You also know that you don’t have the time to send messages to people on MySpace (and you don’t really want to). So, if you can just find the right tool, the right technology, that elusive “thing” you are missing — you can conquer this Web 2.0 frontier. Right?

Sorry. The answer is No.

There is no holy grail — despite all the products and services out there promising to help you conquer it. I hate to break it to you, but many of those companies are trying to sell you something that helps their bottom line, not something that helps yours.

The GOOD news is that competing in the Web 2.0 world really isn’t that difficult, you just have to understand what the term means to you (and your business) and what it can mean to your clients (and your ability to serve them).

If you want to create your own Real Estate Fiefdom online, you must start with the basics.

3 C’s of Online Success: Content, Collaboration, Creativity

Content is Still King
Content will always be the most important aspect of the web world. No matter what new technology emerges, it’s the content that keeps visitors coming back. What changes is the approach, format and delivery of that content. Web 2.0 followers merely take excellent content and incorporate new and developing technologies as quickly as they are made available.

If you don’t have information people want or need, it doesn’t matter if they can collaborate or how creative it is – they still click away to another site to find what they seek. So the first task is to determine what your target market wants and deliver that information to them in an un-complicated, easy-to scan, digestible format.

Take the time to update your content regularly. Please, please, please (with sugar on top!) review your property descriptions and eliminate overused, tired words. Offer original articles on your local market, particular neighborhoods, and/or working with a real estate agent instead of merely “subscribing” to the same content that thousands of other agents are using.

Your website should offer information relevant to your market that showcases your services and indicates your personality. If you need help, get it — but don’t “buy” your content from a generic source.

Collaboration is Queen
Web 2.0 is an invitation rather than a presentation. It’s like the difference between watching the Superbowl on TV and attending the Superbowl. Most people prefer to BE a part of the experience, rather than passively watching others have fun. Your visitors are no exception.
Consider the difference between a static “website” and a blog. The website looks the same day after day, week after week, month after month. The blog offers regularly updated information. Readers are encouraged to “chime in” and participate in the discussion by agreeing, disagreeing and/or adding additional information to the topic. Most blogs link to a network of other ideas and information across the web which increases the value the site for any visitor. Your site is now a resource!

Web 2.0 replaces the classic elitist, “powers that be” approach to information. Compare the Hardbound Encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia. One is static, quickly outdated and produced by a small number of people. The other is dynamic, constantly updated and produced by individuals world-wide.

Good content is still the first requirement, but encouraging people to add to that information, share their own views, and become a part of the discussion makes good information more enticing.

Always encourage cooperation on your site. Give your visitors the ability to participate and reward that participation with your gratitude. Thank them personally (online) for their comments and offer them a link back for their trouble (most content management software offers this option automatically).

Creativity is Your Court
Creativity and the ability to present information in an entertaining and unusual way will give you an edge. If two sites have great content and encourage collaboration, but one is creative and the other is flat – the creative site will always win more visitors and will capture more online “buzz.”

Collaborative creativity is no longer bound by geography or even personal knowledge of the parties involved. People are taking sites that encourage showcasing creativity (like YouTube) and pushing those creative limits even further.

For example, Mia Rose. This guitar-wielding girl did a YouTube recording of an original song. She was then joined by others (virtually) to create a full band. A great Web 2.0 example. The members of this impromptu band never met… and with the availability of the new technologies, they didn’t need to! Each added something to what existed, “mashing” it into a new, superior creation.

Although there is some question on the veracity of this young woman (some are calling her a “Lonely Girl” Clone), the fact is that this type of creativity IS now possible!

So, take the time you currently spend looking for the holy grail of real estate online marketing and go build your own little real estate kingdom!

Just make sure your site is filled with excellent, useful content. Encourage your visitors to participate in conversations and to explore by offering ways to collaborate on a creative site that is attractive and easy to navigate — if you want to capture a larger audience and keep them.

