Got Twitter?  Have you set up a free Twitter account yet?  If so, are you using it interactively or is it a mystery to you?  If not, why not?  Still think it’s about what somebody had for breakfast?

Let’s take a fresh look at Twitter from the perspective that it is a tool that connects people.  It does that by offering a way that users can utilize a phone, a desktop computer program or a web based interface.  No matter which way you connect to Twitter, you are given 140 characters to get your message across.  You can search Twitter within the web interface or search it by using any number of (mostly) free tools.  By doing a search, you can find people by what they say (a keyword search) or perhaps by their zip code, or city, or occupation.  The idea is to find people that you would like to get to know.  Once you have identified some people, you can “follow” them from your Twitter account.

When you follow someone, it means that you get to see their “tweets” without having to do a search for them.  They show up in your timeline (Twitter speak for the flow of information that you see when you sign on to Twitter).  Then you can reply to them either privately or publicly.

One of the accepted practices that happens on Twitter is that if you follow someone, they generally follow you back.  This means that they can see your Tweets.  (Of course, in theory everyone can see every one’s tweets, but in practice it doesn’t work out that way)

In order to raise your chances that you’ll get followed back you need to do a few things.

1. Have a picture.  Make it a close up of your face.  We all like to know who we are dealing with.
2. Fill out the bio portion.  Tell us a little about you.  Make it interesting…make me WANT to follow you
3. Have a custom background that contains a larger picture of you along with your contact info (Connect with me on Twitter and I will give you the name of someone who does that work…if you ask)

One of the best moves that you can make when getting started is to go to http://www.mytechopinion.com/niknik/p/ebook/ and download the FREE “Twitter for Real Estate Twits” by Nicole Nicolay, otherwise known as @nik_nik.  This FREE (did I mention that it is FREE?) PDF download is an easy read and will get you started in the right direction quickly.

One of the things that make me wince when I see agents doing it is constant self promotion.  This is not a homes magazine where you have tell everyone that you are the number 1 real estate agent in all of Upper Lower Township.  Nor does any one care how many bazillion dollars of real estate that you have sold.  Frankly, that doesn’t fly in print media either.  But here, it’s just regarded as noise and will get you un-followed or ignored in a heartbeat.

Instead, focus on writing useful things in your blog and use Twitter to post links to your blog posts.  Sell them on why they should click on the link you provide.  In other words, what’s in it for them to click on your link?  Find useful things that other Tweeters have said and promote them by using the RT or re-tweet command.

It’s ok to occasionally talk about your new listing or your open house, or the fact that you have recently sold something.  Just make it a VERY small portion of what you do.

Here is a partial list of real estate agents that I follow.  I suggest that you follow them and watch what they do for a while to get a sense of what I am saying.

@serkes
@tonylazz
@leslielambert
@anncummings
@gingerw

They all have different styles and they all let you know that they are real estate agents without being in your face about it.

So, get on over to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for a free account.  Get @nik_nik’s book and read it.  Follow me on Twitter, too.  I’d love to follow you back!  @JerryKiddd

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Ten ~ 140 Characters at a time

If you have been following along these past 2 months (and actually taking action!) you have built a blog and you have some articles on it. And you are probably wondering where are all of your readers!

Sad to say, for most of us, success at blogging is usually not an overnight phenomenon.

Even though blogs garner special favor from the search engines, you still need to “prime the pump” so to speak.

Here are a few methods, some new and some tried and true:

1.  This should be obvious, but put a link to your blog in your email signature file.
2.  Mention your blog in your outgoing voice mail message
3.  Place a link to your blog on your website (Link them to each other)
4.  Put the URL to your blog on all print media. By that I mean flyers, brochures, print ads and of course your business cards.
5.  Almost all blogs come with built in RSS feeds. Remind your readers to subscribe to your blog by having buttons or calls to action visible.
6.  As cool as RSS is, most people will not use it. Instead, give them a way to subscribe via email. That way your blog posts show up as email in their in box and they don’t have to actually visit your blog on the web.
7.  Print out copies of your best blog posts on the back of your listing flyers. You will be surprised how many people will keep the flyer so that they can check out the blog later. Even if they don’t actually visit the blog, they have kept the flyer!
8.  Take your netbook computer and your MiFi card to your next open house. Open your browser to your blog and instead of having people sign in to a guest book, have them sign up for an email or RSS subscription to your blog.
9.  Link your blog to your Facebook account so that when you post a new article on your blog it shows up as new Note on your Facebook profile.
10.Link your blog to your Twitter account so that a new Tweet announcing the article is sent when you post a new article on your blog.

