After listening to our users and leveraging the best that the iPhone platform has to offer, we have added four new features to the App that make the home selection process even easier.

• The home screen has been improved to link users to a map showing all of their property albums and the properties’ respective locations, at a glance

• We’ve added a “Contact an Agent” button, which when tapped, will enable the user to search for an agent using their current GPS location or ZIP, and contact them directly

• The “Points of Interest Mapping” feature will allow users to search for points of interest (such as restaurants, parks, etc.) in the area surrounding the property. The closest 50 points of interest will be displayed on the map as green pins

• The “Photo Enhancement” feature has been improved so that users can change the orientation of the photo from portrait to landscape or vice versa and use the buttons in either orientation

In addition to consumers, we know that our agents are using the App to relay important information about the homes and surrounding points of interest to their clients. With all this information at their fingertips, agents are always the subject matter experts on the home and the community.

With these updates, agents are now only one email or phone call away from prospective and existing clients.

Check it out for yourself, and download it free at BHGRealEstate.com/iPhone.

Our debut Vook is called: “Rule Breakers: The History of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.”

The Vook, written by me and my team, takes an in-depth look at our journey creating and rebranding Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate during one of the most troubled real estate markets in decades.

You can follow us from our first franchise sale (before we even had a public logo), to now being one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the United States. It’s been an incredible ride—that really just begun—and we want to share it with you.

While learning and testing out this media, I realized that Vook and other ebooks are completely changing the nature of literature.

There has been much criticism coming from book publishers and bookstores who say that electronic books sold by Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad will destroy the publishing industry.

I see things differently. After all, disruptive change to an industry is often the best precipitator of opportunity. As an entrepreneur, I see eBooks as an amazing opportunity to contribute to the literary world: they can be sold at incredible prices versus their paper counterparts, and they give rise to non-authors’ works being published just as easily, with just as much accessibility, as best selling authors’ works.

What do you think will happen to literature of the future? Are you thinking of writing your own Vook? In the meantime, take a dive into the history of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and download our free vook today!

• On Tuesday, July 13^th from 8:30 to 12:30 p.m., join Wendy Forsythe, VP of Network Services,  along with several of the leading brokerage operators in the industry as they discuss several hot topics during the Broker Summit.
• Be sure to grab a cup of coffee Wednesday, July 14th at 10:00a.m. from the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate coffee cart
• Spend some time with me at Meet the Leaders in the Exhibit Hall, Wednesday, 12:30-1:30p.m.
• I will be speaking at the General Session on July 15 10-10:15a.m., as I continue the conversation around The Next Generation Brokerage and reveal what we like to call “Beta Brokerage”
• Stay for the Inman Innovator Awards ceremony on Thursday July 15 11:05-11:20 a.m., where Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate is up for a technology award, as well as Inman Innovator of the Year
• Stop by our Booth, (#106/107) to learn about our partnership with Pantone,  and how we are bringing Real Estate from black and white to Technicolor
  • Grab a Bettertini during cocktail hour, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate’s “signature drink”
• Get interviewed by the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate NEWS team at the booth or around the conference
• Premium members can stop by the Premium Lounge, sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, for Relax with a chair massage, enjoy breakfast and coffee, play with the new iPad, check your email, and even meet Ryan Scott, of “Top Chef” Fame
  • While you’re there, get the new Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Vook uploaded onto your iPad or iPhone, and get  a first-hand look behind the scenes of building this national real estate company from its initial launch in the late 1970’s, to its rebirth in 2008 as a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation.

We hope to see you there!

Fast forward to the week before Inman in 2009. The team was busy putting the finishing touches on a project we coined “Next Generation Real Estate Brokerage,” which Sherry Chris unveiled as the next generation project on the main stage of the conference.. Over the last year, there have been dozens and dozens of blogs, hundreds of Tweets and a countless number of conversations in the industry about what the future of the real estate brokerage model should and shouldn’t be. This is exactly what we had hoped for.

There are several highlights from 2009. One of which was attending with several of our franchisees. In twelve months we had grown from zero to over 2000 agents. We were on our way to fulfilling the vision of the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand.

And here we are the week before Inman 2010. We have lots of great stuff planned this year. We continue to stay committed to sharing and learning with our colleagues in the industry.

We start the week off at the first ever Agent Reboot on Monday. Sherry will be discussing life style branding strategies for agents.

I’m honored to be facilitating the Brokers Summit on Tuesday morning. We have gathered some of the brightest and most innovative operators in the business together for a morning that promises to be full of ideas and insights.

Sherry will hit the main stage on Wednesday as part of a Leaders panel and again on Thursday to unveil the next chapter in Next Generation Brokerage. We’ve been working hard on bringing some new and interesting perspectives on the future of the industry.

In between all that, we’ll be hanging out at our booth in the trade show, in the Premium Lounge and if you can’t find us at either of those locations search for the nearest Starbucks! We’ll need the caffeine.

We hope to see you there. But if you can’t be there in person, please follow along with us here, on Twitter.com/BHGRealEstate and on Facebook.com/BHGRealEstate.

In addition to generating one million new home sales that would not have happened otherwise, the tax credit also pushed home prices up in 20 of the largest cities (the biggest boosts were in cities hurt most during the downturn). The increase represents 3.8 percent growth year-over-year, the biggest rise since 2006.  But the news was overshadowed by reports that foreclosures accounted for 31 percent of all home sales in the first quarter of 2010. To put that in perspective, in a “normal” market, foreclosures account for less that 2 percent of sales.  The silver lining is this represents a 14 percent decrease from the prior quarter.

A sign that another government based assistance program is helping, borrowers with home loans modified under the federal government’s foreclosure prevention effort are less likely to miss a payment. In other mortgage news, the multi-decade low rates are encouraging more people to refinance rather than encouraging people to buy homes. I’m glad to hear people are taking steps to make their homes more affordable, now it is a matter of encouraging potential buyers to take advantage.

In a bit of sobering news, an estimated quarter of all residences with mortgages owe more than their home is worth.  According to CoreLogic, borrowers in the hardest hit areas may not be able to break even in a home sale until at least 2020.   I think I speak for most people in real estate when I say I hope that is a very conservative estimate.

If the season’s green grass is inspiring you (or your consumers) to green-ify your home, check out these tips!

Have a safe Fourth of July!  Check here to see if there are any celebrations happening in your area.

We tell them to:

• Set goals.
• Have a prospecting plan.
• Practice your value proposition elevator speech.
• Pick up the phone and call expired listing owners and for sale by owners.
• Create contact campaigns with follow up and tracking.
• Utilize social media networking for visibility.
• Be visible in the community and talk to people every day about real estate.
• Include both proactive and passive prospecting activities every week.

We tell them when they do these things, they will get more listings, have more sales and make more money.

Talent attraction is prospecting for broker and managers. How do you approach talent attraction? The competition is stronger than ever to attract and retain good talent in real estate companies if we are to grow and prosper. The best way to accomplish the goal is to practice what we preach.