First, some of you are probably wondering what a widget is. In short, widgets are a portable chunk of html code that can be installed on any other web based page. The cool thing about widgets is, someone else does the hard work for you, all you have to do is copy and paste and you have a new feature on your site. They are cost and time effective and a great way to spice up your website, blog, or any web page.

A few examples of widgets:

Oldies but Goodies:

The Mortgage Calculator Widget - We have all seen these, a small calculator you enter a few pieces of info into, that spits out an approx. mortgage payment.






Weather Widget - Another common one, gives temp. and weather of that particular zipcode/city.

A few cool widgets that I found:

Real Estate Wiki Dictionary Widget - We all know that wikipedia is the latest rage, and this incorporates that with real estate terms.

Local Information - This one is awesome. Enter a city, and you are provided with this widget to add to your site of local restaurants, bars, community, etc.

Trulia Widget - This one is fairly new - Trulia now offers a map widget, that you can customize the size, etc on. Your listings are displayed, so it's a good option if you want a map feature on your site, but don't want to pay for an IDX map. The only downfall I see is that if the consumer clicks on one of your listings, they are taken off your site to Trulia.


I know what you're asking yourself, how much do these "widgets" cost and where can I get them?

Well, the good news (maybe even great news) is you can find most widgets for free online. A site I like is www.Widgetbox.com. Also, any widgets for sites like Trulia or Zillow are usually found (free) on those particular sites. P.S. - I have linked each screen shot of the widgets above to where you can download them for free.

Now, you do have to be somewhat familiar with html code to add widgets to your site on your own. Some more good news - anyone who knows html code can help you with this, and because all of the content of the widget is provided, it does not take long to add these to your site, blog, etc.

If you want to know more, or have questions, please feel free to ask!