If you will do these things consistently, over time your readership will grow. Even though I think this is a fairly good list, I’ll bet that some of you have some even better methods. We’d all love to hear them, so please feel free to share!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Nine ~ 10 easy ways to promote your blog

By now you are wondering what you would say on your blog. Why would anyone want to read what you have written?

To answer those questions, let’s take a step back.  NAR tells us that 84% of consumers start their search for property on the Internet.  If you believe Realtor.com’s statistics, it looks like they get the lion’s share of that traffic.  Assuming that this is true, then most of the online consumers will be there and they can see all of the active listings that are on the MLS.  This in my opinion is a very good thing.

They can utilize the virtual tours that are with many listings (yours do have virtual tours don’t they?)  They can look at many photos (yours have lots of QUALITY photos don’t they?), they can map the homes online, in short, they can get a pretty good idea of all active listings on Realtor.com. (By the way, you DO want to pay to have the ENHANCED listings on Realtor.com. And drive the inquiries to you and your blog)

But, here is what they don’t get from the large sites like Realtor.com…they don’t get the expertise that a real estate agent brings to the transaction, which is why people still use an agent even after they have searched online for properties.

Stop and think about the conversations that you have with your buyer clients when you first meet them.  Aren’t you asking them questions about their lifestyles, their family, their wants, needs and must haves?  Don’t you use that information to help them choose the right home?

What about the conversations you have in the car with them when you are driving them to properties to see?  Aren’t you talking about the neighborhood amenities, the schools, the shopping, the traffic patterns, the issues and other facts that will affect their decisions to buy?

And then of course there is that whole topic of discussion about what it takes to obtain a loan today.  The credit issues, the availability of money, the appraisal process, the underwriting, the funding.  Don’t forget the conversations that you have about the escrow process, the inspections, and the negations after the price negotiation.  Move in dates, what is included and all of the many thousands of details that go into buying (or selling) a home today are also conversations that get interspersed with the other conversations.

The person looking to buy or sell a home wants to know these things as much as they want to know what is for sale.  Where would they go to get this information before they choose a real estate agent?  I suppose that they could go to Google and search for some of those items and end up at another agent’s blog.  Or, they could end up at your blog.  Now there is a concept.

What if your blog had all of that information? What if your blog had frequent posts on what was going on in your market area?  What if your blog encouraged readers to ask questions about your market area that you could publicly answer on the blog?  Would that help you build relationships with those consumers before they decided which agent to use?  I think so.

So, start a blog.  Of course you want to put IDX search for properties on it.  There are lots of free and paid IDX search solutions available.  To start with, ask your MLS what they suggest that you do.

But, then start adding content about your market area. Ask your favorite lenders to give you some content about loans.  Ask your favorite title companies for information about holding title, the escrow process and other interesting info they all have.

You need to write articles at least weekly on what you see happening.  There is ALWAYS something interesting going on at your office that consumers would love to know about.  Don’t disclose names or other facts, but do tell in general terms how you or someone else in your office solved a problem that came up.

Put your past sales up.  Since you control the blog space, put up the photos, the virtual tour, and the statistics of the sale.  Have a separate page for each city you work in and list the pertinent sales under the correct city.  Over time this will be the best indicator of your professionalism.  Solicit past clients for recommendations and post them.

Get a Flip video camera and video the neighborhoods where you work and post the video tours under the appropriate cities.  Try to capture the quality of life that someone is likely to experience if they were to live there.  This is something that they can’t get today and it’s something that every buyer would like to have.

You could go to Zillow and Trulia and sign up with them to place their widgets on your blog.  This will give consumers the option to view the data that Zillow and Trulia make available.  (Stop fighting them and join them already!)

For a reasonable amount of money, go to Altos Research and sign up for their service which will give you statistical analysis graphs of your market area to place on your blog.  They take the work out of analyzing listing and sales data and present in colorful and interesting ways.

