RealtyTechBytes.com » Sales Tips

IDX…worth it…or not?

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:00:35 +0000

In my “day job” as a trainer and consultant to real estate agents and brokerages, I have been researching vendors that provide IDX search tools. IDX is Internet Data Exchange and it is a set of rules that allows brokerages to display listings from other brokers on their web sites. IDX provides the ability for a consumer to search for active listings on a broker’s web site.

There are a number of ways that a website can display a search function ranging from free methods provided by a brokerage’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to paid solutions offered by third party vendors who take a “feed” from the MLS and package it for resale to brokers.

I have been curious for some time about the effectiveness of these search tools on an individual agent’s website. The recent “2009 Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers” from the National Association of REALTORS® has renewed my curiosity.

Here is what they had to say (in part) that sparked my renewed interest:

“First-time and repeat buyers largely agreed on the websites that provided them with the greatest value in their home search. Sixty percent of home buyers used multiple listing services (MLSs) websites, the most frequently used online resource. Different age groups use MLS websites with varying frequencies ranging from 64 percent of buyers 25 to 44 years old to 50 percent of buyers 65 or older. Buyers also frequently use real estate company websites. First-time buyers are however somewhat less likely to use REALTOR.com® than repeat buyers. Other websites with property listings were visited by almost one-third of buyers, although first-time buyers frequented these sites notably more than repeat buyers.”

This got me to wondering if IDX sites on agent websites were worth the money that agents have been pouring into them as it seems to imply that consumers are looking elsewhere for their property search. So, I decided to do my own survey and I hope that you will help in the research by taking the survey I created at SurveyMonkey. In order to take the survey you need to be an agent who has a an IDX search facility on your own blog or website. Or, if you are a consumer who has bought or sold a home in the past 12 months or who is presently in the process of doing so, I’d like your input as well.

If you wish to receive a copy of the survey results when I am finished gathering results, please leave your first name and email address when you complete the survey, otherwise you can remain anonymous.

I am not sure what results I will get, but I am sure that they will be interesting to any agent who is spending money on IDX or who is contemplating doing so!

Please go here to take the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RBT67CK If you are having trouble taking the survey, please email me by using the contact form at http://realtytechbytes.com/contact-me/ and let me know.

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IDX…worth it…or not?

Let Google help you grow your business

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:00:15 +0000

Lest you think that I am Google’s payroll (I am not, but that’s not a bad idea!) I want to tell you about a page that Google has just for you, the Real Estate Professional.

You NEED to click on this link: Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals now and read every word and follow the instructions that it contains.

Here is what Google has to say:

Here’s why it pays to use Google to connect to home buyers and sellers:

Google can help generate real estate referrals and leads.

Google has more real estate searches than other search engines combined, and more unique visitors than all real estate specific web sites.

Google is the most-used search engine for researching and purchasing real estate information and services.

The Google Network reaches over 80% of U.S. Internet users.

Because I think that it is so important that you do so, I am going to keep this very short. Take the time that you normally spend reading RealtyTechBytes and go read Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals instead. You can thank me later!

About the Author: Jerry is a 23 year veteran of the real estate industry and has done it all from listing and selling, to managing single and multiple offices. He has been the IT Director for a major SF Bay Area company, and has also been the Training Director for another major SF Bay Area company. In addition to writing this blog, Jerry is the Principal of Jerry Kidd Training and Consulting, specializing in showing real estate professionals how to utilize today’s exciting social tools to create and nurture relationships with home buyers and sellers. Visit http://www.JerryKidd.com to learn more about the training and consulting services offered.

If I were just starting out today, I would…

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:00:02 +0000

I was asked to complete that sentence the other day by a woman who had just received her real estate license and hadn’t yet made the choice of what brokerage to join.

She wanted my take on what I would do to be successful in today’s real estate market. That’s a really good question, but at the time she asked it, I wasn’t able to give her the proper answer due to a time restriction, so I told her that I’d post the answer here today.

To answer this, I have to go back and review the mistakes that I made in my early career and also look at my successes. I made plenty of mistakes, but had relatively few great successes in terms of the impact that they had on my career. Let me explain that further. Some of my mistakes were potential game ending ones. Like not really prospecting for business. Like flitting from one business generating scheme to another without giving anything an honest try. Like deciding that I knew better than those who were trying to guide me. And, as I said, there were plenty of others.

Some of the successes were as follows: I was incredibly fortunate to start with a Manager and a brokerage that gave me the opportunity, gave me the training, gave me the space to screw up and then gave me the chance to learn and grow. Thank you Michael Fassio and Merrill Lynch Realty (Merrill Lynch sold their real estate brokerage to Prudential Real Estate Affiliates in the fall of 1989).

