Huntsville Al homes for sale, You might find it hard to use Huntsville's public acess MLS, especially if you dont know where to get started. We can help without any cost or obligation to you by setting up automated Huntsville homes for sale searches . Just let us know what you are looking for. When a new listing hits the market, you will be among the first to see it.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Skewed Huntsville homes for sale search results
Source; Real Geeks
How You're Helping Zillow and Trulia to Outrank You
Making it to the first page of Google is no easy feat. You can optimize your site, make sure your content is of the highest quality, and adhere to Google's standards, and still never make it for one reason or another. Usually, it's a matter of other sites simply doing something better than you. Maybe they've built more backlinks. Maybe they're better at marketing. That's the nature of any business—fair competition. But what if you were unknowingly helping another site to outrank you?
Sadly, this is the case for many independent real estate agents out there. You think you're doing everything right, and even going above and beyond, but you're still getting beaten by larger brands. It may be that you're contributing to their success, and your lack of visibility. How? Through a simple device called a widget, which uses your website to drive traffic and boost the rankings of two major names in the real estate space, Zillow and Trulia.
Predatory Linking Practices
Those two sites need no introduction. You know who they are. You may also know that try as you might, you can't overtake them in the SERPs. In fact, the longer they're around, the further your site seems to fall in the results. Maybe you even thought you'd try to take advantage of their name recognition, and add one, two, or a few of their widgets to your site. Little did you know that by doing so, you were giving Zillow and Trulia even more firepower to outrank your site.
It's a brilliant scheme, really. Both sites provide a full range of widgets for agents to use on their independent real estate sites. These widgets offer a wide range of features including mortgage calculators, maps, photo slideshows, home value estimators, and even a contact form. What site can't benefit from a widget, right? And by offering tools like maps and mortgage calculators, you're just helping your customers find even more information than might normally be available via IDX.
The problem is, the minute you put one of those widgets on your site, you are agreeing to help a competitor rank better than you, and to drive traffic to their site. Let's take a closer look at one of the widgets provided by Zillow—the home value estimator.
To get the widget, you first fill out a simple form with a default address. You'll naturally want to fill this out before placing the form on your site so that the code generated is for your city and not the default, Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minn.—unless, of course, you're located in Minneapolis. For the purposes of this example, we'll use San Antonio, TX:
Just copy the generated code and paste it into your site and voilà! You can offer your customers a home value estimator tool. Now let's examine that code. Most of it is pretty standard, all meant to create the field a potential customer would fill out in order to find out how much their home, or a home they want to buy, is worth. But at the very end is where it gets interesting. The last portion of the code reads as follows:
Homes for Sale in San Antonio
This tiny bit of code contains three areas of concern:
The Backlink
The home value estmator form widget, like every other widget Zillow offers, contains a link back to Zillow.com. It's right at the beginning: http://www.zillow.com/san-antonio-tx/, and you’ll see that link appears at the bottom of the widget you install on your site, just under where users are prompted to enter an address. Well, you think, that's only right considering they're providing me with this free widget. One little link won't hurt anything.
But there's something you must understand. A link coming into a site—more commonly called a backlink—gives that site a boost in authority and rank. The more backlinks a site has, the better it looks to Google and the other search engines.
The logic behind it is that few people, if anyone, will link to a poor quality site. So the more people linking to a site, the higher quality it must be, and Google moves it up in the SERPs. Unfortunately, it's flawed logic, because some companies, like Zillow, have found ways to create their own backlinks by including them in little widgets like this.
Multiply that one backlink in your one widget by the thousands of other real estate agents who are using these widgets on thousands of sites. Every backlink is a boost to Zillow's rank, and an anchor on independent agents' sites competing to be found.
The Inclusion of the City
As an independent real estate agent, you most likely work in a relatively small area, whether it's the little town you live in, or the San Antonio metro area, which is small relative to the country. But sites like Zillow and Trulia are accessible to anyone anywhere in the country, including those people who may be moving to your local area.
By including a backlink to its own listings in your city, Zillow is basically horning in on your local search action. And it's not just the link itself, but the text that is linked, which is called anchor text. When this text is optimized, it helps to target specific searches. In this backlink, the optimized anchor text is: "Homes for sale in San Antonio," meaning it's meant to target people searching for that specific item with those specific words. Per Google's own Keyword Research tool, approximately 880 people search for the exact phrase "Homes for sale in San Antonio" every month:
So first, you've helped boost Zillow's position in the SERPs so that it's ranking well above your local San Antonio website. Then you gave them optimized anchor text to help their site pop up when someone searches for "Homes for sale in San Antonio," which has a decent search volume, especially for such a localized area. But there's one more thing that should concern you, if not just outright make you angry.