If you are in California, the California Association of Realtors® provides a weekly email update of information that they boldly state that you can use in emails or websites (a blog is a website) just by copying it and pasting it in.

If you had a blog that had this much information available to consumers, and you kept it up and promoted it effectively, you would, over time, become the local expert.  And that can only help build your business.

This may be more daunting than you wish to do.  I understand that, but it really is as easy as follow the numbers.  But, if you’d like help, I am available to help you set one up and train you how to keep it up. (See my post on Change) Contact me for details.

In the meantime, get started, because we are going to look at ways to promote your blog next time.  And you need to get this part done so that you have something to promote!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Eight

Change comes to all of us in one form or another and in many different ways.

Change can be welcome or unwelcome. It can be embraced or it can be fought. It can also mean many things depending on whether it’s a verb, noun or intransitive verb (whatever THAT is!).

But, in my case, the change that will occur at 5 PM on Friday, October 30, 2009 is going to be welcomed and fully embraced. For at that moment I cease being an employee and will return to my entrepreneurial roots.

For most of my career in real estate I have been a manager, a director or a trainer. As a manager I have managed real estate offices for Merrill Lynch Realty, Prudential California Realty, Mason-McDuffie Real Estate, Alain Pinel Realtors and Pacific Union. I have been the IT Director for Mason-McDuffie and also the Training Director for Pacific Union. I have also listed and sold houses in both Sonoma and Contra Costa Counties.

In that time I have trained thousands of agents in northern California in the basics of real estate listing and sales as well as how to use technology in their businesses. While I enjoyed the IT and the management functions that I have performed, I have loved working one on one with agents, helping them grow their businesses.

As a California Association of Realtors Certified Instructor, I have trained agents in the GRI program from as far north as Rocklin and as far south as Bakersfield and from San Luis Obispo on the west to Oakhurst on the east.

As an NAR ePro Certified Trainer I have worked in Maui and all over California as I introduced agents to the value of getting an ePro Certification.

While at Pacific Union I developed over 15 different training classes ranging from Business Development classes like Prospecting, Business Planning, Listing Presentation and more to Technology classes and social media classes.

Along the way I became an instructor for SRES and WinForms. I have also taught classes on BrokerMetrics, AgentMetrics, Clarus MarketMetrics, DocuSign and AgencyLogic.

And if you are reading this, you know that I have authored a popular blog on technology tools for real estate agents with tips on how to use them from a business building perspective. http://RealtyTechBytes.com has been published weekly since late January of 2008.

So, it’s a natural for me to open my own training and consulting business. And that is what I am in the process of doing. I am looking for space to work from (I can’t work from home as I cannot walk past the refrigerator or pantry without stopping by for a lingering visit). I’m determining my business name, developing contracts, opening business accounts and generally getting ready for next Friday evening.

I welcome your comments, your thoughts and of course your business should you need help navigating the rapidly changing waters of technology, social media and real estate!

I hope to connect with you soon.

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Change

Over the past 6 weeks I have been positioning you to make money as a Realtor® through the use of Web 2.0 tools. Admittedly, I haven’t really touched on Web 2.0 or Social media that much in the process. But, all that has gone before was to set the stage.

We first talked about what top performers do. I think this part is critical because no matter how the top agents produce the sales that they do, the fact remains that they do have a system in place that they can replicate in order to make money. An agent using Web 2.0 tools has to do the same. I think it is highly unlikely that any one who does not possess a strong work ethic coupled with strong organizational skills will do well in this business no matter how they generate sales. So, we talked about the top agents and examined them so that you can emulate their strong points.

Next we spent several weeks looking at the tools of the trade, including phones, computers, and software and so on. You’ve got to equip yourself to handle the leads as they come in. It’s one thing to generate leads, it’s an entirely different thing to be able to service them and keep track of them until a sale is made.

Last week I shared my current reading list with you. I sincerely hope that you have picked up those books and gotten started on your reading as I consider them to be textbooks that will support what I am going to be talking about in the upcoming installments of this series.

So, let’s get started with the Web 2.0 tools. With all of the possible choices as to where to begin, it might be a bit confusing. To avoid that, I want to take a structured approach to this by starting at the point that I think is the beginning and branching from there.