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The housing market slump has been fueled by the wave of foreclosures resulting from those “creative” mortgages in our recent past. Last week I talked with Jeff Aicken, a loan officer with Century Mortgage in Louisville, Kentucky to get a professional’s view in layman’s terms on what happened, how it happened, and what real estate agents can do now to make the situation better for their clients and for their own bottom line.

Before coming to work for Century, Jeff had worked for a company that handled loans in a way that didn’t mesh with Jeff’s own views. With this experience, he shares both sides of the “easy financing” coin with us.

Angela: Tell us about being a mortgage loan officer, Jeff.

Jeff: I started in the business in 2004 and immediately fell in love with it. I liked helping people and enjoyed the loan industry.

Angela: You don’t work for the same company now that you did, why did you change?

Jeff: I had some bad experiences with the type of company that gives lenders a bad name. I didn’t like working in the “close, close, close!” environment and I don’t think that “selling” a loan is as important as serving my clients and that wasn’t the best philosophy to have while working for my former company.

Of course I want to make money, but service should come first. The money follows the service.

Angela: I couldn’t agree more. How were the loans handled differently in the “bad” company?

Jeff: When I first started, the pick-a-payment option loans (Neg Am), Alt A and Sub-prime loans were being pushed. There were few loans that conformed to the traditional 20% down, 30-year fixed, full documentation loans that require good credit and an extensive qualification process.

Angela: I understand the negative amortization term, but can you explain “Alt A” and “Options” loans for me?

Jeff: Alt A means “alternate to A credit loans” and this is where there is a qualified buyer, but something is missing that prevents a traditional loan. For instance, they can’t prove income or they have a high loan-to-value ratio. There’s one piece missing.

Option ARM programs were the bulk of my business at the old company and these came in four flavors:

1. Minimum Payment
2. Interest-Only Payment
3. 15-yearPayment
4. 30-year Payment

These were popular and I found that I was being pressured to sell this product not because it was best for the client, but because it was most lucrative for the mortgage company. That’s one of the things that really discouraged me. It was so bad, in fact, I almost left this career.

There were also Sub-Prime loans. These were “really shouldn’t have a house” loans, but because the Fed was giving money away so cheap, these individuals could now get a loan.

Angela: So the Neg Am loans, SubPrime and Option ARM loans were all bad, or they were just being handled poorly?

Jeff: They aren’t all bad, they are perfect for some clients — like investment savvy folks. But, these loans caught many by surprise when they came due at the five year mark. This, coupled with the softening of the market and lower house values left many people with new, higher payments that were unmanageable. The interest rates adjusted to 5% higher or more and people who had been used to living at the old rate had difficulty making their payments.

These loans were readjusted monthly, that’s where the minimum payments came in. So, the individual who secured the loans was making a payment as if the interest rate was 1.25% when the actual interest rate during this period soared to as high as 7.5% and continued to rise.

This is where the negative amortization came in for the loan-owner. Although the homeowner could make higher than minimum payments in the first months of the mortgage, few did and once a year the minimum payment was adjusted up to 7.5%.

Angela: Can you run me an example scenario with actual numbers that shows the negative amortization and how that happens?

Jeff: Sure. Lets use a nice round figure. For a $200K loan, if the minimum payment was set at 1.25%, then the first year the payments were $666.50 per month. The second year, that could go up to $716.49, the third year could also go up an additional 7.5% and this would continue until the fifth year, when the minimum payment option was lost.

At this point, on that same loan, with the rate at 7.5%, the actual payment would soar to $1,398.43 per month (and even interest-only payments, were now at $1250.00!)

The difference between the two figures represents the negative amortization for the first five years, when the minimum payment didn’t meet the interest service for the loan and added more to the principal of the loan.

Angela: That’s quite a difference in monthly payments! Aside from the horrible impact on the individuals holding these loans, how does this impact the housing market as a whole and your industry in particular?