Microformat Data Markup
Take another look at that code, and pay special attention to this one little bit: San Antonio The first part of it tells a search engine like Google that a certain parameter is being identified as a region—in this case, San Antonio. Google loves microformats.
When Google finds a microformat attached to a link like this, it may respond by displaying a bit more information in the snippet, which is the descriptive bit of information that follows each link in a SERP. Using this particular microformat may prompt Google to display a map alongside the search result, thereby drawing the searcher's eye, and further encouraging them to click the link.
So even if your site appeared directly below Zillow on the SERP for "Homes for sale in San Antonio," (and incidentally, as of this writing, Zillow ranks #3 in Google for that search phrase after homes.com and trulia.com), it's more likely that the person searching will click on Zillow's result because there's a colorful map attached to it, drowning out your small, text-only link.
By now, you should be suitably upset that you have been helping your competitors boost their rankings above yours. In fact, you may be angry enough that you think, Forget them! I'll just use the widget, but I'm going to remove that bit of code that will include the backlink! Not so fast.
Take another look at that screenshot of the widget code generation form. You'll notice just below the code is a line that says, "By using this widget, you agree to the Terms of Use." On the Terms of Use page are the rules for using Zillow's widget:
Pay close attention to numbers 2, 6, and 7. Number 2 says you may not modify the widget, which includes removing that last bit of code that creates a backlink to Zillow.com. More importantly, it says you can't prevent the search engines from "scoring the link," which basically means counting it toward Zillow's authority and ranking. Essentially, by using this widget and accepting these terms of service, you are agreeing to boost Zillow in the SERPs.
Number 6 says Zillow can, at any time, change the content returned by the widget you place on your site, so at some point, your customers may not get the information they're looking for. And by agreeing to number 7, you're allowing Zillow to monitor your site to make sure you're in compliance with these terms, so if you thought you'd go ahead and adjust that code anyway, they basically tell you they're watching for that.
Think about this for a moment—how often do you really read the terms of service for anything? Be honest. Before you download software, make a purchase from iTunes, or install a widget on your site, do you take the time to read the rules? If you're like most people, the answer is no. You're in a hurry. You don't have time. You just want to install the widget and get on with your business. Zillow is counting on that.
Trulia also offers widgets, and also requires you to agree to terms of service. All their widgets also include backlinks, so by using them, you're helping Trulia to outrank you in the search engine results.
The next question in your mind is most likely, How can they do this? Isn't it against Google guidelines or something?
The short answer is no, but as with many things related to the Internet and Google, the full answer isn't quite that simple.
Widget Spam
Way back in 2008, Matt Cutts, who heads up Google's webspam team, gave an interview, and wrote a post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, in which he discussed widget spam.
In the interview, Cutts explained Google's stance on widget spam. If a link in the widget is hidden, it's spam. If the link goes to a third-party site that is completely irrelevant to the widget's purpose, or to the site that provided the widget, it's spam. Zillow does neither of these things. Their widget links are clearly visible, they go back to Zillow, and they're relevant to the widget's purpose.
Here's where it gets tricky. In the Webmaster Central post, Cutts said:
...I discourage people from putting keyword-rich anchortext [sic] into their widgets...
By including phrases like "Homes for sale in San Antonio," Zillow is most definitely using keyword-rich anchor text in their widgets. Granted, it's relevant, but by not including any reference to "Zillow," the possibility exists that visitors to your site may assume that link will take them to more local listings from your site. Instead, they'll be sent to Zillow. The anchor text is potentially misleading.
Is that a lot of assumption? Sure. But the best way to prevent incorrect assumptions is to be transparent in what you're doing, and Zillow's widgets, while not completely in the spam camp, are still toeing that line, and leaving room for interpretation by not being totally transparent.
Your Options
The first and best action you can take is to immediately and completely remove any Zillow and Trulia widgets from your independent real estate website.
Need a widget? You can find tons of free ones that don't link to your competitors. Want to offer a mortgage calculator to your customers? Talk to a developer about creating a custom, branded one for you.
You may incur some expense, but how much money do you think you're losing by sending your customers to the two 800-pound gorillas in the real estate space rather than offering your customers your own tools and information?
As for Zillow and Trulia, and their predatory linking practices, it will be up to Google to decide whether the two sites have violated the search engine's rules. In the meantime, they'll do just fine without your help.