In my opinion, the beginning is blogging. Having a blog. Having a “home on the web”. A place where you can promote yourself, your company, your listings and just generally let the world get to know you. Most real estate agents have a web site. It’s either their own site or one provided by their broker. There are many different types of real estate web sites with many different purposes for being in existence. But, for the majority of agents with a web site, it’s merely a field of broken dreams. Far too may agents have never gotten any business from their web sites. Many have never even gotten a lead, let alone a closed sale. Yet, the monthly or annual bills keep coming in. And we pay them, hoping that this time it will be different.

So, if the web site isn’t returning a positive value for the money spent why have one? For most of us the answer is simple…because my competition does and because everyone expects me to have one.

Why don’t most real estate web sites convert? Although there are many good answers to that question, I believe that only one answer really matters, and that is because the web sites themselves are irrelevant. Many of them have not been changed since the day they went live. If some one surfing the web should happen along and find the site, what is it that will cause them to linger or more importantly, to return?

Most agent sites are little more than web based personal brochures with a few listings thrown on in the hopes that someone will find the home of their dreams and contact the agent. It just doesn’t happen that way as you know if you have one of those non-converting web sites.

I think the main reason why our sites don’t get updates is because of the expense of doing so. Expense in terms of dollars to pay the webmaster to make the changes, and expense in terms of the time it takes to get the web master to understand what needs to be done. And that’s assuming that you know what you want to say!

Since we don’t update, there is no reason for someone to return to the site. Unless you have listings on your site that are not on Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and others, people will simply go to those sites and not yours. In order to get them to your site and to have them return, there has to be something different than what can be found elsewhere.

But let’s assume that your web site is loaded with interesting facts, stories, opinions and useful information. Are you getting the visitors that you want? Most likely not. And if you are getting traffic to your site, are they staying? Are they reading the material you posted, and more importantly, are they interacting with you?

Even if you had mad web site building skills, unless the search engines know about your site, you are not going to experience the traffic you hope for. And unless there is a way to keep visitors engaged withy your site, your conversion rate of visitors to clients will not be very high.

Fortunately, a blog can solve all of these problems. Blogs have five main features.

1. They are free to very inexpensive ($100.00 a year for hosting)
2. They are trivial to update. If you can successfully fill in a form online, you have the tech skills that you need to do basic blogging.
3. They are search engine friendly. Most blogging software will notify the search engines whenever a new article appears.
4. People can comment on what you post and on what other commenter’s have written.
5. People can subscribe to your blog.

Free blogs can be found at http://wordpress.com, http://blogger.com, http://realtor.com, and others. The free blogs do have some limitations on what you can do with them, but they are ideal for getting started. No sense in spending money until you have determined that blogging is something that you want to do!

Most blogs are updated by going online, logging in to the blog’s control panel and filling in a form,. You can add pictures, sounds and even video clips to a blog post just by clicking on a button and filling in a form. Almost anyone can do this.

After you have written something, and saved it to your blog, the blogging software takes over and “pings” a variety of search engines and bookmarking sites which serves as formal notification that new material is on your blog. Since search engines must constantly keep track of new things on the web, they will sooner rather than later visit your site and “index” its contents. When a search engine indexes a site, it makes note of what is located on which pages so it can later deliver those results to someone who may be searching for what you have posted.

Once people find your post, they can leave a comment, or offer a counterpoint to what you have said in your post. Encouraging people to comment on your blog is important as it causes them to linger on the site and will often draw them back to see what reaction they garnered from their comment.

Finally, people can subscribe to your blog.  This means that every time you post something to your blog, anyone who has signed up as a subscriber will receive the new post either in their RSS reader (Google it…) or in their email inbox, depending on how they subscribed.  How’s that for marketing reach?

By now you are wondering what would you say on your blog? Why would anyone want to read what you have written? I’ve got some good answers for you, but we’ll leave them for next week. For now, why not leave a comment on my blog?  Or subscribe to this blog!  The signup is easy.  Either choose to read this via email by filling in the short form at the top right or by using your RSS reader.

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Seven

In the first part of this series I detailed the 6 traits of successful agents (as I see it) and in the subsequent posts I have focused on trait number 5 at least as it pertains to some of the hardware and software systems they use. Then last week I talked about how successful agents are really the original social networkers because of trait number 5 – They create and nurture networks of people.

