If you are currently using RealEstate 1 and thinking about upgrading please click here to learn as much as you can about the upgrade process

Getting Started

Installing and Activating Real Estate:

• Connect to member area and expand the Real Estate section under My Downloads. Download the theme to your hard drive.
• Connect to your WordPress dashboard (wp-admin) and navigate to Appearance -> Themes. Click on the Install Themes tab and then on Upload. Use the Browse option to locate the real estate zip file on your hard drive – then click on Install Now. After the installation process is finished activate the theme.

In case WordPress rejects the .zip file use FTP to install the theme:

• Extract realestate.zip then upload to /wp-content/themes directory
• Once uploading is done connect to the WordPress dashboard and activate the theme
• If you run into more problems during installation please visit our Installation Guide

 

 

Auto installing or deleting sample data:(sc)

 

Do not edit the sample data because in case you delete it, your modifications will be lost. Always insert fresh data.

If you want to auto install the sample data then just click on “Yes insert sample data please”. Theme will be activated & completely installed with some added sample content and categories by default so you can start using it right away. If you wish to delete the sample data that we populated in your site then you can remove it by clicking on “Yes Delete Please!”.

Basic Settings

How to set up Home Page?

Here is how to set up home page:

1. Logo or Site Title- Here is an area to either display your logo or a site title. Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> General Settings -> Custom Logo. Here you can upload your logo image. If you want to display the title instead of logo then, select “Yes” in “Display Title Instead of logo” option. At the end, click on “Save All Changes”.
2. Submit Property Button – Go to wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> General Settings -> Allow users to submit property on your site? (yes/no)
3. Header navigation – Go to wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Navigation Settings. This section is briefly explained in How to manage header navigation? below.
4. Top Agents – Go to wp-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets ->Featured Banner: Sidebar -> PT- Top Agents. This widget displays the agents depending on their number of properties submitted. The agent with more properties will be listed first.
5. Search Properties Form:  provides you a best way to search the property by many criteria like  Buy, Rent and Location, Price Range, Bedrooms, Area (Sq.Ft.), Keyword, Search by Property ID, etc…
6. Loan/Rental/MOVING? LET US HELP – Go to wp-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets ->Front Content: Below Search -> PT- Front Page 3 in 1 widgets. This widget is basically used to give any additional information except property details and your contact details too.
7. Latest Properties – Go to wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Home Page Settings. Give the value in “Number of “Latest Properties’ to be shown” which defines how much properties you want to display in latest properties section. This section displays the featured properties first and then the other.
8. Home Page Sidebar – Go to wp-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets -> Front Page: Sidebar -> PT – Latest Posts, PT- Subscribe
9. Footer – Go to wp-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets -> Footer Widget First, Second, Third -> PT – About Us, Links , PT – Testimonials.
10. You can set the slider rotation speed or turn on or off the rotation in wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Home Page Settings. The options are “Home page Slider Settings” & “Auto animate the featured property slider in the homepage”. Slider will display the featured properties.

How to manage header/footer navigation?

Go to Wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Navigation Settings. I have given a short description for the each options given there.

• Show “Browse Properties” link in main menu: Select yes if you want to show “browse property” link in the header navigation menu. This link lists all the properties.
• Show “Browse Properties” link at the End of the Main Menu: Select “Yes” if you want to show “browse property” link at the end.
• Show “Agents” link in Main Menu: Select “yes” if you want to show Agents link. This link will display the list of the agents on your site.
• Show “Agents” link at the End of Main Menu: Select “Yes” if you want to show Agents link at the end of the menu.
• Would you like to Enable default menu in header navigation?: If you want to use custom menu widget of wordpress by making a menu then disable this option (i.e. select “no” for this option).
• Footer Navigation: Here you can give different page IDs with separated by comma which you want to display in footer.
• Header Advertise Banner: Add your advertise url or google adsense code here. It will display in header.

Activate / Deactivate Submit Property Link:

In WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> General Settings, select “Yes” in “Allow users to Submit Property on your site from here.” to allow your users to submit the property else select “No”.

How to give coloured tags to Properties?

