Active Website Enterprise Network Blog » Milestone Realty Consultants

Milestone Goes LIVE with Redesigned Site

Amanda Stephan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:45:02 +0000

We’re happy to announce that Milestone Realty Consultants has launched their redesigned site on The Enterprise Platform. Representing Kentucky houses, Milestone has been a pillar of the Central Kentucky region since 1959.

In order to better serve their local community, Milestone kept the needs of the customer at the forefront of their redesign. Creating a more positive experience with their site, Milestone made several enhancements including: prominent placement of important call to actions on their homepage photo slideshow, multiple tabs to showcase Just Listed and Newly Priced properties, Open Houses and more, as well as hover-over features for photos giving quick access to basic property information.

The search results pages have been upgraded as well to include a refine bar of the most extensive filters available through the advanced search, allowing users to define their results further without having to return to the search form.

Additional enhancements include:

Advanced Search
Through this feature, Milestone is able to provide customers more filter options beyond the most commonly used fields. This allows users wanting to drill deep into the specific details of a listing the option to do so while not overwhelming those looking to do a quick search.

Property Picks/Driving Tour
Accompanying customers on the bottom of every search, search results and details page are the “My Property Picks” and “Driving Tour” tabs. These features allow users to add properties of interest to these baskets in order to compare the properties side-by-side or get turn-by-turn driving directions to each of the listings.

Quick View
Increasing the usability of search results page, the quick view feature allows customers to view basic property details without having to visit the property details page. The information appears within a light box application on the same page as the search results and includes a variety of property detail information including address, MLS #, price, list date, photos and more.

Upgraded Realtor Bios
The Realtor bios have been enhanced as well to incorporate a more sophisticated and streamlined design. By including tabs for the agent bio and agent listings, Milestone is able to keep important information above the fold for easy viewing. Call to action items are more prominent on the page as well, allowing a customer to quickly contact the agent for additional information.

Sticky Header
As an added detail, Milestone has chosen to include a static header that follows a user throughout the site. The header includes important call to action items such as their main contact phone number, quick access to email alerts and links to their social sites for increased exposure.

In addition to the features listed above, Milestone has also incorporated a Feedback form while their site is in Beta to ensure the site is meeting the needs of their online customers.

For more information, visit them online at www.milestoneky.com and click on the Preview Our New Site button at the top of the homepage.

Enterprise Network Challenge: Milestone Realty Consultants Launches Lifestyle Search

Amanda Stephan — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:00:26 +0000

Continuing the launch of lifestyle search on Enterprise sites, we’re happy to announce the release of our next lifestyle search engine for Milestone Realty Consultants.

Serving the central Kentucky area from Lexington homes to Richmond Property, Milestone is the local expert when it comes to buying or selling Kentucky houses. As a pillar in their community for over 50 years, Milestone is dedicated to meeting the evolving needs of their customers. Because of this, they have integrated the lifestyle search engine in order to improve the overall usability of their site and enhance the user experience.

Through lifestyle search, all members, including Milestone, are given an edge over the competition by offering a streamlined design and comprehensive list of features. While lifestyle search is available on a few other real estate sites, we’ve taken it to the next level to include functionality only offered on The Active Enterprise Platform. By taking what we’ve seen from other lifestyle searches and making it more user-friendly for our customers, members can ensure their sites are the best available on the web.

These enhancements include (but are not limited to):

Allowing customers to exclude filters not relevant to their lifestyle preferences
Including our own custom layer of mathematics for more accurate results
Allowing customers to compare their results to national data and to their current zip code
Showcasing map boundaries for each area
Directing customers to detailed community data provided by Onboard Informatics
Directing customers to each member’s community pages
Allowing customers to re-organize results based on one individual filter while still maintaining the overall ranking of the areas

We’re proud to offer an enhanced lifestyle search experience for our customers not available anywhere else on the web. To see all these great new features, be sure to check out our latest lifestyle search engines available on Milestone’s site!

10 Lifestyle Searches in 10 Weeks. First Up, Residential Properties!

Active Community: Introducing Lifestyle Search

By Amanda Stephan

Enterprise Network Members Make Real Trends 500 List

Amanda Stephan — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:19:12 +0000

Active Website would like to congratulate The Active Enterprise Network for another great year in 2011. With the release of The REAL Trends 500 Report, we’d like to take the time to spotlight several members who made the list.

Every year, REAL Trends ranks the performance of residential real estate companies across the country by sales volume, transactions, mortgage, etc. This annual report is a trusted standard of measuring performance, so again, congratulations to the following members!