Homes For Sale In Huntsville Alabama
Search the huntsville al mls for homes for sale in huntsville al at www. Homesforsalehuntsville. Net. No registration required. Request automated real estate search. Get the market value of your property. Rental homes and property management service.
How You're Helping Zillow and Trulia to Outrank You
Making it to the first page of Google is no easy feat. You can optimize your site, make sure your content is of the highest quality, and adhere to Google's standards, and still never make it for one reason or another. Usually, it's a matter of other sites simply doing something better than you. Maybe they've built more backlinks. Maybe they're better at marketing. That's the nature of any business—fair competition. But what if you were unknowingly helping another site to outrank you?
Sadly, this is the case for many independent real estate agents out there. You think you're doing everything right, and even going above and beyond, but you're still getting beaten by larger brands. It may be that you're contributing to their success, and your lack of visibility. How? Through a simple device called a widget, which uses your website to drive traffic and boost the rankings of two major names in the real estate space, Zillow and Trulia.
Predatory Linking Practices
Those two sites need no introduction. You know who they are. You may also know that try as you might, you can't overtake them in the SERPs. In fact, the longer they're around, the further your site seems to fall in the results. Maybe you even thought you'd try to take advantage of their name recognition, and add one, two, or a few of their widgets to your site. Little did you know that by doing so, you were giving Zillow and Trulia even more firepower to outrank your site.
It's a brilliant scheme, really. Both sites provide a full range of widgets for agents to use on their independent real estate sites. These widgets offer a wide range of features including mortgage calculators, maps, photo slideshows, home value estimators, and even a contact form. What site can't benefit from a widget, right? And by offering tools like maps and mortgage calculators, you're just helping your customers find even more information than might normally be available via IDX.
The problem is, the minute you put one of those widgets on your site, you are agreeing to help a competitor rank better than you, and to drive traffic to their site. Let's take a closer look at one of the widgets provided by Zillow—the home value estimator.
To get the widget, you first fill out a simple form with a default address. You'll naturally want to fill this out before placing the form on your site so that the code generated is for your city and not the default, Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minn.—unless, of course, you're located in Minneapolis. For the purposes of this example, we'll use San Antonio, TX:
Just copy the generated code and paste it into your site and voilà! You can offer your customers a home value estimator tool. Now let's examine that code. Most of it is pretty standard, all meant to create the field a potential customer would fill out in order to find out how much their home, or a home they want to buy, is worth. But at the very end is where it gets interesting. The last portion of the code reads as follows:
Homes for Sale in San Antonio
This tiny bit of code contains three areas of concern:
The Backlink
The home value estmator form widget, like every other widget Zillow offers, contains a link back to Zillow.com. It's right at the beginning: http://www.zillow.com/san-antonio-tx/, and you’ll see that link appears at the bottom of the widget you install on your site, just under where users are prompted to enter an address. Well, you think, that's only right considering they're providing me with this free widget. One little link won't hurt anything.
But there's something you must understand. A link coming into a site—more commonly called a backlink—gives that site a boost in authority and rank. The more backlinks a site has, the better it looks to Google and the other search engines.
The logic behind it is that few people, if anyone, will link to a poor quality site. So the more people linking to a site, the higher quality it must be, and Google moves it up in the SERPs. Unfortunately, it's flawed logic, because some companies, like Zillow, have found ways to create their own backlinks by including them in little widgets like this.
Multiply that one backlink in your one widget by the thousands of other real estate agents who are using these widgets on thousands of sites. Every backlink is a boost to Zillow's rank, and an anchor on independent agents' sites competing to be found.
The Inclusion of the City
As an independent real estate agent, you most likely work in a relatively small area, whether it's the little town you live in, or the San Antonio metro area, which is small relative to the country. But sites like Zillow and Trulia are accessible to anyone anywhere in the country, including those people who may be moving to your local area.
By including a backlink to its own listings in your city, Zillow is basically horning in on your local search action. And it's not just the link itself, but the text that is linked, which is called anchor text. When this text is optimized, it helps to target specific searches. In this backlink, the optimized anchor text is: "Homes for sale in San Antonio," meaning it's meant to target people searching for that specific item with those specific words. Per Google's own Keyword Research tool, approximately 880 people search for the exact phrase "Homes for sale in San Antonio" every month:
So first, you've helped boost Zillow's position in the SERPs so that it's ranking well above your local San Antonio website. Then you gave them optimized anchor text to help their site pop up when someone searches for "Homes for sale in San Antonio," which has a decent search volume, especially for such a localized area. But there's one more thing that should concern you, if not just outright make you angry.
