I want to thank the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog for giving us good info on these social networking sites.

Most know by now that Web 2.0 is not going away and it is here to stay. We humans are naturally social, and so even with the advent of theInternet where we can cloister ourselves away and order everything we need to live online, we still want that interaction with other humans. We want to feel the human touch.

Enter online communities.

According to Wikipedia, "a virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as letters, telephone, email or Usenet rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes."

Online communities have been around since the late 1980s (BBS anyone?), but they have proliferated in the last five years, and more continue to pop up on the horizon with the advent of the latest ideas and technologies.

Below are a few of the most popular communities online:

* Linkedin.com - This is a professional social networking site that is gaining ground fast. According to their website, "Linkedin is an online network of more than 20 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries."
o How can I use this in my business? Contacts, baby!
* Ning.com - This is a do-it-yourself social networking site. According to their website, "Our passion is putting new social networks in the hands of anyone with a good idea. With Ning, your social network can be anything and for anyone."
o Again with the contacts, but you can also be known as that genius on the specific topic of townhouses in Hoboken, NJ. Or wherever else.
* Facebook.com - Facebook seems to be the slightly grown-up version of myspace.com. According to the Facebook website, "Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves."
o Making contacts is key to any business, isn't it? Just slap up your information, make some friends, and you just might sell property for someone you meet through the site.
* Squidoo.com - This is a bit different from the above three site. According to their website, Squidoo is a site "...designed to make it easy for anyone, for free, to set up a single page on a topic he or she knows or cares a lot about. Advertising revenue is shared with these content creators, and some of it is given to charity."
o Become the expert writer-slash-real estate guru when people begin to discover your squidoo page.

Why bother with online communities at all? We are all busy, so what is the importance of these sites? One word: eyeballs. Millions upon millions of people all over the world reside within these sites. They spend lots of time in them. If you had the chance to reach out and touch that many people, would you take the opportunity?

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My guess is that you’ve heard about the new iPhone release – twice as fast and half the price.

But the aspect that I’m just as interested in is the built-in GPS. As mobile devices like the iPhone and Dash become more sophisticated, the possibilities for agents and home shoppers get pretty exciting.

For example, how nice would it be to drive through a neighborhood, stop your car, click the “show-me-homes- that-match-my-preferences-near-where-I-am” button and magically see a map with listings pinned.

Then maybe you could press the “speak-the-driving-directions-to-me” button, and have a voice-automated tour of the homes on your list.

When you got within reach of your home’s wireless network, you could click the “print-my-favorites” button.

It’s just a matter of time.

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Is your email inbox more of a dumping ground for the long list of tasks that seem to continuously grow? Have you even tried to find that specific email regarding the issue you know was resolved, but seems to have popped up again? Are you constantly digging through emails from your colleagues to find a signature with their phone numbers on it? I have to share my favorite organizational tool with you, and it is FREE!

This savior of my Outlook Inbox is Xobni! Funny name for a great tool (it is inbox spelled backwards) but it truly works! Some of the features are:

--Easy to navigate, right side tool bar that instantly shows connections between you, the highlighted sender and the people you both communicate with
--Document/attachment history from each contact
--Email conversation “threads”
--Super fast email search through all of your Outlook
--Easy and quick appointment scheduling
--Automatic phone number extraction for each contact
--Editable contact profiles

One feature I love is that you can search by people—and it will search your entire Outlook, not just one folder! This free product has really made my email much easier to use. Honestly, after using Xobni for the last 3 weeks, I don’t think I can go back to not having it!

To download your own free Outlook inbox miracle, visit the Xobni website:

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Have you ever been out and about and you think of things you need to do, people you need to follow up with or something you just don’t want to forget? Then you realize you have nothing to write on or you write it down, but misplace the paper you wrote it on.

No longer. I've discovered Jott, a very handy free service you can sign up for online. Jott allows its users to easily send emails and text messages, set reminders, organize lists, and much more, and here is the kicker, all by voice commands!