Jeff: The real estate market correction was needed. That, along with the adjustment in the way loans are being handled, has eliminated the “riff-raff” from the mortgage industry. Over 110 lenders have gone out of business this year, many of whom were pushing the riskier loan options. Companies like my own are doing quite well. In fact, September was the best month for Century in the past eleven years!

Angela: So this “correction” has removed individuals — and companies — from the loan industry in the same way it is cleaning out the real estate industry. What advice can you offer real estate agents currently working in this market?

Jeff: The best advice I can give a Realtor is to team up with a good lender. I know that sounds self-serving, but let me explain why…

A bad loan officer can make a good deal go sour. Right now, real estate agents and sellers can’t afford to lose a sale because a service provider didn’t dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.

A good loan officer will make recommendations to help all parties. For instance, rather than dropping the price of a given home, they may suggest offering more seller’s concessions toward a new loan.

Angela: How and whom does that help?

Jeff: It helps everyone involved. For a $150K loan, for example, with no points at 6.5%, closing costs and title insurance may run $1880. If the seller will contribute $1830 to “buy down the rate” (i.e. have the seller pay the points and therefore reduce the overall interest rate) everyone will benefit.

This helps the buyer because the monthly payment is reduced. At 6.5%, the buyer’s monthly payment would be $948.10. At 6% interest that payment is $899.33, a savings of $48.77 per month every month of the loan.

If the seller had merely dropped the price of the house overall by that same amount, the buyer would only realize a benefit of $11.56 per month.

The real estate agent is paid based on the sales price, so he/she benefits from not dropping the sales price.

The seller and the agent benefit from a larger pool of potential buyers because more people can qualify for a lower monthly payment.

Even the lender benefits by building a relationship with both the buyer and the Realtor. Working together to help everyone involved builds long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. We can help to sell a house that might not otherwise be sold or work with a buyer that may not have otherwise qualified. It’s gratifying.

Angela: That makes sense. Thanks, Jeff, for taking the time to talk with me today. I appreciate your insight and I’m sure my readers will too.

Jeff: My pleasure, Angela.

If you want to speak to Jeff yourself, you can contact him by calling 502-753-4120 or visiting him on the web at: http://www.cmcloans.com/jaicken.

(photos courtesy of gracey, cohdra, and ppdigital at MorgueFile.com)

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Just in time to prepare for the holidays RemoteProfessionals.com (http://www.RemoteProfessionals.com) will be hosting Clare Evans, a personal and business coach at 10:00 a.m. EST on Friday, November 16, 2007 for a teleclass that is open to the public.

In this one-hour teleclass, Clare will present time management techniques and tools specifically formulated for the small business owner and freelance/outsourcing professional.

“We all have the same amount of hours in the day, yet some people seem to glide through their day … while others seem to be in whirlwind of activity, running around, constantly chasing their tails, missing appointments, getting overwhelmed and distracted and getting nowhere fast,” said Evans, “If you work for yourself or work from home, you don’t need to be spending all your hours working.”

Evans has developed a number of individual techniques to help reduce stress and improve results. She coaches entrepreneurs to success with concrete methods to work smarter, use time more effectively and enjoy a business environment that is calm, organized and productive.

Visit her on the web at http://www.clareevans.co.uk/ to learn more and join Clare Evans on November 16th by registering at http://www.remoteprofessionals.com to start enjoying an improved work-life balance.

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I’ll be tweaking and adjusting things over the next few days (maybe even weeks), but the look should stay mostly stable now. If you have any suggestions or comments, I’d love to hear them. Thanks for stopping by!

Angela

(Note: Image taken from Morguefile.com courtesy of photographer earl53.)

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1. Present yourself online
2. Organize your workflow for real estate projects
3. Customize your website

For more information…Visit the www.RemoteProfessionals.com event page and register today to attend on Thursday at noon (EST).

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If you are considering joining some now, you should:

Select only a few - it’s better to do a few things really well than to “sort of” do many things. Choose carefully based on your interests, the others involved whether or not the layout/setup makes it easy for you.