This feature is for a coloured tag on your property listings. Go to WP-admin -> Properties -> Add/Edit properties -> Custom Settings. In “Select the tag for this property : ” section you will have to give colour, text for tag, Type of Tag, etc… So that the property will have a coloured tag in front end.

You can  add the drop-down options in WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Property Listing Settings -> Add property Tags field. If you are having multiple tags then select “Yes” in “Enable Multiple Tags” field. If selected “No” then only one tag will be available that is “New”.

Different Page Configurations

How to set up property detail page?

The Property detail page will have detailed information about the property. It’s location in MAP, Custom fields, description, images, etc… This all can be set in WP-admin -> Properties section. The other things on this page are described below.

1. Image gallery: It displays different images in to the gallery. If you are adding any property from front end then you can upload images using “Upload” button. If you are adding a property from backend then you can add it from “Add Media” button. Click on “Upload Images” link there and then upload the images and update the property.
2. Activate “Send to Friend”: Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Property Detail Page Settings. Select “Yes” in “Email to Friend Link” option. Click on “Save All Changes”.
3. Similar Properties: Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Property Detail Page Settings. In “Number of Similar / Related Properties” field specify the number of properties you want to display in similar properties section.
4. Activate Comments:  Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Property Detail Page Settings. Select “Yes” in “Wish to Enable comments on Property Detail page?” option. Click on “Save All Changes”.
5. You can also activate or deactivate the social media icons. In Wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Property Detail Page Settings you can find the options to to activate or deactivate them.
6. Go to WP-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets. You can place different widgets like T → Top Agents, T → Loginbox, T → Finance Calculator, etc… for sidebar in “Property Detail Page: Sidebar ” area.

Manage Featured Listings:

If you are adding properties from backend  or bulk upload then please make sure that you have selected any one option for featuring posts in its custom fields section. Then only the ordering of the posts will be correct in front end.

Suppose if you want to display some of your posts differently or highlighted on your site then these posts are called as featured listings. In above Price Packages (c) section is used for that purpose.

If a user has paid to make the listing featured on home page then his post will be displayed as highlighted on homepage. The same way it works for category page if a user has paid to make his listing featured on category page.

Note that the featured listings will be always listed first. You can also make your listings featured on both home page as well as category page.

Manage Custom Fields:

Whenever you are adding a custom field or a user field make sure that “HTML variable name” field should not contain any special characters except underscores (_) and it also should not have space.

Custom fields are the fields that are displayed with your post or properties. It works like attributes of the posts.These fields are displayed as an input field in add property page and as an attribute field in property detail page. You can add new or edit the existing custom fields in WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Manage Custom Fields.

When you will click on Add/Edit custom field you will be able to see the below options:

• Show for categories: The field in add property page or property detail page will be displayed for the selected categories only. Note: this option won’t work if checkbox option selected in Basic Settings -> submit property page settings -> Category display settings.
• Field Type: Here you can select the type of the custom field. We have provided options like text, date picker, Multi checkbox, Radio, Select, etc…
• Option Values: This field is use full when you are using field type like checkbox, radio or select, etc… You can give these field’s options here. You can separate the values with comma.
• Title: The title fore the field which will appear in custom field settings area.
• Field name(Front-end):The name you provide here will be displayed as the field’s name (label) in the front-end. Here front end stands for submit property page and property detail page.
• Field label (for back-end): The name you provide here will be displayed as the field’s name (label) in the back-end. Here back-end stands for WP-admin -> Property-> Add/Edit property page.
• HTML variable name: The HTML variable name for the custom field. IMPORTANT: It should be a unique name and it will be not editable after once you entered.
• Description: you can give a short description about this field. it will display below the field on the submit property page area.
• Default Value: In this field you can give the default value for the field.
• Position (Display order): This is a numeric value that determines the position of the custom field in the front-end and the back-end. e.g. 5
• Active?: This option activate or deactivate the field in front end and in backend. It is also useful when you want to give some fields for some particular period only.
• Compulsory?: You can make the field compulsory by selecting “yes” here.
• Display location: Here you can select the location of the field whether you want to just display in front end or just in back-end or on both side. Here front end means property detail page and submit property page. Back-end means edit property page.
• Is editable?: You can specify whether or not this field is editable. If you have selected “Yes” in this then when you will go to edit the custom field then some of the options from all this will not be available.

