Tools and Tech

FREE Trial Account of ReValuater - Property Valuation tool for Investors & Realtors

Earla Ruetas — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:41:17 GMT

FREE Trial Account of ReValuater - Property Valuation tool for Investors & Realtors

Check out ReValuater! This tool is what every investor, real estate or mortgage professional needs to easily determine a property's value. Register to obtain your FREE ONE-MONTH TRIAL ACCOUNT, simply follow the steps below:

1. Go to www.valrev.com/REVtrial.html

2. Enter Product Code: RVER100803-ZRN

You'll discover:

Generate custom property valuation reports in minutes, not hours!
Comparable Sales & Data
Area Default Trends
Aerial Photos & Maps
Utilize our hybrid reports for your buyer & seller presentations or as BPO supplement for your Asset Manager

If you have any questions, simply email Earla Ruetas @ ERuetas@ValRev.com.

You want to see this!

D&L Solutions — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:57:41 GMT

Hey,

Theres this great social networking site just for Real Estate Investors.

You get your own website, and access to amazing tools. Go sign up now!

It's invite only. You can only see this site by clicking this link.

https://www.connectedinvestors.com/?invitation=dandlsolutions

email=mywealthinvestments.incorporat@gmail.com

Dee

D&L Solutions

Great Tool for Realtors - Postlets - What's Your Favorite Tools?

Mike Bowler Sr. — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:20:39 GMT

I’ve been using Postlets for about a year now, and have found them to be excellent for distributing my listings out to additional sites, Blogs and search engines. Every postlet comes with a dedicated, search-optimized landing page and a unique URL. Postlets come in ten stylish themes complete with integrated maps and other nifty tools. They also have built-in lead capture forms so you can use them in all of your marketing campaigns. AUTOMATIC SYNDICATION TO SEARCH ENGINES you essentially get several classified ads when you use Postlets.

You build your ad just once, we automatically submit your listing to several classifieds search engines HTML CODE, WIDGETS FOR MORE EXPOSURE Included with each postlet is the HTML code to post your formatted ad on craigslist, LiveDeal, eBay and other sites that accept and process HTML. Postlets also offer widgets that you can use on blogs and your own website to maximize your reach across the web. See their current list of syndication partners.

I also use sawitonline.com for marketing. What's your favorite tools?

Mike Bowler Sr. ePRO, CRB, GRI, SRES
Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood
1020 S. Creyts Road, Lansing, MI 48917
Phone: 517-492-3400 Fax: 888-832-6203
email: Mike@MikeBowler.com
Website for Clients: MikeBowler.com

Website for Agents: MikeBowler.net
Search Listings

Great Advertising Tool!

Todd White — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:54:45 GMT

I've come across a good website that offers advertising at a fair price. The website is www.rentalforeclosure.com and they mostly deal with tenants renting single family homes but they have an abundance of sellers and buyers going there as well. Might want to check it out!

Zolve members, try this tool to learn how to recycle electronic waste responsibly.

Dorrie Crossley — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:51:57 GMT

Most of us have old, broken or unused televisions, cell phone, computer components, etc. sitting around gathering dust and taking up space. So, what do you do with them? Where and how can you discard them responsibly? Is there a recycling service in your area? I have found an online tool to answer to all of these questions!

Through collaboration between G4 Media and Earth 911 to raise awareness on the impact of electronic waste (aka “e-waste”), Gcycle.org was created as a resource for details on local recycling. This project, beginning on Earth Day 2007, is intended to continue indefinitely in order to assist and educate consumers.

I hope this is helpful to all of our Zolve Referral Network members who may have e-waste to recycle, visit http://www.gcycle.org for more information on e-waste recycling in your area.

Fort Wayne FREE 90 minute ePRO Workshop March 11, 2010 1-2:30 p.m.

Mike Bowler Sr. — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:22:32 GMT

Look forward t seeing you there.http://eventcalendar.internetcrusade.com/eProSignUp.aspx?EventID=7006

Mike Bowler Sr. ePRO, CRB, GRI, SRES
Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood
One of 25 Most Connected Professionals in Real Estate

Inman News Top 50 Most Influential Online

1020 S Creyts Rd. Lansing, MI 48917

517-492-3400 mike@mikebowler.com
Website for Consumers: www.mikebowler.com
Website for Agents: www.mikebowler.net

Business Plans

Kelly Huffstetler — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:21:50 GMT

Does anyone have a basic business plan that you'd be willing to share? Any tips on how to begin writing one?