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Transaction Sides for 2010)

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Sales Volume in 2010)

Top Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Affiliates

The Largest Independents

Top Firms Ranked by Closed Sales Volume Per Sales Associate

Top Firms Ranked by Closed Sales Volume Per Office

16- Kentwood Real Estate

Top Firms Ranked by Average Sales Price

24- McEnearney Associates, Inc.

The Billionaire’s Club! (Those who closed at least one billion $ worth of real estate in 2010)

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Mortgage Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Title Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

The Danberry Company

Real Trends Market Leaders

Ann Arbor: Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
Dallas/Ft.Worth: Ebby Halliday Realtors
Denver: Kentwood Real Estate
Fort Collins: The Group, Inc. Real Estate
Lexington: Milestone Realty Consultants
Portland: Hasson Company Realtors
Providence: Residential Properties, Ltd.
Toledo: The Danberry Company

Enterprise Network Members Make REAL Trends Top 500 List

Amanda Stephan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:46:27 +0000

Following up on a recent press release, Active Website would like to congratulate The Enterprise Network for another great year in 2009. With the results of The REAL Trends 500 having been released a couple months ago, we’d like to take the time to spotlight several of our Network Members who made the list.

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Transaction Sides for 2009)

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Sales Volume in 2009)

Top Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Affiliates

The Largest Independents

The Billionaire’s Club! (Those who closed at least one billion $ worth of real estate in 2009)

12- Ebby Halliday Realtors

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Mortgage Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Title Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Real Trends Market Leaders

Ann Arbor: Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
Dallas/Ft.Worth: Ebby Halliday Realtors
Denver: The Kentwood Companies
Fort Collins: The Group, Inc. Real Estate
Lexington: Milestone Realty Consultants
Portland: The Hasson Company
Toledo: The Danberry Company

To read more, check out our press release, The Active Enterprise Network Makes Real Trends Top 500 List for 2009.

By Amanda Stephan

Active Newsroom Update

Amanda Stephan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:08:22 +0000

Once again, it’s been an eventful month for the Active Enterprise Network. From the launch of Turpin Real Estate’s new website to the redesign of Charles Reinhart Company Realtors‘ existing site, Network Members are staying busy!

With new technologies in play, the Active Enterprise Network is stronger than ever. At Active Website, our clients are a part of our culture and we are proud to be working with such an innovative and talented group. This being said, we want to remind everyone to check out Active Newsroom for highlights of our achievements so far this year.

Read the following press releases for more information:

Turpin Real Estate Launches New Website on Enterprise Platform

Enterprise Network Members Gain Recognition for Excellence in Web Design

Milestone Realty Consultants Wins Award for Best Website by an Associate

Charles Reinhart Company Realtors Launches Redesigned Website

Make sure you’re on the lookout for more exciting news as we move forward into 2010!

By Amanda Stephan

Be THE Voice of Your Community

Amanda Stephan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:42:49 +0000

There has been a lot of discussion in our office about the importance of establishing your company’s voice. Whether it be through your website’s content, your corporate blog, or your social media sites, what message are you trying to uphold?

With the Enterprise Network, we’re really trying to instill the idea that unique and engaging content is the driving force behind generating traffic to their sites. We’ve discussed for quite some time the importance of content and using it to your advantage to increase SEO. This is a great tool to use for your company, but another aspect of our industry we should be focusing on is establishing a relationship with the community as well.

Along with quality content, we need to find other ways to provide services to our clients that will bring them to our websites. By becoming the voice of your community, not only are you an essential resource to new clients, but you’re also providing value to fellow community members.

Your company has the potential to be the go-to site for community information. More than likely, if you’re in the real estate industry, you have strong ties to the community. From school information to market statistics to cost of living reports, you are the experts when it comes to your region. So why not put your vast pool of knowledge to good use for your customers? On your websites’ community pages and blog, you should strive to become THE voice of your community. Your site should be a one-stop-shop for any questions future or current residents have about your city.

By creating a Current Events section on your website, you can attract residents to your site by providing them up-to-date information about your community (and provide quality content to your site as well!). Users don’t want to spend a lot of time searching dozens of sites in order to find what’s going on in your city that weekend. If they can go to one site and find all the available information they will. That could be you!

Below is a list of 10 resources you should be utilizing for finding content:

Local Chamber of Commerce
Local city and county website
Local school district website
Local newspapers
Local radio stations
Local TV stations
City Magazines
City Visitors Center
City Entertainment Venues
Citysearch.com

A great example of a brokerage that understands the need to create a connection with their users is Enterprise Network Member Milestone Realty Consultants. This Kentucky-based company is not only providing users with information pertaining to entertainment, recreation, schools, shopping, etc., but they’re taking it a step further. Having just launched their new website last month, Milestone offers users insight into their local regions by streaming community videos from their homepage. Below is an example of Kentucky’s Louisville community video that does a really good job of captivating their audience and appealing to their needs.

