MTO Vlog Contest Finalists

By NikNik · September 2, 2008 · 7 Comments 

While we are waiting for the expert judge panel (@LaniAR, @ResPres, @mlbroadcast, @RealEstateZebra) to deliberate and deliver their votes, let’s take a closer look at what the 12 Finalists have to offer?

(1) Ian Watt The original “Car Blogger”…aka “Clogger”. The most enthusiastic daily blogger who reaches out via video from his car and more!  He is your local Vancouver real estate expert!

(2) Kelley Koehler First off, Kelley is my middle name. Did your parents also name you after the Kelley Blue Book? (That’s what mine told me.) Anyway, superb patience with mobile technology at its finest!

(3) Keith Cuddleback & Tilton Quan An inside look at the real life of real CyberAgents.  They  “GET” mobile….and they are! These Docusign Dudes are all about convenience for everyone! Read more

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Trulia Sure to Impress Consumers with New iPhone App and More

By Reggie · August 24, 2008 · 4 Comments 

Trulia has been busy creating new features aimed at improving the home search experience while also making housing data readily accessible to today’s consumer. Pete Flint, Trulia CEO, said “At Trulia, our mission is to deliver unique local insight to consumers when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it.  Today’s launch is a big step in this direction.”

Personalization

Trulia knows the areas you care about! How can that be? It’s true now when you visit Tulia’s homepage you’ll see local results for new property listings, home price changes, upcoming open houses, Read more

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Real Estate Vlogging Contest Update

By NikNik · August 12, 2008 · 4 Comments 

I may have been tired with kids whining in the background…but I didn’t let that stop me from quickly shooting this Contest Update with Reggie’s help. So whatever obstacle is standing in the way of your video blog entry, I don’t care! No excuses, send us your link already…I’m waiting!

View contest submissions here!

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Kick Off To MTO Vlogging Contest!

By NikNik · August 3, 2008 · 18 Comments 

Okay, so you may have noticed we have taken a fancy to podcasting here over the last few months.  It’s been a great exploration of social media….learning how to best create and share our podcasts.  I could also compare my experience to that of a horror flick, as recording and listening to my own voice pretty much scares everyone out of the office. I started out as a perfectionist, trying to bleep out and edit all my verbal mistakes. Poor Reggie would listen from a far as a barrage of four letter words would radiate from my mouth with each tongue twister I encountered. I quickly learned to “get over” the mishaps and just let the words flow. Besides, everyone makes mistakes and it’s just more natural and easier to listen to.

So, now that I’ve been podcasting for awhile, the next scary medium that requires my attention….is video. Duh! I’ve been afraid to touch vlogging in the past for many of the same reasons that others have been avoiding the camera:  (1) it takes too much time, (2) not sure about the right equipment, (3) what content is best to share, and (4) I will look and sound like a jackass…or to quote one of my favorite comedic geniuses, Adam Sandler, “They’re all gonna laugh at you!”

I finally have the perfect retort:

(1) TIME REBUTTAL: Make a commitment to once a week. Pick a spot and shoot. It can actually take a lot less time than writing a post…if you know what you’re talking about.

(2) EQUIPMENT REBUTTAL: The Flip…it’s $149 and has one red button for start and stop and plugs directly into your computer via USB drive. Video opens in a super easy format with immediate email and upload options. Oh, and no rendering time!

(3) CONTENT REBUTTALL: What makes you and your niche unique? If you are asking questions or talking about a specific topic, idea, thing, or place…chances are someone else is. So address those topics. If you’re clients have regular inquiries about your Read more

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Advertise to Your Local Niche via Trulia Pro

By NikNik · June 19, 2008 · 2 Comments 

If you are looking for an affordable option for advertising to your local audience, Trulia can help. Yesterday, Trulia stepped up with yet another great feature to assist real estate agents and local businesses with the launch of Trulia Pro.

With Trulia Pro, you can target up to 20 locations with unlimited local spotlight ads. Participant listings will also get a boost to the top of relevant search results. And this self-service offering is available via a low fixed fee of $39 a month, or annually for $348 (just $29 a month).

Why advertise at Trulia you say?

“Trulia is the fastest growing online real estate site with approximately 5m unique monthly users and is a top 10 real estate site.” –Rudy Bachraty

Give your brand, your service, and your listings the online visibility they need to take your business to the next level. Advertise with links to your real estate blog and/or Trulia Voices Profile to grow your network of readers, clients, and colleagues.

Oh, and if you are already using another advertising program, Trulia wants to give you 3 months FREE with the purchase of a one year subscription.

Visit the Trulia Blog to learn more!

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HomeGain Launches New Agent Blogging Network

By NikNik · April 29, 2008 · 8 Comments 

HomeGain launched their new agent blogging network tonight. Since Max the HomeGain Gorilla isn’t returning my Facebook messages and tweets, I had to hit up Louis Cammarosano (General Manager of HomeGain) with a few questions. Thanks for the lowdown Louis!

HomeGain members can now blog directly to consumers! Each agent blog will have a distinct URL with the member’s city, name, and zip code (ex: http://blog.homegain.com/real-estate-blog/sanfrancisco/NicoleNicolay/94133). Unlike the agent to agent blog platforms, HomeGain’s blog network provides agents with a forum for helping consumers with the home buying and selling process. Agents can reach out to consumers via their blog, as well as make, receive, and approve comments.

