Adding YouTube Video To Your Next Real Estate PowerPoint

By Reggie · December 16, 2007 · 3 Comments 

The impact of YouTube’s video sharing technology is hard to miss. Not only can you find any video imaginable on YouTube, but real estate professionals are leveraging the free bandwidth and enormous popularity to promote their own commercials, video testimonials, local community footage and lots more. However the need to leverage your video in a listing presentation, kiosk, or window display may arise. So let’s talk about how you embed that video into your next PowerPoint presentation.

This is a very straight forward task and can be achieved using a YouTube Video add-In created by Shyam at skp.MVPS.org. The Add-In works for PowerPoint 97’ to current. Keep in mind however the video is streaming, so you will need a live Internet connection to display the video in your PowerPoint.

THIS EXAMPLE IS FOR POWERPOINT 2007. For other versions of PowerPoint, click here.

To get started, download the YouTube Video Add-In here. Start by unzipping the folder.

1. Open PowerPoint, and click the Office Button.
2. Click PowerPoint Options then select the Add-Ins tab.
3. Click PowerPoint Add-ins from the Manage drop down and click Go.
4. From the Add-Ins windows click Add New.
5. Locate the folder you downloaded and unzipped. Select the Add-In YouTubeVideo2k7.ppa.
6. Choose Enable Macros if prompted.

Congratulations, the YouTube icon should now be added to your toolbar as seen below. To use, simply click the button and follow the simple 4 step process.

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Simplifying Real Estate Agent Laptop Purchases

By Chad A. Johnson · December 2, 2007 · 4 Comments 

In my real estate agent desktop buying guide article, I wrote that “purchasing a new desktop computer can be a confusing experience”. Unfortunately, purchasing a laptop computer is an even more confusing task for the average real estate agent.The added confusion is brought about by the numerous incarnations of laptops available. From tablet PC to ultra-portables to huge desktop replacements, each style of laptop fulfills a different need. This means that there is no perfect laptop for everyone. Look to the matrix below for things to consider when choosing which laptop form-factor to buy.

Component Selection
Buying a laptop computer requires you to pull out your crystal ball and look into the future. Upgrading a laptop is difficult, costly and sometimes impossible. Buy more computer than you need today to allow your laptop to meet your needs for 3 or more years in the future.

Processor
The Intel Core 2 Duo processor is the way to go. Intel’s mobile processors are faster and more energy efficient (think battery life) than the competing AMD chips.

If available, look for Core 2 Duo processors running on an 800Mhz front-side bus (FSB). These processors cost a bit more, but their inclusion of tomorrow’s technology will extend the usable lifespan of your laptop.

Operating System
For real estate agents, Windows Home Premium will most likely meet your needs. This Home Premium includes all of the multimedia functionality that you will need in your daily marketing efforts.

If features like integrated backup, remote access and data encryption interest you, look to Vista Ultimate.

For a comparison of the Windows Vista versions, see Microsoft’s website.

Display
The size of the display is directly connected to the size of the machine, but there are several choices that you need to consider outside of size when choosing a laptop display.

Glossy or Matte Finish?
The glossy finishes look impressive. Colors tend to be very rich and vibrant. There is a huge drawback to these displays, the glossy finish is very reflective making them difficult to use in well lit environments. Unless you tend to work in the dark, go for a matte finish.

LED lit displays are starting to hit the market. These displays are brighter, thinner, last longer and use less power. The only downside of this technology is the current premium price.

Video Card
Windows Vista needs video power to run smoothly. When purchasing a laptop, buy the most powerful video card option offered, whether from nVidia or ATI. Integrated video cards just don’t cut it.

Memory
Nothing will make you dislike the Vista operating system more than not having enough RAM to run it properly. 2GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot for best performance.

Hard Drive
Buy the most capacity that you can afford. The extra space is cheap and you will invariably need it at some point.

If speed is more important than storage capacity, consider a 7200 RPM hard drive.

Optical Drive
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives are still too expensive to recommend. Go for a DVD-RW drive and consider a Lightscribe model to add a bit of flare to your discs.