As described on their website, you can use Jott in the following ways:

--Stuck in traffic? Email your boss and let her know you're going to be late.
--Running errands and need to multi-task? Text message your brother with your voice and ask him to bring the salad for tomorrow's dinner party.
--On your way out the door and forgot something? Email your co-workers to have them send their quarterly reports for your presentation.
--Set reminders for your dad's birthday
--Add a reminder to your to-do list from Jott.com
--Create reminders for doctor appointments
--Use the reminder function to stay on top of all your meetings at work
--Add home projects to your to-do-list
--Jott yourself TV shows to record
--Set a reminder to remember to pick up the birthday cake
--Create appointments on your 30 Boxes™ or Google™ calendar
So next time you need to remember something important or remind yourself of something, be sure you’ve signed up with Jott!

After all, their motto is “Life is busy. Talk to Jott. Get Simple Back™.”

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Beware and be careful!

Ah yes Baja California or “Under” California as it’s known, is a gorgeous strip of land stretching 700 miles from Tijuana, Mexico to Cabo San Lucas with golden beaches, five star resorts, golf courses, world-class fishing and of course affordable beach front real estate. It’s easy to get sucked into the vapors of owning land on this pristine peninsula so please do your homework.

Many investors who have not done their due diligence will be paying the price much like many of us who have purchased real estate the past four years in the United States. The recent downturn in the national U.S. real estate market accompanied by a real estate boom in Baja California leads me to believe that we are jumping in with both feet again before testing the international waters.

U.S. lenders entered the Mexican market a few years ago resulting in a burst of real estate investment coupled with an influx of buyers who used their home equity in their primary residences to secure property in Mexico. What a great time to invest, right? Not exactly. Many factors like vanishing home equity, dropping home prices and the disappearance of the U.S. sub-prime market have led to many key U.S. banks and lenders to exit the Baja real estate market.

Also, keep in mind that Baja is one of Mexico’s “Prohibited Zones” meaning foreign investors are not allowed from owning property titles in these areas.

However, there are still ways to purchase property legally there. Below is a link to more detailed information that explains foreign ownership, specifically with regard to Baja, California.

Foreign Ownership in Baja, California

Good luck!

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Homes.com has added another new partner to their expanding listing exposure network.

Hotpads.com, a valuable, free property listing resource of 2 million homes for sale most recently recognized for strides in heat mapping & foreclosure trend analysis, is the latest site to receive a property listing feed from Homes.com.

Through this partnership, Homes.com clients can choose to export their hand-entered listings directly to Hotpads. This addition to the partner network was recently announced by both Homes.com & Hotpads.com to their respective clients and is an exciting new option for Homes.com agents and brokers.

Hotpads.com joins Zillow, Vast, Google Base, Oodle.com, HarmonHomes.com, Trulia, Propbot.com, Yahoo Real Estate and Bargain Network as the latest choice for property distribution for Homes.com customers.

Stay tuned for even more export partners coming on board!

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Where will you be this week?

Thousands of real estate agents & brokers will be heading to Washington, DC May 14-16, to join in the 2008 National Association of Realtors Mid-Year Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

As the National Association of Realtors celebrates its 100th birthday celebration during this year’s expo, the agenda promises to be the best yet.

Homes.com is exhibiting as part of the Dominion Pavilion, Booth #320, along with eNeighborhoods, Advanced Access and #1Expert.

All agents & brokers are welcome to stop by and register for your chance to win a FREE iPod, and various show specials.

Hope to see you there!

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Going green, becoming eco-friendly and conservation are the hot topic these days. Whether you want to save the planet, save a few bucks or just get with the times, we're here to help!
Green Living 101 is a profile piece on Green Living with the help of Jessica and Jason Pelletier. They started their business, Lowimpactliving.com in 2006, and they have some great tips on how to live fully without a trouble non-green conscience.

Here is a slightly contrary view on buying eco-friendly housing and the cost it entails.

And finally, from the website, Thegoodhuman.com, comes ten things that can make a home eco-friendly.

