Real Estate - Foreclosure site: How to proceed?

A friend of mine is asking me about building a site for one of his business interests: Real Estate & Foreclosure etc.

He needs a stylish site with a database, good back end tools, passwords, etc so he update foreclosure information constantly. The site also needs to pull info from other sources like local county (USA) tax records, Zillow, and real estate MLS data.

I am pretty confident I can build the design, make MOD happen and give him some tools (custom CSS, picture galleries, TV’s, Google Map data) etc.

But, and this is a big but: I have zero experience with integrating the outside sources like tax records, Zillow, and the MLS data. So, I am looking for any tips on how to begin adding this stuff. I know other MODx users have built real estate sites that incorporate tax and MLS data.

At this stage I just need to figure out if this is something I can deliver. I do not want to promise a site that is out of my reach. I should explain I am pretty comfortable with the basic MODx system, am very comfortable with graphics presentation, pure XHTML and CSS. My big weakness is PHP and other scripting languages: just not much there I am afraid...

Thanks!

Max

2 tips from me:
-Study the outside sources own information, contact them and they might provide code samples.
-Google forums to find other developers who did succeed integrating.

Those are two good tips MrHaw...

I have sent out some feelers on this issue. One of my own professional gigs is doing custom photography and web design/galleries for real estate agents: all static code focused on individual properties. So I do have some contacts in the real estate world.

Max

PS: web sample (no MODx) can be found here: http://www.seattleepichome.com/

I have a meeting to help a real estate site integrate MLS on their site later today so I might be able to provide some insight on this issue later. Typically I think MLS is something the agent/firm must purchase access and then depending on the company they might offer several integration methods.

The three methods of integration I have see thus far are linking to MLS site (can use your own domain name and/or alias), iFrame it (...when will they finally die...), or FTP download of the information... The ladder option adds more complications as the one I saw doing this changed the password monthly for the FTP so in my case I will likely be doing iframe or domain name depending on what the client wants.

Anyways I hope thats of some help and I look forward to seeing what others have to say on the issue.

AMDbuilder