Have you and/or your agents go to http://download.live.com/messenger to download Windows Live Messenger. Then go to Windows LIve at http://login.live.com and get an ID you plan to share with anyone that takes floor duty. Only one person should be logged in at a time with that ID, the agent on duty, though you can have more than one actually signed.
Now once you sign in on the web to your ID, your will see on the left the ability to create Web HTML that will allow you embed a Windows Live Messenger window on a webpage. You copy that code. Then log in to your website setup and add a page. You can call the page whatever you want but I find something like “Instant Chat” a good idea. Then in the blank paragraph area of that page select any “HTML” check box so the input converts from plain text to html input and you “paste” the code you copied earlier into that section.
Now go to your “Menu” tool and add a menu item that links to the page you just created. You can add the menu item wherever in your menu you see fit. I placed mine in the “Contact Us” menu area.
Now have your agent on duty login to the ID you created earlier, the ID you share with your agents to use when they are on floor duty, and now when anyone clicks on your “Instant Chat” menu item they will see a Windows Live Messenger windows on your website with the ID you chose listed at the top and an indicator of “Online” or “Offline” depending on whether or not the agent on duty is signed in. If signed in, the web visitor can now initiate a chat session with the agent on duty. There is also a mobile version of Windows Live Messenger so agents can even monitor and chat with website visitors from their mobile phones. How cool is that!
We have been using this since it went into beta about 2 years ago and we actually get a few chat request per week off our website to inquire about properties.
Enjoy!
Barrett Powell
A few months ago I stumbled upon this new technology out of the Microsoft Live Labs called Photosynth. Now I have had photo stitching software technology before to do my own virtual tours. Anyone remember the now defunct PixMaker from PixAround?
But Microsoft is on to something here. I mean the tehcnology is too easy to use and it creates some very interesting results from just a few photos. Check out one of my properties I just shot at this link:
Basically all I did was go out and walk a big circle around the house shooting a photo every few feet. But instead of just shooting in a perfect line, I just threw the photos together, sometimes walking up and taking a closer photo of the rock work or the wrap around porches. The system figured out how to place the photo in my “synth” so that it flowed in with the other photos. The resulting 3-D effect once you have gone completely around the house in the tour is really stunning.
To understand how to take photos for Photosynth, go here:
http://photosynth.net/howtosynth.aspx
Like I said, I am truly amazed at how this technology works. And Microsoft is making it free. In fact you get 20GB of space to use for your “synths”. The technology works equally well shooting inside of the property. You just stand in a corner and shoot while sweeping the camera from one of the oposite corners to the next. Then you can stand in the middle of the wall and do the same for additional perspectives.
So give it try. You have nothing to loose except more exposure for your listings.
When I bought my first RE/MAX franchise, I was surprised at the lack of technology available for the modern real-estate office. And what was available seemed to be outdated and expensive.
For example, I went looking for something better than Microsoft Outlook to use as a real-estate CRM system. What I found were tools that hadn’t changed much since they were introduced years earlier and whose sales models were not very agent and firm friendly.
I knew I needed something that was based on industry standards; just in case the vendor went out of business I’d still have access to my prospect and client database. I knew it had to be web based so agents could have access from laterally anywhere. It needed to be server based so the client data did not get lost when an agents laptop crashed and to provide easier and more secure backups. It needed to be flexible so new processes and features could be added easily and quickly. Social Networking is a good example of a technology that needed to be added to whatever CRM system I chose.
In the end, no commercial system worked. It was then I turned to the world of public domain software. Public domain software is free software that companies make available to the open community. Most of these companies also sell commercial versions of these programs, but if you’re fairly tech savvy or have some basic computer support at your office there is no reason not to take advantage of free software.
So what did I choose? I selected the community edition of SugarCRM. SugarCRM has been around for many years and has a large corporate and government sector following as clients and users. I ended up making some minor modifications to make it more real-estate friendly. I added a Social Networking component that allows agents to access all their real-estate social networks on one tab as well as post to them and write their blogs. It also has a connection to the online document management system I created using another public domain program called KnowledgeTree. We keep all our documents and contracts in this system instead of having to keep paper copies in file cabinet somewhere.
