This case study is a little special – when The X Concept was created in 2001, our first Client was a Latin Band, called Agua Dulce. The leader of that Band was Tizoc “Mr T” Hernandez.

Let’s fast forward eighteen years later, and getting back in touch with Tizoc Hernandez, now a realtor with Big Block Realty in San Diego. We got back in touch through social media, which is great to keep in touch with connections, personally and professionally. I showed him the website with did for Johnny Perez, including the Showcase IDX integration, and that we were an approved vendor for them.

I went up for a meeting with Mr T and his associate, Vannessa “Mrs V” Munoz at their Lemon Grove office, and started displaying Johnny Perez’s website to the two of them. Showing them the power of Showcase IDX compared to the other IDX system that MR T was using before. This did it for him, between the SEO features and the custom interface that would provide continuity with their branding identity, we were going on the right track. At the end of the meeting, eighteen years, and many life events in between Tizoc’s first website and his new one. Mr T was a client of The X Concept once again.

We also redesigned their logo to include Mrs V in the previous style that was used by Mr T. Following this branding update, we also did some business cards for Mrs V as well as purchasing two new domain names, one for Mrs V and one for their newly created team.

Website Development – Mr T and Mrs V

Getting to the core of the business, and the website development. We got Mr T and Mrs V on a wordpress website with hosting from Ionos. We have been using Ionos for over a year now, and started to migrate clients to them. Hosting is something to keep in mind. Depending on the provider you are using, you can get different types of servies at different prices. Ionos seems to have a great service while being very budget friendly. This is good for structures of smaller size with a limited number of employees. Their package includes Hosting, SSL and 50 email addresses for less than $10 a month.

Email Addresses

Looking at it in a different perspective. We are going to compare “just” the email side of things. For you to use your emails with your own domain. A Gsuite account is $12 per month and per user, a Microsoft Exchange account is $8 per month and per user. Let’s just look for a whole year if your team needs 10 email addresses. That’s $120 a month for Gsuite accounts, and $80 a month for Outlook accounts… If you are using the Ionos email addresses – that saves you between $960 and $1440 every year. Look at those figures for 10 email addresses, and think about if you have 50 Team members. And that is for a type of service that is quite similar and will include all they need to operate. Looking at small expenses is what will save your business a lot of money in the long term.

At the end of the day, before this new service, both Mr T and Mrs V were using gmail addresses, that were doing the job fine, a part for branding. Following some studies, having your email address with your OWN domain gives your lead 900% increase in the chance that he will contact you.

Showcase IDX Plans

Let’s look at what could end up providing you revenue and that will cost you less than those plans. I’m of course talking about the Showcase IDX. Showcase IDX has two plans, the Essentials and the Premium. Thing is you are not tied in with any plan. The Essential plans works with up to 2 agents for $59 a month, and goes up from there. The Premium plan works for 5 agents for $99 per month. Now let’s do the same simulation for a team of ten agents.

To have ten agents in the MLS on your website is an extra $28 with the Essential Plans ($87 a month total) and $4 extra per month for the Premium Plan ($104 a month total). Therefore, we can simply state that your IDX solution is getting paid for by your email hosting plan (if you have a team of ten people). For you to look at your simulation for your configuration, you can look at the pricing page of the Showcase IDX website. And they have a 30 day trial you can benefit from if you click “here”.

Back to Mr T and Mrs V Realty

Here it is, we signed up Mr T and Mrs V Realty on Showcase IDX. We got all their MLS and brokerage details in the system very fast, and less than 48 hours afterwards their account was up and going.

Integrated their Social Media Accounts directly on their website was also a priority. Using their instagram as a feature of their homepage. Just look at the screenshot below, this is just a few months after signing up for their new IDX website. And over the span of a few weeks, I see the words Escrow, New Listing, Sold, Offer Accepted occurring really regularly. Do you believe in coincidences, I personally do not.

What about SEO?

The biggest feature with Showcase IDX is it’s SEO functionality and its ability to get websites to rank well. By looking at Google Search Console, Showcase IDX provides covered pages with every MLS Listing. Does your Real Estate Website covers almost 20.000 pages on Google… Yeah I didn’t think so either. Now you are going to ask me why is there ups and down in the curves… So there is a constant evolution of listings between new listings and closed listings… some get deleted, some do not, some get added… Yes, there was some incursions above 30k pages covered and now it’s a little lower. When you think of it, it’s better than a few pages, several blog posts.

Above all, you would have  for around ONE THOUSAND TIMES more pages than if you were not using IDX solution. Therefore, Showcase IDX is the best choice to maximize your coverage on Google while using IDX .

Community and Education

Let’s look at two things that are specific to Mr T. Before being a Real Estate Agent, Mr T was a teacher. He takes his real estate approach with a former teacher perspective. He is educating the buyers and sellers that he encounters, on what are the best practices when either buying or selling your home. Yes the Real Estate agent does the heavy lifting, but the homeowners and home buyers also have their part to play. Their first educational video is about Buyer Motivation, what does motivate buyers to purchase a first home, a new home.

Go take a look at the video, it’s actually quite informational, he is planning to release more videos to show people what other aspects of real estate are all about. Now he is also involved in his community, his office, as well as his home are both located in Lemon Grove. Lemon Grove is a growing neighborhood in San Diego with a lot of real estate potential. So under we created a “Hot Sheet” with Showcase IDX to focus solely on Lemon Grove properties. When people look for the Lemon Grove community, they will be directed automatically towards this list of properties.

If you, dear reader, are a Santa Clara, CA realtor and want to focus on properties above a certain amount in the Silicon Valley, we can do that. Or your market is mostly two bedroom condos in a certain neighborhood, can be done as well. The key in there is to be able to create community pages that will assist you in generating an audience to get you web leads. Showcase IDX does that really well.

Mr T Listings and More

We also created a Hot Sheet specifically with their team listings. Showcasing your listings is something you can get easily, featuring these listings on your website could help potential buyers. Above all, it can also help sellers that are looking to see what neighborhoods you are involved in, the type of properties you sell.

Another small feature but, which at the end of the day makes a difference, is Google Maps integration. Whenever there is an address present in a form, we installed an Address Autocompletion linked with Google Maps API, which will help people fill in Forms accurately and assist them. In the screenshot below, you can see our Office Address predicted, both by geolocalization, but also by predictive writing.

Here is what Tizoc “Mr T” Hernandez had to say

Charles from The X Concept took my Real Estate company out of the dark ages and into the modern era by creating a custom website that integrated Showcase IDX and more. Not only did he build and design the website, he took special consideration and time to listen to all of our team requests and continues to optimize our website. We are seeing tremendous results and we are extremely satisfied if not totally pleased!

What are the next steps for you?

You have already gone through 1500 words of blog post and seven screenshots. Go grab a glass of water, walk for a few minutes… It’s already a performance. If you have gone this far, it means that everything I have been telling you has been music to your ears. You see yourself like Mr T, an upcoming realtor, involved in his community, educating buyers and sellers… But you don’t have the right tools, and this is where we come in. The X Concept works with clients NATIONWIDE. We are ONE of NINE approved developers by Showcase IDX throughout the country, and the only ones in California.

We are ready to develop the right solution for you. Either comment on this post, fill in the form below. Or you can always directly schedule a call with our CEO.