Participate - social media doesn’t work if you don’t work it. Signing up and staying quiet is like going to a dance and propping up a wall all night. It’s no fun and it doesn’t help you become more visible to your potentials.

Advertise - if you are a member of a social network and you don’t tell anyone — how will you be found? Many of the people you already know (or those who know you) may be interested in becoming involved with you on a social network — if they know which ones you use…I made the determination some time ago that I couldn’t spare a great deal of time away from clients to do the “connecting” online. Why? Because my schedule was already full and this stuff swept me away. I love communicating with others. I love “talking shop” and to give me those opportunities in abundance is just begging me to abuse it. Seriously.

So I went cold turkey (almost) for awhile. I refused to check out new platforms beyond a cursory glance and I limited my work with the ones I kept. I tried to get a grip on the other things that were going on in my personal life, my family life and my business — FIRST.

So, I didn’t reach out or explore for several months.

Recently, I have gone to take an inventory of where I am and where I need to be. I’ve also investigated and started working with some of the options that I find most interesting. I’d signed up for several accounts, and then hit the “no more” point. My profiles were sadly incomplete.

Now, I’ve gone in and cleaned up some old information, have added some essential new content, have played with new platforms and want to share the best gems I’ve found:

Twitter
I’ll admit that I didn’t “get” this one when I first heard about it. I figured… “Great, just what I need — ANOTHER thing to make me feel guilty when I slack off.” I figured I already had a blog, a website, a couple blogs on other sites, and a slew of things I needed to do. I didn’t get the coolness of immediate updates. So I started them a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty cool. It allows me to make a quick comment (limited to 140 characters) without feeling the need for a full-bodied blog entry. I like it.

I also put a plugin for my ActiveRain.com blog and one here on WickedBlog to share my “mini-blog” updates. I even have it working on my new iPhone with Hahlo.com, so I can “twitter on the fly!” (Now THAT’s a phrase you probably don’t hear every day.)

RemoteProfessionals
I regularly add my two cents to a public blog on this site aimed at new outsourcing providers. I also add regular articles to the Members Only area on topics of interest to those “old hands” among us. It’s a great community of peer providers, offers networking opportunities to those providing services to other industries (like real estate) and offers real estate professionals a place to locate the service providers they need. I’ve been on RemoteProfessionals.com for over two years now. Everyone plays nicely in this small, specialized organization.

ActiveRain
This real estate community is blooming (I think they get over 100 new members a day at this point.) I’ve been there for nearly a year now (I joined in October of last year). I really enjoy the community and the involvement of those involved (directly and indirectly) in the real estate industry. Most people “play well with others” but (as with any large group of people) there are occasional blatant exceptions.

Facebook (rather than MySpace)
I’ve all but abandoned my MySpace page, despite a recent invitation to join the “business group” over there. It was always a little too juvenile for my tastes, but I gave it a whirl. I prefer the Facebook layout and the fact that it’s aimed at an older audience (even if the target audience is still much younger than me.) Sadly, I just recently set up my profile and my children just “tsk-tsk” because I have no “friends” on my list. (You could help by buzzing me if you have a FaceBook account, you know!) :O)

It’s getting enough airtime on the web right now, and has become such a blog “darling” that I expect it may draw an more *ahem* mature audience as time goes on. I like the local “geographic” community options for networking and classified pages. We shall see. Features like Zoho.com’s office products, online calendar integration and a number of others I’ve not yet tested make it much more likely to be a “landing page” on the Internet for many.

I’ll probably use it as a landing page when I’m out with my iPhone (using the iPhone Facebook page announced this month) more that I do pages other than my own blog and website.

Other Blogs
There are a slew of excellent blogs in the sphere. Pick a handful to follow. Be sure they are blogs that keep your interest (offer you information you can use and are entertaining). This way you can learn, enjoy the journey and can leave a trail of intelligent comments and bits of praise on other well-written blogs. I highlight a few of my favorite blogs and other excellent finds on my Slick Saturday Sites feature from time to time.