Below is a list of “free” applications that can be used for some very good real-estate problem solving:
SugarCRM - web based Customer Relationship Management system for keeping contact information, launching campaigns, providing a sign-up and sign-in feature for your real-estate websites, and many more needed capabilities. www.sugarcrm.com.
KnowledgeTree DMS - web based Document Management System for storing documents and contracts. Uses a familiar folder style interface to let agents store documents. Provides an automated OCR feature that indexes stored documents as well as what is called metadata which aids in searching and retrieving documents and contracts later. www.knowledgetree.com.
ProcessMaker - is a very interesting type of application commonly referred to as Workflow. With ProcessMaker you could for instance design a New Client process that would automatically step an agent, a new sales agent for instance, through the New Client process while providing all the company and state regulated document and process requirements, including contracts at the appropriate times in the process. The system would then notify the Manager to check the contracts or documents for completeness and correctness before they moved on to the next step in the process. This little application is also web based and could really aid in quality level of service and in sales agent oversight. www.processmaker.com.
MapWindow GIS - use this free application to download GIS data in ESRI Shapefile format from your local government. Now you can find and select parcels of land you have listed and save them to a separate Shapefile to upload to a handheld GPS. www.mapwindow.com.
DNRGarmin - use this free application from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to upload your saved Shapefile from MapWindow to your handheld Garmin GPS system so you can now walk land. Link To DNRGarmin.
These are just a few of the many free public domain applications available with real-estate uses. Contact me for a demo login to see any of these applications in action and the real-estate templates I have created for them. You can also visit the website where I feature these and other applications as well as the blog and twitter post. www.RealEstateWebExpert.com.
Thanks,
Barrett
Over on Inman News, someone posted that Social media sites don’t sell real estate. It was a good article that told of one agent’s experience with Web 2.0 social media sites and her negative experience. Many of us, myself included, have probably asked ourselves the same exact question…”Does spending all this time on all these social networking sites make sense and will it ever pay-off?” For some of you, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” But for others, or perhaps most, the jury is still out.
Below is my response to the Inman post.
You bring up some very valid points. Points which I myself have also questioned. Coming from within the Internet world prior to my real-estate carreer, I had these same questions with regard to many of the Dot.Coms back before the bust. Where was the business model. In fact, I’m asking myself that question right now about Twitter…where’s the business model?
That said, I think real-estate and our usage of Web 2.0 is a little different. Real-Estate is all about exit ramps off the internet superhighway that lead to your door. The more of these exit ramps, the better chance you have of getting that web traveler to your door.
The challenge is to make sure you attract or funnel the right kind of traffic to your door. You do this by controling the type of content you post. Think about the client you want to attract. Think about what type of questions they may have or information they may be interested in. Then post answers to those specific questions and providing that type of information.
Another thing to consider is this. These are very unique times. So don’t use what happens in today’s market as a rule for what will happen in a more normal market.
I setup a little side company to help answer questions. You can reach me via the website at www.RealEstateWebExpert.com.
Hope this helps.
Living and working as a Realtor in rural North Carolina, one of our rites of passage has always been walking land with buyers and sellers. While this all sounds easy enough, not withstanding the needed exercise, it can really turn into AN EXCERSISE if the property lines are not clearly marked, which is the case most of the time. If you are a rural agent or property owner, you know exactly what I mean. Sometimes you may be able to locate a corner marker or two and then try and draw an imaginary line between them. Knowing about where the property line is can be extremely helpful for obvious reasons. But other less obvious reasons to know where property lines are become even more evident when you get right down to it.
