Technology

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Posted by Jason Steele

As you may know from my last blog post, my family and I are in the market for a new home. I began the research process of finding an agent both on the web via Active Rain and through local referrals from friends and family in our prospective neighborhoods. We chose the agent through active rain as they happened to be much more knowledgeable and in tune with our requirements for finding a new home. The agent set up an automated email from their local MLS that would send us listings as they hit the market. In addition I went to Realtor.com, Zillow & Trulia daily just to make sure I had all of the bases covered so that the perfect house wouldn’t fall through the cracks. About a week ago a very promising home hit the market in our price range and it just seemed too good to be true. The pictures on the MLS site were plentiful, good school system, taxes were in line with our expectations and most of the all the price seemed low for the amount of property/beds/baths. There wasn’t an address listed so I went off to Trulia to see if I could figure out where in the town this home was located and sure enough there was an address. The default view is “map” and the location appeared to be ideal as it bordered a large wooded area. I zoomed in a bit and then hit the “satellite” view and that’s when things really came into focus. There appeared to be a building with 4 large round towers no more than 50 yards behind the woods in the rear of the property.

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Posted by Sherry Chris

The latest new thing to hit the real estate blogosphere is the “Blog Meme.” In essence, it is a blog chain letter that lets others learn more about you and vice versa. I am still trying to trace its origin, but that part does not really matter. The interesting thing for me is that while blogging is transparent, it is also anonymous, and this is a good way to learn more about your fellow bloggers. Last Friday, I noticed on Facebook that Rudy from Trulia had Memed me … check out his blog about Meming.

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As the headline reads, I am the proverbial “new guy” on the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate team. I came to this brand from the travel agency industry where I learned the importance of lead prospecting, strong customer relationships, recruiting talented agents, and referrals.

My role as vice president of Internet marketing will essentially encompass everything we do on our Web site(s) and how we drive Jane and John Doe home buyer/seller to it. The ultimate goal will to be to develop a robust digital toolkit that will enable real estate pros to do their jobs more efficiently. We’ll embrace technology, try new things, and never sit on the sidelines idly… all with the goal of finding a consumer on the Web and delivering him or her to our franchisees via their contact method of choice. We have our finger on the pulse of emerging Web 2.0 real estate trends so that we can help foster social network development through Linkedin or Twitter, or even experiment with services such as bazaarvoice to allow consumers to provide reviews of their experience with an agent. We are totally open to new things.

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Posted by Kevin Doell

We had dinner with the guys from Domus Consulting the other night. Kevin Boer and Pat Kitano dropped in from California to talk shop on social media. Smart guys. They were talking social media and Twitter, the social media micro-blogging tool that has been the rage of late. Many people are beginning to tinker on how to make it work for themselves. Even news media such as Reuters and the BBC are exploring ways to incorporate the tool into their news gathering activities.

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Posted by Kevin Doell

Vault Home

Catching up on my podcasts this morning, I pulled down the PRI Studio 360 show “Creative Minds Go Green.” It was a great program full of crazy stuff to make one think about the many shades of green.

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Posted by Wendy Forsythe 

Last week was a very exciting week for us as we rapidly move towards our launch in July. What made last week more exciting than most? Our consumer website and brand intranet came one step closer to coming to life!

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Posted by Kevin Doell

 

Hillary Clinton
John McCain
Barrack Obama

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Posted by Wendy Forsythe

There’s a lot of technology talk in the real estate world these days. Deciding which of the latest technology trains to jump on is a quandary.

Like any investment of time and money, the decision should be made on the potential return in investment. One of the benefits of the online world is it is easily tracked. But many of the tracking mechanisms can be misleading. Hits, page views, and unique visitors are all well and good but they don’t pay the bills at the end of the month. What you really need to monitor is conversion ratios. How many leads are you receiving from your online endeavors and how many of them are turning into closings?

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Posted by Kevin Doell

No, I’m not writing about the demographic born between the years 1964 and 1980. I’m sharing the news that we’ve chosen LA Web Dev firm “Genex” to build our site. You can read the press release on their site, www.genex.com. I have to admit, it’s pretty cool to be working with the L.A. set, especially after taking in some of the glam at the Oscars. I’m up for making some Hollywood connections. Why not?

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Updates from Twitter

  • @HuckC21 Don't have that number handy but suspect it's still close to 80% as it was in 2006. 3 days ago
  • Would love to help move model to a space that's all about face-to-face collaboration. Agents, clients, programmers. Let the ideas flow! 3 days ago
  • Cool, chic can be done and it doesn't have to be small. Some biggies have even pulled it off (@Properties in Chicago, Corcoran in NYC) 3 days ago
  • Talent attraction is not about convincing people to join, but about creating an environment in which the recruit convinces themselves. 3 days ago
  • Ponder this...Business Week reported in 2005 that 80% of online inquiries are never responded to. What do you think this stat is today? 3 days ago
  • @PhoenixREGuy @RealEstateZebra @BryanPenman Thanks for the follows! Right back at you... 3 days ago
  • New blog post: Designing the New Real Estate Office http://tinyurl.com/55xbdw 3 days ago
  • @mattwilkins Thanks for the follow! 3 days ago
  • @Wexzilla Thanks for the follow! 4 days ago
  • @tcar @XtaRae @burbtimes @TheSurfman Thanks for the follows! 4 days ago
  • More updates...

Contributors

Sherry Chris

Sherry Chris
CEO
973.407.5935

Nicolai Kolding

Nicolai Kolding
COO
973.407.5131

Wendy Forsythe
VP, Broker Services
973.407.5936

scottschubiger_thumb.jpg

Scott Schubiger
SVP, Membership Development 973.407.7418

Bob Albanese

Robert Albanese
VP, Strategic Services 973.407.5010

Jason Steele

Jason Steele
VP, Interactive Marketing
973.407.2401

Kevin Doell

Kevin Doell
Sr. Director, Comm.
973.407.6653

Paulette Costa

Paulette Costa
Director
Career Development
973.407.4859