Robert Sanzalone has a wonderful presentation developed for Insurance Brokers on the benefits of Blogging. After reviewing this PowerPoint, you’ll too learn what Robert realized…the included concepts can relate to almost every business sector, especially real estate. Read Robert’s article titled “Successful Online Marketing Strategies and Blogging For Brokers”
PacificIT on Blogging for Brokers
· Posted on February 17, 2007 · 1 Comment
Be My Blogger Valentine
· Posted on February 14, 2007 · 6 Comments
Okay I finished my Valentine shopping for my better half, so now I can focus on giving some love to you, my BLOGGER VALENTINES! (Just know that I love you all, so don’t freak if I didn’t mention you specifically!)
Roses are red, violets are blue
Bloggers are sweet—yes, I’m talking to you
Bloggers are sweet—yes, I’m talking to you
Sellsius welcomed me first to this forum
Sharing knowledge & wit with the utmost decorum
Our friend, Pat Kitano, is one transparent guy
Keeping us in the loop with his super bird’s eye
Las Vegas Bill can always be reached
He brings us the latest from the city without sleep
CondoDomain, oh I’d never forget
Together on Gabby is how we first met
Tasty tips from REBlogGirl keep us sweet
Our blog expectations we’re sure to meet
Athol Kay is a man with perspective who’ll make sure
That those with kind words have a forum to be heard
The Future of Real Estate Technology
Offers ideas and great advice without any fee
CondoContessa, what more can I say
She’s the best friend you’ve got in the San Francisco Bay
Vflyer, another local friend with great drive
Innovation at its best, he promises to strive
Another smart tech we know, Michael Mather
Tips on business and life for sure you will gather
Realty Thoughts is team number one
With web applications, their work’s never done
Real Estate Tomato is juicy no doubt
With graphics and expertise bringing clout
So, with all my heart what I really mean to say…
MyTechOpinion wishes you a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Cyberhomes Neighborhood and School Data Now Available
· Posted on February 13, 2007 · 4 Comments
The new Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions (FNRES) product Cyberhomes has just been enhanced with neighborhood and school information. Now when you search for a particular address or city you will be presented with this new information. FNRES has partnered with Great Schools and Sperling’s Best Places to bring you this detailed set of data.
Cyberhomes’ neighborhood information now includes local housing facts, such as 12-month appreciation levels, how many people own, rent and how many homes are vacant. The new Cyberhomes coverage also includes population facts such as population density, graduate levels and median age. All these facts are compared against both state and US numbers. Cyberhomes also details the local economy sighting numbers such as median household income, sales tax, unemployment rate and projected job growth.
The Cyberhomes school information displays test scores and census data provided for both public and private schools and it’s enhanced with meaningful graphs. Parents will also appreciate the unbiased school profile information.
And of course the new Cyberhomes enhancement would not be complete without localized weather. Cyberhomes displays altitude, rainfall, snowfall and average temperatures at different points throughout the year.
Survey Options For Your Real Estate Business
· Posted on February 12, 2007 · 1 Comment
I was recently engaged in a conversation about Surveys in Real Estate and I stood behind my view that agents should use these tools! Do you really know the interest level of customers visiting your open home? Do they have vital information to share if you ask just the right question? Why risk it, today there are tons of survey options designed to make the creation, deployment and tabulation easier than ever! Now with hosted solutions such as SurveyGizmo, Zoomerang, and Survey Monkey anyone can capture the information they desire. And if you’re interested in hosting your own survey tool, take a look at Dominion Webs’ DW Survey script.
With your survey tool of choice, you can easily create a template survey for various situations. To start, you should have a “Prelisting Presentation Survey.” This template will be used when you land a new listing appointment. Simply forward it out via email with your prelisting packet, and you’ll have a chance to collect valuable seller feedback before you have the listing presentation. As a result you can address any issues brought up by the survey.
You may also want to gather feedback of potential buyers as they leave an open house. This is a great opportunity to find out their true intentions. I’ve heard various stories about transactions being saved by discovering information through consumer feedback. A few other ideas may include a survey of the selling party after you didn’t get a listing, or follow up a successful close with a post-closing satisfaction survey.
For tips on creating a survey, take a look at eHow’s article.
Need a Computer Now, But Can’t Run Windows Vista?