Another success I had was when I received my first commission check nearly 6 months after beginning my career, I spent the entire check on a PC, monitor, printer and some database software. I then spent the next 30 days learning how to use it. This was no small event. In January of 1987 when I bought that computer, there was only one other computer (to my knowledge) being used by a real estate agent in all of Sonoma County, California. None of the real estate offices had one for that matter. So, what I did flew against the conventional wisdom of the time and all of my friends thought that I was off my rocker.

As I said, I spent all of January 1987 learning how to use the computer in my business. The time spent nearly put me out of business in the short haul, but that computer knowledge turned out to be the best investment in myself that I could have made. In short order I was able to set up a prospecting database and client tracking system. That spring I was able to connect my computer to the MLS. We take that for granted now, but at the time, you had to go to the office and wait your turn at a terminal for MLS access. Being able to access the MLS from home at 6 AM in my robe was a huge competitive advantage.

I was set up at home to prospect and track expired listings and to prospect and track FSBO leads. Seemingly overnight my career was off and running and I have never looked back.

So to my original point, what would I do now if I was starting over? My first step would be to find a broker that I felt could give me the training and support that I would need. Michael and I knew each other before I got my license, and we also had the bond shared by Viet Nam veterans. We had an easy way of talking with each other. So, find the broker that you can connect with as your very first step.

Next I would determine just what my goals are in terms of income and then determine how many sales I needed to make to get that income. First, you have to determine how many prospects you would need to get 1 sale. The numbers of prospects are different for each of us. Over the years I have heard 100 prospects will equal 1 sale. Lately I have heard people saying it’s 200.

So, let’s just do worst case scenario. Say it takes you 300 prospects to make 1 sale. And lets say 1 sale equals $5,000.00 to you after your split. And let’s say that you wanted to make $100,000 in your first year. So, 300 prospects times 20 sales gives you a whopping 6,000 prospects that you need to contact in that first year.

If you divide 6,000 by 50 weeks, you come up with 120 prospects a week, which looks like 20 a day, 6 days a week. That’s a tall order in any one’s book! Every day, you have to contact 20 new people and add them to your database. Then follow up with them. Then create a transaction. Then close an escrow (Oversimplification I know, but I am trying to make a point)

So, once you know your numbers, you can get started. Buy a computer. Something that can send and receive email, surf the MLS and run some sort of contact manager software. Mac or PC, your choice (Our antiquated MLS systems require PCs to access their databases. I have been assured that this year that will change. We’ll see)

Get a Smart Phone. I don’t care which one. Get one on the network that works best in your area of operation. Pay no attention to hype or ads. Ask your friends what they use and if they like it. Make sure that it will sync with your computer so that you always have your calendar and contacts with you.

Now, here is the biggie...learn how to use both of those tools. Most of us can’t use more than 25% of the capabilities of our technology tools. You are starting out…take the time to get it right, learn how to use the tools.

Next, I would join Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and have complete profiles on each of these networks. This is how you are going to meet the 20 new people every day. Learn how to search for and connect with people that want to do real estate transactions. Use your computer database to keep track of the vital info on each of your new prospects. Listen to what they say and when appropriate, jump into the conversation with useful advice, fun things and educational information. Keep the self promotion to no more than 10% of what you do or say on these networks.

Hold open houses whenever possible. Even though you will meet more prospects in a shorter period of time by using social networks, there is nothing better than meeting people face to face. Especially people who are out shopping for houses!

Follow up with hand written notes, emails, pokes, tweets, phone calls (be sure to observe Do Not Call and do not mail laws).

There’s much more to this, but I am very confident that the steps that I have outlined above would give that new agent a great start. If she’ll stay focused and do this, and not give up, she’ll be rookie of the year!

What do you think?

Three things you must do starting right now!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:00:22 +0000

I was reading Chris Brogan’s post on “Slicing Your Social Media Pie” over at American Express’s Open Small Business Forum on Saturday, and it got me to thinking about our business.

Chris asserts that “There are three basic components to social media: listening, creating, and communicating. That’s it. Listening is how you find out what people are saying about you, your competitors, your community, and whatever else matters. Creating is where you make blog posts or shoot video, or build upon ideas that show you’re a thought leader in the space. Communicating is a mix of commenting, responding, reaching out, and taking part in community.”

He goes on to share that he slices his “pie” as 20% Listening. 40% Creating and 40% Communicating. In other words, if you spend 2 hours a day on your social media tasks, 24 minutes should be on listening, 48 minutes on Creating and 48 minutes on Communicating.

I think that is excellent advice and here is how I would advise Realtors® to go about accomplishing it.

Google Alerts – for Listening

One of the best FREE ways for you to hear what others are saying about you, your competitors, the market, a neighborhood or anything else that you can think of is to create a Google Alert. Head on over to http://www.google.com/alerts/ and fill in the simple form. You don’t need a Google account, but you do need to find the confirming email that Google sends and click on the link it contains before Google will start sending you alerts.

