Quote:
Originally Posted by wige
What you might be able to do is convince the agents to offer the XML feeds as a service to their customers. Develop a windows sidebar/google desktop/iGoogle/Yahoo 360 etc widget (or all of them) that these agents can offer to their clients that will let clients see listings from that broker updated almost live. In exchange, you incorporate those listings into your site database. This gives an added value for the extra work the agents would need to do to make the data file exportable as XML.
You could also check with other aggregation sites to find out if they have an XML format that they use to accept data from agents, and match that existing format. This would reduce the workload of agents, allowing them to upload to multiple aggregators using a single feed.
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Another idea that Wige made me think of, is a flash "widget" that each agent can add to their website. This flash widget would be hosted at your website. The flash widget would have all of the typical features: Search Homes, View Information, etc.. Then each agent would just have to maintain the listings at your website.
Then you can even add additional features, like auto submission to Trulia, Google Base etc..
Although, one draw back is the search engines won't list each of the properties.