Wireless Card
All laptops should have a wireless card to allow you to connect to the internet at home, the office and other hotspots wirelessly. While the new 802.11N standard has yet to be ratified, the latest draft is showing a lot of promise and they are backward compatible with the “B” and “G” standards. Buy a laptop with an 802.11N wireless card to enjoy faster, stronger wireless connections in the future.

Mobile Broadband
While a wireless card will give you limited mobile connectivity, a cell phone based broadband connection will truly make you a mobile real estate agent. Many laptops offer multiple provider options for mobile broadband integration. This integration is very convenient, but it does tie you to a cell phone provider. Add-on cards, like the one recommended in our real estate technology holiday gift buying guide, will offer more flexibility to change providers at a later date.

Bluetooth
Uses for a Bluetooth connection are increasing as more Bluetooth-enabled products hit the market. With an integrated Bluetooth card, you can use:

• your smartphone as a modem
• wireless headphones to listen to music or movies
• VOIP services (Skype) with a wireless headset
• a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse

Battery
This is a no-brainer. Buy the high capacity battery. It may add weight to your laptop, but the added time away from a power outlet is worth it.

Sound
I have never been concerned with sound card options in a laptop. For what a real estate agent uses a laptop computer for, the integrated option will meet your needs.

Webcam
I have seen real estate agents send video emails originated from their webcams. Webcams are also handy for keeping in touch with distant friends and family.

Docking Station
I love my docking station. When I get to the office, I simply connect my laptop and I instantly have a full keyboard and mouse, a huge LCD monitor, Internet connection, printer connection and the battery charges. It makes my portable laptop into a desktop computer. This is perfect for real estate agents who use a laptop as a primary computer.

If you want a docking station, you need to make sure that the laptop you choose has a dedicated docking station connection. Otherwise, you are forced to use a USB-connecting model and those products are junk. Look at HP Pavilion or Dell Latitude laptops for quality docking station options.

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A Touch of Mapping Technology for your Prelisting Package

By Reggie · September 5, 2007 · 5 Comments 

Are you using your past real estate sales to effectively market yourself in your prelisting and listing presentations? I have a cool mapping technology that will help you create a dramatic visual representation of your past successes. Microsoft Streets and Trips is a powerful software for creating mashups of your sold properties. It’s actually easier than you might think. Purchase Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 here.

Start by gathering a list of the real estate you have sold over your career. Get the list into Excel, keeping the street name, city, state and zip in separate columns. (If you have sold homes more than once, you can create two separate lists and color the icons a different color.)

Now to import the real estate sales, start by opening Microsoft Streets and Trips.

1. On the menu bar, click Data and then Import Data Wizard.
2. Next you need to assign each column from the excel file to a part of the address.
3. Select from the Data Type pull down to choose.
4. Once you’re done, click Finish.

If everything went according to plans you will now have the sold real estate all plotted on the screen in front of you. To finalize you may want to change the icons. Go back to the menu bar and select Data and then click Data Set Properties. In the middle of the new window you can change the Symbol or create a custom one. Now simply move the map to a region you would like to highlight and zoom in accordingly. You are now ready to print.

TIP: Print the map out on glossy paper for maximum appeal.

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11 Powerful Excel Formulas to Clean Your Real Estate Database

By Reggie · August 17, 2007 · 7 Comments 

Have you ever had the need to reformat a column of data in Excel? Possibly changing how the names read for a mailing list, or reformatting an address. If so you know that the right formulas can save you a great amount of time and frustration. I have 11 powerful excel formulas that will surely help out. Bring the power of Excel’s technology to your desktop.

1. To extract the first name of a cell: type the following formula in B1 (Results: John)
   =LEFT(A1,FIND(” “,A1))
   

2. To extract all of the text after the first word: type the following formula in B2 (Results: L. Smith)
   =MID(A2,FIND(” “,A2,1)+1,LEN(A2))
3. To extract the last word in a cell: type the following formula in B3 (Results: Smith)
   =RIGHT(A3,FIND(” “,A3))
   
4. To change the cell to all lowercase: type the following formula in B4 (Results: john smith)
   =LOWER(A4)
   
5. To change the cell to title case: type the following formula in B5 type the following formula (Results: John Smith)
   =PROPER(A5)
   
