This post will be mostly of interest two types of people:

1. The nerdy set of agents, especially those using the Diverse Solutions IDX product dsSearchAgent.
2. Our existing home search users who have a sense of adventure and like to try new things.

The boys at Diverse Solutions are busy spinning up the latest and greatest enhancements to their home search solution, and we’ve been given the opportunity to test is out.

If you are a registered user of our current home search, your existing login and password should work on the Beta version.

You can find the Beta version here. It’s also available under “Search for Homes” in the nav bar under the header graphic.

And of course the existing version is still here.

What is different between the current home search and the new Beta version home search? Diverse Solutions provides some details:

Interface has been completely updated with a more up-to-date design style
Client register and login links have been moved to a more prominent location

The search panel:

• There is now a universal search box.
• You can search by county, city, community, area, tract, zip code, address and MLS#.
• The search box is more intuitive than before with its auto-complete suggestions.
• There is no longer a search button. It has been replaced with a prominently displayed view results button that recalculates and displays the number of results as you adjust the various criteria.
• Sliders and text boxes have been restyled.
• There is now a base set of criteria that is preset and underneath is list of additional criteria that can added if they wish to narrow their search further.
• Parking, property status and has photos criteria have been added.

The results panel:

• First and foremost you will notice that we have done away with the scrolling buttons. We have replaced it with an intuitive scroll box that allows for faster browsing and no scrolling on smaller low resolution monitors.
• We have also reformatted each result to be less cluttered and more legible

The map panel is similar to how we had it before with the exception of moving a few things around and hooking up the instant results to map movement.

The details panel:

• This panel has been completely redesigned to be less cluttered and more readable by putting the most important information for consumers up top.
• There is a lot more space devoted to photos now with the ability to see all the photos without leaving the page for quick viewing.
• In addition, there is a large "View Large Photos" button clearly visible that will bring up a newly designed large photo viewer.
• We have added a "Have Questions" button so that consumers can easily contact you.
• Previous and next buttons have been added for easier browsing through the search results. As a consumer progresses through the results will scroll along with them.
• We have added various ways for them to share property with the "Share" feature at the top (note: Facebook will be added shortly).
• When the details panel is being viewed there are two new areas that have been added under the results panel — one is a contact form and the other is a mortgage calculator.

Screen shot of the current version of the Diverse Solutions Phoenix Home Search:

Screen shot of the beta version of the Diverse Solutions Phoenix Home Search:

Feel free to give the Beta version a spin! There may be bugs, and some assorted goofiness. In brief testing, most issues I’ve found are minor, and mostly only seen when using Internet Explorer (reason #12,862 to get off IE and onto a less problematic web browser). I know the crack coders at DS are hard at work squashing bugs and working on the IE issues. If you see any wonkiness, feel free to drop a comment here or on the beta version page and I’ll forward them to the development team.