I've written business plans for others before but I'm having difficulty writing one for my real estate business.

Thanks in advance!

Kelly

Have you seen the Kwikset wireless door hardware?

Dorrie Crossley — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:15:22 GMT

Don't tell anyone, but I like going to hardward stores. If you or your clients have been considering new door hardware, take a look at this nifty little product.

I saw a demo on Kwiksets SmartCode Keyless locks that allows you to monitor and conrtrol door locks from you mobile phone or the internet. In addition to your regular access code, it allows you to create and share a code specifically for a scheduled access to you home such as when your expecting a showing or repair service. So you still have control even when you are not at home and monitor who has opened your door.

Check it out at Kwikset .

Calculating startup costs and the direction for your real estate business

Dorrie Crossley — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:23:36 GMT

Starting your real estate business with a terrific free platform to grow your business is our gift to you. As a member of the Zolve Referral Network, we offer you a very powerful way to promote your online presence simply by participating. Now that you have online branding taken care of by using Zolve, the next step will be to fund your business.

Having a clear understanding of what is necessary for starting your real estate business is essential to your success. Funders will expect that you have done your research and understand the costs and consequences associated to your venture. When you raise funds to launch your business, carefully calculating the capital is key to avoiding having extra funds on which you will be paying interest or being underfunded and having to find additional investors.

Include these areas in researching your real estate business start up costs to help your thought process:

Office facility costs

where will you locate your office?
what equipment will you need?
do you have immediate staffing needs?

Initial Marketing

what mediums will you use?
where will your best ROI be found?
when to announce an official opening date?

Licenses and Insurance

what associations will you join?
what permits and insurance will you need?
what are the legal costs?

Cash Reserves

how much are your monthly costs?
what are you cash reserves?
do you have enough to cover operating costs for your first year?

Web 411

AgentExcel — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:32:21 GMT

Web 411

With so many “Real Estate Web Design” sites out there, finding the right company to entrust your future is enough to make anyone head for the hills. What you should be looking for in a web marketing firm is a collaborative partnership. To be successful in choosing a marketing partner you need to fully understand your needs. It is sometimes best for us to take a few steps back and break things down on a real basic level. Let’s start with some important questions you should be asking yourself if you are someone who is just getting into the real estate game or if you are an established professional.

      1.   Do you have a website?
      2.    What is your marketing plan to drive traffic to your site?
      3.   What is your Brand?
      4.    How will you track your ROI (Return on Investment)?

These are four very general questions, but the answers to each of them plays an essential part in understanding what’s required to succeed in 2009 and beyond. As 2009 is a difficult year for many in the real estate business it is more important than ever to carefully plan your marketing budget.

Question 1: Do you have a real estate website?

Let’s start with the obvious. If you don’t have a website, get one[MO1] . Not today, not tomorrow, but NOW. You have to be online to have visibility. Over 90% of home purchases start on the web and that number will continue to climb every year. This means that if your real estate website isn’t appearing in the search results, you are closing your doors to a majority of your potential new clients. Even if you can only get a basic site, that’s at least a start. So look into your options, see what other beginners are starting out with (the search results themselves can be a great resource in determining how your competition is representing themselves). Look for web design companies that cater to your specific needs and offer results. Remember that a good website can be your best tool to quickly generate new business.

Question 2: What is your marketing plan to drive traffic to your site?

It is important to keep this in mind: having a website, no matter how cool it is, doesn’t mean people are going to find it. Plan to spend the majority of your real estate advertising dollars with a SEO company [MO2] to ensure that your site ranks near the top of your area (approx. $100/Mo). Additionally, you must continue to promote your site in all of your advertisments.

Demystifing SEO

What is SEO? It is the long-term practice of making your website more attractive to search engines and visitors. This is accomplished through adding content, making your website easier and more rewarding to use, and clearly labeling the site with METATAGS and TITLE data so that the search engines fully understand everything your site contains. If you do this correctly, the search engines, over time, will typically reward you by increasing the natural sometimes called organic rankings of your site in their results. But don’t be deceived; it’s not like SEO is free. Unless you are a true professional search marketer, it is better to hire someone to add unique content and optimize your pages, as well as to plan your overall SEO strategy.