Microformat Data Markup
Take another look at that code, and pay special attention to this one little bit: San Antonio The first part of it tells a search engine like Google that a certain parameter is being identified as a region—in this case, San Antonio. Google loves microformats.
When Google finds a microformat attached to a link like this, it may respond by displaying a bit more information in the snippet, which is the descriptive bit of information that follows each link in a SERP. Using this particular microformat may prompt Google to display a map alongside the search result, thereby drawing the searcher's eye, and further encouraging them to click the link.
So even if your site appeared directly below Zillow on the SERP for "Homes for sale in San Antonio," (and incidentally, as of this writing, Zillow ranks #3 in Google for that search phrase after homes.com and trulia.com), it's more likely that the person searching will click on Zillow's result because there's a colorful map attached to it, drowning out your small, text-only link.
By now, you should be suitably upset that you have been helping your competitors boost their rankings above yours. In fact, you may be angry enough that you think, Forget them! I'll just use the widget, but I'm going to remove that bit of code that will include the backlink! Not so fast.
Take another look at that screenshot of the widget code generation form. You'll notice just below the code is a line that says, "By using this widget, you agree to the Terms of Use." On the Terms of Use page are the rules for using Zillow's widget:
Pay close attention to numbers 2, 6, and 7. Number 2 says you may not modify the widget, which includes removing that last bit of code that creates a backlink to Zillow.com. More importantly, it says you can't prevent the search engines from "scoring the link," which basically means counting it toward Zillow's authority and ranking. Essentially, by using this widget and accepting these terms of service, you are agreeing to boost Zillow in the SERPs.
Number 6 says Zillow can, at any time, change the content returned by the widget you place on your site, so at some point, your customers may not get the information they're looking for. And by agreeing to number 7, you're allowing Zillow to monitor your site to make sure you're in compliance with these terms, so if you thought you'd go ahead and adjust that code anyway, they basically tell you they're watching for that.
Think about this for a moment—how often do you really read the terms of service for anything? Be honest. Before you download software, make a purchase from iTunes, or install a widget on your site, do you take the time to read the rules? If you're like most people, the answer is no. You're in a hurry. You don't have time. You just want to install the widget and get on with your business. Zillow is counting on that.
Trulia also offers widgets, and also requires you to agree to terms of service. All their widgets also include backlinks, so by using them, you're helping Trulia to outrank you in the search engine results.
The next question in your mind is most likely, How can they do this? Isn't it against Google guidelines or something?
The short answer is no, but as with many things related to the Internet and Google, the full answer isn't quite that simple.
Widget Spam
Way back in 2008, Matt Cutts, who heads up Google's webspam team, gave an interview, and wrote a post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, in which he discussed widget spam.
In the interview, Cutts explained Google's stance on widget spam. If a link in the widget is hidden, it's spam. If the link goes to a third-party site that is completely irrelevant to the widget's purpose, or to the site that provided the widget, it's spam. Zillow does neither of these things. Their widget links are clearly visible, they go back to Zillow, and they're relevant to the widget's purpose.
Here's where it gets tricky. In the Webmaster Central post, Cutts said:
...I discourage people from putting keyword-rich anchortext [sic] into their widgets...
By including phrases like "Homes for sale in San Antonio," Zillow is most definitely using keyword-rich anchor text in their widgets. Granted, it's relevant, but by not including any reference to "Zillow," the possibility exists that visitors to your site may assume that link will take them to more local listings from your site. Instead, they'll be sent to Zillow. The anchor text is potentially misleading.
Is that a lot of assumption? Sure. But the best way to prevent incorrect assumptions is to be transparent in what you're doing, and Zillow's widgets, while not completely in the spam camp, are still toeing that line, and leaving room for interpretation by not being totally transparent.
Your Options
The first and best action you can take is to immediately and completely remove any Zillow and Trulia widgets from your independent real estate website.
Need a widget? You can find tons of free ones that don't link to your competitors. Want to offer a mortgage calculator to your customers? Talk to a developer about creating a custom, branded one for you.
You may incur some expense, but how much money do you think you're losing by sending your customers to the two 800-pound gorillas in the real estate space rather than offering your customers your own tools and information?
As for Zillow and Trulia, and their predatory linking practices, it will be up to Google to decide whether the two sites have violated the search engine's rules. In the meantime, they'll do just fine without your help.
Homes For Sale In Huntsville Alabama
Search the huntsville al mls for homes for sale in huntsville al at www. Homesforsalehuntsville. Net. No registration required. Request automated real estate search. Get the market value of your property. Rental homes and property management service.