One good example for knowing where property lines are would be to locate items on the land and know whether the item was on your property or your neighbor’s. Things like trees, easements, and roads are the obvious. Things like setbacks, stream buffers, and such are less so. In rural areas, we typically have no county water or sewer so we have to have wells and septic systems located on the property. Many times you have to provide your local government with the location of the house and well to have a septic field located on the property. This is to assure a minimum distance between the house and well from the septic field. So there are many reasons for having a good way of knowing where property lines and other features of the property are located.
There are also good reasons to know where YOU in relation to boundaries and other features on a piece of property too. I have walked many a parcel that was heavily wooded. If you are walking a heavily wooded tract that is 10 acres or more it is not difficult to get turned around and not know which was is back to the truck. Don’t ask me how I now this. You especially don’t want to try this at the height of the tic season. It is especially good to walk the property with the current property owner and not simply rely on their recollection of where the property runs. You would not believe how many incorrect boundaries are handed down generation to generation. A buyer will appreciate knowing where they are on the property to help them visualize where they might want to build their house, or locate a barn or other facility.
So how may you ask, do you now where you are? The obvious answer is a handheld GPS. Well that works well when your on the road, but how does it work when you are in the middle of the lower 40 (acres). The answer is simple, well sort of.
Pretty much every county and municipality in the U.S. is standardized on some GIS system. GIS stands for Geographical Information System. These systems provide a location of every major feature, including property lines, roads, streams, and many other features of your area in a universal known global coordinate system. This is the same type of technology used to place roads and points of interest on a GPS to begin with. The problem is that none of these GPS systems come with data you need, such as the property line, streams, and such pre-loaded into the GPS. And even though your local government has a GIS system with all the features you would need to be loaded into your GPS there is no direct inexpensive way to get that data into your GPS so you can use it. That was until now.
Having researched the problem for many years, getting GIS data into a handheld GPS, I was able to come up with a solution that works. I can now get updated GIS information, including the most current parcels which includes recent sales and subdivides, downloaded into one of my 3 handheld GPS units. Once in my GPS, I can go walk any parcel of land and have the most up to date geographical features of that parcel show up in my GPS with the accuracy of about 3 meters or better. 3 meters may sound like a lot of leeway, but what I have found from using the technology over the past year or more is that I am able to consistently get within 3 feet or less of a known marker on the parcel. This is NOT meant to replace a highly accurate survey, but it is more than enough accuracy to confidently walk a lot or parcel of land and know where you are in relation to the boundaries and where key features are located.
Four items are needed to make this work. The first and obvious is a handheld GPS. But not just any GPS will do. Because of the accuracy needed and ability to upload data, I have found that the most accurate and best units to use are the Garmin Rino units (any one of the Rino models) and the Garmin 60CSx. The Garmin Rino starts at about $150 for the model 110 and goes up to the model 530 which sells for about $400. The Rinos also include a two way radio which has a neat feature. If you have two Rinos and use the two way radio, the location of the other party shows up on your screen each time they transmit and vice versa. It comes in real handy when you are hunting with a buddy on a parcel of land you have permission to be on and you can be sure your on the right parcel and know exactly where you buddy is at all the time. The differences in the Rinos are basically whether you need color or black and white, and how much memory the unit has for uploading multiple parcels to at one time. The Garmin 60CSx is a pure color GPS that focuses on GPS features less the radio of the Rino, but with a slightly larger color screen.
The second item you will need is the download of your areas tax map in what is called ESRI Shapefile format. This is a standard GIS format that includes all the data you need to be able to locate a parcel and upload it with the location information needed to the GPS. The next item you need is an application that allows you to find and select the parcel you need from the downloaded Shapefile you got from your local government. There are many free and Open Source applications that are available to use to accomplish this task. Then the final item you need is an application to upload the file you create with the parcel or parcels you are interested in to your GPS. Again, this is a free application.
You can imagine how much of a competitive advantage it is to be able to walk a parcel of land with a buyer or seller and have that parcel along with other pertinent information displayed along with your position on a GPS sitting in your hands. There is a simple process to follow that takes a total of about 4 steps to get what you need completely done; parcel selected and uploaded into your GPS. Contact me if you are interested in learning more about using these tool. There is no longer an excuse for not knowing where you are the next time you need to walk land.