Question 3: What is your Brand?

You work very hard to create and maintain a personal brand, what you do and how you do it are unique to you. The challenge is to define and build upon the brand desired. Branding oneself is not only used to gain attention, but to demonstrate to the target audience that you can provide a solution to your clients’ real estate problems. A consistent message allows you to remain in the client’s mind and to be present when their real estate need arises.

Question 4: How will you track your ROI?

Regardless of how you drive traffic to your real estate site, keep track of your ROI. Take a look at what is working and what isn’t with your site. Use a free analytics solution like Google Analytics if you can. As the months go by you will be able to get a gauge on which pages of the site people are spending the most time on, what pages people are leaving from (and you should improve upon), as well as the geographic locations your visitors view your site from

By: Criag, AgentExcel, VP of Marketing

Tips for Building Content for Website SEO

AgentExcel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:36:42 GMT

In this hard real estate market a lot of Brokers & Agents simply do not have the budget for a complete custom designed website and $1,000.00 a month to hire a SEO professional to skyrocket their site to the top of the organic rankings. Nor do agents and Brokers have the time to spend away from sales to learn and implement essential SEO tactics to get their site highly visible and get qualified traffic to their site.

However a small investment of time on building content for your website can result in a large ROI. One of the most important components of your Real Estate Website is the content it contains. “Content is King” is something that is said by SEO professionals and in the industry time and again. The content in your site tells Visitors and Search Engines what your site is about. If it is good relevant content then it will start to generate incoming links for you, this help your ranking enormously. You can hire someone to write your content for you, but who knows the real estate industry in your area better, you or someone who writes general content for all types of businesses? It is you, the Real estate professional, who has unique insights into your real estate market, you who knows what Buyers are looking for and what Sellers want, which is why you should be in control of your website’s content. After you have developed your content you can have a SEO professional go through it and “optimize” the content, to give it that extra “bang for your buck.” Besides just sitting down and writing page after page of content you can also offer content on your site by way of;

A Buyer/Seller Guide
Tools, such as a Mortgage Calculator
Link to Area Schools
Top 10 places to go in your area
a Brief Area History and Points of Interest
You Real Estate Bio-Certifications/Designations, areas you specialize in…
Past Client Testimonials
and a frequently asked questions section
to name a few…

AgentExcel sites offer some content that you can load into your site on through the CMS from Realtor Magazine Online. You can then take the general content information and build off of it to make it specific to your Real Estate business and Market.

Taking the time to add some useful, relevant connate to your website will go a long way. It sets the tone for your online presence, the type of Broker/Agent you are and significantly adds to your overall image or brand, the end result will be more clients and therefore more sales.

SEO and website plugins for property images

Mac — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:52:24 GMT

Hello there,

Now that the real estate world is catching up, we need to embrace new technologies and the Internet. A friend of mine has worked with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques for the real estate industry and had seen websites taking a boost in their search rankings. They use organic methods to generate traffic, with proven results. Write to reachmkn (at) gmail (dot) com for a quick feedback on how SEO can help scale up your site traffic.

His team is also developing a back-end engine to display images via exquisite holders on attractive web templates.

Regards,

Mac@AssistBPOs

Great Corporate Housing in Miami

franco Battistini — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:56:46 GMT

Come and join me in corporate housing go to htt://www.miamivacations.com

Short Term housing in Miami Florida to assist all realtors

franco Battistini — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:54:17 GMT

Visit us at http://miamivacations.com or call 305-987-4440

We have your short term housing solutions

A talk show about real estate

Brian Wilson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:51:44 GMT

I am part of a weekly talk show about the real estate industry designed for other members of the real estate industry. If you like to listen to talk radio or music while working at your computer, you may want to play some of the shows and see what you think.

We have 4 shows published to date on different topics: the MLS, real estate blogging, Twitter in real estate, and short sales. The last show on short sales got pretty heated.

www.WeekinRealEstate.com

Any feedback?

Use Microsoft Photosynth To Create Your Own Virtual Tours.

Barrett Powell — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:06:11 GMT

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:

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=31d2bd71-5459-41d8-ac2f-f9c4b4882718&m=false&i=0:0:2&c=-2.86807:0.487276:-0.149891&z=634.793111364547&d=2.25103601356661:-2.43026286225491:-2.52410909914677&p=0:0

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.