The HomeGain Blog recently scored a page rank of 7, so agents looking for a SEO boost could potentially get one from blogging there. Louis adds, “Also since our traffic comes not just from SEO but from HomeGain.com (which is a source of traffic that far exceeds our SEO traffic), SEM and from hundreds of partners, there is a built in audience so the agent does not have to write for Google to get noticed.”

The new HomeGain member profile features the agent predominantly with a link to their web site and phone number. There is an email box that the customer can use to ask a question (the email box remains a fixture at the top of all tabs). The HomeGain member interface incorporates carefully organized tabs for quick links to the agent’s blog and profile, as well as other home buying and selling tools including the Homesale Maximizer. And, if the consumer wants to they can fill out a form and get a professional CMA or they can just ask for one by calling or emailing the agent. Louis shared that he’s got one more tab coming that will complete the offering and there will be NO ADVERTISING!

HomeGain will continue to enhance its functionality with additional features. A new HomeGain Search Feature and Library of Syndicated Content are in the works already! Check out the HomeGain real estate blogs here.

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New Feature from MyBlogLog Builds Your Contact Manager

By NikNik · April 25, 2008 · 2 Comments 

So, you just discovered a rockin’ new real estate blog and want to know more about the author. What about adding the author to your contact manager? If you are a MyBlogLog member, you are in luck! MyBlogLog recently added a new feature that allows you to easily add your favorite bloggers contact information to your address book via vCard and hCard.
 
vCards are commonly used in eSignatures or attached to business emails. They are standard electronic business card files that usually include an address, phone number, email, Website or blog URL, etc. vCards can be added to the Mac OS X Address Book, Microsoft Outlook, and other applications.

Now, I hadn’t heard of the hCard so this gave me a chance to learn more. Apparently an hCard is a microformat for publishing contact information, as well as for extracting details to be used in other applications or  Read more

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Trulia First to Go Google Street View

By NikNik · April 8, 2008 · 11 Comments 

Not since the acquisition of Rudy Bachraty, has the Trulia team unleashed such “coolness” in the real estate community!  As of today, Trulia is the first national real estate search Website to incorporate Google’s Street View technology. 

Google’s Street View mapping is a phenomenal tool for real estate agents.  With it, agents and consumers can view a property up close at street view level, walk or drive past the property and surrounding neighborhood, and even check out the yard and other attributes of the lot. For those agents specializing in relocation, this is obviously a powerful resource for learning about a new area.  Rudy, Trulia’s Social Media Guru, adds, “Besides zooming in on the minute details of the exterior of the house, now you can actually take a peek at Read more

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How to Redesign Your Active Rain Blog

By NikNik · April 4, 2008 · 5 Comments 

I love bling! And not just to wear; I love it on all my blogs and networks.  In fact, I had Reggie hook up my ActiveRain sidebar to match the MyTechOpinion Blog v1. So naturally, I was excited when Brad Carroll informed me I could customize my Active Rain Blog layout. With so many sites to maintain on the Web, this is a great way to brand yourself and provide consistency among all your blogs and networks.  

To learn how to customize your ActiveRain blog, click here.

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Future of Real Estate Technology Acquires MTO - April Fools

By NikNik · April 1, 2008 · 9 Comments 

It’s true. We have been acquired.

Loren over at the Future of Real Estate Technology made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. Actually, he had made several offers to us in the past in his attempt to takeover MyTechOpinion….and make it all his own.  Second place on Google for the search term “Real Estate Technology” had been eating him alive! So, we finally caved after many rounds of negotiation.

Loren takes over our domain starting Sunday. As for Reggie, Chad, and I, we’ve decided on a much simpler life. You can find us blogging remotely from our new home (the 85 Renault RV). You should see the curtains I picked out for this baby!

Hey, we said he made us a good offer….of 89 installments!

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RealBird Integrates with Street View API

By Reggie · March 29, 2008 · 10 Comments 

Zoltan of RealBird clued me in to Google’s release of their new Street View API Thursday.  Meaning developers can now integrate street view maps with ease. You can bet this API’s popularity will surely explode in real estate websites as buyers will appreciate the convenience of previewing neighborhoods from remote locations.   

Realbird has already begun taking advantage. You may remember we talked about manually embedding these maps. Well not anymore, Zoltan has integrated the new API in with RealBird’s Listing Websites.  

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Chicks Love MTO v.2

By NikNik · March 19, 2008 · 12 Comments 

No, you don’t need to adjust your monitor settings.  We launched MyTechOpinion  version 2  tonight. Chad made a great suggestion at our weekly offline meeting (yes, we do make it out of the office once in awhile). And before we knew, Reggie’s weekend had been spent whipping us up a new blog.
 
Reggie had created MTO version 1 on the Blogger platform. Ouch! And secretly longed for his own Wordpress blog…especially after creating so many rockin’ real estate blogs for others. However, he wouldn’t dare mess moving from Blogger without keeping our link structure intact. But after a little(LOTS) research, he decided to go with the Maintain Blogger Permalinks Plug-in. Reggie’s time finally came and we’re happy with the result.
 
You’ll notice that we’ve incorporated some new features along with better sorting ability to quickly identify helpful articles. Our new platform and design allows us to showcase more technology content.  We’ll be adding more video and social media tools as we get going here!

Please let us know what you think!

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