As far as the look & feel goes – you essentially get what you pay for. Ubertor templates are simple, but not very exciting, as you would expect from a “free” version. But there is hope! They have chosen to allow 3rd party vendors (such as myself – semi shameless plug) to handle the visual customization of Realtor sites using CSS. The beauty of this system is that you can pretty-up the design your site, taking it as far (or not) as you want & your budget allows – but all without having any negative impact on your search engine ranking & MLS functionality. Very cool stuff.

I am a Realtor in Greater Vancouver currently revisting the effectiveness of my site. My site can’t be found in a Google search I have recently learned because my code is archaic and I have flash – which I specifically wanted.

I know Ubertor well as I used to have my site with them. I wanted something more visually exciting but I didn’t want to pay all the extra upgrade costs and so went to a company called What’s Up. They promised to do all the work switching me over and designing my page.

It seems like with any company there are draw backs, however I am seriously flirting with returning to Ubertor as I know Stephen Jagger and his reputation and know that at least with Ubertor I will have the ability to be found in a search. (kind of paramount)

However – I am also seriously considering a simple blog page. I’m not entirely convinced that one of your commenters above hasn’t hit the nail on the head. Does the customer REALLY want to see a giant picture and homage to ourselves?
Or would we better serve the customer by providing information they REALLY want and just initiate some conversation and the ability to get a ‘feel’ for who we are?

Still questioning.

See ya on Twitter!

I wish Uberator and well intentioned companies like them all the luck in the world. It’s difficult market, but if you carve out the right niches you can do pretty well with it. (Just remember to tell them about MLPodcast). P.S. I’m stlll looking for the old business plan and the CA analysis – I buried it along with the emotional scars a long time ago

Andrew Hasman is an example of a custom site built by a 3rd party designer that runs on our Ubertor software. Every agent has their own needs and desires. There is no right or wrong. His marketing definitely works for him.

The key is our system is flexible to work with them all.

Here are some other examples of sites that run on our system:
http://www.yourlongislandhome.com – Long Island, NY
http://www.greenerhomes.ca – Vancouver, BC
http://www.johnjennings.com – West Vancouver, BC (another custom design)
http://www.jameswarren.ca – Toronto, ON
http://www.joefayner.com – Vancouver, BC
http://www.minooandmichael.com – North Vancouver, BC
http://www.yaletown-downtown-vancouver.com – Vancouver, BC
http://vincentfyip.com – San Francisco, CA

Our key is that our system is flexible. Agents can use our software to manage their website. It is integrated with many tools:
- feedburner
- google maps
- google sitemaps
- craigslist
- etc.

We can run custom designs or agents can use our templates. Our focus is getting agents online, helping them to use the internet to promote their listings (and gain listings) and educating them on what is happening in the online world of real estate. (we run training sessions as well for them, in office or in 3rd party locations – http://www.ubertor.com/events )

Start with the focus on the agent – and a big honking picture of him – as a near instant and near total turnoff to buyers and sellers.

Make sure that the type is small and low contrast so that no one will invest the effort in reading it.

Etc. Etc.

Where’s the value to the consumer?