A lot of people are Twittering. But how many are using the Twitter Apps to add feeds to your website? If your not, your missing out on an excellent opportunity. You can even have multiple Twitter accounts for different personalities. Let me explain.
Let’s say you’re looking for a quick way to add personalized updates to your website. Did you know you can add a Twitter update feed right into your site using the Twitter Apps? Look at your current website and figure where would be a good place to have a small Twitter feed added to the page, or another separate page in your site. The feed will be a small square whose length is dependent on the number of feed items you choose to have shown at one time without scrolling. Keep this space in mind. Now let’s go to Twitter and get our feed.
Located at the bottom of the page in Twitter, is a menu item called Apps. Clicking on this will take you to a page with many little programs called widgets that you can add to various websites. By selecting the very first widget, the one offered by Twitter, you can then select the HTML option on the next page and pick next. Then you can select how many Twitt feeds you want displayed at one time and what if any title you want. Don’t worry that you have more than the number of Twitts shown in your account. It just means the rest will be available with a scroll bar that is automatically added to the feed widget. The result will be code that Twitter offers you to copy into your clipboard. Once you have copied the code, you are ready to past it into your site.
If you do your own websites like I do, you simply figure out where you want the widget to be placed on your site. If you use one of those canned websites, you can probably use the code on them to. My company website is provided by e-Neighborhoods through my affiliation with RE/MAX. The default site had a nice little text box that was just sitting there not really helping my site or my site ranking. I simply replaced that static text box with my Twitter widget. You can see the results here http://www.REMAXSouthernAdvantage.com, and follow my postings on this site on Twitter under the name “barrettp”.
If you setup your Twitter account with your mobile phone, under the Devices tab on your Twitter settings, you can even send Twitter updates via your mobile phone. Because the feed is real-time, any updates sent via your phone show up immediately on your website now. Once I was sitting in a restaurant waiting on my order and remembered some bit of news I wanted on my website. I pulled out my Treo 700wx phone and posted the news on my Twitter account and it showed up right then on my website. How cool is that?
I like to post little short news headlines and then past the link to the full story in the post. As you know, Twitter will convert really long URLs into what it calls “tiny urls” so your post will fit the 240 character limit. So it’s a great place to post news about a new post in your larger Blog with the link to the full blog posting.
Now, let’s say like me, you’re looking for more of an advantage in your market. And let’s say like me, you have a fairly large market for “Green” type construction and homes. You could do like me and create another Twitter account that focuses just on topics of “Green” real-estate. In my case, my “Green” Twitter account is “GreenHomesandLand”. Not only are my topics focused on “Green”, but my Twitter theme reflects this “Green” branding as well. I even setup a separate website, http://www.GreenHomesandLand.net, which features links, resources, and even listings for my area that are Energy Star compliant and focus on “Green” living.
So get out there and start “Branding” yourself with customized Twitter feeds about your area and area of expertise. And don’t be afraid to have multiple Twitter personalities to cover the vertical real-estate markets, such as Green, or New Homes, or Retired Living, or whatever area you specialize in.Community websites were once the domain of the developer and the homeowner’s association. However, with the expanding presence of the web in real-estate, community websites have taken on more of an “active referral” role for the savvy firm and agent. Using a community web can allow an agent and a firm to become part of the community by offering services and information the property owners see as useful. This type of website offers the most upside of any online strategy taken on by the agent and firm, especially if the agent and firm has already sold homes to clients in that neighborhood. The old saying “it cost a lot less to sell to an existing customer than it does to get a new one” still holds true today. The focus of an existing client after all is not just selling them another property or listing their home, it is getting them to tell others about you and recommend you to them. In other words, to become an “active referral” for you and your firm.
Community websites can be categorized as one of four basic types; Homeowner’s Association type sites, marketing sites, discussion boards, and the newest hybrid that includes aspects of each called “Community Web”. Each has characteristics that exist based on the specific job the site was designed to do. Let’s take a look at each.
