NikNik

Advertise to Your Local Niche via Trulia Pro

By NikNik · June 19, 2008 · 2 Comments 

Advertise Your Local Niche via TruliaIf 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!


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

NikNik

Trulia First to Go Google Street View

By NikNik · April 8, 2008 · 11 Comments 

trulia-street-view.jpgNot 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

 
 Trulia First to Go Google Street View [1:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (144)


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

Marketing Your Real Estate Blog

By Reggie · January 18, 2008 · 2 Comments 

Recently I was invited to the Inman Connect in New York to speak on a panel about “Marketing Your Real Estate Blog”. As you may know this can be a tricky topic. Please enjoy this video:

Inman Connect - NYC 08 - Marketing Your Real Estate Blog

Remember that marketing your real estate blog will come in many forms. Here are a few more ideas:

  1. Start with properly formatted HTML
  2. Create remarkable and link worthy content
  3. Syndicate original content: Ezine Articles, GoArticles
  4. Social Bookmarks: StumbleUpon, Digg and Del.icio.us
  5. Participate in communities: ActiveRain, Zolve, RealTown, Trulia Voices, etc
  6. Guest post on popular blogs
  7. Analytics Software: Google Analytics, Clicky, CrazyEgg
  8. Conduct interviews with opinion leaders
  9. Widgets: MyBlogLog, WidgetBox


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

Sidebar "Bling" Cross Promotes Your Online Presence

By Reggie · December 10, 2007 · 11 Comments 

These days real estate professionals are members of social sites, online communities, blogs and more. So how do we deliver a consistent brand and message over so many tools? Also how to we channel interested parties to our other communities? One way is to use a similar sidebar for each application.

Introducing the BLING Widget for Real Estate Agents

Since we have not seen the perfect sidebar bling application for you real estate agents, we developed one for you to use. You will notice inStep 7″ I instruct you to use the full path to the icons. This is so that you can use this code on real estate networks like Activerain, Facebook and more without making further changes.

Here is an example of the buttons I have created for your use.
(Buttons from left to right: LinkedIn, Facebook, RSS, Activerain, Zolve, MyBlogLog, Google MyMaps, Friendster, Trulia Voices, Zillow and RealTown Real Estate Network.)

Icons for Your Real Estate Business

DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE OF BUTTONS HERE.

IMPORTANT: If you are adding this to your blog, please make a backup of your template before beginning so you can easily restore things if you need too.

Step 1:
Create a new folder on the root directory of your website or blog and title it “bling

Step 2:
From the icons I’ve created, choose the specific icons you want to use on your sidebar widget and add them to your newly created folder titled “bling”. (Note: Choose either the .jpg files or the .png files. PNG files have a transparent background.)

Step 3:
Start by opening notepad or your HTML editor. Now you will be adding the code from each step to the blank notepad document. Please add each snippet of code to notepad in the order below. If you are advanced, the complete code is avaliable here.

Step 4
Copy the code below. Now paste into the notepad document we opened in Step 3. The code we just copied is for the header of our widget. The widget title is”Find Me Online” If you would like to use a different headline, replace those words with your own. You can also update the header and border color by replacing the hexadecimal (6 Digit) color with one from this chart.

Step 5
Copy the text below. Now paste this code after the code above. We will be editing it as follows:

Replace [Insert URL of Personal Photo] with absolute/full URL to photo. (i.e. http://www.mytechopinion.com/images/reggie.jpg) (Tip: Ideal width is 75 pixels or less)
Replace [Insert Name] with your name
Replace [Insert Company Name] with your company or blog name
Replace [Insert Your Blog or Website URL Here] with your actual URL

Step 6
Copy the code below. This is the DIV for the buttons. Please paste to our open notepade file after the previous code.

Ok, now you will start to add the buttons for your widget. 4 buttons will fit on each row. If you are using more than 4 buttons, you can add another DIV by preforming Step 6 again. This will create a 2nd row of icons.

Step 7
Earlier you added the buttons for your widget into a newly created folder. Now find the corresponding code from the options below. Then add each desired to your notepad or open editor. Look for “<!–Insert Buttons to the left of this block–>” and paste the button(s) code before it.

LinkedIn
Replace [Insert LinkedIn URL] with the link to your LinkedIn Profile.

