Update to Security Images

Unfortunately form security images have become a reality on the Internet. We all hate them, but they are a necessary evil in the world of spammers.

Effective immediately we have made a positive change in the areas we implement security images on our sites. Once a customer is logged into an account (My Portfolio) we disable all the security images on the forms they see. This makes for a more positive user experience while still protecting our customers from spammers!

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Update to Open House System

Delta Media Group has updated its Open House System V3 with new functionality.

The new feature on the Open House system is the ability for the real estate company to select how many weeks of open houses to show to the consumer on the public side of the real estate website. Delta Media Group set the default at one week, but the DeltaNet allows the company to select up to six weeks. The setting can be found (along with other Version 3 settings) under 'Admin' - 'Open Houses' - 'Open House Preferences.'

Just to bring everyone up to date on the different versions of Delta Media Group's Open House system:

Version 1 is the version that most companies are on. This version supported CSV uploads and the open houses were handled on the admin side of the DeltaNet Real Estate Lead Management system.

Version 2 features admin and agent interfaces to add open houses. The CSV entry method was removed since the agents have the ability to enter the open houses. This version also brought about the search and filter capabilities as a standard feature.

Version 3 currently has just a few real estate companies on it. This version is built on top of the Version 2 structure but has IDX capabilities, pagination and is faster. Eventually, all real estate companies will be transitioned to this version.

Version 3 also features auto-tagging of first time open houses (opens that have not been in the system before), and there is a custom field from which the real estate company can define and tag the open houses. This was a feature that was requested by a customer and was implemented in a way to make it usable by any companies on this version. The company requesting this feature wanted a 'Price Reduced' tag, so the title held for their custom tag.

The company has full control over if both filters (first opens and custom) are available to the agent to select and customers to select. Read more about the Open House V3 system Delta Media Group released a few weeks ago.

For any company wanting to move to Version 3 of the open house system, we are planning on putting an interface in the DeltaNet that will allow the company to make the move themselves. The biggest stipulation with moving up from Version 1 is the fact that if there are already open houses in the system, they WILL NOT transfer over to Version 3. We will not offer Version 2 as an option since Version 3 was built on Version 2's foundation. For now, if you would like your company moved to the new version please submit a ticket to Customer Service.

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Markets Served

Today we posted a change to our system to help clarify how our system works. Under the Preferences Tab in the Administrative Section there is a Tab titled "Markets Served." This tab is used to power our PropertyPursuit.com Web Site.

When a visitor comes to PropertyPursuit.com and does a property search we direct that customer to one of our web sites. To determine which web site to send the visitor to for the search we use this "Markets Served" information.

The "Markets Served" information is generated based on the current listings your company has, weighed against the listings in our system. I guess this is to say that if you have one listing in a market we don't guarantee that you will get any traffic for that market.

In the past it appeared that you were able to edit this information. We have changed the verbiage in this section and changed the check-boxes to provide you with the information for informational purposes only. You are not able to update this information manually.

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Craigslist Real Estate Scams

It all started in our Customer Service Department with: "I received a call and made a ticket for [company name removed]. Regarding one of their listings showing up on craigslist.com under real estate rentals."

Now this home was certainly not for rent, it was for sale. The best part is that the listing on Craigslist had the agent contact information and even their photo!

It was a scam.

Needless to say, there are various real estate scams happening on Craigslist and this is something that everyone should be aware of. As can be seen from above, these scams have even hit some of our customers around the country.

Please be aware that Delta never sends your listing data anywhere without your permission. We are not sending your listing to Craigslist (although we may like to, and that is a whole other conversation!).

More information on these scams can be found here: http://www.blogcatalog.com/posts/craigslist%20scam

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Our new building...

We are moving...in about six months!

We have long out-grown our space. Both office space and hosting center.

Our new office space will feature a 15,000 square foot office. The office is a very dot-com reminiscent space.

The data center, a 15,000 square foot state-of-the-art data center will house Delta's servers as well.

For more information and to watch the building progress visit data4726.com

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New help information posted

We have been adding many new help videos and topics over the past few months. Yesterday we added help information to the Website Overview Section. In this section you will see help icons next to each item that will open a help window explaining what each section does. We are continuing to add help items throughout the system.

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Changes to additional listing images viewer

Updates have been posted to the additional listing images viewer. This change effects about 80% of our customers. You will probably not notice the change other then increased performance. Instead of having to reload the page to view each image we are now dynamically re-loading images and image titles.

It is important to point out that you will see decreased page views as a result of this change. However, this does not represent a decrease in actual traffic.

For example, if a listing has 32 images, our system will now report 2 page views instead of 33 if a customer views the listing detail page and all 32 images.

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Listing location mapping change

For customers using the Google™ Mapping functionality in our system we have disabled the ability to select Yahoo! for mapping a listing within the DeltaNet. This change continues to streamline changes to the user experience on the public sites, giving a more consistent experience.

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DMG's New Open House System V3

Delta Media Group's Open House V2 has been upgraded to Version 3. Currently only three real estate companies are running the new V3 system on their real estate websites. Many brokerages are running V2, and even V1. That will begin to change over time.

New features in the Open House V3 system include:

• New filter interface
• Dramatic speed improvements
• Pagination
• Ability to indicate "first time" open houses. (Additional updates are planned, making this more customizable.)
• Both "first time" open and custom fields are searchable if the company allows it.
• Agents can tag a custom field if the company enables the functionality.

In a few days, brokerages will be able to enable V3 of the open house system through the DeltaNet. Contact Delta Media Group for more information.

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Multiple listing agent ID's Per MLS

We have added the ability for agents to enter multiple primary Agent MLS ID's into our system. Some MLS' that are multi-state MLS' use different Agent MLS ID's when the agent has listings in different states. Up till now, our system would handle those additional ID's as co-listing Agent ID's and the agents would not be able to edit all their listings. They can now edit all their listings.

As always, agents can enter multiple co-listing or shared ID's in our system. However, they are still unable to edit those listings as would be expected.

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Disable the edit listings functionality

Some of our Brokerages have problems with the agents posting comments on listings that go against MLS Rules. In an effort to add more flexibility to our system Brokerages can now disable the edit feature for listings on the agent side.

Listing stats will still be available to the agents but they will be unable to post any edits to their listings. This feature can be enabled under Admin -> Preferences -> Globals -> Agent Access -> Do not allow agents to edit their listings. This feature is disabled by default.

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Transfer listing photos and photo comments

A popular feature in our system for years on the agent side is the ability to transfer listing photos from one listing to another. This is very useful when a listing is being refreshed in the MLS with a new MLS ID and an agent has custom photos and/or photo comments. Well, the Transfer Photos button is now available on the admin side when a listing is edited from the Admin side. Originally it was only available to the agents but administrators are doing this for the agents and did not want to constantly authenticate as the agent. This is a great feature!

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Programming Changes

I am going to be using this blog to communicate new programming features. New functionality is added to the Delta System (http://www.deltagroup.com) every week and most weeks even daily. The problem we have is communicating this information to everyone in a way they do not feel overwhelmed. So, programming changes are being posted in this blog ;-)

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My new blog

For the first time, I am starting a blog! I have wanted to do this for some time, for Delta and the Real Estate Industry, but have never taken the time. I hope you find the posts worth while and informative and maybe even fun at times. I look forward to your feedback!

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