We are happy to announce the release of the RealPro 1.0 child theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be purchased here.
RealPro was developed by Chris Ford of Creativity Included, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of them are top-notch.
Theme Features
The RealPro child theme includes the following features: 6 layout options, custom background, custom boxes, custom buttons, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, property listings, theme options.
About Brian Gardner
Hi Chris
I’ll be putting a post together on Real Estate themes in the next few days.
Could you give me a few of the special features that would make me choose this theme over other real estate themes – apart from the fact that it looks good.
I spent about a year subcontracting for a company that specializes in customizing Genesis child themes for real estate clients. While there, I found that probably 95% of the clients had pretty much the exact same needs for their sites. In fact, the projects I designed used either Lifestyle or AgentPress as a starting point pretty exclusively. So with RealPro, we took what we learned working with those clients and applied them to a theme that featured the type of design aesthetic those clients consistently requested.
In doing so we made a number of stylistic and usability changes. We started with minor changes to the slider (which was one of the first things the client usually requested). We also re-worked the standard “Welcome” area to be an email signup form (so that potential clients can easily sign up to get blog and listing updates). Since we are UI/UX fanatics we also made sure that our top-level nav items stay active even when a child is selected to help users keep track of where they are on the site (give it a try–it’s a subtle but user-friendly upgrade). We believe it’s attention to those types of details that are the main selling point of any of our themes.
And, honestly, in my experience, “It looks good” is a pretty major factor in choosing a theme. Like I said, the majority of clients I’ve worked with have had pretty much the same list of must-haves, and once those features are met (the ability to integrate an IDX solution, a listing showcase and search functionality, a slider, a blog, the ability to add an agent profile and social media buttons), the deciding factor is usually how close it is to their idea of what an ideal site should look like.
We’re really proud of how clean, modern and urban this theme looks, and think an agent who, for instance, represents luxury condos in a metropolitan area would be able to use it pretty much out of the box and look 100x slicker and more professional than their competition while still meeting all of their functional needs.
Hope this answers your question! Feel free to contact me if I can help clarify anything else for your article: http://www.creativityincluded.com/contact/
Chris
Fabulous… you’ve written my article, and many thanks for your offer.
If I need further info I will contact you.
Final thing Chris – would it be OK with you to use your reply and present a “In the words of the developer” style post?
Sure thing! Thanks a bunch!
Not sure what’s the difference between this theme and Agentpress. Besides colors and a few other design changes, it looks like the same theme.
Am I wrong, and missed something?
Btw: It’s a nicely designed theme
Nope, you are not missing anything. Chris did an exceptional job restyling the layout of AgentPress, which in my opinion warranted it’s own release.
Thanks.
I agree with the excelent job of restyling the theme. Maybe market it as a “style kit” for AgentPress (and expand the comunity theme section with style packs for other themes)?
Only thing missing from the theme is responsive design. Is there any chanse of this or Agentpress being updated with responsive design, or maybe, this is already in the works?
Keep up the good work
See this comment as to why we made the decision to sell this as a standalone theme. As for responsive design, not sure yet at what point AgentPress does/doesn’t get updated for that.
Just wait… a responsive theme with full AgentPress capabilities, and more, is in the works… Stay tuned.
Whats a responsive theme? Not something I have come across yet…
Andy-A responsive theme is one that “responds” to different device sizes, so the layout will reflow to fit a tablet, desktop, or smartphone display without just re-sizing the layout to fit.
Thanks Chris
I would have thought this was something a plugin would have done? I remember reading about something similar for one of the poorer versions of Internet Explorer which developers always had problems coding for and had to use a separate stylesheet.
There are apps on Android marketplace which can do something like this. I have seen developers advertising to make a very quick mobile friendly version of R.E. sites which can be viewed through the app. A friend of mine had this done but no-one has bothered downloading it yet!
You might be able to find a plug-in that *says* they can do this, but it probably won’t do it *well*. Also, there’s a huge difference between a “mobile site” and a responsive site. A responsive site is one thing that works everywhere–an app is a completely separate entity.
IMO, something automated never works as well as a human being making decisions about how a site should look and function in order to maintain consistent branding and a usable interface.
If you’re interested in learning more, just Google “responsive design”–there’s no shortage of articles out there right now. It’s pretty much the biggest trend in web design right now.
RealPro isn’t responsive as it was based on AgentPress, but I do know that all of my themes from this point on will be. The next major update of RealPro will be to make it responsive as well.
HTH!
