SimplyRETS Real Estate IDX

Getting Started

SimplyRETS allows you to display and search your Real Estate listings

directly on your WordPress site. And it can all be set up in less than 5

minutes!

The SimplyRETS Plugin has the most filtering options of any IDX Plugin

on the market, with many different ways to create unique pages of

listings on your site. No iframes, great SEO, and a modern and

customizable interface for a modern Real Estate website.

To get your listings showing through the plugin there’s only three steps:

• Create an account with SimplyRETS

• Use RETS or RESO Web API credentials from your MLS to create an app.

• Start showing live MLS listing data on your site!

View plugin examples and documentation

Visit our website

Quick Start

After installing and activating the plugin – you can quickly get

listings showing by putting the following short-code on any page:

[sr_listings].

But that’s just a start! There are many ways you can show and filter

the listings – check out the

full documentation.

The 5 Minute Setup

Using the Test Listings

To use the free trial listings, all you need to do is install it and

start creating pages! The test credentials are already saved in the

plugin when you install it, so you can spend more time making an

awesome real estate website.

Features & Documentation

To use the available widgets, and short-codes – start by reading over

the Documentation page.

The GitHub README also provides a good starting

point for developers looking to customize some features.

com for any

questions you can’t find an answer to!

How it Works

The SimplyRETS plugin generates accurate and correct HTML and does

not use iframes or ever take your visitors away from your site –

which we’ve learned is essential for materializing online leads. The

power is put back in your hands by giving you full control of which of

your listings to show, and on which pages.

The plugin also provides you extensions on many standard WordPress features:

• A robust set of shortcodes and attributes to build virtually any type of page you can imagine.

• A custom ‘SimplyRETS Listings’ page type for creating pages with listing results.

• Sidebar and footer widgets for Featured Listings, Search, etc.

• Plenty of short-codes for splicing your listings into any page or post.

• Filters for searches, custom pages, etc.

SimplyRETS provides the fastest and most up-to-date solution for

embedding your listings on your site. SimplyRETS will update as

frequently as every hour (or as frequent as your MLS provider

allows). This means that you’re ahead of the competition and can have

the fastest possible response time for dealing with interested

prospects.

This plugin is fast! You don’t have to worry about slowing down

your website by pulling lots of data on every page load. The SimplyRETS

plugin is optimized to only load on the correct pages, and to

only load the listings you choose. By doing this, you are able to keep

visitors on your site to look at more properties. If you offer the

fastest searching solution in your city, why would they go any where

else?

SimplyRETS supports both RETS and RESO Web API feeds. This allows you

to be on the leading technical edge and provides you with many

advantages of IDX (Internet Data Exchange) including response speed,

compatibility across multiple MLS areas, and up-time. So while your

competition is working on getting properties on their site, you can

install the SimplyRETS WordPress plugin and spend more time actually

selling!

Documentation

See the full plugin examples and documentation here

The SimplyRETS plugin makes it easy an intuitive to show your listings

on your site in a way that you want. There’s virtually no

restrictions to how you can customize the plugin and your site.

The plugin is based around shortcodes; there are shortcodes for

listings, search forms, sliders, and more. Each of these shortcodes

takes attributes that refine which listings are pulled. For example:

To show all listings from your MLS:

[sr_listings]

but to only show listings from a specific agent:

[sr_listings agent="AGENTID"]

read more about the available attributes [here][#Available-Attributes].

Contents

• Shortcodes

• Show Listings

• Search Form

• Featured Listing Slider

• Interactive Map Search

• Available Filters

• Admin Settings / Permalinks

• MLS Compliance Settings

• Widgets

• Trial Listings

• SimplyRETS Pages

• Customizing CSS

• Support / More Documentation

Shortcodes

Most of the plugin is built around using shortcodes. This allows the

most flexibility for customizing your own layout and search pages.

SimplyRETS Listings Shortcode

[sr_listings]

This is the main shortcode for showing listings on any page of your

site. Put this shortcode onto any page and, voila, you’ve got

listings!

This shortcode takes many different [attributes][shortcodes

attributes], and you can combine almost any of them.

If you want to use the listings shortcode, but only show listings

above $500,000 then you would simply add the minprice attribute:

[sr_listings minprice="500000"]

So how about the same minimum price, but only for one specific agent?

Easy!

[sr_listings minprice="500000" agent="ID"]

( Note: the ID is provided by your MLS )

SimplyRETS Search Form Shortcode

[sr_search_form]

Next up is the search form shortcode. This is what ties together the

ability to search and view listings.

This shortcode also takes a few different attributes, but not quite as

many as the listings shortcode because the user will change them.

