Timeline/Checklist
for Startup & Participation
Integrating
The HomeNet™ into your company and website is quick,
easy, and painless. We can usually get you completely
setup within a day or two of your deciding to participate,
and actual setup time on your (or your webmaster's) part
will usually be less than an hour. Once setup, maintenance
minimal and new property submission is a breeze. We will
work with you to adapt the ongoing listing submission
process to the way your company works, so as to not add
complexity to your existing process.
Non-Database
Powered Site
In
most cases, if you don't have a database, you will be
provided with a short online form to fill out to add a
new property. (Note: if you do not have a database
for your site and would like to have your index/search
results automated, we can discuss providing this additional
time-saving service for you.)
| Setup
Checklist |
 |
|
Ongoing
Checklist |
-
Fax or mail signed
HomeNet participation agreement
-
Receive confirmation
and access info/display script by phone
and/or e-mail
-
Submit your listings
via simple online form
-
Paste the display
script into your existing pages where
appropriate - customize for geo-location,
customize layout if desired
-
Test for proper display
on your pages with one of our specialists
-
Enjoy your enhanced
content and selling points!
(see Benefits)
|
|
|
-
Submit all new listings
to The HomeNet
-
Renew previously-submitted
listings at least every 30 days - you
will be able to admin via online control
panel OR renew easily through an e-mail
sent to you
-
Remove sold listings
ASAP
|
|
Database
Powered Site
We
will work with you to adapt the ongoing listing submission
process to the way your company works, so as to not add
complexity to your existing process. In most cases, this
is accomplished through automated FTP uploads.
| Setup
Checklist |
|
|
Ongoing
Checklist |
-
Fax or mail signed
HomeNet participation agreement
-
Receive confirmation
and access info/display script by phone
and/or e-mail
-
Submit your listings
via simple online form
-
Paste the display
script into your existing pages where
appropriate - customize for geo-location,
customize layout if desired
-
Test for proper display
on your pages with one of our specialists
-
Enjoy your enhanced
content and selling points!
(see Benefits)
|
|
|
-
Submit all new listings
to The HomeNet
-
Renew previously-submitted
listings at least every 30 days - you
will be able to admin via online control
panel OR renew easily through an e-mail
sent to you
-
Remove sold listings
ASAP
|
|
Live Examples
of The HomeNet™
Cost
The
HomeNet, Inc. is purely a company servicing existing For
Sale By Owner advertising companies, and does not sell
anything directly to end-user consumers. There are considerable
expenses with developing and managing a technology service
of this magnitude, so to make The HomeNet™ a sustainable
project, there is a small admin fee for each listing submitted
to the network. This is, however, the only cost. There
are no setup fees, and there are no subscription or access
costs.
-
$5
- $15 one-time cost, per valid property submitted
to HomeNet
-
Based
upon the number of properties you have, your initial
inventory submission cost may be as low as $0.50 per
property
-
You
will be billed monthly for the total number of new
listings submitted. Payment may be made by business
check or credit card
-
The
term "renewal" used in reference to property
ads simply means updating us to let us know it's still
for sale. Renewal is free, and does not incur any
charges
-
There
is no cost to access/subscribe to the HomeNet
database, and there is currently no setup cost to
add HomeNet to your site
-
All
affiliates are expected to submit all active and new
listings to HomeNet -- it has limited usefulness to
anybody if everybody submits just a few listings.
This will be audited, and abusers will lose their
affiliate status.
See
the Benefits of The HomeNet™
FAQ's
Q:
This all sounds ok, but this "network" thing
has been tried before. What makes HomeNet any different?
A:
All past attempts have failed in at least one of 4 major
categories. Here's a table contrasting the past failures
with what HomeNet is doing differently:
| Past
Attempts |
The
HomeNet |
1. One-sided Relationship
The mantra was "you provide
us listings, we enjoy the traffic." The only
motivation contributing sites had was the hope of
perhaps getting some extra traffic. |
The HomeNet™ will provide
benefits to contributors by opening up its complete
database for display on your website. You will receive
actual content, in addition to the increased traffic
and exposure. It's a mutual give-and-take relationship |
2. Poor Growth and Marketing
Strategy
Past attempters have, lazily,
relied on mass e-mails (spam) to recruit participants
for their "network." No real sales and
marketing effort was put into proactively contacting
companies directly in order to get them on board
and working together. |
The HomeNet, Inc. will maintain
a proactive growth effort to approach and partner
with all real estate advertising companies. This
effort consists primarily of direct and personal
interaction, through phone and face-to-face meetings |
3. No Profitability Plan
Past "networks" had
no way (except for incidental banner ad revenue)
to sustain itself. There was no business model to
fund the expenses of perpetual existence. |
Through the $5/property administration
fee, The HomeNet will be self-sufficient and able
to adequately cover costs of increasing technology
demands as popularity grows. While, consequently
HomeNet is not free, you'll be able to count on
us to be here, and your benefits far surpass those
possible from a free network |
4. Stale Listings
Past "networks" have
had no model in place to purge the database and
insure listings were fresh and active. The result:
buyers may stumble across a home that's been sold
for 2 years, completely bankrupting the tool of
any usefulness. |
The HomeNet, Inc. has implemented
a policy whereby properties will drop out of the
system if they have not been refreshed as being
"still on the market" in the past 30 days.