Facebook
Replace [Insert Facebook URL] with the link to your Facebook Profile. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

ActiveRain
Replace [Insert Activerain URL] with the link to your Activerain Profile or blog. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

RSS
Replace [Insert RSS URL] with the link to your RSS feed URL. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

Zolve
Replace [Insert Zolve URL] with the link to your Zolve profile or blog. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

MyBlogLog
Replace [Insert ByBlogLog URL] with the link to your MyBlogLog Community. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

Friendster
Replace [Insert Friendster URL] with the link to your Friendster URL. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

MyMaps
Replace [Insert MyMaps URL] with the link to your custom Google MyMaps page. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

Trulia Voices
Replace [Insert Trulia Voices URL] with the link to your Trulia Voices profile. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

Zillow
Replace [Insert Zillow Profile URL] with a link to your profile on Zillow. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

RealTown Real Estate Network
Replace [Insert RealTown Profile URL] with a link to your profile on RealTown Real Estate Network. Also replace [Full Path to Image] with your full URL to the image.

Complete! If you have followed each step closely, you should have the complete code now. Simply copy and paste the code we created into your sidebar (keep in mind the widget is 210 pixels wide) and you will now be cross promoting yourself online. Keep in mind the same exact code can be used on your Activerain sidebar, Facebook and more.
View my profile on Zolve Join my community on MyBlogLog Friend me on Friendster View my location info on MyMaps Grab my RSS Feed Read my blog on Activerain Friend me on Facebook Join me on LinkedIn


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

RSS and Pipes are the Future of Real Estate Content

By Reggie · October 21, 2007 · 5 Comments 

Lately I have been hearing a lot of talk about a technology called Yahoo Pipes, and what it can do to streamline RSS feeds. So today we are going to demystify RSS and Pipes for your benefit!

Let’s Talk RSS
To start, you must be noticing it gets harder and harder each day to keep up on all the great content accross the web. You likely know that Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an easy way to keep up with this ever changing content. Rather than going out to each of your favorite sites one by one to see if they have new and appealing content for you, RSS is designed to bring the content of the sites you subscribe to right to your desktop via a Feed Reader. So rather than individually visiting 25 blogs in a row…simply open your reader and browse all content from one location. Your content comes to you!

Yahoo Pipes Technology Explained
Ok, now that you understand RSS let’s talk about Pipes. The term originally comes from UNIX and means roughly the output from each process is chained together creating a new output. Think of aggregation. You can say that pipes are the natural evolution of the RSS feed. Think about the current state of the blogosphere. Today you write a post on ActiveRain, tomorrow on Zolve, then Trulia and of course there is that guest post you recently did on another blog favorite. Plus this whole time you have been posting on your own blog. So how do you take all this content and mash it up into one feed for your readers? Introducing Yahoo Pipes.

Yahoo Pipes will aggregate and mashup content from around the web using RSS, data sorts, filters and translation. (Did I mention that no programming is required?) So in the example I mentioned above, the pipe you create could be a mashup of all your posts in one place—filtered by your name.

Let’s Build a Pipe
To get started, go to Yahoo Pipes and register for your free account. Once you have logged in, click the “Create a Pipe” button. You’ll notice the canvas appears. Start by simply dragging the module titled “Fetch Feed” from the library pane on the left side onto your working canvas. One by one enter the feeds that you would like to combine. Click the “+” sign to the left of URL to add another feed. Repeat the steps as necessary. Now drag out modules from the library such as “Sort” and “Filter”. Make sure you connect each module by its connecters. Once you have customized your pipe, click the save button and name the feed. Now click properties and give your feed a description and tags. Congratulations! Now save and publish your feed.


See an example of a pipe here. This is a combination of NikNik’s posts here at MyTechOpinion and the HelpMyAgent blog. See tutorials here.


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

RealBird’s New Features and New Business Model

By Reggie · August 9, 2007 · 1 Comment 

RealBird has reworked their business model for you real estate agents, and will now be offering their RealBird Listing Publisher technology for free—without advertising. RealBird’s Listing Publisher has some great value propositions and is one of 7 great ways to syndicate your listing. To start, Listing Publisher will allow you to create an unrestricted amount of property websites. Since we know that enhanced content online helps sell the home, start by uploading an unlimited amount of property photos. Also use their powerful HTML editor to embed any multimedia content such as a video tour of the home, panoramic slide show or podcasts.