Along with this video comes neighborhood statistics from demographics to libraries to parks in the area and a list of agents who serve that particular community. Not only is this a great resource, but it’s a fantastic call to action by providing a list of experts to help them find their next home.

When it comes to your own website, think about ways you can reach out and educate your local community. Take the burden off your clients and compile relevant information for them. The first step should be adding important community content, including links to other local vendors and current events that are happening in your area. Not only will it help increase traffic to your site, it keeps your name in front of these users for when they’re ready to purchase their next home.

Milestone Realty Consultants Community Pages

Using Content to Increase SEO

6 Unique Content Ideas to Boost Your Website’s Value & Link-Worthiness

By Amanda Stephan

http://blog.activewebsite.com/

A Little Southern Hospitality

John Sable — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:50:30 +0000

There’s nothing like some southern hospitality and derby pie to give you a little inspiration for 2010. I spent the last week with Milestone Realty Consultants in Lexington, Kentucky rolling out their new website and discussing the 2010 internet marketing plan. While I was there, it seemed I spent less time discussing the importance of an online strategy and more time on the plan. I can’t tell you how great that felt.

Agents and managers alike came prepared with quality questions. As I stood there surveying the crowd, I noticed a room full of engaged realtors no longer struggling with the fact that traditional marketing has changed. Instead, this group of professionals came prepared to embrace the future with a new set of web tools. Terms such as advanced mapping, individual property websites, video streaming, unique content and viral marketing did not fall on deaf ears.

I thought to myself, they are honestly getting it!

As I went from meeting to meeting, it became even more obvious that the culture is changing and the world we live in as developers and technologists is starting to be shared by the masses. In the end, out of 100 agents in attendance, we had 60 sign up for the advanced marketing plan for 2010 – a plan that included an agent website and two individual property websites per month.

Milestone agents are now equipped with all the necessary tools to be successful. By being prepared to take what they’ve learned and start writing unique content about the areas they farm, Milestone is looking ahead at new ways to position themselves in 2010 and beyond.

So, as I jumped a plane back home, I asked myself a question. Have we reached a tipping point? Will 2010 be more about the customer and less about resisting change? I can’t fully answer these questions, but it did make me realize there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

And for everyone else out there, I encourage each of you to approach 2010 with a new sense of optimism. Don’t be afraid to talk openly with agents and managers about change; you may be surprised to find they are more accepting than you realize.

And please, do me a favor and visit the new Milestone site and give us some feedback. There has been a lot of hard work and late nights, so we welcome your comments. At Active Website, we are proud of the achievements Enterprise Network Members have made over the years and feel fortunate to have fifteen great clients up and running on the platform.

Wow, fifteen! It seems like just yesterday the Network started. It makes me realize how far we have come, but also how far we have to go. For now though, I am going to enjoy this successful launch and carry it with me into 2010.

Milestone Goes Live!

Amanda Stephan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:13:32 +0000

Looking for a Kentucky house of your dreams? Look no further. Today Enterprise Network Member, Milestone Realty Consultants, launched their new website in collaboration with Active Website. With the addition of new cutting-edge technology, Milestone’s goal is to create a user-friendly environment that engages customers and provides top-notch services to those looking for Louisville, Georgetown, and Lexington homes – plus other communities in the surrounding area.

Keeping the customer at the forefront of their design, Milestone believes they are now better positioned to be the leading real estate company in the region. The new website features a variety of user friendly enhancements including advanced Individual Property Websites, the integration of multimedia services, and the ability to access real time data from mobile devices.

Milestone’s website platform also includes:

The integration of the “Where do I Go Next?” button that provides users with a pre-engineered path option for relevant browsing.
Established Agent Websites to aid in each agent’s individual branding while utilizing features from the home site.
The inclusion of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and a corporate blog.
The ability for customers to create a Property Alerts account in order to receive emails when properties match their listed criteria.
Tour our cities videos that stream community overviews directly from the homepage.
Community information pertaining to neighborhood statistics, school information, and links that may be of interest to users.
Syndication to numerous top real estate sites, including Zillow, Trulia and HGTV’s Frontdoor.

By focusing on the customer’s needs, this one-stop shop real estate company is dedicated to providing quality service. From their real estate division to their rental and relocation divisions, these experienced professionals will help consumers find a home with the help of the new website while increasing their SEO standing. To find out more about the company, visit www.milestoneky.com.