Five Tech Tools You Need to Survive in 2011
Jonathan Osman
By Jonathan Osman
No one would have guessed that REALTORS® would look back on 2009 as “the good ole days,” but as the real estate market continues to find bottom, that’s exactly what some are doing. The reality for 2011 may be that we are all fighting for a smaller piece of the sales pie and remaining in business means implementing low-cost solutions to save money.
That being said, here are a five technology tools that brokers and agents alike should implement to help survive an uncertain 2011.
1. Cloud-based Phone Service
The telephone is still the most important tool of our business but for most brokerages, this can result in a huge monthly expense towards the bottom line. Plus, every agent walks around with a phone attached to their hip so is the expense of a phone system and monthly service even necessary?
Services like RingCentral, Grasshopper, and Phonebooth offer users a plethora of options and features usually reserved for phone systems that cost as much as a BMW 550i for less than the cost of a cell phone bill. Local number – check, 800 number – check, fax-to-email – check. “Find Me” features – check. Best of all, whether you are a solo agent, small company working from home, or a mid-sized firm with 50 agents, you can still have the big-company presence which is could help in recruiting agents to work for you.
Still need a desk phone? Thanks to the recession, many businesses are selling off their existing equipment on eBay for cheap. Search SIP Phone and you will find compatible plug-and-play phones ranging from $39 to $150 or 50 – 75 percent off what they sold for new.
For the solo agent, Google Voice can offer many of the same features as the pay-services but for free. In fact, some agents that only have a cell phone as their primary number use their Google Voice number as their business line (and there’s no mailbox to get full).
2. Certified Refurbished Computers, Printers, Copiers
I have not purchased a new computer since 2001 and no, I am not still using a Tandy. Almost a decade back, I was turned on to purchasing refurbished equipment by a tech guy and I haven’t looked back since. While some may do well with a computer and printer off the shelf from the member’s shopping club, actual business computers (which are lighter, have stronger chassis, and more resilient) are still fairly expensive to purchase new. However buying a name-brand Certified Refurbished computer from Dell, Lenovo, HP, or Apple can save you as much as 30-50 percent when compared to their new counterparts.
Many printer and copier companies have similar programs that offer savings as much as 50-75 percent over new counterparts. Best of all, most manufacturers offer extended warranties for no cost to put aside the fears the consumer is buying an inferior machine.
3. Go Paperless
It’s amazing the amount of paper that is generated in the real estate business. Some of my files are a thick as a Northern Virginia phonebook and it’s genuinely unnecessary. In this golden age of tech, going paperless (not less-paper) will save you money as well as increase your productivity. The savings comes from the cost of storage, savings on toner, paper, and related supplies.
Companies like Docusign and DotLoop offer solutions to help obtain e-signatures from clients on real estate contracts and Dropbox.com offers free to low-cost secure online storage for your files. For software to aid in the creation of PDF files, try Cute PDF Professional or Adobe Acrobat. If you can click, drag, and drop, you can go paperless. Now instead or printing, initialing, and faxing or scanning, you can simply email for authorization and then forward where necessary.
4. Google Apps for Business
Probably one of the best tools you many have never heard of is Google’s Apps for Business which includes a suite of software such like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, and more. Designed for teams and small businesses, Google uses your personal website domain to provide you email (with your domain name not gmail.com), personal and group calendars, online document creation and collaboration and more. For most users, it’s absolutely free however you can upgrade for more features if you desire.
I have been completely impressed with how well everything works given that it’s free. The calendar will sync with your smartphone automatically (no need to sync with a cable) and with the click of one button, I can see everyone on my team’s calendar at once. This makes scheduling events extremely easy. Plus, the gmail-powered email is the best web-based email as of now.
For larger teams or a corporate level, the free version gives you the ability to set up a intranet site to post documents, announcements, information, etc for your agents.
5. A Facebook and a Linkedin Account
When most people think of using social media for business, they believe they must have a fan page for their business. While a Fan Page is a great internet billboard, unless you are consistently providing something of value to your fans, don’t expect a huge following.
Instead, start first by connecting with past clients as well as old and current friends. We’re in the people business so get back into relationship with people who can help build your business over the next year and more. Then make sure you take your relationship offline through coffee, tweetups, and social gathers to make something meaningful for both parties.
Facebook and Linkedin are NOT places to mindlessly post your new listings but rather to build relationships. Just as you wouldn’t take a stack of listing flyers to the Chamber of Commerce meeting, you shouldn’t plaster your wall with your latest short sale.
Both services are free but Linkedin offers a membership fee in exchange for the ability to contact users outside of your sphere of influence.
Jonathan Osman is a broker and team leader of the Charlotte House Hunter Group with Keller Williams Realty in Charlotte, N.C. Connect with Jonathan via Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or his Web site CharlotteHouseHunter.com.
-->
Tags: apps, computers, Jonathan Osman, phones, social networking, tech tools, technology
Full Motion Commercial Grade Video Tours of Yakima, WA Real Estate, surrounding areas..and the Pacific Northwest with map based browsing of Real Estate Videos. We can help you sell your Yakima Homes for pennies-on-the-dollar when compared to traditional print advertisement. If you are a Realtor/Agent or a Home Owner and you are serious about getting huge exposure to your Yakima, Washington listings for sale, give us a try and watch how Real Estate Video can give you an edge over the competition.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Five Tech Tools You Need to Survive in 2011 : YPN Lounge
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Will Real Estate Video Help U Sell Your Yakima Home?
The preceding real estate video tour has been active for about 3 months and has received over 2000 views and can be found all over the internet, in search engines everywhere for search terms related to Chinook Pass and Yakima Washington. The numbers are staggering to say the least. The video has also been used as the feature video on several real estate classified sites as well.