· Posted on February 12, 2007 · 3 Comments
I have found myself in a bit of a predicament these last few weeks. Occasionally I’m approached by a real estate agent for recommendations on what computer to purchase. Up until recently, I have always had an answer for them. This all changed with the introduction of Windows Vista. As I discussed in my recent posting, “Real Estate Agents: Windows Vista Isn’t a Good View for You, Yet.”, it would be ill-advised to recommend a computer running Windows Vista to a real estate agent at this point in time. It could take months for all of the programs that a real estate agent relies on to become Vista compatible. There are still options of purchasing a Windows XP machine. Dell and HP are continuing to offer Windows XP on their business series computers. You can also find remaining inventory of Windows XP computers in local electronic stores. Recommending this option is difficult for me, though, since Windows XP is a 5 year old operating system. Why purchase dying technology? You could always upgrade to Vista on one of these machines once compatibility issues have been resolved. The upgrade would be a costly endeavor in both time and money. I have run across a solution to this recent dilemma. Polywell Computers (http://www.polywell.com/), an award-winning computer builder based out of South San Francisco, is offering to install both Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same computers. This is what is known as a “dual-boot” machine. Upon starting the computer, you are given the choice of working in Windows XP or Vista. Having a dual-boot machine gives you the best of both worlds. You can continue to run your real estate business on Windows XP and slowly acclimate yourself to Windows Vista. Once all of your programs are updated to run smoothly on Vista, you can simply phase-out your use of XP. If this solution sounds good to you, keep these 2 things in mind. First, you will be purchasing 2 operating systems, so your computer will cost you about $200 more than a single-boot system. Second, don’t skimp on hard drive space, since you will be actually splitting your hard drive in half. Additional hard drive space is cheap these days, so this shouldn’t be too much of a concern.
Real Estate Agents: Windows Vista Isn’t a Good View for You, Yet.
· Posted on February 4, 2007 · 1 Comment
The wait is finally over. Microsoft has finally released its replacement for the aging Windows XP operating system. You may be wondering if you should go out and purchase a new computer running this highly publicized new operating system or purchase an upgrade. My advice to you is keep waiting.
There are 2 main reasons to NOT purchase Vista at this time. The first is related to hardware compatibility. Every component of a computer needs software, called drivers, to work properly and these drivers are operating system specific. Not all hardware has stable drivers available for Vista as of yet. In fact, Reggie Nicolay (my fellow blogger) and I are ready to purchase new home machines running Vista (we are keeping Windows XP on all of our business machines), but the manufacturer is having driver issues so we are waiting as well.
The second reason to NOT purchase Vista at this time has to do with software compatibility. While main stream software companies seem to be reasonably prepared for Vista, it is going to take weeks, if not months, for real estate and lending software companies to update their products for Vista. In my area, 2 invaluable programs (Winforms and our MLS) are not Vista compatible. Without those tools, an agent couldn’t do business.
If you are in the market for a new computer…
Hold off if you can. If you are in a situation where you need a new computer, purchase one with Windows XP installed and get an “Express Upgrade” coupon for Vista. Many computer manufacturers are still offering XP on machines and there are still many machines in stock at your local big-box store with XP loaded.
The Express Upgrade coupon is available for any computer purchased since October. Those coupons can be redeemed for a free upgrade copy of Vista (usually with a $10 shipping charge). The catch is that they must be redeemed by March 31st of this year. So if you bought a computer in that timeframe, dig out that coupon, send it in and then hold on to the Vista upgrade disc until the dust settles.
If you are considering upgrading…
What’s the rush? From what I have read, there aren’t many features that are going to enhance your real estate business, but the time you waste dealing with incompatibilities will definitely take away from your productivity.
Only consider an upgrade to Vista if the computer is relatively new (look for a Windows Vista Capable sticker on the machine) or if you got an Express Upgrade coupon with your machine. Even then you need to do your homework before you move forward with the installation. Contact the manufacturer of the machine to determine if compatible drivers are available and how to get them. That isn’t too difficult and those types of problems should be solved soon. You will also need to identify all of the programs that you rely on and determine if they are Vista compatible. This can usually be found out by visiting the software manufacturer’s website.
The lure of a new operating system can be tempting, especially for those of us with an affinity towards technology, but we can’t lose site of our objectives. If you are a real estate agent, your objective is to sell houses, not invest hours to overcome technical issues. Keep life simple and let others be the guinea pigs for Vista.
Google Maps for your Real Estate Buyers Tour
· Posted on February 4, 2007 · 2 Comments
So you’re going out to show real estate…have you thought about giving your buyers pinpoint driving directions? And then your directions sorted in best line-of-travel? Google Maps new “Add Destination” feature is the perfect solution.
