COMPASS Real Estate has been taking the Real Estate Market by storm over the past few years. They have been providing a very different approach to the whole real estate buying and selling in the USA. Technology and branding are two very important subjects for COMPASS. To be an COMPASS Approved Vendor is an achievement for any marketing agency.

In August and September 2019, The X Concept went through the process to become a COMPASS Approved Vendor through their San Diego office. Our CEO, Charles Oreve had an in person meeting with the Associate Marketing Manager at their Carmel Valley Office. He used Johnny Perez’s website as an example of what he already did for a local COMPASS agent.

Showcasing our Work

As we developed in the past, Johnny’s website is a wordpress based website using Showcase IDX for IDX Search. Showcase IDX is the leading IDX Plugin for WordPress websites. It helps your website rank in SEO much faster than any other IDX on the market at this time. This competitive edge, as The X Concept is one of nine approved website developers nationwide with showcase, is what we are bringing to the table for COMPASS agents.

Finalizing Compliance

After the original meeting with the Associate Marketing Manager, we looped in with the Associate Design Manager to finalize the compliance to brand guidelines for Johnny Perez’s website. This brand guidelines compliance is to make sure that all the COMPASS Real Estate design elements we used. Such as logos, typefonts, image styles and more. Making sure there was no discrepancy between the team website and the compass brand guide. Through collaboration and exchange, this process was completed in a timely manner.

Acceptance as an Approved Vendor

To become an approved vendor is an achievement, and receiving the acceptance was something Charles Oreve and his team were very proud of. We will explain what it means to us, but first, what does that mean to you as an agent…

What does it mean for an agent to work with a COMPASS Approved Vendor

You are a COMPASS Real Estate Agent, and are looking for marketing services. Could it be collateral, design files, real estate signs. You will be able to use COMPASS in house design team. This team is composed from seasoned and talented professionals that will do remarkable work for agents.

Let’s look at websites. There are two key component in a real estate website: IDX Search and SEO Ranking.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Ranking

You can have the most beautiful website in the world, if there is no traffic coming to it, it won’t do you much good. Ranking high in SEO, even though it is a timely process, that requires a lot of work, is a key component for people to find your website. I am not sure where you are, and where you are licensed. But believe me, in San Diego if you throw a rock in the air, it will most likely land on a real estate agent. Ok, Maybe it is not that bad, but there are a lot out there. You want people who are not represented, to find you before they find another agent.

This is why we are here, and how we can help you. On top of being a great IDX solution, Showcase IDX makes you rank with more pages than any other – to give you real world examples. Johnny Perez’s traditional sitemap ranks for 19 discovered URLs, while his Showcase IDX sitemap has 17,079 pages (as of today 12/20/2019)… That gives you a little more of an idea of the power between what we build.

Still, have an outdated IDX that uses subdomains or iframes? Google treats the property and search pages as another site, and the IDX provider not you gets “credit” from Google for rankings. Showcase IDX is different from the outdated IDX options.”

IDX Search – Or how to stop your clients from using Zillow

Having a great IDX platform on your website is key. If you’re sending your clients to Zillow do their home search, you are literally sending your prospects to the competition. Better make sure you have a strong buyers agreement as you know other agents will be receiving their information. Showcase IDX provides the MLS property search, lead generation, and consumer engagement tools for your website.

By far the most innovative IDX property search available on the market, it was the most used real estate marketing software by agents with growing businesses from our survey. (WordPress was used by more but it’s not really real estate specific, even though it is crucial to having a good website.)”.

Most consumers do not realize what these large Listing Sites actually do with their contacts (and budget information) when they sign up on the big real estate portals.

Zillow itself earned more than $1.5 BILLION in 2018 according to their public SEC filings, and the vast majority of this came from their advertising services (e.g. Premier Agents) where they provide consumer contact information to a variety of agents and other partners.

How to stop them

We’ve spoken with several consumer privacy experts that have verified that the average consumer does not realize that “they themselves are the product that these large portals are using to earn billions”.

A modern IDX integration on your own website not only provides your clients’ the real estate website experience that they expect but it also allows you as their trusted hyperlocal expert to help protect their information – yet another part of the value a good Realtor brings to the home buying process.

You are a resource for new homes in your community; they see your signs, they see your advertisements, they see you at local events. This local presence is an advantage that the big listing websites will never have.

Bring the power of MLS listings to your website with IDX integration, and you can trade on that authority in a way that will not only endear you to your existing clients – it will win you countless new ones as well.

So, why a COMPASS Approved Vendor

For COMPASS to approve of our services and the way we deliver them we went through compliance and acceptance from COMPASS Real Estate managers. They know that our work is reputable and are vouching for us to deliver to you what you are looking for, in compliance with brand guidelines. Instead on taking a guess on the reliability and the quality of anyone else’s work. We earned our seal of approval.

What does it mean to us to be a COMPASS Approved Vendor?

We are really proud, of course to have been approved by the Real Estate company with the largest growth over the past few years.

“In a relatively static world of real estate market share, Compass is clearly making an impact and seeing strong growth. And its growth strategy is as unique as its fundraising ability.” (Inman.com – 2019)

It also means to us that we are made available to over 12.000 agents nationwide that have access to our rate card alongside other approved vendors in all types of sectors. Been given the seal of approval by such a large brokerage is key for us.