However.....does that mean that the house will certainly sell with those kind of numbers? Not necessarily. Selling a home in today's market....along with all the advanced tools at our
disposal like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and such is only a little bit of "icing on the cake"
Location, Condition and Price are still the most important factor when it comes to getting your Real Estate sold.
The beauty behind the concept of real estate listings on video is in the concept that "people LOVE video" and a video opens the doors of a property listing.... 24-Hours-A-Day in ways that PHOTOS simply CANNOT. Therefor, any given real estate listing that has a video tour WILL receive double, triple, quadruple and often times 100X more exposure to MORE people than any other listing that DOES NOT have a video tour.
It is all about the NUMBERS.
MORE exposure = MORE buyers.
A professionally produced video tour engages the audience, and as a result...the video will end up being shared all over the world, thus it will end up being syndicated in ways that any traditional method of Real Estate Advertising will not.
Conclusion - In most cases and when done properly by a professional, a Real Estate listing that includes a video will have MORE PEOPLE seeing the inside of the home (just like being there) in 1 month....than 10 years if that same listing was on the market with traditional forms of marketing.
The math is simple.....and the future of real estate does not include print advertisement or simple photos.
I did a little research on the life- span of newspapers and telephone books and found some great articles from very reliable resources such as New York Times and CNN Money that talk about the demise of newspapers as we know them on my Yakima Real Estate Blog.
Today's Yakima Real Estate Market Pending Sales - Sept 30, 2010 - Realty Tours Northwest of Yakima | Yakima WA Real Estate and Homes For Sale
Why should I care about pending sales? What do they tell me about a real estate market. Home Encounter - Tampa's foremost real estate expert - takes 3 minutes to tell you why you should care about pending sales. We discuss what they tell you about a local real estate market and how you can make better decisions when you know about what sales are pending. Home Encounter has practices in Residential Sales, Consulting, Property Management and Investment Properties, and it cares about it's clients enough to publish these informative videos.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Will Real Estate Video Help U Sell Your Home? - Realty Tours Northwest of Yakima
The preceding real estate video tour has been active for about 3 months and has received over 2000 views and can be found all over the internet, in search engines everywhere for search terms related to Chinook Pass and Yakima Washington. The numbers are staggering to say the least. The video has also been used as the feature video on several real estate classified sites as well.
However.....does that mean that the house will certainly sell with those kind of numbers? Not necessarily. Selling a home in today's market....along with all the advanced tools at our
disposal like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and such is only a little bit of "icing on the cake"
Location, Condition and Price are still the most important factor when it comes to getting your Real Estate sold.
The beauty behind the concept of real estate listings on video is in the concept that "people LOVE video" and a video opens the doors of a property listing.... 24-Hours-A-Day in ways that PHOTOS simply CANNOT. Therefor, any given real estate listing that has a video tour WILL receive double, triple, quadruple and often times 100X more exposure to MORE people than any other listing that DOES NOT have a video tour.
It is all about the NUMBERS.
MORE exposure = MORE buyers.
A professionally produced video tour engages the audience, and as a result...the video will end up being shared all over the world, thus it will end up being syndicated in ways that any traditional method of Real Estate Advertising will not.
Conclusion - In most cases and when done properly by a professional, a Real Estate listing that includes a video will have MORE PEOPLE seeing the inside of the home (just like being there) in 1 month....than 10 years if that same listing was on the market with traditional forms of marketing.
The math is simple.....and the future of real estate does not include print advertisement or simple photos.
I did a little research on the life- span of newspapers and telephone books and found some great articles from very reliable resources such as New York Times and CNN Money that talk about the demise of newspapers as we know them on my Yakima Real Estate Blog.
Today's Yakima Real Estate Market - Sept 29, 2010 - Realty Tours Northwest of Yakima
Equity Investments CEO Sam Zell discusses why he is optimistic about the current state of the real estate market.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Today's Yakima Real Estate Market - Sept 28, 2010 - Realty Tours Northwest of Yakima
Irv Tremblay discusses Market Tips for Agents, Buyers and Sellers (Part 2) on Ask The Expert on Newstalk Radio
Monday, September 27, 2010
Realty Tours Northwest on Facebook
Follow us on Facebook to see the latest Real Estate Market trends, reports, video tours, listings and info about the Yakima Valley.
Today's Yakima Real Estate Market - September 27, 2010 - Realty Tours Northwest of Yakima | Yakima WA Real Estate and Homes For Sale
Irv Tremblay discusses Market Tips for Agents, Buyers and Sellers (Part 1) on Ask The Expert on Newstalk Radio
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
2 Brand New Real Estate Developments - Realty Tours Northwest of Yakima
Two brand new developments are coming to the internet that will benefit both Real Estate Agents and Video Tour Service Providers which will ultimately provide a means to showcase a property via a video tour and generate more viewers for the listing.1. Google has acquired Quiksee
Quiksee allows users to upload interactive photo and video tours of real-world locations with geo tagged information and place them on online maps. Once the transition takes place, Google Maps will include the videos in their Street View browsing. The enhancement to Google Maps will be a great add-on feature for real estate listings as the viewer can get a great view of the property and surrounding neighborhood as well as the ability to now watch a video of the home's interior.
2. Twitter has announced "Split Screen"
Twitter will be unveiling a new user enhancement dubbed "SplitSreen" Users will now be able to view photos and videos on Twitter without leaving the TWITTER application. The new integration will help entice users to view more videos and photos on Twitter as they won't have to leave Twitter and stay on the site longer. This too will ultimately lead to more property views for those real estate listings that include video.