- Visit http://maps.google.com.
- Click Get Directions, and then add your starting location.
- Enter stop #2 as the destination, and select Get Directions.
- Click Add Destination on the left-hand side and enter location #3.
- Repeat step #4 as needed.
- Now click and drag the addresses to the best order based on the visual displayed on the map.
If you would like to email the directions or send the directions as a link to your buyers, just click the corresponding link above the map. Your resulting map will guide you in the best route you selected while also displaying drive distance between locations.
**Mapquest also has a similar tool. Check out Athol Kay’s story here.
Relocation Guides: The Art of Information Compilation
· Posted on February 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Providing your clients with an up-to-date relocation guide for their new home town can be time-consuming, expensive, and downright frustrating. There are great resources out there that can help like Sunray Publications, a company specializing in making quality relocation guides. These can sometimes require a minimum order and be quite costly. Sunray does offer a more cost friendly choice with their new pocket relocation guides. However, if you decide to go the other route by creating your own area guides, there are a few tips and resources I can share with you (from someone who has done a few). I know what you are thinking, create one myself. Too much work! It’s not for everyone, but if you do choose to make one yourself, you will be able to easily edit, update and personalize it. And you have complete control over all your own content and branding. The following guidelines and resources can help you create your own area specific guide.
Whether you are creating a county or city guide, you should start with an outline. I would begin in Word and when you are finished compiling your info, transfer it into a Publisher template with design of your choosing. Publisher has great templates that you can customize easily, or just start from scratch. Section 1 of your outline should be the introduction to the city/county (history, background, interesting facts, life today). Make sure you list the website for the specific city or county as well (you will get much of your information there). In section 2, list all the major civic offices and contact info including City Hall, Public Works, Chamber of Commerce, DMV, etc. People always find statistics interesting as well, so include a brief section 3 of items like population, elevation, median home price, total number of housing units, etc. You don’t have to go wild, just a few fun facts that you find will do. The US Census fact finder site is helpful here (factfinder.census.gov).
Section 4 of your relocation guide is extremely useful information and should include all utilities, city/county departments, and emergency contacts such as: animal control, cable/satellite television, fire department, gas & electric, garbage, library, police department, post office, recycling, water, etc. Use the county and city websites to search for this information. You can make an additional section to spotlight special venders to share as a referral list. Other helpful websites for compiling this info may include www.discoverourtown.com and www.relo-usa.com.
In section 5, provide the contact information for the parks and recreation department as well as a list of nearby parks and recreational areas. I like to use www.epodunk.com for this. You can use their park search feature to find parks within a certain distance around your city or county. I usually select within 15 miles. You can even visit and list the park website (if applicable).
In section 6, list all the school district contact info (you can usually find this on the city/county website). There may be several school districts, or even nearby districts that also serve students in your area. You will also want to list all contact information for public and private schools in the area. You can find this info on the city websites, district websites, or if you live in California, visit www.schoolwisepress.com, and for nationwide school info, check out www.greatschools.net and www.schoolmatters.com.
Lastly, the area you are collecting info on probably has something its known for or something special about it that new homeowners would REALLY like to know. So in section 7, include any area specific info like a list of wineries, yearly festival info, transportation highlights, etc.
When you have finished compiling your info, you will need a snazzy design and pictures for your relocation guide. Go out with your digital camera and start shooting! Including local pictures of downtown, landmarks, parks, schools, neighborhoods, etc. will really customize and breathe life to the city or county information you are providing in the guide. Remember this is just a guideline, so feel free to be as creative or brief as you like. After you have completed your beautifully branded, custom relocation guide, don’t forget to update it regularly (or at least yearly)!
Resources in Review:
- City & County Websites
- Local School District Website
- http://epodunk.com/ (Good overall info, but fabulous park information)
- http://factfinder.census.gov/ (Census info, great for population, total housing units, etc.)
- http://www.bestplaces.net/ (Good overall info, median home price, cost of living, economy, etc.)
- http://www.ersys.com/ (good statistical charts & comparisons)
- http://www.greatschools.net/, http://www.schoolmatters.com/ & http://www.schoolwisepress.com (school scores and other info)
- http://www.discoverourtown.com/ (city specific lodging, attractions, dining, & local business contacts)
- http://www.relo-usa.com/ (city specific website links)
- Sunray Publications http://www.movinginformation.com/RelocationGuidesGeneric.htm