According to NAR, approximately 70% of buyers want to know more about the community they are buying in, so you’ll want to use the rich-text editors to include community and neighborhood information. Potential buyers will also see a “ValPak” icon to the map providing local coupons to enhance their experience. The Listing Publisher will also cross market your listings on each custom site you’ve created. You will also want to include these listings on your personal website. Simply grab their ‘Just Listed” widget to display your listings in the side bar of your website or blog. Or maybe it’s GeoRSS mapping widget you’re looking for. This widget will provide your website visitors local street maps, amazing 40 degree angle “bird’s eye” views (HOT technology) with local points of interest overlay.

Once your site is built, easily publish your listing site to a domain of your choice. Now it’s time to syndicate your listing for maximum exposure. RealBird can help you get the word out to Google Base, Trulia, Edgeio, Lycos Classifieds, Oodle, Local.com, Vast, and RealBird’s own SearchOnMaps.com. You can also grab the code to post on tools like Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, Facebook etc.


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

NikNik

Know any real estate bloggers?

By NikNik · August 3, 2007 · 9 Comments 

Well, we sure do now! The MyTechOpinion team made their way across the bay to take part in the Inman Bloggers Connect festivities and conference. The usual suspects were present (Reggie, Chad, & myself). But in hopes of turning my business partner (and virgin blogger) onto blogging, I brought along my collaborator in crime, Sarah.

We arrived at the Beers & Bloggers party at the Thirsty Bear in San Francisco to find the shindig in full swing. There wasn’t much room to really work the crowd, so we corralled ourselves into a little corner up front and considered ourselves greeters. At any rate, it turned out to be a great spot, as Louis Cammarosano from HomeGain was the first to connect with us. As we suspected, Joe and Rudy from Sellsius, were a kick in the pants…literally!!! We enjoyed a few “small world” realizations as Trulia’s Jamie Glenn and I appreciated our hometown charm gone wild, and Pat Kitano and Sarah initiated a high school reunion for 2!

Joe and Rudy offered us a ride on the BlogTour bus to the Trulia party at John Colins …but we passed after they said Sarah could drive. After arriving safely (via Bill the taxi man), things turned dangerously hot upstairs with condo kings Tony from CondoDomain and Adam from Condo.com. Canada was well represented with pro bloggers Stephen and Mike of Ubertor, and Sara and Sheldon of The Edmonton Real Estate Blog. A special thanks to Stephen, as his out of town insistence on after party hot spot, The Clift, proved to be one memorable evening.

As for the conference the following day, we found Mary McKnight’s advice and tips to be on point. So I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more questions for post titles here in the future. Overall, it was great experience for enthusiastic real estate bloggers of any level. Sarah (our virgin blogger) came away with enough helpful information and inspiration to want to jump into the blogosphere with both feet! I’m sure she’ll have a few friends along the way to support her.


See more photos here.


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

NikNik

Got Real Estate Questions? TruliaVoices Answers.

By NikNik · July 14, 2007 · 10 Comments 

Trulia launches answers to your questions with “Trulia Voices”. The Trulia community provides a place where anyone can ask real estate questions and get real answers from homeowners, real estate pros or anyone with an opinion on your local market.

To get started, visit Trulia online. Click on the “Trulia Voices” tab up top, then type your real estate question in the provided field. Update with your area info and submit. You will be prompted to register, if you haven’t already. Within seconds, your question is submitted to their online question/answer forum. You can view questions/answers that may be similar to your inquiries. If there are no like answers found, then just sit back, relax, and soon other community members from your area will begin commenting and answering your specific real estate question.

I asked the question, “Where do you find the school scores for your area?” Now, I already have a few favorite resources when it comes to that question (see past article: School Scores & More), but I wanted to test the Trulia forum to see if I would really get some quality answers. And within 10 minutes of submitting my question, I had some fabulous results. The first real estate pro who answered my question provided me with list a great list of websites. Two of which, I use and recommend frequently (GreatSchools.net & NeighborhoodScout.com). And the following 3 real estate pros also recommended GreatSchools.net, among others.

Trulia Voices makes it easy for anyone with almost any kind of real estate question get knowledgeable answers quickly. It’s quite a helpful forum, really. And, it was nice to see some familiar Trulia Voices: Pat Kitano, Kevin Boer, Brian Brady, Tyler Moxley, Maureen Francis, Trang Nguyen.


