Mid-Missouri Land & Lots’ Web Site caters to rural buyers

Web Wonders: A Series Showcasing Local Businesses’ Best Sites

Local real estate developer Phil Blom needed a Web site that would help him connect with people interested in purchasing large rural lots of three acres or more.

“It’s a good way to give people a broad picture of the different properties that we have without doing classified ads or traditional advertising,” Blom said. “Our goal is to show them several nice homes in the area and give people a vision to see how it comes together. There’s quite a market out there for people that want to have a little piece of the country but yet [live] real close to town.”

Launched recently by Delta Systems Group,
midmolots.com was the answer, presenting information in an easy-to-use format that is fully database-driven, allowing the necessary information to be dynamically obtained from several data sources.

Now those searching for property can do preliminary research to see whether a purchaser might be interested before getting serious about pursuing a particular property.

Delta Systems built the site using cascading style sheets that are friendly to all browser formats. The style sheets allow for changes to be made in the layout without adapting each page individually.

Other changes to the site can be implemented easily and can be made by the client, if necessary, although Aaron Marchbanks, Delta’s director of operations and projects, said clients tend to be more comfortable with the site developer making the changes.

Blom’s rural land business did not need the same type of fast turnover that a standard realtor Web site would require, Marchbanks said.

“He was looking for something that was somewhat dynamic, so that it could be updated and properties could be added in or taken out as needed,” he said. “He wanted to be able to have the users of the Web site see where the actual locations were — and, in most cases, a picture or pictures.”

The developers used the PHP programming language, which Marchbanks said integrates particularly well with the MySQL database, the heart of the site, organizing the necessary information about each piece of land. The site also uses a free GoogleMaps plug-in to help users easily locate the land locations. In a process called “geocoding,” the service converts the addresses in the database to latitudes and longitudes and creates “pushpins” on the map to mark the locations. Clicking on the pushpins brings up the information about each property.

Now Blom has a tool to connect customers with lots in developments such as Autumn Ridge, on Highway 163 near Pierpont. He said his new Web site saves time for customers, real estate agents and lenders.

“There are lots of people that drive around and look at property, so this gives them an opportunity to scout around on their own,” Blom said. “It’s getting harder to find their piece of the country as prices have gone up and more people have moved into the area.”