Huntsville AL MLS SEARCH PORTAL. No Registration Required
Huntsville AL MLS SEARCH PORTAL
. No Registration Required We can set up searches on age, size, schools, brick verses frame construction, one story verses two story and a many other features. Just let us know as much as possible about what you are looking for in a home and we can set up the searches for you.
. No Registration Required We can set up searches on age, size, schools, brick verses frame construction, one story verses two story and a many other features. Just let us know as much as possible about what you are looking for in a home and we can set up the searches for you.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Huntsville AL MLS SEARCH PORTAL. No Registration Required
Huntsville AL MLS SEARCH PORTAL. No Registration Required
If you need help searching the Huntsville MLS. Please let us know. We can set up more detailed searches than what the MLS allows the public and can set up automated Huntsville MLS searches for you. Just follow the links or shoot us an email at philipwinburn@mchsi.com and let us know what you are looking for.
At a minimum, we need your price range, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms you need and the locations that you would consider.
If you need help searching the Huntsville MLS. Please let us know. We can set up more detailed searches than what the MLS allows the public and can set up automated Huntsville MLS searches for you. Just follow the links or shoot us an email at philipwinburn@mchsi.com and let us know what you are looking for.
At a minimum, we need your price range, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms you need and the locations that you would consider.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Homes of Huntsville; Adding new spouse to deed
Under Alabama state law the spouse automatically has half ownership of the homestead property so you don't have to take any action.
September 24th, 2012 10:15 AM
Under Alabama state law the spouse automatically has half ownership of the homestead property so you don't have to take any action. If you do want to add your spouse on the homes of huntsville deed just call the Madison County Probate Judge's office. There is a form to fill out and they will need to see your marriage certificate.
http://madisoncountyal.gov/probate/contact.shtml
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Homes of huntsville; lender guidelines tightened
Fannie Mae changes program guidelines October 20, 2012!
Tired of change? We understand! However, we want to make you aware of any changes that could affect your business. There are two Conventional outlets: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae has announced changes to their underwriting system (DU 9.0) over the weekend of October 20th. Most approvals will be similar to the ones that are in the current system, DU 8.3. There are some differences, which are:
Condos: Some of the highlights are reportedly, "Limited Review for Condominiums is going to be maxed at 80% (currently at 90%) What is a condo review? A Limited Review Process is intended to be used on "spot loan" basis, meaning lenders can originate loans that arise through the ordinary course of business.
Expanded Approval:The biggest change, in my opinion, is that Expanded Approvals (EA), with the exception of DU Refi Plus, will be retiring. Expanded Approvals use to be in levels of I, II, and III (1, 2, & 3). The number let the underwriter know what kind of expanded risk the file was. Unfortunately, these will be going away.
ARMs and Rate and Term Refinances:
The maximum LTV to be allowed for financing will be DECREASED on ARMS and Rate & Term Refinances. Currently you can finance up to 97%.
For example: Sales Price: $100,000, loan amount can be up to: $97,000 (with certain parameters, including credit score and debt to income.) They will be decreasing this to 90%! The new max loan amount in the same scenario will be: $90,000.
ARM- adjustable Rate Mortgage
Rate & Term Refinance: Just lowering the interest rate, not paying off any debt other than the mortgage. Rate & Term refinances were prevalent before DU Refi plus. Many Americans do not have loans owned by Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae, therefore they would HAVE to do a Rate & Term Refinance or go with a government program, if the criteria allowed.
Self Employed Borrowers: Most real estate agents are self employed borrowers! Fannie Mae's new release will require self employed borrowers to produce 2 years of 1040's (currently allows for 1 year.) Most investors currently require the 2 years anyway so...... maybe not that big of a change.
Basically, Fannie has tightened underwriting standards based on performance data.
INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE... One of the key things remaining to be done to achieve a housing market recovery is a return to appreciating prices. Many observers feel prices have stabilized nationally and now we're seeing the first signs of some increases. A national real estate website reports the asking prices for homes for sale were up in August for the seventh month in a row. This put them UP 2.3% versus a year ago, the largest year-over-year gain since the housing downturn began.Excluding foreclosures, asking prices Huntsville AL MLS were UP 3.8% nationally for the year. This means they're rising at a faster rate than wages, so affordability is no longer on the increase. The price gains are broadly based, showing up in 68 of the 100 largest metros tracked. Many feel a big reason for the improved housing market is the reduced inventory of homes for sale. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), inventory fell nationally 23.8% from a year ago July, to 6.4 months.
huntsville houses We can assist you in finding area houses that will meet your needs and price range.You can search the entire Huntsville MLS for houses on your own without having to register.
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