I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a leading industry speaker about Web 2.0. I have heard him speak many times and his message is delivered simply and clearly.  In his view, the audience hears what he is saying, but they are not able to ingest it very well. Simply stated, Web 2.0 has killed traditional marketing in real estate.  If you are marketing real estate today, you need two things; a blog to communicate with customers, and a great property search solution to inform them about what is on the shelf. In an effort to generate some buzz, I [...]

The race is on to provide a seemless MLS desktop, again.  But this time - no painful data sync. MLSs seek Service providers/technology leaders to blur the differences between the connected and unconnected computer - code once, deploy on desktop and online. If you have not heard the story, Kevin Lynch, a software developer on sabbatical from Macromedia in 2001 wanted to be able to use his computer to see online information offline, so he built a prototype called Kevincloud. Macromedia was purchased by Adobe, and now Kevin is the CTO of that company.  He had a meeting with himself and [...]

Belize National Association of Realtors® ("BNAR") and Point2 Technologies Inc. ("Point2") today announced BNAR's new MLS system, based on the Point2 NLS (National Listing Service) platform. BNAR® selected Point2 NLS for its unique opt-in / opt-out reciprocal listing advertising functionality, enabled by Point2's patent pending technology, HandshakeTM. The technology allows real estate brokers and agents to instantly and selectively share listing data, including listing distribution to Point2 NLS-based peer websites. Key benefits include the ability for users to advertise listings on hundreds or thousands of websites for maximum visibility and leads. Point2 NLS's listing syndication functionality, Exposure EngineTM was another key [...]

This video is all over the web. It made me think of two things. 1. Realtors could use this as a tip. 2. Social Media and blogs are very effective when good information is shared. $1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - video powered by Metacafe

What do you do when the map is wrong? There are many instances when mapquest, google, or Microsoft maps are wrong. This ongoing problem is getting better now that companies are filtering property rooftop locations against multiple databases. Recently I was asked to get a mapquest location fixed and I was able to do it very easily after a few hours of research. To save you the time, for mapquest, here is the link. For google maps, here is the link - this is particularly cool because it allows you to move the marker for your home. For Bing maps - here is [...]

Most Home Real Estate Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Most Home Corp. (OTCBB: MHME), today announced the launch of an all new Online Lead Conversion Program designed exclusively for Keller Williams.     The Program, which will enable Teams and Associates to effectively manage and convert their Internet leads, offers proven processes for customer acquisition, response, and cultivation, and call center services provided by a highly skilled, licensed team of lead conversion specialists.  Launched at the KW Family Reunion in Atlanta, GA on February 9, the Program is immediately available to all 75,000 Keller Williams Associates across the [...]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - (February 19, 2008) - Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) today announced that LandAmerica has signed an agreement to implement FIS' SoftPro Select, a title and closing production package that will power LandAmerica Link, LandAmerica's enterprisewide title and escrow system. Built on Microsoft's .NET platform, SoftPro Select is a technologically advanced real estate solution that can easily scale to serve LandAmerica's more than 8,000 users in more than 800 direct offices nationwide. LandAmerica researched more than 40 alternatives before settling on SoftPro Select as the foundation for its single title and escrow system. "Having studied all the [...]

Consumers are desperate to refinance and lenders are overwhelmed with workouts. Fidelity National Information Services just launched a web-based loan-modification and electronic-signature utility for their ClosingStream e-mortgage platform that make the process painless for everyone. Mortgage may be the leader in Transaction Management The benefit to lenders is a reduction in costs associated with servicing the new loan agreements. The benefit to consumers is that they can cut down a 10 day process to a few minutes on a website. "The e-sign feature provides benefits to both the customer and lender by providing an effective and efficient method to present, [...]

Multi Language Property Search   If you drive through the rust belt of America stretching from New York State to Michigan, you cannot help but to be dismayed by the dilapidated plants that line our state highways - specifically Highway 90, but there are many others.  Somehow we lost touch with manufacturing, and many factories went abroad. Now they are coming back. Along the country roads of Alabama, little more is seen than farm land and grazing cattle, gently rolling hills and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.  If you look closely, however, you will see change. Mobile, Alabama is [...]

Advise to REALTORS - Budget your online advertising first and make it 50% of your total marketing budget. Advertising in newspapers is overly expensive, few people under 50 use them, and many who do are just a little out of it. Professionals today are reading their Blackberries iPhones and iPads every waking hour of the day and consuming news in real time, shopping for summer homes, and waiting for business opportunities to ping them from somewhere. Print does not attract people who want to own a fine watch, let alone a half dozen of them - sitting in an automatic Swiss [...]

There may be a landslide shake up happening in the search engine industry which could form a company to rival Google’s 50% marketshare of search. This consolidation could lead to disapated competition in pay per click, and drive up costs for real estate online marketing. […]

Today’s announcement by Point2 Technologies may be a signal of what is to come next under the new leadership at Point2. Saul Klein is well known through his efforts in delivering agent products and services under the e-Pro program and via REAL TOWN. Now with Walt Baczkowski on board (pun intended), I would suspect that Point2 will begin to roll out a plan to deliver thier products and services to agents through MLS and REALTOR Associations agreements Walt Baczkowski is a popular and well known industry executive, having held CEO and EO positions across the country. Regardless of any change [...]