Homeowner Sites
Homeowner Association sites such as those offered commercially by companies like AtHome.net and CAMS are directed at the property owners and are what we call serial in nature. These sites are Web 1.0 in terms of features and functionality and most go unused if used at all. These sites usually go up after a certain percentage of the development has been sold. This is more than enough time for another firm or agent to come in and establish themselves as the “resale” agent of choice. We have seen this time and time again once a new home development is sold out.
But these Homeowner Sites again are not meant to drive business to a firm or agent. They are there to perform a service of providing an online information brochure and offer access to community documents, and a rudimentary communications platform that relies mostly on e-mail blast as a method of communication. The content is static for the most part, and we find most of the time information is out of date or not posted at all. These sites are usually controlled by the association and the elected officials of that board and do not act as referral or business basis for an agent or firm. They were not created to benefit a firm or agent.
Marketing Sites
In other words, by adding more of the features we will discuss in the next two community sites the marketing site can transform into the community web. And since time and effort have been used to brand the site and market it to begin with, it would be a natural progression for homeowners to begin to leverage the same site they used to purchase their home to securely find a babysitter in their new neighborhood.
Discussion Boards
A fairly new phenomenon is neighborhood discussion boards. These boards can range from open boards which resembles more of a wild west interaction to more helpful neighbor to neighbor type that are closely monitored and keep conversations positive. The key to these type of sites is that for the first time, members can participate in a more parallel format where they control when they communicate and are communicated with verses an e-mail blast. Information can be posted and read and responded to in a more natural language progression of back and forth. These sites create more of an actual sense of neighborhood, even on a small level for an individual development. The key is to restrict access to property owners only and to monitor the site for inappropriate content.
The Hybrid or “Community Web” Site
You can also add RSS feeds from other complimentary sites such as county or town government. If you don’t have a feed available from your local government of local news site, create your own feed using sites like Feed43 (www.feed43.com). By creating a space where property owners can go to get information in one place they cannot get elsewhere about their particular neighborhood, you create more of a sense of community and a sense of loyalty, and thus the site becomes an “active referral site” for you and your firm.
Hosting Your Own Site
If you’re savvy enough to have your own web server, or if your firm has its own or a hosted web server you are able to use, you can create your own community website by using tools available to you at no cost.
You want to use have a secure discussion board for your site so property owners can ask questions and provide answers in a neighbor to neighbor sort of environment. You don’t have to make this secure if you don’t want. You can open the discussion board up to the public as well. Just make sure you use the administrative feature of your board to approve any postings before they are posted. Either way, you want to make sure improper content doesn’t end up on your site and that neighbors feel comfortable posting for things like babysitters or someone to do yard work.
With regard to discussion boards, there are a number of options here. Most of your hosting companies offer some type of message board feature for free with your hosting contract. For instance, the hosting company Hostway offers free InterActives Forums with every hosting account. This gives you much more flexibility and provides for a no additional cost “ad free” BBS.
Another option is what are called “ad supported” message boards. An example of one of these is ProBoards (www.proboards.com). You can setup as many message boards as you want, and the advertising is actually very unobtrusive. Most of the time you don’t even notice the ads and what ads you do see are many times applicable to message board visitors. Each one of these boards does have a “for fee” version that removes any ads, and the cost is very small.
If you have your own web server or you have a hosted account that for some reason does not include a message board feature, you can also use public domain message board code that is free and readily available for download from sites like Sourceforge. Examples of these are PHPBB which is one of the most popular to Mombaboard which works in conjunction with Momba, another public domain web site application. There are literally hundreds of such applications that are literally drop in your website or hosting site and begin administering the board.
Adding blogging and mini-blogging to your community site is just as easy. Again, most hosting companies offer blogging as a free or low cost add-on to your account. If they don’t, there are many options here as well.