Glad I am having a site built on it then
Very nice. IMO, the two real estate child themes are by far the best looking business themes on Genesis. Too bad they are niche themes.
Keep an eye out–we definitely have some more professional looking themes bubbling away on our back burners
Cool stuff. Almost makes me want to be in real estate.
I know what you mean Charles.
Thanks Charles! Really enjoyed reading your adoption page…love your writing style!
First, very nice work Chris excllent attention to detail in the design on this. I also love the explanation of what makes this different than Agent Press in the comment above.
Understanding what’s different, however, it still feels more like a makeover kit for Agent Press than a new child theme of it’s own. Just my two cents… and I’m guessing it was a tough call which way to go with it, but I do really like the make over kits in concept and look forward to more of them.
Finally, I really wish the real estate theme demos shown here included actual IDX integration. When I was new to real estate sites I was somewhat mislead by the theme demos in thinking the the featured properties were actually linked to an IDX. I now get that they’re different and that there is actually power in them being different (assuming you can get the agent to actually manually populate the featured posts), just seemed misleading in terms of the level of “IDX integration” being advertised.
Sooo….. did some better digging and noticed their is a link on AgentPress’ secondary menu showing the IDX integration, and I THINK most of my pain was in needing to use IDX Broker instead of DiverseSolutions (DS doesn’t support this MLS/IDX).
I also noticed that the demo for RealPro is missing this link… although the page’s actually exist
AgentPress: http://demo.studiopress.com/agentpress/idx/mls-20649431-34_sunny_st_laguna_beach_ca_92651
&
http://demo.studiopress.com/agentpress/idx/city/laguna-beach/?idx-q-PropertyTypes=1030
RealPro: http://www.creativityincluded.com/demo/real-pro/idx/mls-20649431-34_sunny_st_laguna_beach_ca_92651
http://www.creativityincluded.com/demo/real-pro/idx/city/laguna-beach/?idx-q-PropertyTypes=1030
Thanks for the feedback Jon! As far as IDX goes, I didn’t feel like I’d gotten all of the details of the styling perfect enough to include it as a feature in the nav, so I made the decision to launch without it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a little bit detail oriented
Jon, we ultimately decided to remove a layer of complexity involved with using “makeover kits” as a way to change the design. In our opinion it added an unnecessary layer of organization, and only complicates things. If we continued with that path, we’d have to explain to folks that in order to use a design they’d have to:
1. own Genesis
2. purchase a theme
3. apply the makeover kit to theme
That’s not a great user experience, and it made sense to use to just call it a new theme. This way all theme files/CSS are in one folder and it’s easier for a user – especially a new one.
Because Genesis and child themes are GPL, there’s really no issue for someone to grab a theme, make some cosmetic changes (especially to the degree which Chris did on RealPro) and then sell it as a new theme.
Thanks for the explanation Brian, that does make sense. While I like the idea of makeover kits, I like simplicity too. I do remember once upon a time when starting out finding the whole parent/child thing confusing myself. Sometimes one needs to step back and consider those just getting into WP/Genesis/Etc…
I agree completely with Brian on the user experience. Thank you for keeping things simiple as much as possible.
I echo the thought above that this theme makes me want to get into real estate!
Thanks Chris! Appreciate the nice write-up!
I love StudioPress Themes!
So hard to tell the difference between the two awesome realty themes. Looking forward to a generic listing theme though. Well done!
@Chris Ford
Looks great and well designed for professional real estate clients!
Good Job!
Thanks Suren!
Hi,
I have a designer working on the Agent Press theme layout for me right now. I am hoping this theme will be mobile ready at some point. Will this new theme be mobile ready? I don’t see that listed in the new features. For real estate the mobile feature would be a real plus.
If this new child theme is mobile, would it be difficult for the designer to move what they have done to the new theme?
Currently RealPro is not a responsive design.
I’ve already told you how much I love this theme, but I just wanted to say it again- great work!
Thanks so much Heather!
I was just about to publish I site I have upgraded to AP2 when I stumbled over this looking for something else Genesis related. Looks great! I have bought it and will be switching up from AP 2 with the new site this week hopefully
Is there any supporting documentation to go in the thread about this theme on the forum?
Also there are a lot of users with Agent Press 1 who I am sure would love an upgrade to that theme as it´s not so easy upgrading from AP1 to AP2. Any plans for that? I have a site running AP1 myself.