This week I want to talk a bit about how you can learn how to do the same thing.  Instead of me telling you, I’d like to refer you to three books that do an excellent job of giving you the knowledge that you need to create a successful social networking presence.

There is a method to my reasoning here.  First of all, they can do a much better job than I can as they are the experts, but also because I am on vacation in Maui and I’d like to quickly get back to the beach!

The first book is Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business by erik qualman.  From the inside cover of the dust jacket: “…Qualman offers a fascinating look at the impact of social media on business to to reveal what the future holds and how business can best take advantage of it.”  This is a relatively quick book to read, being only 8 Chapters and just shy of 300 pages, but it offers a great look at how some businesses are using social media to their advantage and how others are not. Although he does not single out real estate in the book, much of what he says speaks directly to what we do to find and nurture client relationships.

The second book is “Trust Agents – using the web to build influence. improve reputation, and earn trust” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.  This book is also an easy read, being 8 Chapters and again just shy of 300 pages.  Brogan and Smith take a different approach in that they talk about the power that an individual can wield in the market place once they have established trust.  This book then goes on to give you methods, strategies and techniques to help you get there.

Once you have learned from the first two books, it’s time to read “the digital handshake – seven proven strategies to grow your business using social media” by Paul Chaney.  This book hits a grand slam in my opinion in that Chaney gives you the reasoning behind why you want and need to adopt a social media marketing plan, he then goes on to show you how to do it.  He ties some of this directly into real estate so you will be able to relate.  Again, this is an easy read being less than 300 pages divided into 18 Chapters

OK, it’s back to the beach for me, but I want to first pop in a disclaimer.  If you click on the links in this post and buy a book from Amazon as result of doing that I will earn a small pittance.  I will probably not earn enough to pay for the cost of the three books that I have just recommended, but you may earn enough from your improved business practices to make a real difference in your life!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Six

In this post I want to talk some more about trait number 5 – They create and nurture networks of people. What does that mean? In simplistic terms, it means that successful agents know how to get to know people, get known by people and avoid being forgotten once they are known!

Once that has been accomplished, the successful agent has means and methods to communicate the message that they are in the business of assisting people in completing a real estate transaction.

As I mentioned in the first post, there are many ways of doing this, nearly as many different ways as there are licensees. But, there are some threads of commonality woven through out all the different methods.

If your cash flow situation will support it, there is always advertising as a means of attracting people to you. Certainly we see many examples of advertising at work today. It’s a time honored tradition to advertise listings in the newspaper or in the homes magazines. So much so that we continue to do this even though the returns have been diminishing over the past years.

Then there is the sign. With a brochure box. And a rider with our names or the URL of our blog, web site or single property web site. In years past the sign was the number one method of attracting buyers to a listing (behind the MLS). Survey after survey tells us that this just isn’t so any more.

But what if you don’t have listings to advertise? What if you do have listings but your cash flow won’t support advertising? What if you are a buyers agent?

You do what most of today’s successful did when they were starting out. The compiled a list of everyone that they knew and they contacted them to let them know that they now knew a real estate agent! That contact was done by mail, by phone and in person. Then a referral was solicited. Since this required a lot of care and finesse so as to not drive people away, many agents tended to not want to utilize this method. Consider that by staying away from this method many agents doomed themselves to losing out on business that could have been their’s if only it was known that were an agent! I call this being a secret agent. Being a secret agent is great if you are James Bond, Jason Bourne or Agent 99, but in real estate it’s slow death.

Because developing a list of people who will refer business to you is so crucial to a successful agent’s business, several entrepreneurs built very successful businesses out of teaching agents how get business by referral. Joe Stumpf and Brian Buffini come to mind (Disclaimer: I am a Brian Buffini Certified Mentor).

Although we could go on and talk about other methods of prospecting I won’t do that since I want to stay on the idea of agents connecting with people as a means of growing and sustaining a business.

All of this is wonderful and has certainly worked well in the past for many people and will no doubt continue to work well in the future, but I believe that the reason it has worked so well is because the successful users of these systems have learned how to listen as well as to “talk”. Most advertising is interruptive in nature and because we know that we only have a few scant seconds to deliver a message, we tend to just deliver it and not attempt to set up a dialog.

Take a few minutes and watch this video from Microsoft:

This is the Achilles heel that stops many folks from achieving success using “referral” systems. We tend to employ many of the methods used by the “Advertiser” in the video, when what the “Consumer” wants is a relationship or perhaps more accurately, a dialog.