Note: Don’t change field type and HTML variable for default fields which gets populated automatically. That will result in those fields not appearing on the front end.

• Is deletable? : If  “No” is selected in this option then you can not delete the field from the back-end, Custom fields list.
• Is Search?: If you have selected “Yes” here then  the field will be displayed in search widget and your users can do the search with this field too!
• Show on detail page?:  If you have selected “Yes” then only the field will be displayed in the detail page.
• Required field warning message: If you have selected “yes” in “Compulsory?” option then you can specify the error message for the field when user leaves it empty.
• Validation type: This field used to vallidate the field. You can specify which kind of data user can enter in this field. The options given there are:
  Require means this field cannot be left blank.Phone No. means this field requires numeric values in phone number format.Digit means this field requires numeric values.Email means this field is requires a valid email format.
• CSS class: If you want to apply some css to this field then you can specify the class name here.
• Extra Parameter: You can also give some parameters to the field using this option like onchange, maxlength, etc…

Manage User Profile Fields:

 

Custom fields work as an attribute for the posts. The same way user profile fields are the fields for the user’s profile. These fields work as attributes for the user’s details in the user’s dashboard. You can add, edit or delete the user fields from WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> User Profile Fields.

When you will click on Add/Edit user profile field you will be able to see the below options:

• Field Type: Here you can select the type of the user profile field. We have provided options like text,text editor, Multi checkbox, Radio, Select, Upload etc…
• Field name(Front-end):The name you provide here will be displayed as the field’s name (label) in the front-end. Here front end stands for user’s dashboard or registration page.
• Field Description: you can give a short description about this field. it will display below the field.
• HTML variable name: The HTML variable name for the field. IMPORTANT: It should be a unique name and it will be not editable after once you entered.
• Position (Display order): This is a numeric value that determines the position of the custom field in the front-end and the back-end. e.g. 5
• Active?: This option activate or deactivate the field in front end and in backend. It is also useful when you want to give some fields for some particular period only.
• Compulsory?: You can make the field compulsory by selecting “yes” here.
• Show on Registration page?:  If you have selected “Yes” then only the field will be displayed in the registration page.
• Show on Profile page?:  If you have selected “Yes” then only the field will be displayed in the user’s profile page.

Advanced Settings

Manage Notifications:

Setup email notifications:

Go to WP-admin > Real Estate > Advanced settings > Email notifications & messages. Here, you can change the content of the emails that are sent to admin and users. Use the shortcode-legends specified.

Setup message notifications:

Go to WP-admin > Real Estate > Advanced settings > Email notifications & messages. Here, you can modify instructional messages displayed on-site like when a payment is successful. Use the shortcode-legends specified.

Manage Permissions:

This feature is useful when you want to restrict your users to access your backend. Administrators are allowed access all the times. Mark the users for whom you do not want to access their backend.

Manage Currency:

Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> manage Currency. Here you can add to edit the currency. While adding the currency you will have to give currency name, Currency code, currency symbol and currency symbol position (How the symbol will display around the price value).

Manage Payment Options:

Go to Wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Payment Options. You can edit/activate/de-adtivate the available payment options. The payment methods currently we are having in the theme are:

• Paypal: While setting up this method please make sure that “Merchant ID” you have provided is correct.
• Google Checkout: While setting up this method please make sure that “Merchant ID” you have provided is correct.
• Authorize.net: While setting up this method please make sure that “Transaction Key” you have provided is correct.
• Worldpay: While setting up this method please make sure that “Instant ID” & “Account ID” you have provided is correct.
• 2CO (2Checkout): While setting up this method please make sure that “Vendor ID” you have provided is correct.
• Pre Bank Transfer: The users will have to manually transfer the amount in the account ID you have mentioned here. It will be displayed on the thank you page.
• Pay cash on delivery: The users will have to pay cash in this method.

Transaction Report:

Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Transaction Report. Here you can see the report of the transaction being held on your site.

We have also provided a search form. So that you can search particular transactions efficiently.