For example, you can set up a search form that will only search form

that will always search one specific office or brokerage:

[sr_search_form brokers="ID"]

( Note: the ID is provided by your MLS )

You can also set the search form to search pre-designated property types (like Residential and Condominium). To do so, use the type attribute within the sr_search_form short-code:

This will default to search Rentals only:

[sr_search_form type=”Rental”]

This will default to search Commercial and Land only:

[sr_search_form type=”Land; Commercial”]

There are several use-cases for the search form and you can put it

anywhere on your site you want! The two most common ways to use the

search form are:

• On the landing area of your homepage, to get the visitor to start a

search immediately.

-

To be used in combination with the listings shortcode, like so:

[sr_search_form]

[sr_listings]

This builds a nice page with an initial set of listings, which

promotes the visitor to continue making a search.

Listings Slider Shortcode

[sr_listings_slider]

The listing slider is a great feature that allows you to build a

‘slider’ of listings. See screenshot #7

for a quick glance of how it works.

Note: Some attributes (listed below) can take multiple values. sr_listings_slider currently only supports one value per attribute. For example, [sr_listings_slider postalCodes=”123456″] is supported, but [sr_listings_slider postalCodes=”12345; 34567″] is not.

Attributes

• random

Show the listings in a random order whenever the page is loaded.

[sr_listings_slider random=”true”]

The slider shortcode takes all the same attributes as the listings

shortcode, which is all of them. So to make a slider with listings

over $500,000:

[sr_listings_slider minprice="500000"]

And the same minimum price, but only for one specific agent? Easy!

[sr_listings_slider minprice="500000" agent="ID"]

( Note: the Agent ID is provided by your MLS )

Interactive Map Search

The SimplyRETS plugin also provides a second kind of map based search that allows

the user to search by drawing polygons over and area and setting their parameters.

The short-code can be used with:

[sr_map_search]

Attributes

• search_form

Show search form in addition to the map.

[sr_map_search search_form="true"]

• list_view

Show a list view of search results below the map

[sr_map_search list_view="true"]

( Note: Maps can only be enabled when latitude and longitude are

available for the listings. Some MLS’s do not provide this, in which

case you can check out the SimplyRETS Geocoding Addon. )

Available Filters

There are ton of attributes available for refining the listings in any

way you can imagine. Each of these attributes can be used in any of

the shortcodes, and you can use (most of) them in combination with

each other like the examples above:

-

mlsid

Fetches a single listing by it’s mlsid.

[sr_listings mlsid=”12345″]

-

status

Refines listings by a certain status, like Active, Pending, or Closed. (Separate multiple with a semicolon ‘;’)

[sr_listings status=”Closed”]

[sr_listings status=”Active; Pending”]

Note: By default, Active and Pending are queried

-

minprice

Refines listings to a minimum price.

[sr_listings minprice=”500000″]

-

maxprice

Refines listings to a maximum price.

[sr_listings maxprice=”1000000″]

-

minbeds

Set a minimum amount of bedrooms.

[sr_listings minbeds=”3″]

-

maxbeds

Set a maximum amount of bedrooms.

[sr_listings maxbeds=”3″]

-

minbaths

Set a minimum amount of baths.

[sr_listings minbaths=”3″]

-

maxbaths

Set a maximum amount of baths.

[sr_listings maxbaths=”3″]

-

q

A fuzzy keyword search that will include listings matching a given string.

[sr_listings q=”great view”]

-

type

Refines listings by a certain type, like Residential, Condo, Rental.

[sr_listings type=”Rental”]

-

agent

Refines listings to a specific agent by taking an agent’s MLS ID.

[sr_listings agent=”JDOE12″]

-

brokers

Refines listings to a specific brokerage by taking a brokerage’s MLS ID.

[sr_listings brokers=”KWREALTY1″]

-

cities

Refines listings to a given set of cities. (Separate multiple with a semi-colon).

[sr_listings cities=”Houston; Austin; Dallas”]

-

neighborhoods

Refines listings to a given set of neighborhoods/subdivisions. (Separate multiple with a semi-colon).

[sr_listings neighborhoods=”Heights; Downtown; Uptown”]

-

postalcodes

Refines listings to a given set of postal codes. (Separate multiple with a semi-colon).

[sr_listings postalcodes=”12345; 34567″]

-

counties

Refines listings to a given set of counties. (Separate multiple with a semi-colon).

[sr_listings counties=”Harris; Travis”]

-

amenities

Refines listings to a given set of amenities. (Separate multiple with a semi-colon).

[sr_listings amenities=”Granite; Balcony”]

-

features

Refines listings to a given set of features. (Separate multiple with a semi-colon).