This an area that the top performers have mastered. They engage their family, friends and acquaintances to the point where the conversion to client is almost seamless and effortless.

In short, they have become expert social networkers. In fact, I’ll go on record as saying that successful real estate agents were the original social networkers! As it turns out, many of the skills used by top performers to connect with people are totally transferable in the Web 2.0 world. After all, no matter how you get an introduction to someone, you will still have to meet with them face to face at some point, and it is at that point that the sale can be won or lost.

Next time we’ll talk about what needs to happen so as to not drive someone away and some of the ways you can engage the consumer so that you both get what you need. In the meantime, watch that video a few more times. It’s extremely well done and delivers a powerful message in a humorous fashion.

And then think about the message that you deliver…is it interruptive or is it consultative? How do you know?

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Five

Over the last three weeks I have been talking about how a real estate agent can make a living in the Web 2.0 world. We started by setting the stage, talking about phones, then computers.  This week I want to talk about the software that you will need on your computer.

There is a wide variety of software that you may wish to have including photo editing, PDF readers, money management, screen capture, MLS, ZipForms/Winforms and so on.  But, in my opinion, the most important piece of software is the contact manager and calendar software.

I still see agents walking around with paper calendars and paper contact lists!  Some of those same agents even have smart phones!  When asked, they often cite the fact that it’s easier and quicker for them to look at their contacts and calendars that way.  I think I felt the same way until I learned how to really use contact management software.  Also, if your paper calendar or contact list get misplaced I don’t know how you would ever recover from such a disaster.

Given that we live and die by our appointments and contacts it makes sense to do everything you can to maintain a handle on your time and contacts.  So. let’s take a look at what is out there.  Although this list is pretty comprehensive, it is not exhaustive.  If you are using something that I didn’t talk about, please feel free to tell us in the comments.

There is a pretty wide universe of software available to help you corral your contacts and calendar.  Some is free, most isn’t.  Some is web based, some runs on your computer.  All of them allow you to synchronize the data with your smart phone so that you always have it with you(Exceptions are Open Office and Palm Desktop which only syncs with Palm Devices).  Aside from the financial hardship of losing a smart phone, your data is still available to you and so the loss is not nearly the disaster the loss of your paper records would be.

Let’s start with the de facto Gold Standard of real estate contact management, Top Producer.  This product has been around for nearly as long as I have.  In it’s current iteration, it’s an online product and is available by monthly subscription.  It manages contacts, calendars, creates campaigns, flyers, marketing materials and also integrates with your MLS.  Also, your data is stored and backed up on Top Producer’s servers which alleviates your need to perform backups. It starts at $39.95 a month and goes up.  This is a very good product that a lot of agents swear by, but it does have a steep learning curve if you want to get the full benefit of the product.

Another very good product is Agent Office.  This one is a software that you install on your computer.  It performs almost all of the same functions of TopProducer.  One of it’s key points is that your data is not in someone else’s hands – it’s on your hard drive.  It also has a steep learning curve which you must accomplish if you want to get the most out of it.  Currently it sells for $299.00

Next up is Microsoft Outlook.  It is part of the Microsoft Office Family of products.  If you have any version of Office (Except Home, Family and Student) you have Outlook.  The Standard version of Office is $399.95.  (Upgrade versions which will take you to Office 2007 are $239.95).  If you don’t want the Microsoft Office product, but you’d still like Outlook, you can buy Outlook as a standalone product for $109.95.

Why would you want Outlook? Well, for several reasons.  Outlook combines an email client (It will pick up Exchange, POP3 and IMAP4 email), a Contact Manager, a Calendar, Notes and a Task Manager all into one interface.  That means that you can get most of what you need in a day by staying within one piece of software.  The downside of Outlook is that it is not easy to customize, so if you wanted to have real estate specific fields in your contact manager, you would find that hard to do.

However, there are two add on products for Outlook that once purchased and installed along with Outlook, will give you TopProducer and AgentOffice like functionality.

The first one is Active Agent from Sonoma Enterprises.  This is a $299.00 product that overlays Outlook with real estate specific fields in the Contact records and allows you to create and manage campaigns.  A campaign is an automated work flow that essentially puts your business on autopilot.  Once you enter a Contact and select a campaign, the program takes over and automatically will schedule calls, appointments, letters, postcards and so on for you.