LinkedIn
Aimed primarily for the business folk among us, this can be a great way to “link up” with potential clients and to network with peers. I find it a bit more cumbersome to set up than most social media options, but created a profile there ages ago and have finally started actually networking a bit. This isn’t one of my favorites, but many swear by it.

StumbleUpon
Honestly, I use this more for fun than for networking, although I have some peers and clients that have extremely good luck with the social networking facet of this cool little tool. I prefer to just use it as a Firefox browser addon to locate extremely good sites in areas that interest me.

AgentsOnline.net
If you are a real estate agent, if you work with agents or if you are in a related industry, this may be a great forums site for you to tout what you know. It’s not one of my primary sites, but I do go over and poke around occasionally to post or answer questions. If you have the discipline to schedule your social media “touches” you may want to add this one to the once a month list. It will help drive traffic back to your site and submissions here can often pop up fairly well in the search engines.

Yahoo! Answers
I have spent quite a bit of time over on Yahoo! Answers giving my 2 cents worth in the past. Currently, I almost never go there, but I can say that if you are just establishing your prowess in a particular area of expertise, this may be a great way to get traffic back to your own site(s). I still have incoming traffic from answers I posted months and months ago. If you are a busy person, and you have plenty of incoming traffic, this probably isn’t the best use of your time on a regular basis.

I still go over when I have a specific interest in something — or if I have learned something new and interesting — and do a search for questions on that topic. It’s also a great way to get a direct link back to a specific article you have written on your own site about that topic. (Use the resources section and make sure you have a live HTML link to your more “expansive” treatment of that particular topic. I don’t really use it to ask questions, however.

eZineArticles
Although this is not really social media site, it is a great “buzz builder” on your skills/knowledge in your area of expertise, so I just had to throw it in. Take a few moments and check it out.

(Note: Image taken from Morguefile.com courtesy of photographer hotblack.)

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You watched in awe as your business grew. (Never mind the lack of sleep and the volume of work you endured to make it happen). Every tiny success made you work harder and kept you moving forward.

Then you were breaking even (or maybe even making a small profit) but the business needed your constant, careful guidance. Later, you were forced to endure a stretch of “business adolescence” complete with the inevitable identity crisis.

You were forced to make difficult decisions about the direction your business should take. You knew benign neglect wouldn’t work and even your focused diligence didn’t prevent some small details from wiggling out of your grasp. There was so much to juggle!

Now the business isn’t quite so needy. Finally, it has matured enough that you don’t have to tend it 24/7 and you are officially playing with the “big boys.” A mature business obtains the power of experience, professionalism and polish.

Showcasing these traits makes your business more appealing to the best clients and helps you to secure your place in your industry. It’s time your business “dress” for success… I’ll show you how in five easy steps!

How to Painlessly Polish Your Business Image

#1: Keep It Simple – Your color schemes, fonts, and graphics should be straightforward. A smooth presentation requires all elements be easy to read discern and all concepts be easy to grasp. Don’t dumb down your materials, but be sure your message is both uncomplicated and memorable.

#2: Make it Matter – Your logo, tagline, mission statement and website should relate directly to your main line of business services and offerings. Your business niche should be easily discerned and recognized at a glance from all elements used to brand your business. Don’t make your potential clients or your peers guess what you do. Keep it pertnient

#3: Create Visibility – No item should leave your office (virtual or otherwise) without a firm branding element. If you send emails without a signature line, you are missing opportunities. If you don’t have branded letterhead, get it. Tuck a business card or a branded incentive (20% coupon for any new client’s first project) in a thank you note and ask the recipient to keep you in mind for their own peers or for future projects. Find creative ways to make contact with branded materials on a regular basis to your existing clients, your potential clients, peers and other contacts.