Additionally, a system is in place to notify another
contributing site of sold homes, in the event that
you run across one |
Q:
How does the HomeNet search and display script know which
results to show on my pages?
A:
The display script is completely configurable by you,
and results are returned based on variables you set on
each page. These variables may be set dynamically, or
may be hard-coded. Sample search criteria variables include
price, number of bedrooms and geographic location (area,
zip, city, county, state, etc.). This means that if you
desire, only relevent and local listings will be shown
on your pages.
Q:
Ok, I'm sold on the idea, but I'm not so sure about the
technology. Does it work? How?
A:
We cannot disclose the in's and out's about how the technology
works. Fortunately, that's not necessary! We simply point
you to the active examples so
you can see that it works, and how it functions when implemented.
This is not a hypothetical or proposed idea. It is currently
being successfully implemented, using a nice little packaged
script that does all the dirty work for you, using triple-layer
security to guarantee unauthorized users cannot gain access
to the display system.
Q:
Will The HomeNet, Inc. ever use my data to become my competitor?
A:
No, never. The HomeNet, Inc. will never sell products
or services directly to consumers, nor will we ever provide
free real estate advertising. In the same manner that
Google increases the competitiveness, traffic, and revenue
of its indexed sites, The HomeNet will increase the competitiveness,
traffic, visibility and success of participating individual
real estate companies, streamlining the real estate industry
as a whole.
Q:
What if your server goes down - does my site quit working?
A:
Absolutely not. First, The HomeNet is served out of a
state-of-the-art facility with multiple redundancies,
and we realize the critical nature of this service to
your business, so we work to elliminate almost all down
time. But in the unlikely event that the HomeNet servers
don't respond, your website will continue to work normally
as it does now. The HomeNet results section simply won't
show up on your pages. By participating in The HomeNet,
you do not relenquish control of your site or listings
and rely on us to serve them up to your site. You are
only relying on The HomeNet for listing results from all
other affiliates.
Q:
If I ever leave the network, what happens to my listings?
A:
All affiliates are well-covered through the participation
agreement we enter into. This agreement limits what The
HomeNet, Inc. may and may not do with content provided
by you. None of your content will ever be utilized without
your consent. If you, for any reason, decide to withdraw
participation in The HomeNet, all of your properties will
be withdrawn as well.
Q:
How do I customize the layout of HomeNet results?
A:
When you receive the script, you will also be provided
a field map of all the available fields and how to access
them for display on your page. Additionally, you will
see how the templating works - it's very straightforward,
and you'll be able to use this as a starting point to
create your own custom display. If you don't feel comfortable
customizing a Javascript/HTML layout yourself, you can
have one of our staff programmers do it for a nominal
consulting fee.
Q:
My property listings are my greatest asset, why should
I give them up?
A:
First, you're not giving your listings up. All contact
information remains on your site so buyers are forced
to visit your site. You cannot be cut out of the picture.
If your listings are an asset now, that asset will only
increase with the expansion of your available inventory.
If you are the biggest player in your area now, allowing
visitors to browse all your smaller competitors' listings
will only bolster your competitive advantage.
Second, if our business model really had ill-intentions,
we could very easily get your listings for the purposes
of a centralized, publically marketed "killer"
database through spidering technologies WITHOUT your permission.
That's not what we're about. Taking your content like
that wouldn't universally benefit buyers and sellers.
The HomeNet™ is intended to give back to you at
least as much as you give up, by giving YOU access to
the database as well for display on your site in addition
to any increased traffic you receive.
Q:
I'd rather wait until HomeNet gets bigger. Why should
I sign up now?
A:
For 2 reasons. First, affiliates who sign up now will
lock in the $5/property rate, regardless of what happens
in the future. Second, The HomeNet, Inc. reserves the
right to assign certain exclusivity in situations where
a geographic area does not already have a local affiliate
registered. If you wait, you could be locked out indefinitely.
To
see how The HomeNet can benefit you continue to Benefits.
The
HomeNet™ is a behind-the-scenes service, using enterprise-level
technology created exclusively for the real estate industry
with an existing network of websites and customers. It was
designed to be easily integrated into any website, regardless
of whether the site is small, large, national, local, static,
dynamic, database-powered, not database-powered, etc.