The other Outlook add-on is Respond from Pat Zaby.  It is currently $299.00, although the web site says that is a “Sale” price down from $399.00.  It does many of the same things that Active Agent will do to Outlook.

The big advantage to these two products is that if you already own Outlook and are familiar with using it then the learning curve will not be as stiff as it would be if you were learning a new piece of software.  In other words, you’ll be able to put them to work quicker!

Finally, let’s talk about a couple of free products.  We all need a word processor for writing letters and reading letters sent to us by others.  But, Microsoft office is a very expensive piece of software.  This is where Sun Microsystems free OpenOffice comes in.  It’s a free download that Sun claims is completely compatible with Microsoft office.  In other words, if you have OpenOffice you will be able to open documents created in Microsoft Office and people with Microsoft Office will be able to open and read  documents that you create in OpenOffice.  Not a bad deal for free!  It does not have an Outlook like equivalent, so for that you may wish to purchase a stand alone copy of Outlook.

If all you want is a basic Contact manager, Calendar, To Do List and Notes manager, then you may find that the free Palm Desktop software is perfect for you.  It was designed to allow users of Palm’s PalmPilot, Pre, and TREO telephones to have a desktop way of entering data.  But, you do not need to have a Palm device to download and use the software.  If you do have such a device then you already have the software.  It may not be installed, but it is on the installation CD.  Palm places no restrictions on who can download and use the software, so if this works for you, go and get a copy.

Click on the various logos to go get more information on the products that I have discussed, and by all means, if you are not using something these products now, please get started.  It’s crucial to not let someone fall in the “cracks” and you never want to miss an appointment!

Next time we will start looking at social media in a real estate practice, so in preparation why not reread the previous three posts to make sure that you are up to speed?  And by all means, tell all of us what you use…and why.

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Four

Two weeks ago I introduced this multi-part series of posts on how successful Realtors® are making a living these days. In that post I talked about the 6 traits of successful agents and the one thing that none of them do. It will be important to keep those traits in mind as we talk about this week’s tool.

In case you have forgotten what I talked about in previous week’s or in case you are just joining us on this journey, here is the link to the first week’s article http://budurl.com/hywg , and here is the link to last week’s article: http://budurl.com/bjed

I want to talk about computers today. Although it is possible to be a successful real estate agent without one (and I do know a few who do not use one and who are successful by any one’s standards) I believe that the use of a computer in your real estate business is a necessity for most of us.

One of the most frequent questions that I get is “What computer should I buy?”. I always answer that question with a few of my own, because it’s impossible to give good advice until the following questions are answered:

1. How do you work? Do you work from home? Do you work from your broker’s office?
2. Do you ever meet clients at their home or place of employment? Do you ever meet clients at a coffee shop, or do you work from one?
3. What do you hope to gain from using a computer? Checking email? Surfing the web? Accessing MLS? Doing presentations?
4. Will you be editing and publishing pictures or videos?
5. Will you be writing a blog?
6. Although in most cases a laptop computer will be the correct machine for most real estate uses, what kind of laptop? Mac or Windows?
   
7. If a Windows machine, do you need the features of a full size laptop or will a Netbook do for you?

As you can see, some careful thought has to go into the choice. I have explored many of these options in previous posts and I invite you to revisit each article to get more detail on how to make your decision.

To start with, visit http://realtytechbytes.com/what-computer-should-i-buy/ to get a look at the larger picture.

Then you may want to visit http://realtytechbytes.com/what-laptop-should-i-buy-in-2008/ for some insight on buying a laptop.

To help you with the Netbook versus laptop question, visit http://realtytechbytes.com/your-next-laptop-is-a-netbook/

These three articles are clearly dated in terms of price, but they still offer sound advice on how to buy. My basic rule of thumb is this (applies to Windows and Mac, Laptop/Netbook and desktop machines): Buy as much RAM as the machine will hold. Get the biggest hard drive that you can get, if possible get a DVDR/RW drive as this will allow you to play and burn both DVDs and CDs. If you are going the portable route, get something with built in WiFi. Bluetooth would be nice but not necessary, and having 3 or more USB ports is a nice feature to have.  If at all possible, get one with a built in web cam and microphone. Having these items opens up a whole new world of options that we’ll explore later in the series.