If you have little tidbits of information that need to be shared with the community why not think about setting up a community Twitter account. You can post up to 240 characters of information in little info bites that can be posted quickly and read quickly. You can even post and read Twits on a mobile phone. Homeowners can “follow” the post via e-mail or on Twitter. Twitter also provides code that allows you to insert or embed the Twits, Twitter post, into the community website. These could be inserted on the main page as a Community News section. Links can even be included in the Twits so visitors can click on the link in the Twit and be taken to the linked page to read more information. One example I use is to post short little bits about local government events or news and then include the link to the full article on the town or county website.
Building this type of “hybrid” community web portal is more difficult to do than just paying for a commercial HOA website. But it gives you much more flexibility with regard to branding and content and includes the social networking aspects not available in the commercial sites. If you have the ability, or can find a tech type or web development company to help you put together this type of community web portal the payoff will come in the form of more listings and sales as you become the “embedded” realtor of the community.
Now get out and start building your own community!
Barrett Powell
The days of taking a listing, placing a sign in yard, entering the listing in the local MLS, and then waiting on a sale are over, at least in the current market. Both buyers and sellers are looking for that “difference” that is going to help them buy or sell, or both.
The Internet is the new way. Yes we have heard this for some time. The problem is many heard “the internet is the ONLY way”. That assumption would be incorrect. Yes it is true that many buyers and sellers begin their research on the web. But that’s not where it ends. Studies have shown that these savvy buyers and sellers end up working with the first agent they make contact with. But what are the factors that impact that first contact decision.
For the most part, these buyers and sellers and looking for signs (not the obvious yard signs), things that tells them you are successful, trustworthy, and will get the job done. If they find your website, and see it as useful, but they don’t find other aspects of your real-estate career to backup your site, they will likely move on to the next agent. If they don’t see your name in other places, other websites, yard signs, mailings, advertisings; they’ll assume you’re probably new, got a hot new website, but lack the experience they need to help them get the job done.
On the other hand, if they see blog sites and postings by you at various real-estate related sites like Trulia, on subjects they find useful and interesting, they may be willing to forgive the other shortcomings and give you a shot. Likewise, if your not totally internet savvy, but you have a big ad in the local paper, or you have a lot of signs around town, they may be willing to forgive your tech shortcomings; feeling you will work harder to get the job done in the end.
So what does all this mean? It means if you’re an experienced agent with many years of measurable production under your belt, you’re probably going to do well in any market. Why? Because you are already practicing the tried and true activities that lead to a higher than average rate of referrals, that’s why. These handed down activities are the bread and butter of being successful in real-estate. They say not only am I successful, but I’m trustworthy enough to have your neighbor, friend, or relative recommend you use me. I have earned my stripes, the old fashioned way, and I can probably survive, even if my website or web skills are not the best. Does it mean I may be leaving something on the table by not having great internet skills? Absolutely! But it is not as important as it would be if you were just starting out or you had not amassed your multi-million dollar database of existing clients. Remember, it cost more to capture and sell to a new customer than it does to sell to an existing one.
What I’m hearing then is that the internet is really not all that important. Not hardly. What you are hearing is that the National average age of a realtor is the high 50s. That means we have a bunch of these senior real-estate giants who still garner the lions share of the business. This also means we are seeing more and more of these starting to retire. This is leading to a very interesting and serious problem and opportunity.
That knowledgebase that has been handed down through the generations is being lost. It’s walking right out the door with the retiree. At the same time, new high tech agents are coming in, thinking the “old way” is dead and gone; long live the internet. We are really missing a golden opportunity. At least most of us are. Some of the truly smart “new” agents have figured out that the Internet alone isn’t going to make them the new real-estate giant they want to be. They know it’s going to take a mixture of the old with the new to make that happen. Those smart agents have probably started out as a team member of one of those “old guard” agents, and spent a lot of time learning and understanding the way of the “Jedi”. You know, the old guard protectors of the Universe in Star Wars. Mix a little old school with new market tech and you just might have something there.
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