[sr_listings features=”Tennis Court; Waterfront”]

-

water

Refines listings to only ones that have a value for the ‘water’ field. true is the only valid value:

[sr_listings water=”true”]

Note: This is only available for feeds that have a value for ‘water’.

-

vendor

Refines listings by a certain vendor or MLS Board. (This is required when your account has multiple MLS’s).

[sr_listings vendor=”MFRMLS”]

-

limit

The amount of listings to return. Default is 20, maximum is 50.

[sr_listings limit=”50″]

-

offset

Returns a set of listings and skips the first n, where n is the offset.

[sr_listings offset=”20″]

-

sort

Displays the listings in a specific order.

[sr_listings sort=”listprice”]

(The available sort options are listprice, -listprice, listdate, -listdate, baths, -baths, beds, and -beds.

Options starting the a minus (-) are high to low, no minus sign is low to high).

Note: By default, the listings are sorted by modification time, newest first

• advanced

This attribute is to turn the basic search form into an advanced search form.

[sr_search_form advanced=”true”]

SimplyRETS Widgets

The SimplyRETS plugin comes with several widgets you can use in you

sidebar and footer. The currently available widgets include:

-

Search Form Widget

The search form widget allows you to add an MLS search in the

sidebar or footer of your site.

-

Featured Listing Widget

This takes one listing MLS id, and will embed the property in a

widget with a link to the details page of that property

-

Random Listing Widget

This is similar to the Featured Listing Widget, but takes multiple

MLS Id’s. On each page load, it will show one of the listings

provided.

-

Agents Listing Widget

The search form widget allows you to add an MLS search in the

sidebar or footer of your site.

Admin Settings and Permalinks

This sections will discuss some of the basic configuration options

available to admin’s through the plugin:

Account credentials

The account credentials section in the admin settings is where you’ll

enter your API Credentials for your SimplyRETS app. If you don’t yet

have a SimplyRETS app, the default demo credentials will be

available.

Single Listing Page Settings

These settings allow you to control various parts of the listing

details pages, including the contact form and some of the fields that

are shown.

Contact form lead capture

When this is enabled, a lead capture contact form will be shown at the

bottom of listing details pages. In the Send lead capture form

submissions to input, you can enter the email address where you’d

like to receive lead emails.

Note: The WordPress admin email is used if no email is provided

Show/Hide fields

Show and/or hide various parts of the listing details page:

-

Hide ‘Listing meta information’ fields from property details?

This option hides listDate, modificationTimestamp, taxYear,

and taxAmmount from listing details pages.

-

Do not show Agent/Office phone number and email address

If checked, the listing office and agent’s contact information will

not be shown. Note that, in most cases, the name will still be

shown.

-

Hide ‘Listing Remarks’ (description) field from property details?

If checked, the listing description will not be dispayed.

-

Show additional room details?

If available, extra information about the listing’s rooms will be

shown when this is enabled.

-

Show MLS status text if available (hide standardized status)?

If a statusText is available for the listing, show that instead of

the standardized status. Read more about statusText

here

Image gallery settings

There are two types of image galleries available for listing details

pages: fancy and classic. Here, you can choose which one you’d

like to use.

Permalinks

SimplyRETS has support for ‘pretty’ and ‘ugly’ permalinks. It will

choose the best one based on your current configuration and there

are a couple of options to fine-tune it.

-

If your WordPress site uses ‘default’ (ugly) permalinks, the

plugin is forced to use those as well.

-

If your WordPress site is using ‘pretty’ permalinks, you can

choose between ‘pretty’ and ‘extra pretty’ SimplyRETS links in the

“Permalnks” section of the admin panel. Here are some basic

examples:

com/listings/{id}/{streetAddress}

com/listings/{city}/{state}/{postalCode}/{streetAddress}/{id}

MLS Compliance Settings

In some cases, you may need to show additional disclaimers and

information for broker reciprocity. The SimplyRETS WordPress plugin

has some options you can use to make this easier.

Show brokerage name by listing summaries

In the SimplyRETS Settings page of your WordPress dashboard you will

find a setting called “Show brokerage name”. With this enabled, the

name of the listing brokerage will be shown next to all thumbnail

and summary sections, as well as on listing details pages.

IDX Image for listing summaries

This option allows you to add a URL for an image that will be shown

with all listing summaries. For example, a broker reciprocity image

can be added, and anywhere a listing summary is shown that image will

be shown as well.

Custom disclaimer

If you need to add a custom disclaimer to your website, the SimplyRETS

plugin offers a way for you to do so. On the Settings -> SimplyRETS

Settings page there is an option called “Custom disclaimer”.

This is just the start! com/documentation