Finally, I wrote a three part series on converting from using a Windows PC to a Mac:

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-one/

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-two/

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-three/

The choice of a machine platform is crucial to your success and you should plan on spending some time in careful consideration.

Next time we’ll look at the software that I see the successful agents using to sustain and grow their businesses.

In the meantime, why not tell us all what computer you are using, why you are using it and what you like about it as well as what you don’t like! We can all learn from each other on this one!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Three

In case you have forgotten what I talked about last week or in case you are just joining us on this journey, here is the link to last week’s article: http://budurl.com/hywg

Last week I talked about the 6 traits of successful agents and the one thing that none of them do. It will be important to keep those traits in mind as we talk about this week’s tool. This tool enhances all of the traits and is the keystone of any successful agents toolkit. What is it? Simple, it’s the cell phone.

I can’t think of any thing that has had the impact on our business that the cell phone has had. Some might argue that it is the Internet, but the cell phone (the right cell phone…more on that later on) enables the agent to access and use the Internet from anywhere.

Let’s look at this a little closer. Previous to widespread cell phone adoption, an agent was tethered to a land line. Whether at home, the office or public pay phones we still needed a land line. A tremendous amount of time was spent calling in for messages, either to a receptionist/operator or to a voice mail system. That required locating a pay phone and carrying around the proper coins to make it work. Try finding a pay phone these days!

The right phone makes the following things possible:

• True mobility. You are not tethered anymore. You can work from anywhere you can get a signal
• Access to your Contact list
• Access to your Calendar and appointments
• Pick up, read and send email from multiple accounts
• Access the WWW and obtain information form the Internet
• Get maps and directions
• Search listings
• Open lockboxes (Not all MLSs permit this)
• Track your income and expenses, and do online banking
• Update your blog and other social sites like Facebook and Twitter
• Listen to music, watch videos or “read” a book
• Take pictures and videos and post them your social sites or send them via email
• Record voice memos to yourself or others
• Use it as a replacement for that venerable HP 12C calculator
• Track your stocks
• Find restaurants, movies, ATMs, Grocery stores and more
• Send and receive text messages
• And lest we forget, make and receive phone calls!

In my opening paragraph I alluded to the fact that fact that most of us have yet to master all of this on our phones. If your phone has these capabilities and you are not utilizing them, you are leaving a lot of benefits on the table.

When I quiz agents on this, I am often told that the phones are too complicated and that the instructions are vague or hard to understand. And I completely agree.

But, you can’t let that get in the way of your mastery of the phone. Go back to the first post in the series and read the last paragraph.

You can’t quit and expect to be able to reap the full benefit of the phone. Even though there is complexity and obtuse instructions, there are answers to be found. Do you know someone who uses the same phone as you? Could you ask them for help? Remember Google is probably your best source of information on almost any subject. Do a Google search like this: “How do I send a text message on my Samsung Blackjack II?” (Insert your own information, but follow that format). You’ll get a wide variety of answers and leads to valuable websites.

You can often find more useful information on your service provider’s website as well. (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile etc.) You could also visit one of the many stores that sell cell phones. Sometimes you get lucky and find a knowledgeable sales person who can show you the ropes. (Sales tip: Let them know that you are a real estate agent and give them your card. Who knows, they might become your next client)

The point being is that most of us give up and move on and never learn how to use our phones to their fullest capacity. Don’t be that person. Put aside some learning time to spend with your phone. Get up 15 minutes earlier, stay up 15 minutes later, give up a TV show once a week, whatever it takes, but you NEED to do this.

In case you are wondering what phone to buy, you may want to read a post I wrote about how to choose and buy a Smart Phone.  Here is the link to that post: http://budurl.com/6uub

So here is the wrap up for this week. Pick up that phone and the instruction book that came with it and start learning what all those buttons and icons can do for you. A little time invested now will pay dividends in the form of more time or greater efficiency later.

Next weeks post will continue with a look at computers. I am not sure how many posts this series will comprise, but I can assure you this: If you stay with me through the series you WILL learn something that will positively impact your business and your income.

Are you in?

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Realtor’s® guide to making a living in a Web 2.0 World ~ Part Two