So what is a Goggle Alert? Here is what Google has to say: “Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms. You can also choose to have your alerts delivered via feed to the feedreader of your choice (e.g., Google Reader or add the feed to your iGoogle page). We currently offer alerts with results from News, Web, Blogs, Video and Groups.” You can have up to 1,000 alerts. Each alert has a link to the content that Google found so you simply click on the link to read what it found. In other words, you have set Google up to automatically search Google for you.

This gives you the opportunity to keep your finger on the pulse of what people are saying, both good and bad. Once you know what is being said, you can respond accordingly.

Blogs – for Creating

One of the all time BEST tools available to a Realtor® today has got to be a blog. A blog allows you to create your own customizable “home base” on the Internet. You can store and display all of your past sales, your current listings, any documentation, forms and check lists that you’d like current, past and future clients to have, and it can all be done by anyone with only a basic knowledge of computers. You can link your blog to your current static website, but you could also get rid of that website (and the monthly bill it generates) and put the content that it contains that is yours on your blog. And there are many free choices for you: Blogger, RealTown Blogs, Realtor.com Blogs and my personal favorite and the one I heartily recommend, Wordpress.com.

I know that writing content can be difficult for some, but if you are listening you will be presented with many ideas for content. Even so, some people would rather have others write the content for them, so here are a couple of services that will do that for you. (Note: I am an affiliate for both of them. This means that should you buy their services I will earn a commission. It won’t be enough for me to make a living on, but it will help to defray the costs of running this blog).

The first can be found here: http://budurl.com/LeadBC. For v$29.95 a month (at the time of this writing) they will produce 20 articles that you can insert into you blog after you do some minor changes like adding your name and location. These are real estate specific and will give quite a bit of content for about a dollar a day.

The second source is here: http://budurl.com/brtb. For $57.00 per month they will create a daily blog post for you and actually place it on your Wordpress or Blogger blog. Again, this is real estate specific content.

facebook and Twitter – for Communicating

The final piece of Brogan’s pie is communicating back. A large part of what makes social media marketing work is the act of engaging with people. One of the finest tools available today is facebook. With over 350 Million users worldwide, it would be the third largest country in the world, behind China and India, if it were a country.

Join facebook and fill in your profile completely so that you are able to be found by people that you went to school with, that you worked with, that you served with and by people who live near you. Search facebook for the same groups of people and connect with them. Then engage in the conversation. Don’t talk about yourself from a self centered approach, instead talk with them about their lives and then some about yours. Be interesting, fun and educational. Provide value in your commentary so that people look forward to what you have to say.

Do the same with Twitter. Here you are limited to communicating in short burst of no more than 140 characters, so this will force you to get good at saying a lot in a little space…it can be done!

Once you are engaged with people on facebook and Twitter, it’s an easy and believable step for them to visit your blog when you invite them to do so and you may find that because they feel that they know you well from your facebook and Twitter interactions, that your referrals from them will increase.

And that my friends, is the Holy Grail.

Where do homebuyers REALLY find the homes that they buy?

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:00:30 +0000

Last night I had the extreme good fortune to attend the Installation of Barry Zwahlen as President of the Contra Costa Association of Realtors® (CCAR).

I say it was “extreme good fortune” for multiple reasons, which are too numerous to mention. But, perhaps the foremost reason is that since my wife, Diane Gilfether was the MC, I was able to sit at the “head table” with Barry and Brenda Zwahlen and other dignitaries, one of whom was Jeff Davi, the California Commissioner of Real Estate.

During dinner I was able to have a very interesting conversation with Commissioner Davi about several aspects of the real estate business (Jeff is a third generation Realtor®). One of our topics was how Realtors® are finding new buyers for their listings these days. We talked at length about the mainstay methods of the past that were no longer producing results. One of those methods was newspaper and magazine advertising.

We all “know” that those print ads just don’t produce the results that they used to, yet we still persist in running them. A quick check of today’s (Sunday, January 10, 2010) Contra Costa Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, showed me that yes, Brokers and Agents were still wasting money on that medium.

Why do we do that? I think the quick answer is that the seller’s tell us they want them. Why do the seller’s demand that we advertise their homes in print? It would seem that the seller’s are more interested in us producing buyers that are qualified to purchase their home than they are in how we actually do it. In my opinion, the sellers want newspaper advertising because they don’t know that buyers find the homes that they purchase through other means. The reason that they don’t know is because we don’t tell them. And I believe that we don’t tell them because we don’t know how to do that convincingly.

As I explained to Commissioner Davi last night, the National Association of Realtors® has released the 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers and made it available as a free download for members! You can purchase a print version for $25.00 and non members can purchase it for $125.00.

But why buy it when you can download it? Probably because NAR has done a masterful job of hiding the download link! Go and download it right now, then come back and I will point out a few things that should make your life easier when it comes to convincing those sellers that print advertising is utterly dead.