#4: Choose Consistency – Create a style sheet for your business. Record and reference the colors you use, the fonts you use and the graphics you incorporate. Ensure that the materials you were using when your business was young are updated to properly reflect your more established status and your more focused nature. Eliminate “old” versions of your logo or marketing materials. Don’t “mix and match” them. When viewing all your marketing materials (and anything else related to your business) make sure everything coordinates. If you placed all of your outgoing media on the same tabletop, would any of it make you want to hum the old Sesame Street tune “One Of These Things (Is Not Like The Others)?” Don’t allow your business to have a multiple personalities.

#5: Exude Confidence – Experts do one thing, or one related category of things, better than anyone else. They excel in their area of expertise. Your business should reflect your area of specialization. Do your homework, stay on top of the latest developments in your industry, service or client focus. Be sure your business reflects your authority with one identity, one goal, one niche and one business image.

****

Notes: Want to Learn More?

To learn more about the importance of color on how your business is received, attend the upcoming (low-cost) event: Color Theory: How Your Color Choices Impact Your Marketing.

Consider each marketing piece as a stand-alone tool and as a member of your marketing toolbox. Now may be the time to create an elegant business card.

Take steps to more effectively market and brand your current business or develop a niche and focus your business. Need some pointers on niching and marketing a specialized real estate business?

Has your business grown too much for you to handle everything yourself? Are you a real estate agent or broker considering the use of outsourcing professionals? Want to talk with someone who is doing it now, has done it for years and personally knows the ups and downs of outsourcing? Attend a free seminar event in August on The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Outsourcing Real Estate Projects.

(Note: Image taken from Morguefile.com courtesy of photographer clarita.)

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I’ve assembled a list of resources to help you keyword your website by first researching keyword popularity. Since most tools only evaluate the popularity on a single search engine, you are going to need several to get a well balanced picture.

You should also remember that your content will drive traffic. If you offer helpful, entertaining and well-written information that your niche market seeks, you will gain readership. Adding keywords and keyword phrases will get you in the search results, but may not secure visitor loyalty. You need a sticky site that gives good information.

Now, back to the keyword portion of this equation…The obvious keywords in real estate are the hardest to secure. For instance “Lexington Real Estate” and “Lexington Homes for Sale” are highly competitive words. Adding local aspects will help narrow it down “Lexington Kentucky Homes for Sale” — but not by much.

Aside from the legitimate sites (read: ethical), the black-hat SEO and “smammy” sites tend to target and secure high spots for those terms (although they fall off that horse as quickly as they jump on).

Niche Deep!

The best approach? Niche your keywords in the same way you niche your services. If there are 500,000,000 searches on Google per month for “Your city Real Estate” and you are on page 40, you will get fewer visitors than if there are only 50,000 and you are on page two for “Lexington Kentucky Condo Communities” (and you specialize in condo communities).

But, if you are seeking a specific portion of that market, you may want to target “Pet friendly condo communities in Lexington Kentucky.” This may only result in a monthly search volume of 1,000 - but if you are number one on page one — you will have a shot at ALL of those!

Search Engine Savvy
The same logic applies to search engines. Yes, Google is king — to the tune of 65% of all searches, according to a recently released report by HitWise.com — but they are not the ONLY search engine.

You will get more qualified visits if you rank on page one of a smaller search engine than if you are on page 40 of Google. So, play the numbers!

No, you can’t ignore Google — but it’s no use to become obsessive when Google does its regular “dance” and your page one results drop off the face of the earth for a few weeks. Stuff happens.

The other search engines are a bit more “stable” — but only because they don’t constantly tweak their methods to improve the service to Internet search users.

Tools You Can Use

Now… the tools for keyword popularity (and remember to check the numbers and try to OWN a few well-targeted, but less popular searches — especially if you are trying to boost a new — or floundering — site).

Online Options:

• Google’s Keyword Tool
• Overture
• WordTracker

Tools that are resident on your computer:

• Good Keywords - Free download (”souped up” paid version also available) without loyalty to a particular search engine. Uses Overture, Yahoo!, Ask and 7Search.