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

NikNik

7 Ways to Syndicate Your Real Estate Listing

By NikNik · April 22, 2007 · 15 Comments 

With so many buyers turning to the Internet to shop real estate, getting your listings in front of them couldn’t be easier. There are many website solutions to choose from when it comes to posting your listings online. Many of these sites provide a comprehensive suite of products and services in order to better market your listings online (i.e. listing flyers/ads, virtual tours, mini-websites, blogs, etc.). Spend less time recreating everything, when you can create it once and share it in several formats while also getting the info you want in front of your potential buyers! But don’t take my word for it, check out a few of the following ways you can syndicate your listings for yourself. Keep in mind that not all aggregated websites reach the same audience, so be wise before posting your listing. Are you really reaching out to the right demographic?

As of the CAR 06-07 Internet Vs. Traditional Buyer Report, the share of Internet Buyers (those who use the Internet as a significant part of the home buying process) reached 70% in 2006. Many have estimated this percentage closer to 90%.

vFlyer.com
A one stop shop for creating, promoting, and distributing classified real estate listings. Their easy-to-use interface allows you enter information in quickly and get your listings out to Google Base, Edgeio, Oodle, Vast.com, Trulia, PropSmart and others! Other highlights include: Built-in tracking for ads, cut and paste ready to use HTML into Craigslist and eBay, embed your ads into your blog or website via their slick widget, and generate PDF files you can email or print. vFlyer also includes social bookmarking and Yahoo maps. Example Example Widget

Postlets.com
Postlets make it fast and easy for just about anyone to create a real estate ad like a pro. Utilize drop down menus of standard features to walk you through the process of creating your elegant listing ad. Your listings will be automatically sent to Oodle, Google Base, Trulia, Backpage, Propsmart, Edgeio, Vast, and other classifieds search engines. Postlets also includes a small Google Map for aerial and satellite views. Once your ad is complete Postlets will generates HTML code for posting ads on Craigslist and LiveDeal. You can also use the code for your blog or email newsletter (although it’s not quite as slick as vFlyer’s widget). Example

RealBird.com
RealBird, known for their map based-search, will syndicate your listing to Google Base, Google Blog Search, Edgeio.com, Oodle.com, Lycos, IceRocket, Vast and Technorati when you make a listing flyer using RealBird Publisher. RealBird also has built-in support for cross-marketing your blog and your other listings on your virtual tours. Once you enter your blog’s RSS feed in your RealBird profile, your virtual tours will show the latest blog posts in the footer. Your listing flyers are also optimized for search engine indexing and include social bookmarks. Example

Tourfactory.com
Tourfactory can give your real estate presentations and virtual tours the professional look they need in this competitive market. In addition, your real estate listings will be delivered to millions of potential buyers via Move.com. Realtor.com, Google, Yahoo, Home Debut, Sprint, and the Dupont Registry. Example

Classifiedflyerads.com
ClassifiedFlyerAds.com is a simple solution for creating full color, eye catching real estate ads, rental ads, auto ads and items for sale ads that will automatically be posted to top classified directories and live data feeds (Craigslist, Google Base, backpage, edgeio, Propsmart, Syndic8, Realty Feed Search, Oodle.com, Lycos, Trulia, LiveDieal, FindHomeRentals, hotpads.com, geebo, Vast, Realty Feeds, and more). Example

PostYourListings.com
Postyourlistings.com provides a suite of products and services, including: listing syndication, agent/broker websites (design & hosting), and print marketing flyers. Your real estate listings are transmitted to major portals every night: Yahoo, Cablevision 12, LongIsland Press, Google, vlshomes.com, HomeSeekers.com, Home Gain, MLS.com, Real Estate Espanol, Lycos, oodle.com, Craigslist, Real-Estate.com, ListingMania.com, Trulia, Propsmart. Their designs may not be among the best, but they sure get creative when it comes to their syndicated partners. Example

reallyo.com
reallyo is a free tool for real estate agents and brokers to create great looking flyers with video tours, photos, floorplans, Google maps and descriptions. Point interested buyers to your reallyo flyer, link it on blogs, forums, emails and other classifieds sites and embed video. Create impressive real estate mini sites in minutes and reach thousands of buyers via Syndic8, Google Base, oodle.com, edgeio, backpage, Local.com, Lycos, Realty Feeds, Vast and Livedeal. Example


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

Cyberhomes, The FNRES answer to home valuation

By Reggie · November 16, 2006 · 1 Comment 

Cyberhomes

Well it’s official, last week FNRES (Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions) launched “Cyberhomes” lead by Marty Frame, former Realtor.com chief information officer. Now Marty is the Sr. Vice President / Chief Information Officer for FNRES.