Hi Andy! I am furiously working on a “Getting Started with RealPro” PDF document you can download in the forums. I’ve got maybe 3 or 4 more sections to finish up in the morning, so look for it before the end of the day. I think you’ll find it really helpful! It should be around 20 pages of info and screen shots that will help you set your site up to work exactly like the demo!
Great design and cool features. Although there’s a striking similarity with AgentPress. Nonetheless, I’m sure I’d be making a lot of sales on RealPro Child Theme. I’ve already made a post about it on my website. Cheers!
Review of RealPro up and running.
Would love a comment from you Chris.
http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/realpro-the-ultimate-real-estate-theme-from-genesis/
RealPro is really great theme, now clients will get satisfaction…
I just bought RealPro, installed it on a new site: http://calgarycondosolutions.com, and I’m really looking forward to “Getting Started with RealPro” PDF that you mentioned Chris because at the moment there is nothing in StudioPress theme support for this theme.
The support link in the download page goes to “Adorable Blogger” Child Theme today.
I’m not real green at this but I do need help with setting up a new theme. Can I use
AgentPress 2.0 support in the mean time or no?
Thanks – Fred
Hi Fred–we just posted our Getting Started with RealPro guide in the RealPro forums. It’s over 30 pages of step-by-step instructions and screenshots in PDF format so you can download it to your computer and follow along. We’ve included all of the settings we used in the demo. Would love to hear any feedback after you’ve checked it out!
Hi Chris,
Thanks for getting back to me.
The RealPro theme is outstanding in my opinion – I really love what you did with the top line – it’s beautiful! I got your PDF and graphics download from the forum and will put this latest project together this week.
I’ve become a real fan of StudioPress and as I learn more about the Genesis platform the more I see the brilliance of it! I thought originally that I’d only build a couple of sites.
I’ve done that and now I’m into building real estate niche & community sites so I now have an inventory of websites and growing with no end in site.
Thanks for your good work!!!
I’m glad you like it, and thanks for your feedback! Be sure to let me know when you have your site up–I’d love to start building a showcase of live sites using the RealPro theme! And if you run into any questions that the PDF doesn’t address, be sure to post them in the forums and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
Deal!
I have my own IDX so my site will show the easy way to deal with the various forms of listing searches.
I post again here when it’s ready!
Thanks again for your good work
this is a great theme, can the iDX and listings search be turned off/ removed so that this great looking theme can be used as a normal cms/blog theme?
The home page is fully widgeted, so you can place whatever widgets you’d like into those areas. If you don’t drag any widgets into the containers, the theme will default to a blog-style homepage.
That’s a whole lotta awesome, guys!
A question – from what I’ve seen there are a lot of great real estate themes and plugins but they focus on properties to be SOLD and MLS listings. Can anyone recommend solutions or ideas for rental properties/apartments?
RealPro shows great promise. I am moving forward with a new RE site/blog/IDX property and responsive/mobile integration is going to be very important. Is this feature on a future development list for Real Pro?
Yes, as we’ve stated in several threads it is planned for the future…just not the immediate future. Following us on Twitter or Facebook is the best way to keep up with release news.
Chris,
Can you provide a guesstimate on the timeframe when you expect RealPro to be upgraded to a Responsive Theme? I’m about to push the start button on my site and I’m leaning toward RealPro now. Thanks!
Right now we have a few other projects that we’ve got in the pipeline, so it isn’t currently in the production queue. When we do have a timeframe/release date in mind the best place to hear about it is by following us on either Twitter or our Facebook page.
Awesome can’t wait use this on my client sites.
The Realty Pro Theme is awesome, I have the developer license for Studio press, and if I purchase the Realty Pro theme, and resale to a client. Am I allow to set it up on a copy of my existing studio press license for the genesis framework or must I purchase a single copy of the genesis frame work for that single client..
Thanks
Tom
I’ve never used AgentPress (or WordPress).
Is the slider for listings only? If I chose to, could I put an ad in the slider? Can I change the header? What can I actually change myself without hiring a designer. (I have no html skills).
Thanks
The slider can have any content you want (with the exception of video). And you’ll be able to change the header and the background without knowing any HTML.
I was checking this out yesterday, and the theme looks great and very clean. I’ve been debating on moving over to a genesis theme, and this may be the tipping point!
FYI -As of today, it looks like Bluehost has suspended the account, or the link is otherwise dead.
I am very sorry! Apparently I had a Backup plugin that was backing up copies of the backups. I thought I’d resolved it a couple of days ago but it happened again last night. I was able to get on the phone with BlueHost and have the file deleted today, so everything is up and running again. I apologize for the inconvenience.