6. Change the cell to upper case: type the following formula in B6 (Results: JOHN SMITH)
   =UPPER(A6)
   
7. Takes everything to the left of the comma: type the following formula in B1 (Results: Anytown)
   =LEFT(A1,FIND(”,”,A1)-1)
8. Takes two characters after the comma. A perfect formula to extract state from the cell: type the following formula in C1 (Results: CA)
   =MID(A1,FIND(”,”,A1)+2,2)
9. Take the last 5 characters of the cell. If you have zip +4 change the 5 to 10: In cell D1 type the following formula (Results: 99999)
   =RIGHT(A1,5)



10. This formula will join two cells with a space in between: In cell C1 type the following formula (Results: John Smith)
    =A1&” “&B1
    
11. Say you have first owner name and second owner name in the next column. You may only have second owner names for half of the list. With the standard concatenate function, you will have an “&” after each name whether or not there was a 2nd owner name. With my formula it will only add the “&” if there is a 2nd owner name. So this works conditionally checking for text in the 2nd cell. : In cell C1 type the following formula (Results: John & Amy)
    =MID(IF(ISTEXT(A2),”"&A2,”")&IF(ISTEXT(B2),” & “&B2,”"),1,100)

To use the formula to populate the entire column you will need to use the “Fill” command. For that see the following graphic:

Once you have finished cleaning and scrubbing your data, you still have one more thing to do. You need to keep the column of data you just created, but remove the formula that was used to generate it.

Begin by highlighting the column of data you just created… column “B”. Right mouse click on the column heading and choose “Copy”. Then right click on the same column heading “B” and select “Paste Special” then select “As Values” and click “OK”.

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Online Meeting Solutions for Real Estate Agents

By NikNik · June 20, 2007 · 10 Comments 

Online meetings have become quite a fabulous technology solution for those real estate agents who present, train, or meet with clients abroad. Much time and money can be saved when cutting out travel. And for real estate agents working with clients from nearby cities to across the country, online meetings can prove to be highly efficient. There are several online meeting solutions out there, 2 of my favorites options for real estate agents being iLinc and GoToMeeting. Check out my expanded list below:

GoToMeeting

• Price: $49.00 a month or $468.00 a year (unlimited meetings)
• Free 30 day trial
• Host unlimited online meetings for up to 10 attendees
• Features Include: desktop viewing, share keyboard & mouse control, email & instant messaging integration, chat, free voice conferencing, application sharing, drawing tools
• Easy 2 minute automatic set-up
• For large seminars & events check out GoToMeetingCorporate

iLinc: MeetingLinc & ConferenceLinc

• Price: Contact Sales @ 1-800-767-7145
• Free 15 day trial download
• Personalized guided tour
• Host online meetings for small groups to large events
• Features Include: voice over IP, audio & video conferencing, application & desktop sharing, interactive whiteboards, synchronized Web browsing, breakout groups, floor control to anyone in session, text chat, electronic hand raising, feedback, Q & As, recording & playback, etc.
• Invitations and reminders linked to Microsoft Outlook

iVisit Plus

• Price: $49 for 1 year of unlimited use
• Host live conferencing for up to 16 attendees
• Features Include: video conferencing, voice calls, instant messaging, AVMessaging, file sharing and web co-browsing for richer online meetings with family, colleagues or customers for live video chat.
• iVisit™ Lite FREE (try out video conferencing)

Microsoft Office Live Meeting

• Price: Varied, contact sales
• Free 14 day trial
• Hosting for groups of all sizes (from one on one meetings to an audience of a 1,000)
• Attendees receive personalized invitations with a unique meeting URL and password.
• Demo

Voxwire Web Conferencing

• Price: Varied (from 3 person room @ $17 per month to 200 Person Room @ $417 per month)
• Free 7 day trial
• Host online conferencing between 2 or hundreds of participants
  Features Include: moderator controls, visual tools, new presentation & whiteboarding tools, instant text chat
• Room owners can modify their capacity any time they wish Online Meeting Invitations by iBizGrams.com