Resort Properties connect to Local Brokers/Agents through ResortAuthority.com

Todd Zurcher — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:15:36 GMT

Resorts try online sales approach

Properties, brokers linked via Resortauthority.com

Denver Business Journal - by Greg Avery

Count international resort property sales among the industries that may be transformed by online social media.

Two Denver-area resort marketing veterans started Resortauthority.com in May. The website helps real estate agents worldwide connect their clients with resort properties being sold in faraway, exotic destinations.

Increasingly, resort developers are paying outside real estate agents for referrals that lead to sales, instead of relying on large marketing campaigns targeting buyers directly.

The shift creates a new opportunity for local brokers at a time when their traditional business is suffering, and an easier avenue for vacation home buyers, said Todd Zurcher, co-founder of the site and its Arvada-based parent company, Organic Marketing Innovations Group LLC .

"People trust their local real estate agent far more than an international broker they've never met," he said. "And, for brokers, it doesn't matter where you live, it only matters where your clientele buys." Read full article, click here

How to Brand yourself in your local market.

Anthony Brown — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:05:35 GMT

In these tough times, every realtor must brand themselves in their local market. The most effective way to accomplish this is through LOCALADLINK which is a low cost easy to use business solution for any local business owner to CREATE QUALIFIED TRAFFIC, INCREASE EXPOSURE, AND DIVERSIFY YOUR CURRENT CAMPAIGN.

Think of LOCALADLINK as the "FACEBOOK" of customers searching for businesses in their local market where the owner has complete contral of updating all information including pictures, videos, and coupons.

To get more information or to be invited to the next webinar email me at anthony@wakefieldrealty.net

Thank you,

Anthony Browm

Free Real-Estate Stuff For The Taking...

Barrett Powell — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:25:24 GMT

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

Xobni is a Cool Tool for Outlook

Mike Bowler Sr. — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:43:14 GMT

I have been using this for sometime a few weeks now! It has some nice features, and best of all, it's FREE

Watch the Video: http://www.mikebowler.net/?p=485

Mike Bowler Sr. ePRO, CRB, GRI, SRES
Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood
1020 S. Creyts Road, Lansing, MI 48917
Phone: 517-492-3400 Fax: 888-832-6203
email: Mike@MikeBowler.com
Website for Clients: MikeBowler.com
Search Listings

3 D video that's amazing

Scott Ingalls — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:06:00 GMT

Wonder what's next on the horizon? I received this link from Mary McKnight on 3 D animation that's coming to market soon. It's capable on mobile devices as well as the other usual suspects. I'm going to follow this, can't wait to add it into a vlog down the road. Check out www.inv3.com/index.html , it has a definite 'wow' factor.

Free Tool for Communication.

donnalonggrove — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:16:11 GMT

Is anyone familar with Skype? I am in the process and will let everyone know how it works. It is a free way to have conversations especially if you are in like a mastermind group or other groups and you can converse. If anyone has used it, please share your experiences.

Eyejot

Marty Gum — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:19:46 GMT

Has anyone used Eyejot to send video emails?
Looks simple.

Please help me with a Google experiment

Mike Schwiebert — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:07:24 GMT

Hello all!

I am trying a Google search engine experiment and I would greatly appreciate your help. If this works I would love to help you try this as well.

I specialize in a specific area in Florida called Oakleaf Plantation. I recently revamped my website and lost some placement on Google while the site was down for a day. I was wondering if you would please go to Google and do a search for "homes for sale in oakleaf plantation". Once you get to the searched page would you please click on the URL that begins with www.mroakleaf.com? It should not be hard to find, it should be on the first or second page. I have heard conflicting theories about the inner works of Google and how outside IP addresses can help placement. If this test seems to work for placement I would be happy to help you do the same thing. Keep your fingers crossed this could be a great way for all of us to save some money on paid ads.

Thanks for your help!

Mike

Twitter

Chan Cowan — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:41:54 GMT

Now I am certain many of you know and might even use twitter - just like me.
I am wondering when/if zolve is going to work together with twitter, and the same goes for ping.fm.

With ping.fm you can update information on many multiple locations at once. Zolve not being one of them... major disappointment.

Would be great if that changes!

Happy connected 2009 :-)

twitter.com/tuttel is where you can follow me.