What $500,000 Buys Youin California

The “What you can buy for …..” Slideshow

The look of it first – a few models -- and then the development requirements/process

What to do with it?

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What $500,000 Buys Youin California

Editor would find and add first picture to CMS Photo is generic. Makes it easier than pulling from search of listings. Title/caption is created and added to CMS

First, one possible look – a models with less features comes later in deck

What to do with it?

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The second slide in the deck would provide some editorial context for the selection of homes that follow.It could be color description or, like here, some statistical background. Generally we would strive editorially to keep it evergreen to ensure the longevity of the slide deck.

The California housing market has been in free fall the last few years. Beginning with the downturn in mid-2006, the median price of existing homes has fallen by 27%. But interest rates are at historically low levels so it’s a great time for buyers. But while these factors may sound like good news for first-time homebuyers, a lot depends on where you buy and what you buy. Here’s a selection of what you can get for $500K right now in the Golden State

Realtor.com has more than 6,000 homes available for under $500,000 in 12 U.S. cities. All properties are within their respective metro areas, except where noted. To search for more properties in California or other states use the advanced search option on Realtor.com

California in Freefall Slide should have a graphic element. A graph as here, a photo, or even the thumbnails of the slideshow

What to do with it?

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This is the standard look for the photos in the slide show pulled according to the logic rules set by the editor

ITERATION: This is a detail we could consider. Check out next slide to see what it does

Simple caption would be pulled from listing data with the photo

What to do with it?

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When you click the property details button it pulls up a transparent popup overlay of basic details and an invitation to LDP to see more photos and listing data

We could surface a module with details of the realtor responsible for the listing with each photo . They’d love us!

The California housing market has been in free fall the last few years. Beginning with the downturn in mid-2006, the median price of existing homes has fallen by 27%. But interest rates are at historically low levels so it’s a great time for buyers. Here’s a selection of what you can get for $500K right now in the Golden State

What You Get for $500,000 in California

Editorial copy input onto page through CMS – not onto slideshow template

Simpler page model – dropping slide show functionality into simple content page

Slideshow module doesn’t have to go through CMS –Simpler functionality and build here

What the rest of the slide page might look like down page from the module, fleshing out the content.

We incorporate modules like these automatically in Rentdux Metro pages

We would have links to other slideshows and we could add some information about the neighborhood/state rrelating to the slideshow photos ….and ads of course!

Final Page of show – an invitation

Check out other Realtor.com slideshows

Create your own search of homes by using Realtor.com’s faceted search

Call to action

Requirements/Process 1 – slideshow tool

The Slideshow Tool

This could be managed through CMS – meaning that copy can go on selected slides

OR could simply be a slide show module that is pulled into published page created by CMS

Most importantly – whichever use is preferred, the slideshow pulls photos into the anchor page to generate new urls, which count towards ad impressions. That way the slideshow page can be indexed for search engines and each view of photos in show counts.

Thus the urls would read differently for each picture, for example, using the address of each photo as part of the url:

http://www.realtor.com/nphotos/What-500000-buys-in-California/slideshow--#photoViewer=/594-South-MAPLETON-Drive-Los-Angeles-CA-90024

http://www.realtor.com/nphotos/What-500000-buys-in-California/slideshow--#photoViewer=/1774-Washington-Blvd-Los-Angeles-CA-90291

Requirements/Process 2 – Auto Selection Management

Selection Logic

Built into the editorial CMS, or a separate CMS that runs the slideshow tool, is some selection logic that uses our existing faceted tagging in Realtor to allow the editor to set the parameters for the photos that will be pulled to the slideshows.

For the set of content we intend to create – “What you get for $400,000 in Utah,” “Foreclosures under $350,000 in Nashville, TN,” “Homes for $925,000 in New York, NY” and so on – the facet tags needed to limit the photo selection are location and price.

Built into the selection logic we also need some set parameters to automatically limit the available pool of photos available to the slideshow tool from only properties with more than, say 10, photos. This will improve quality as it will ignore the basic MLS photos and pick from enhanced listings where photos are likely to be better.

We also limit the number of photos pulled to each slideshow to between 15 and 20. Slideshows with more than that number of photos overstay their welcome.

It may be necessary also to automatically disqualify photos that are below certain pixel sizes to make sure we get a good quality experience.

Requirements/Process 3 -- editorial

Editorial

The editor defines the topic and creates a title for the slideshow – eg. “Foreclosures for $400,000 in Boston”

Editor checks to ensure there’s sufficient photo content to support title – a spreadsheet output of properties with the number of photo attached and listed by location would be essential for speed.

Post check, the editor writes appropriate editorial copy in CMS to support the photographic content

If slideshow is in CMS the editor adds editorially chosen photo to first page of slideshow and copy to second. If slideshow in not in CMS the editor writes copy and creates a page in the CMS which automatically pulls in the slideshow module into the page template

The editor sets facet search logic for slideshow to pull the appropriate pictures – by geo location/by price – either in the CMS, or in a separate tool which manages the slideshow tool that’s pulled to that particular page.

Requirements/Process 4 -- Random?

Randomness

Every time a slideshow is generated from the parameters we set – location and price -- it will pull randomly from the available listings. There are some considerations for us here:

If visitors look at a slideshow, it’s possible that the next time they search and look for the same slideshow, they will see a different set of images.

This is desirable from our point of view – more properties are displayed, less realtors complain that their properties never make the cut – but is it a good experience for the viewer? What if they want to show a friend some particular houses and send the url for them to view the show? When the friend opens it they many never see the same houses.

For me it’s not a big concern. I’d live with the limitation just to get these slideshow content pages up and running and see the increased page view count. But is it something we need to consider?

Is there a way we can set the selection logic to pick the same photos for a particular slideshow for a set period of time? Say a week? That means everyone sees the same photos in a particular slideshow for that period. Our out clause after that is that houses come and go on the market and the slideshow reflects this. Just asking?

What to do with it?

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We can iterate – adding extra tagging to photos would make it possible to dramatically increase the number of slideshows possible, targeting facets of homes – rooms, pools etc.