The new FNRES product “Cyberhomes” is going to be the newest and hottest valuation tool on the Internet for a consumer. With Cyberhomes having access to IDM and Hansen Data it’s sure to dominate over tools such as Zillow, House Values and Real Estate ABC. For example, as I understand it, Cyberhomes has access to over 100 million property records compared to Zillow who has around 67 million. Cyberhomes will also be updating more than 575,000 new ownership records every month.

The valuation data derived from Cyberhomes is based on the AVM Fidelity has been refining for years, most recently know as “Value Your Home.” With Cyberhomes valuation, the volume of data is amazing, but even better is how the consumer can include adjustments on things they know are positive or negative about the home, neighborhood, or even the community.

The tool also boasts upwards of 18 dynamic graphs detailing the property and its comparables, property in the neighborhood and key market fundamentals. I should also mention these graphs do not look like the Value Your Home graphs. They’ve reinvented the visuals, the graphs are now colorful and dynamic. Users can change the time period on the fly.

Like Zillow and others this tool will be free for the consumer. However, unlike its closest competitors Cyberhomes also promises to be a lead generation tool for REALTORS. Brokers will have the option of having their listings show up on the tool. This is much easier than Trulia who requires the broker to setup a live feed to communicate inventory. With these lead generation aspects, Cyberhomes promises to be REALTOR friendly.


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

Spice up your next Internet posting! Part #2

By Reggie · August 13, 2006 · 1 Comment 

Postlets.com is a new online classified service with a twist. Postlets allows anyone to build and post a classified ad, and they will not only display it but automatically submit the listing to several classifieds search engines—maximizing your reach across the Internet. For those sites that except HTML, Postlets will generate the code so all you need to do is cut and paste.

Here is how Postlets works. Start by creating a free account. As you begin they need contact information (Click Here to Read Postlets Terms of Use) and you must choose a category for your posting. (i.e. Real Estate) Then enter your properties physical characteristics and description. Lastly upload up to 12 photos. That’s it, you’ve completed the post. Now Postlets will submit the listing to Oodle, Google Base, Edgeio, Propsmart, HotPads and other classifieds search engines. If you want to take it a step further, Postlets can spice up your Craiglist, Backpage or LiveDeal post with HTML!

So remember, add the sites to your listing plan. The more eyes you can attract the better.


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Reggie

How can Trulia help my business?

By Reggie · August 3, 2006 · Leave a Comment 

Have you heard about the new Trulia Real Estate Search? Inman recently announced Trulia as the “2006 Most Innovative Web Service“. Trulia connects home buyers directly with brokers through their online interface offering a “mashup” of interactive neighborhood and satellite maps, homes for sale, multiple search views, and market trends to help the home search process.

ENOUGH, How can Trulia help me?
By displaying your listings with a link back to your website. Trulia indexes real estate information from various website feeds into their easy to use interface. Learn about starting your own feed to Trulia by clicking here. (* Note: If you do establish a feed, each listing must have complete data and an image.)

If you are feeding properties to Trulia, you may want to use some of their free tools. Trulia offers an Integrated Search Box, Trulia Map, Home Roll (Newsest homes on Trulia) and a XML RSS Feed of results pages. Take a look at their map plugin below:

Trulia Provides Local Information
When it comes to relocation info, Trulia has done a wonderful job of dynamically linking all of the best locations in one easy interface. Take a look at the California Real Estate Guides, he is a Snapshot of San Francisco. You’ll view sales trends with graphs, schools, census information (i.e. crime, houshold income, travel times.) local maps, community Organizations, attractions, parks & recreation, entertainment, news & media, and government.

Try the Trulia local real estate guides search here
Trulia logo
Examples: “San Francisco, CA”, “94588″


If you have enjoyed MyTechOpinion - Technology for Real Estate, please subscribe to our RSS feed!

Bottom