Create Saved Search Links for Areas That Are Not a City
City and ZIP filters only reach the areas your MLS actually names. For a neighborhood, a district or a local nickname, draw the area as a polygon and save it as a search link.
On this page
In short
- City and ZIP filters only cover areas your MLS names
- Neighborhoods and local area names need a map polygon
- Draw the shape once in IDX Broker and save it as a link
- A polygon is a list of points, with the first point repeated at the end
- AI can write that point list for you from a description
Almost every agent website has a "Search by area" section: a row of tiles, each one opening a ready search. Behind every tile is a saved search link. For a town or a ZIP code that is easy, because the MLS carries those values and you just pick them from a list. The trouble starts when a client asks for a neighborhood, a downtown district, a corridor along one road, or a name that only locals use. Those areas are real to buyers, but the MLS has never heard of them. That is what polygon search is for: you draw the area on a map, and the saved link returns everything inside your shape.
Decide how the area should be defined
Before drawing anything, check whether the area already exists as a value in your account. A filter on a real MLS field is always the better option: it costs nothing to maintain, it updates itself, and nobody can argue with it.
| What the area is | How to build it |
|---|---|
| An incorporated city or town | City filter |
| A postal area | ZIP code filter |
| A subdivision the MLS lists by name | Subdivision filter |
| A neighborhood, district, corridor or local name | Map polygon |
| An area smaller than one ZIP code | Map polygon |
Use the polygon only for what is left after that check. In a typical list of fifteen area tiles, ten will go in as a City or Subdivision filter in a few minutes, and five will need a drawn shape.
Draw the area in IDX Broker
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1
Open Saved Links and create a new one
In your IDX Broker account, open Saved Links and click Create Link. This is the same screen that holds every ready search you have already built.
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2
Pick a search page from the Polygon group
The first step of the wizard asks which search page to use. Open the dropdown and look past the plain Search entries: there is a Polygon group, and picking a page from it is what turns on the map drawing tools. Standard Results is the usual choice. Then click Next Step.
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3
Draw the shape on the map
The next step shows a map with drawing tools in the top left corner. Choose the polygon tool, then click once for each corner of your area. Follow real edges where you can, such as a highway, a river or a city limit, so the shape is defensible later.
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4
Close the shape
Keep clicking corners until you are back where you started, then click the first point again to close the shape. The map will tell you to do this. An unclosed shape is not a polygon and will not filter anything. When the area is filled in, click Next Step.
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5
Name it and save
Give the link a Page Title. Use the area name exactly as it will appear on the website, because this is what you will be looking for in the list later when you have fifteen of them. Save, and the link is ready to use anywhere on your site.
Paste a polygon you already have
Drawing works well for one or two areas. For a batch it gets slow, and a shape drawn by hand is hard to reproduce or adjust later. If you already have the coordinates, from a previous setup, a mapping tool or an AI assistant, you can paste them straight in. Open the saved link and click the magnifier icon on its row, which opens Edit Search Criteria.
Inside, switch to the Edit Link By Hand tab. This is a plain text field holding the whole query behind the saved link, and IDX Broker states the one rule that matters right above it.
A working polygon query looks like this. Replace the idxID value with your own and paste the whole line into the field, then save.
pgon=35.4620+-79.2400,35.4600+-79.1900,35.4380+-79.1750,35.4200+-79.1900,35.4180+-79.2250,35.4350+-79.2480,35.4620+-79.2400&radius=&layerType=polygon&clat=35.4389&clng=-79.2113&zoom=12&idxID=xxxxx&pt=1&srt=prd| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
| pgon | The shape itself. Each point is latitude, a plus sign, then longitude. Points are separated by commas, and the first point is repeated at the end. |
| layerType | Tells IDX Broker to read the shape as a polygon. Always polygon here. |
| clat and clng | Where the map is centered when the page opens. Display only. |
| zoom | The starting zoom level of the map. Display only. |
| idxID | Your MLS identifier in IDX Broker. Copy it from any saved link you already have. |
| pt | Property type to search. |
| srt | Sort order of the results. |
Get the coordinates from AI
If you do not want to draw fifteen shapes by hand, describe each area to an AI assistant and ask for the coordinates in the exact format above. The quality of the result depends almost entirely on how specific your description is, so name the roads, the landmarks and the edges you do not want crossed. A prompt like this one works well:
I need a polygon for an IDX Broker saved search link.
Area: Tramway, an unincorporated community south west of Sanford,
North Carolina. Center it on the US 1 and NC 78 junction and the
Tramway Road corridor. Do not cross the Sanford city limits on the
north east side.
Return one single line in exactly this format and nothing else:
pgon=LAT+LNG,LAT+LNG,...,LAT+LNG&radius=&layerType=polygon&clat=LAT&clng=LNG&zoom=12&idxID=xxxxx&pt=1&srt=prd
Rules:
- 6 to 8 points, in clockwise order
- repeat the first point as the last point so the ring is closed
- latitude first, then a plus sign, then longitude (longitude is negative)
- four decimal places is enough
- commas between points, no spaces anywhere in the line
- set clat and clng to the center of the shapeSwap idxID for your own value, paste the line into Edit Link By Hand, and save. For the next area you only change the description block at the top and keep the rest of the prompt as it is.
Check the result before you use it
Open the finished link and check two things, not one. First, the shape sits where you expected. Second, it returns a sensible number of listings. A tight downtown polygon often comes back nearly empty, because the center of a small town is mostly commercial property, and an area tile that opens an empty result page looks worse than no tile at all. If that happens, either widen the shape or drop that area from the list.
Once a link is saved it is simply a URL, so it works behind an area tile, an image card, a menu item or a text link, on any platform. Nothing else on the site needs to change.
Send us your area list and we will build it
Give us the names of the areas you want on the site and we will create the saved links, draw anything that needs a polygon, and place the tiles on your pages. It is part of the free service.
Contact Support → Or email support@idxplugin.com