Manage Coupons:

Coupon is basically used to provide your users a discounted price. Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Manage Coupons. Here you can add or edit coupons.

You can give the discount in either some percentage or some amount by selecting the “Discount Type”.When your users will give the correct coupon code in the add property page then he will get the discount.

Please make sure that you have selected “Yes” in “Enable coupon option on ‘Add property’ page”. Then only a text field to enter the coupon code on add property page will be displayed.

Bulk Upload/Export:

Whenever you perform bulk upload make sure that you have uploaded the images in to the Wp-content/uploads/bulk folder. Bulk upload will just provide the link to the images. It won’t upload the images.

Go to Wp-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Manage Bulk Upload. Here you can upload or export your posts or properties.

We would always recommend you to download first sample csv make changes according to this file or in this file and then upload your properties or posts. The sample csv will be for properties. Csv file cannot contain special characters. The column name also cannot be changed. Otherwise the data will not be imported correctly.

Manage IP:

Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Manage IP. Here is the settings for managing IP addresses.

You can block or unblock the IP addresses from here. The IP addresses you have blocked previously appear here. Once you remove them from the list below, they will be unblocked. Suspicious IP addresses should be added to the list below in order to prevent listings done from that IP.

Other Important Aspects

Upgrading from RealEstate 1

If you just look at RealEstate 2 features and improvements it’s clear right away that this isn’t a small upgrade. Before upgrading you should know that:

• Because of the new post type for properties all your URL’s will be changed. There is simply no way around this since custom post types require a URL slug in order to work.
• Since widget areas are so different between the two themes you will likely lose all your widget information
• Theme settings area is completely different in RealEstate 2. You will have to redo all your theme settings
• It goes without saying that since you’re overwriting the whole theme all your customizations will be lost
• Because page templates are different across the two themes you might lose some of your page content as well

If the previous list didn’t scare you away please follow these recommendations for upgrading:

• Backup your whole database and the old theme. This is so you can return to the old theme if something goes bad
• Depending on the size of your site and scope of your customizations the upgrade period might take from a few hours to a few days. We recommend closing your site completely (activate a maintenance/coming soon plugin) and doing this when your site traffic is low (weekends/holidays)
• To upgrade, simply download the latest version of RE2 to your hard drive and overwrite the theme files on your server. For FTP instructions open the following article.
• Connect to wp-admin and go to Real Estate -> Advanced Settings -> Bulk Upload. Click on the “Click here” link at the top of the page (inside a yellow box). Doing so will update old properties to the new property post type. There is no going back after this!
• If you run into any problems when upgrading create a ticket in the before mentioned form , we’ll try to help you as soon as possible

Manage Agents:

• In the Real Estate theme we have a new user type – Agent. The users who are listing properties on your site are known as “Agents”.
• You can make your users from Wp-admin -> Users -> Add or Edit Users. You can change the role to “Agent” here and click on “Update”.

• If you want your all new users as agents then go to WP-admin -> Settings -> General Settings. Set “New User Default Role” to “Agent”. Click on “Save Changes”.

The default role option is available to single site users not to the multi site users.

Search Settings:

Go to WP-admin -> Real Estate -> Basic Settings -> Search Settings. Here are some settings to set up fields in search widget.

a.      Price Range Settings: This field defines the options of “Price Range” dropdown of search widget. Different options can be separated by comma (,).

b.      Area Range Setting: This field defines the options of “Area” dropdown of search widget. Different options can be separated by comma (,).

c.      Locations:  This field defines the options of “Locations” dropdown of search widget. Different options can be separated by comma (,).

d.      You can add your own fields too. While creating or editing custom fields, you will need to select “yes” in “Is search?” field. Thus the field will be displayed in search widget and your users can do the search with this field too! (You can refer Manage Custom Field.)

Plugins Compatibility:

We have provided compatibilty of these plugins:

1. IDX-ML plugin: This plugin gives you the informations about the properties in your city or state. You can have more information here.

2. oa Social Login: The Social login plugin allows the visitor to login, comment and register with 30+  social networks.This plugin is maintained by OneAll and you can download it from here

3. WP-reCaptcha: This plugin allows you to add captcha on registration page and add property page. I have given download link already in submit property page settings.