WebEx MeetMeNow

• Price: $49 / month no commitment ($39 / month with annual commitment (20% discount)
• Free 14 day trial
• Host unlimited online meetings for up to 10 attendees
• Features Include: desktop sharing, control granting, rich annotation, email & instant messaging integration, private chat, conference calling, conduct remote support.
• Easy 2 minute automatic set-up
• Trial

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8 Essentials for the Mobile Real Estate Agent

By Reggie · May 6, 2007 · 8 Comments 

To be effective, the mobile real estate agent should incorporate many different technology tools into his/her business. But what technology is best? What is really going to make you more efficient in the field? Below I have listed my favorite technologies for mobile Real Estate agents on the go:

Tablet PC
Real Estate agents will find that Tablet PC’s have many advantages over the traditional laptop. Most notably the ability to reduce the amount of paper you burn through. With a tablet PC, Real Estate agents can sign important documents such as listing and purchase contracts, emails, and notes onscreen in their own handwriting. This often times eliminates the need for printing entirely. Simply email or fax the document directly to the party in question. In regards to brand and model I like the convertible HP tc4400 and Lenovo ThinkPad X61. Both models are ultra-lightweight, provide outdoor viewable displays and manage to provide long battery life. They also have strong wireless and Bluetooth capabilities. The X61 is slightly lighter and also comes with Active Rotate which uses an internal accelerometer to dynamically determine the tablet’s angle and adjust the screen position. This may prove useful when handing your PC over to those buyers in your next contract signing.

VREO Real Estate Dashboard
Real Estate Dashboard is a critical component to truly going paperless. Sure there are tools such as Microsoft Journal that can be used, but they fail when it comes to security. With VREO Real Estate Dashboard, the Real Estate agent must use a password, and all files are created in a proprietary file format. Signatures are then flattened onto their corresponding document, and then allowed to be sent via integrated email or fax technology. Read our previous post here.

TransactionPoint
TransactionPoint is the ultimate piece of Real Estate technology for automating the entire real estate transaction from listing a property to closing the deal. TransactionPoint is integrated with ZipForms for easy form creation. TransactionPoint will also store other transaction related documents for easy retrieval. You may also benefit from reduced liability for E&O (Errors and Omissions) insurance, as TransactionPoint saves a permanent record of emails and other communication in the communication log

Digital Camera with Wide Angle Lens
Real Estate agents spend a great deal of time and effort marketing the homes they sell. So why use a marginal camera for those photos that help sell the home? Real Estate agents should look for a quality digital camera. I recommend the incredibly light Canon Rebel XT with wide-angle lens. The camera takes great high-quality photos. The Rebel boasts a huge amount of features, but presents them in a very easy to understand interface. Works great with PictBridge compatible printers such as the i80 referenced below.

SmartPhone
With the Blackberry, Treo or Windows Mobile device Real Estate agents can streamline their business greatly by taking advantage of wireless MLS capabilities, free business and local search tools, mobile calendar & email, calculators, etc. Personally I’m a fan of the Blackberry 8700 and 8800 models. Mainly because of the big screen, full QWERTY keyboard and outstanding email capabilities. Needless to say Treo and Windows Devices are also very popular. I really believe you should hold each of the phones before you purchase.

3G Wireless Access
Real Estate agents spend a great deal of time accessing online information via MLS, CMA utilities, buyers tours, email, door-to-door directions, fax to email solutions and more. So why wait until you get back to the office. Real Estate Agents who embrace this technology will uncover many time benefits. Read our article here for items to consider when selecting a service.

Mobile GPS
As the mobile real estate professional you need to know where you are going 100% of the time. That’s why a mobile GPS utility may prove useful. I recommend the Garmin NUVI 660. With this unit you’ll surely get from point A to point B, but you may also save time with its integrated traffic tuner. You can even keep both hands on the steering wheel with the Hands-free feature for compatible Bluetooth phones.

Mobile Printer
This piece of real estate technology will surely impress real estate agent’s on-the-go that require a printer for photos and more. I recommend the Canon i90, as it comes with the ability to print using the IrDA port from your tablet pc…at a range of up to 10 feet. Even print directly from your PictBridge compatible digital camera. The Canon i90 can also accommodate a car adaptor for power or take advantage of the portable kit which includes rechargeable Li-On battery and holder.

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