Thread

You know how your neighbors say ‘Hey, you do web stuff.  Can you take a look at….’.

Of course you do.  I have some nice neighbors in the real estate business w/a small site on Point2’s hosted web service/software.  And they’re looking for a little help setting things up like they want.  May be a second site involved as well.

Being neighborly, I said ‘that’s really not what I do, but I’ll take a quick look’.  The software makes me cringe, and I can’t even login to the cp on my Mac in FF.  BUT- figured I’d ask here if anyone has prior experience w/it and would be up for me referring them over.

If you don’t have experience?  It doesn’t seem worth learning to me.  But figured someone may have played with it before and be interested in a small project or two.  Or- if you know someone who might be interested?  That’s cool too.  Just drop me a pm.  And note- it’s small potatoes- I’m only mucking with looking at it at all because they’re neighbors.

Robin! wow, finally a chance where I can help you out!

Point2 have a couple different account levels, Professional, Premium User, etc. So it all depends on what level of account they have.

The Point2 System is HORRIBLE and I mean really really bad. The system itself isn’t really that hard to use, just the capabilities it has are. You pretty much can set up one (and only one) template for each site, so if you want any page or section specific action you end up needing to hacking it with javascript.

😊

oh, one other thing.

You have to work within their html table code. No way to get around that one. 😊 They’ve divided the content areas into: header, left col, content area, right col, and footer. all done in tables…. It’s sorta reminds me of CMS in the mid 90s 😊

not even clean tables. 😊

really gross, so don’t plan on having nice code.

LOL- yeppers, it really is gross.  Especially compared to EE.  I personally am not going to touch it.  I searched around, found they have something similar to our ‘Pro Network’ and advised the neighbors that if they’re serious about the site, the best thing to do is buckle down, research the vendors, and hire someone who specializes in the software to set things up.

I didn’t have too much hope on finding an EE person who would muck with it- as the approach to EE is pretty much the antithesis of Point2.  That said- I suspect they do some nice things with the listings, the ‘handshake’ thing, etc.  But the basic approach to site design is cringe worthy.  Still- I trust the EE community, so if someone was working with Point2 regularly, I’d have felt more comfortable hooking the neighbors up with them rather than just pointing to the certified vendors on the site.  Hence I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Thanks for the fb though- we are in complete agreement on the software!

Hey Guys,

While I agree that the Point2 system could be better in regards to the “website” component. The software itself is very very flexible and in terms of lead generation and prospect management it is amazing.

The lead generation components and the syndication engine often simply get overlooked because people don’t like the website portion…That said even the website component can be fully customized.

eg:
http://www.rockieswest.ca/
http://www.joejanus.com/
http://www.2costaricarealestate.com/

Basically what im saying is don’t overlook the main thing about real estate websites. They are intended to generate prospects and advertise listings and the related realtor. This is exactly what the point2 nls solution has been developed for and it does it very well.

http://nls.point2.com/Content/FeaturesServices/FeaturesServices.asp

mmmmmm… first post…

does someone work for Point2? 😊

While I’m sure the point2 system has it’s good spots this is a forum that is more oriented toward web development, design, and code (so that tends to be how we judge things).

The limitations in the point2 system as far as semantic/valid/or even semi-clean code are horrible (as in it’s not possible). The limitation to a single static template is huge for designers. And thats the kind of stuff that’s important to us web types. 😊

Maybe Point2 NLS needs an EE consultant… :zip: