin back-end if anyone is in need of it to clarify the question

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I do apologize maybe I wasn't clear enough. In my defense, it was late, and I was typing on a laptops missing a few keys.  To clarify the question I would like to say, that the second idea would not include a third party.  Here's more info okay.

 

Idea 1

Users would utilize the site very similar to XStreet SL's old search and listing engine, however with the addition of extra searchable fields and data.  Therefore the following would be true:

  • Users use in-world mechanisims to list to a public website (owned by someone else)
  • Users would be able to manage their listings in a centeral area along with data and other statistics
  • The website to which users post will be managed by someone other them.

 

Idea 2 

This is the main idea that I personally feel would work the best, due to the fact we have people like Peggy which manage their own listings on their own websites.  This setup would allow users to install a plugin with WordPress and utillize pre-scripted modules in Second Life to post to their own website.  Here's a little run down...

  • Being that this is a plugin, you would own it, you would have your own site, you would be responsible for the listings, not a third party.
  • To use this setup a user would have to have their own WordPress site (not wordpress.org)
  • Once a user buys the plugin they would install it and use the scripts in Second Life if they want to post listings and update rental information on the site.  Or they can simply post it directly to the website if they wish of course.
  • Since this is a plugin, this would have it's own theme with child-theme capabilities for end-user customization.

Both ideas include a multitude of datafields and other cool stuff I've been developing.  As far as third party interaction goes, every listing is entered by YOU, no one else.  Idea 1 only gives you a publicly-searchable area to do so and Idea 2 lets you have full flexability to do what you wish.

Granted, I understand that most users such as I can simply throw up a simple website and use it for listings, but this system is geared towards total flexability, searchability, and ease of use for both the end-user and his/her customers.

Here's the video that shows the extra data that I'll be utilizing, I hope this is enough to excite at least a few people due to the fact that it's more "searchable" data than any site I have come across: http://www.jjswebs.com/second-life-real-estate-for-wordpress

 

if you need me to clarify any more please just let me know.

 

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I watched the video.  I think my suggestion would be to spend a few days with somebody who actually manages land listings, trying to forget that you had anything developed already, instead watching and listening carefully to what they do and say.

Personally, it seems pretty backwards to be entering all this listing information manually on a website, instead of just using an in-world HUD that can know a bunch of stuff about the property automatically (name, description, location, size, maturity rating, Mainland/Estate, Full Sim/Homestead/OpenSpace, etc) and pushing all that info to a web hosted database.

Whether end users will want to search through a web app directly or using some in-world interface is another question.  Nobody will buy or rent SL land without visiting the parcel first, but it's not too painful to teleport from a web page, if there's a compelling reason to only expose a web search interface.

Also, requiring a WordPress site would drastically reduce the market for a software delivery model; if you're locked into WordPress, I think you'll really have no choice but to deliver the service instead. 

Finally, SL business-wise, this isn't 2006 any more.  Although there are still some folks making some money on "SL business tools," there's not big money lying around waiting to be scooped up.  Notably, SL land margins are under extreme pressure, so there'd need to be a really big, compelling competitive need to put any money into such a service. Perhaps the service needs to be a kind of MLS to which land dealers either subscribe or lose sales to their competitors.  Of course, for that to work, there have to be competitors making sales from the service, so you might need to change the service to be sale of premium listings, and populate non-premium listings by constantly bot scraping land search data.

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Firstly most of the information on the back-end will be submitted by the in-world hud which I'm already playing with.  Sorry for excluding that.  As far as service wise, I'm only looking to provide it with similar fees to XStreet, should Idea 1 be persued.  However, if I go the route of Idea 2, then users would merely pay for the system itself, no subscription/per-listing fees associated with it.  I'm not looking to simply make a ton of cash, SL or RL... I would be happy with getting a few cents for my work, but I don't want to provide it as free, we've seen what happens when you do that.  I have a few features in mind and would gladly take suggestions as to what you would like in a system such as this.

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hey Gabe -

how about developing a Real Estate Marketplace website where you offer free listings and then charge for various listing upgrades?  you can get a couple hundred L per week per upgraded listing kind of how Marketplace does.

I think there is a definite market gap here that needs to be filled.

Having said that, Im not sure that I would personally use this service.  I suppose if there was a HUD (whats a hud?!) that did the work for me that would help.  Or a prim you could plop on the land like the old SLX listing agent.

I switched to using STX tier system in large part because manually updating my listings was a major PITA.

Now it all happens automatically as part of my sales prep process.

At any rate, best of luck to you with this project!

Lizard Howl

Segarra Estates Owner

"We take care of our people."

www.segarraestates.com

 

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