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This morning Homes.com & Zillow.com announced a new listing partnership in a joint press release to the media. Over 105,000 Homes.com property listings were fed directly to Zillow.com, the first of many hand-entered listings from Homes.com, expanding the listing distribution options currently available to real estate agents and brokers.

This means many potential benefits to both the agent and consumer- something that has not gone unnoticed at either Zillow or Homes.com. “This partnership is just one example of our ongoing efforts to provide Homes.com customers with the most effective means of marketing their listings to multiple consumer destinations while providing the convenience of managing their distribution from one central location,” explains Jason Doyle, vice president of Homes.com.

Zillow joins Vast, Google Base, Oodle.com, HarmonHomes.com, Trulia, Propbot.com, Yahoo Real Estate and Bargain Network at the newest listing export channel for Homes.com customers.

For more information on this listing partnership, visit: Homes.com’s Press Room or Zillow’s Blog.

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Yes, I firmly believe in the positive story of real estate. No matter what happens cyclically, real estate bounces back.

I also believe that we are facing some difficult times, and to believe that all is rosy would be denying a massive amount of evidence.

On that note, I have collected a few articles and posts from other real estate websites and blogs. Some deal with the current issues and others were just a good read.

Great article on the Inman blog about the bright side vs the dark side of real estate.

A Brief History of Real Estate

Is Manhattan immune from the current Real Estate Crisis?

Starbucks hit by housing slowdown? Yikes!

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I need reminders of appointments and tasks that need to be completed. Since I am rarely at my desk, I need these reminders to come to where I am. Since my phone is always with me this is the perfect tool. As a tech guy I would setup email reminders to my phone using some scripting language. This helped but it was not enough. Sometimes the email would be held up on some email server somewhere. The reminder would be late getting to my phone and I would be late to the appointment or the task would not be done in time.

I started using the Google calendar. The main reason I use it is for the SMS paging capabilities. SMS is text messaging. If I want to get paged I want it right away. The SMS paging does this without having to worry about whether my email server is slow. I can also use the Google Calendar to keep my schedule. I can share my calendar with other people. I have some security in it to prevent people from knowing my exact schedule but they can see when I am busy and when I am available. I can even have a separate calendar for my co-workers to see what my schedule is like that week or month.

Most of this can be done with competitors but what I appreciate most, no ads. I do not have an ad flashing at me. The layout is clean and simple. I can also see what my schedule is from my phone’s web browser. In all, Google calendar gives me a simple and easy interface to keep my schedule and sends me text messages on time when I have an appointment. Best of all it is free with no ads.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/overview.html

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If you are looking to design a new logo and you don’t have the benefit of a franchise brand, the prospect of coming up with your own identity can be challenging. Pricing for logo design varies greatly. The original “swoosh” for Nike was designed in 1971 by a college student named Carolyn Davidson for $35. The new London 2012 Olympics logo is rumored to have cost around $800,000. Setting aside these extremes, many small design studios are willing to create a custom logo for under $1,000. And if your budget is extremely tight, there are online tools that will help you get started for under $100.

Inexpensive Logo Tools & Services:
LogoMaker ($49) - http://www.logomaker.com/
LogoYes ($69) - http://www.logoyes.com/
MySiteLogo ($89) - http://www.mysitelogo.com/
Logo Loft ($99 starting) - http://www.thelogoloft.com/

Learn More About Logo Design:
Step-by-step Logo (Chuck Green)
Logo Design Basics: The Five Types of Marks

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You may rewrite the body of an email two or three times before sending, but how much time do you spend on your subject lines? Here are a few suggestions:

Keep your subject lines short and sweet. Many email providers (Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Earthlink, etc.) will truncate long subject lines, so keep your subject lines under 50 characters including spaces. Be sure to indicate the most important information at the beginning.

Keep your subject lines professional. Avoid using "smileys" and punctuation marks. These will fall easily to spam filters.