Go here to find the report: http://www.realtor.org/prodser.nsf/products/E186-45-09?OpenDocument be sure to log in when asked and you’ll come to a page that looks like the one in the illustration to the left.

Even though it is a free download, NAR makes you go through the process of putting it in a shopping cart and “Checking Out”. You’ll have to fill in everything except a credit card. When you are all done, you’ll be directed to to go to “My eProducts” page to do the actual download. Note to NAR: Could you possibly have made this entire process ANY harder or more obtuse? Good grief!

The chapters that are of most interest to me are Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, although the entire report is a gold mine of information. Pay particular attention to page 48 and Exhibit 3-6 where they rank the usefulness of information sources used by buyers to find the homes. Home books and magazines ranked at 3% and newspapers ranked at 1%. In other words, not at all useful!

On page 50, Exhibit 3-10, we see information ranking where the buyer found the home that they purchased from 2001 through 2009. The high point for newspapers at 7% was in 2001. That fell to a low of 2% in 2009. Home books and magazines fared worse, ranging from a high in 2001 of 2% to less than 1% in 2009. In other words they were only used by 2% or less of buyers.

Perhaps the most telling chart is on page 53, Exhibit 3-16. This chart breaks down buyers into those that used the Internet and those that didn’t. I’ll let you go see just how miserably the print ads fared among both Internet and non-Internet users…

So, here’s the bottom line, if you aren’t using these charts in your listing presentations, then you are going to end up spending money that you do not need to spend. And that is because you will not have educated your sellers on where the buyer for their home is looking.

And that is a shame…

A few things to do to kick off 2010 the right way!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:00:46 +0000

2009 is finally over and 2010 is here. The New Year holiday has always felt like new opportunity for me. I enter January with high hopes for the things that I want to accomplish in the year ahead and this year is no different. Many of you have journeyed with me last year as I started my own business. That was a goal that had been simmering in the back of my mind for a few years. At the end of October I was able to finally accomplish it! Since then I have been on the path of telling everyone what I am doing and have enjoyed the fruits of that endeavor.

In 2008 I had set a goal of losing 60 pounds by Christmas of 2008. That goal was met by the end of October 2008. So, I have “borrowed” the strategies that I used that kept me focused to help me with this year’s goals.

The simple act of communicating my weight loss goal, more than anything else, kept me on the straight and narrow. The thought of having to go around and tell you that I didn’t achieve the goal kept me focused on the result that I wanted. In other words, I made myself accountable.

How about you? What are you willing to be accountable for this year? Why not write down an income goal that seems a little out of reach and then communicate that to family and friends…people who may be able to help you achieve the goal.

Next I would suggest that you determine how many sales sides you will need to accomplish to get to that income goal. And finally, determine how many prospects you will need to get that number of sales. My Jump Start Your Business Class will give you some help in figuring these things out, as will your manager. The key to success here is to WRITE down the Income goal, the number of sides needed and the number of prospects you will need to ask to do business with you. If you don’t write it down and communicate it to another person then all you have is a wish…

Don’t forget to stay in close contact with your past client base and your sphere of influence. Drop them a hand written note asking them how their holidays were and telling them about yours. Don’t forget to enclose a business card…who knows, they may have a referral for you! Even better, drop by or call them (in compliance with the DNC Laws of course). Talk to them about their FORD and they will ask you about yours in return. They don’t have a FORD? Of course they do. FORD is an acronym for Family, Occupation, Recreation and Dreams.

Some of you are probably saying to yourselves that this is old news and you already know it. True enough, but do you actually do it? Faithfully? Or do you get sidetracked like most of us by life? You’ve heard about the road to “….” As being paved with good intentions haven’t you? Here is another area where being accountable will pay off with big dividends.

And finally, take it one step further, when you call them, or write to them or drop by, ask them if they would like to subscribe to your email newsletter, or read your blog, or follow you on Twitter, or even keep up with you on Facebook.

If these concepts are foreign to you, take a class! Watch http://www.JerryKidd.com for the appearance of my new website (Due this week) which will detail all of the classes that I have. You’ll be able to see what’s on offer and how you can attend.

2010 can be a great year! It’s entirely up to you.

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

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:48:23 +0000

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!

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

Jerry Kidd — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:12:35 +0000

In the first part of this series I detailed the 6 traits of successful agents (as I se 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.

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?

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

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:00:21 +0000

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.

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

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:00:58 +0000

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:

How do you work? Do you work from home? Do you work from your broker’s office?
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?
What do you hope to gain from using a computer? Checking email? Surfing the web? Accessing MLS? Doing presentations?
Will you be editing and publishing pictures or videos?
Will you be writing a blog?
Although in most cases a laptop computer will be the correct machine for most real estate uses, what kind of laptop? Mac or Windows?
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!