Paid Option:

• Keyword Discovery - offers a free trial (in case you want to give it a spin)

And if you want to do a bit more research and get questions answered on keywords and other SEO topics, go visit the beginner-friendly SEO forum at iHelpYou.com.

(Remember: Avoid “tricks” and “gimmicks” on your website. Instead, opt for interesting information and interactive features that your ideal clients and potential clients will seek to secure your position as the helpful local expert on your niche.)

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As usual, when I see a great new tech tool, I begin to envision how (and if) it will be of benefit to the Real Estate Industry. In this particular case, I see a brave new world opening up for brokerages that lay down the $5,000 - $10,000 required to buy it. Rather than spell it all out, I’d like to create a scenario for you… on how YOUR office might function using this type of technology…

(Disclaimer: I’m NOT a Microsoft advocate. In fact, I’ve been decidedly ANTI-Microsoft for some time (since Vista) and blog about that fact regularly. Despite this, I’m truly impressed with this new product. It’s remarkable.)

Picture this, if you will…

You have a couple in the office to sign the listing papers. You were out taking preliminary photos earlier in the day, and now it’s time for them to sign on the dotted line.

While they are there, you place your digital camera on the surface of the conference room table. Immediately, all the photos you took of their house “spill” onto the surface of the table’s display. It looks like a physical stack of standard photos. Using your fingertips, and encouraging the clients to join your endeavor, you move the photos around to find the best front shot to use for the MLS.

You can resize, crop, move and organize all the photos in seconds — using only your fingers. Your clients are not only involved in the process, they are enjoying it. After all, it’s fun!

You take the opportunity when they are both smiling to snap a quick photo of the two of them and it spills out of the camera when you set it down on the table’s surface. You ask the wife to place their cell phone on the table. When she does, a circle surrounds the device and you drop a copy of the image of the happy couple on her cell phone — so she can use it later as wallpaper, you explain — with a one-second flip of your index finger.

You finish the selection of the photos for their old house, pull up the template to to make their home go live on the Internet. You transfer over the previous MLS listing on the property from the archives and you update it with new information quickly and easily. In a matter of moments you can show the clients how their listing will look online and they touch the “I approve” button and it goes live immediately.

Then, you begin showing them houses that are a bit larger and a bit more suited to their current needs:

• You touch a menu to open a map of the city.
• You select from the listed price range options.
• You select the schools (elementary, middle and high) they are interested in their children attending.
• Then you touch the neighborhood/subdivision option and all subdivisions in those districts with houses for sale in their price range light up.
• Another touch and the school maps for each selected school overlays the subdivisions.
• You press “show me” and a pile of photos materializes.

You say, “Here are the houses in your desired price range, served by the schools you want, in the neighborhoods highlighted here.”

As they are reviewing the home photos, you select the address on the map where the each of the adults work.

When they select several homes they like, you touch a corner of the photos to expand the information. They get all the MLS information on each home, the option to view additional photos as a slide show, and a calculated distance to each school and to each workplace — all with directions and an estimated drive time. The trip to each location is drawn in a different color on the underlying map.

You click a button to show amenities.

One tap brings up those in the subdivision and neighborhood. These are displayed on a zoomed in map and each appears named in bright, easy-to-read lettering. If your clients touch the park in Windemere subdivision where the first potential home is located, they get photos of the playground, ball fields, swimming pool and tennis courts. They also see hours of operation, can get scheduled events with a single finger tap and can visit the park’s website by tapping “Go to Our Website” on the table display.

When finished viewing information about this park, they hit “Close” and return to the zoom map with all the neighborhood amenities.

You also can show them amenities within walking distance, within biking distance and within a selected radial distance (5, 10, 25, 50, 100 miles). The map zooms out as needed.

You can show them public transportation options (bus routes/schedules, tram, train and airports) on the map, in relation to the home they are considering. Ditto for tourist attractions and natural wonders.

You then return them to the house itself.