Use capitalization sparingly! Typing in all caps can be construed as the equivalent of yelling at someone face-to-face. This also applies to the text in the body of your email. Using caps to draw attention to a single word is acceptable, but frequent use of all caps is likely to annoy the reader and will ultimately cause your emails to be deleted.

Do not use vague or general words alone. Using general words all alone trigger spam filters. Words like urgent, new, hi, etc are prime examples. Tip: look through your spam or junk folder for examples of what not to use. Use specific information, such as the property address and the consumer's name. "Jan here is the info for 123 Center Street". This validates the email as current, cites importance, and personalizes the message.
Always be sure to check your spelling and grammar!

Remember, the subject line is the first thing the consumer reads and in could determine whether the email is deleted or read based on those few words. Those first seconds are critical, you need to engage the consumer and let them know what you have to say is important.

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Traditionally, spring cleaning is the time you beat the rugs, flip the mattresses and clean the cob webs from corners. These cleaning chores are not only limited to your house. Springtime is also a good time to "clean" or "refresh" your website. Here are some key areas to tidy up this spring:

• Check your website “keywords.” Keep in mind anything new that you or your area may have added since the last time these were updated. What about that new neighborhood you want to highlight? Add it as a keyword.
• Refresh your content. Is there anything new and exciting in your territory like a new mall, interesting store, new neighborhood?
• Double check your site for spelling errors. You dunt want to sound selly doo you?
• Check to make sure all of your photos are displaying properly.
• Click on all of your links to make sure there are no broken links (usually this happens when a website address has changed).
• Go through your leads and reconnect past clients with a quick email. You never know where your next referral may come from.
• Consider how user-friendly your site is for a new contact; it may be time to think of a new design.

These are just a few tips to get you started. Not only do search engines like refreshed content, your customers will appreciate the updated information as well!

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Tech-Up for Y’ers: Four must have tools to help you get in sync with Generation Y.

They’re calling across borders, emailing bosses, and arriving to their next appointment thanks to advances from Palm, RIM and Windows Mobile. It’s Generation Y, a new market for realtors and brokers alike.

No matter who your next client may be, success means staying at the forefront of emerging technology. So get ready because Generation Y makes up 35% of all first-time homebuyers. And they’re not just smart and independent, but a new breed of young multi-taskers who have been immersed in the world of advanced technology since birth.

Knowing this, we’ve compiled a list of the top must-have tools for you to tech-up for the Y’ers.

1. Smartphone
Never before has there been a more seamless integration of web, email, maps, GPS and business tools quite like the Smartphone. As an owner of a Blackberry 8830, part of Blackberry’s 8800 series, I’ve found that it has a large screen, full keyboard and superb email capabilities. Other Smartphone makers include Palm and Windows Mobile. Which ever device you choose, these phones help to put you on track to communicating more efficiently with your next client.

2. Mobile GPS
The mobile GPS device has proved useful for the active real estate agent[5]. Top devices by Garmin, TomTom and Magellan, come with features such as a touch screen and integrated traffic tuner. This device will help keep you on track to your next destination while keeping you on time for your next appointment.


3. Tablet PC
The tablet PC brings together handwriting and computing technology into one innovative, versatile design. It’s great for the Realtor on the go! The Tablet PC stores written information as “digital ink” using Windows Journal. HP, Dell and Lenovo top the list of companies using the Tablet PC[6]. This device works seamlessly with the VREO Real Estate Dashboard and is a must-have for the ultimate mobile realtor.


4. VREO Real Estate Dashboard
Really want to wow your clients? Skip the paper work altogether with the VREO Real Estate Dashboard. This software allows agents to sign forms and contacts electronically when used with the pen feature available with a Tablet PC. Create a superb experience for your client; with one program, you can provide faster service that will save you both time and money.


What's your opinion?

References:
[1] Forbes.com
[2] Inman News
[3] Black Enterprise Magazine
[4] www.cnet.com
[5] www.mytechopinion.com
[6] www.tabletpcreviews.com

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