They have the option to take video virtual tours or to view and/or download video podcasts about any of the homes onto their own portable device (by simply placing it on the surface and flicking the video image into the circle around the device). They can view and expand (or shrink) the floor plans and plats to see an overview or every single detail of the property — inside and out.

You invite them to virtually expand each of the houses that interest them for similar information and ask if they would like something to drink.

While you get their drinks, they review houses and play with your newest tech toy for a few moments in private. When you return, you set the drinks on the surface of the table and tiny virtual bubbles appear that react to touch. The clients both giggle as they chase a few around with a fingertip before getting back to the “work” of selecting a house.

Now, they are reviewing the homeowners association covenants on their top contenders.

They ask your advice on comparing a few of the properties. You offer information on the current market, on the potential for each property to hold, lose or increase in value over the next 5-10 years, based on historical market performance in that neighborhood. You explain this using graphs that you call up with a couple taps and can change from a bar graph to a line graph to a pie graph, depending on which you (or they) prefer.

When they select three houses they would like to see. You push a couple buttons to upload the lock box keys to your smartphone and you check the digital printout of the potential showing times that have been pre-approved by the current owners.

You schedule the showings for two homes late this afternoon and the third in the early evening based on the couple’s availability and send the scheduling request off with a single tap. Seconds later, an automated email arrives approving the showings and blocking out that time so there are no surprise appearances by other agents to show the houses while you are onsite. You place your own cell phone on the table surface and flip the information into it so you will have driving directions, details and all the information you need.

You ask the clients if they would like to send the information on these houses to anyone else via email for review. They say it would be great to send them to a member of the family.

In a single finger-tap, you pull up an email and drag the three houses to it. The email is sent while the multimedia presentation is automatically uploaded to your website. The recipient can view all the screens, videos, photos on the houses your clients wanted to share by clicking a single button in a personalized email and viewing them on a special section of your website.

You take your clients out for a late lunch, show them all three houses and they sign a contract on their favorite the following day.

***

That’s my vision of where the technology could go. So, are you feeling like the way you do business now will soon be the “dark ages” of real estate? Yeah, me too!

This technology is going to redefine the way we all do business — and it’s going to hit the streets by the end of the year.

Are YOU ready?

Are you going to be?

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• Working Without Wires - A Wireless Real Estate Office (0)
• Web 2.0 for Real Estate Agents: Content, Collaboration, Creativity (0)
• Video Podcasts Offer Palm-sized Real Estate Virtual Tours (0)

• What if I get in legal trouble?
• What if someone sues me?
• What if a typo changes something I’m trying to say?
• How can I protect myself?

Bloggers are communicators. We (as a group) need to be heard, to share information and to stand surefooted alongside our opinions. We need to know where to go to get the real story about our rights, or protection and how the current legal climate may affect our blogs.Take a quick trip over the the good folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This not-for-profit group defends the digital rights of people like you and me every day. They provide information and even legal assistance to online publishers of all types.

They also offer:

• A legal guide for bloggers
• An FAQ for bloggers
• An action center for issues that affect your online rights

Additionally, Stanford Law School hosts a site called the “Stanford Center for Internet and Society” which may be of interest to bloggers and website owners and others who publish information on the Internet.

Have you received a “Cease and Desist” letter and don’t quite know what to do with it? You may want to check out the “Chilling Effects Website” for more information on what to do next.

Whatever you decide… keep blogging, keep exercising your right to express yourself and keep your first amendment rights strong — online and offline!

Blogging is one of the best online marketing techniques available for real estate agents. It’s the most effective way to show that you know the area, you know the market, and you know the business. It’s the best way to advertise your skills, your knowledge and yourself to your ideal clients.

Now… go blog!

Related posts

• To Blog or Not to Blog... The Real Estate Agent's Question (Part I) (0)
• To Blog or Not to Blog — the Real Estate Agent’s Question - Part II (0)
• Still Not Blogging, Eh? Listen Up! (0)