Real Estate Technology

Fort Walton Beach Home Sale Update

2009-06-15T15:08:00.001-04:00

Start Typing my content.

New Video Update on Current Fort Walton Beach Housing

2009-06-15T14:45:00.000-04:00

We've packed up and moved.

2008-12-16T15:29:00.002-05:00

If you have found this blog your're very close to our newest site. We recently moved to a WordPress.org hosted site so check us out at www.RETechBlog.com

Have a great day,
Matt Rains

Marketing your listing online | Part 2

2008-12-06T14:13:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone,

Last post I talked about how important it is to make sure your property is correctly inserted into your local MLS system because it is syndicated to other national MLS' within days and that sets the foundation for a successful online marketing plan.

This post I want to take it a step further and talk about where else you can post your listings and what you should do after your MLS syndicates your listings world wide.

Most large national and even world wide listing websites such as Real Seekr, Trulia and Zillow will allow you to do what is called "claiming your listings". Claiming your listings will allow you to receive up to date statistics on views and clicks, market yourself through those sites and let you edit any information they may have incorrect about your listing. The only way to know if a site allows you to claim your listings is by visiting the site and reading some of the Q&A sections about how and if it's done.

Once you claim your listings you need to add any additional photos, descriptions etc to them to make sure they are correct and in order so when they are viewed the info. is correct. Also, make sure to add information about yourself, a picture and links to your website and blog so visitors can visit your local site.

As for where else to put your listing on the web I'm going to leave most of that to the comments on this post. I'll tell you a few that I like and if you have one that you've had success with lately post it up so everyone can use it.

External Listing Sites:
RealSeekr.com
Trulia.com
Zillow.com
Craigslist.com
Backpage.com

Ok, so now that you've listed your property on MLS correctly and claimed your properties through external listing websites it's time to go around the web and add your listings to other sites that aren't syndicated to automatically.

PS - Sorry if this post was a little "off" i'm currently sitting at a Christmas festival and their are elves running around singing songs by the Jackson 5. HAHA.

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Marketing your listing online | Part 1

2008-11-29T12:29:00.004-05:00

As we move into 2009 marketing your listings online will be a very large portion of your business. Most sellers now are requiring that the agent they hire have the proficiency to market their home online effectively and if they can't then they simply will not get hired.

I want to do a quick series on some ways to market a home on the internet appropriately. In this first part I want to go over an overlooked portion in which I call the "foundation". The foundation to any online marketing campaign begins with your MLS. Hopefully you're already putting your listing in your local MLS but I want to talk about why you should really take your time and make sure you're listing on your MLS effectively.

What a lot of agents don't know is that the listings they insert into MLS are syndicated to other national listing services such as Real Seekr, Trulia, Zillow and more. That means that the listing you've put into your local MLS will be shared and uploaded to these larger national listing systems to further help expose the property.

The reason I bring this up is because I see all to often where an agent will not even go as far as putting a single listing picture on their new listing until one or two weeks go by. So now when that listing is syndicated to these larger national listing services it has no picture and is worthless as a marketing piece.

So for now just know that everything you put into your MLS will syndicated to larger national listing companies and that it is a great way to set a foundation for marketing your property online.

Until the next post go into your MLS and really look over your listings to see what could be added or changed.

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

SEO Series | Part 3 Letting everyone know your here

2008-11-26T21:22:00.002-05:00

We're going to take a quick second to finish the series we we're doing a couple of weeks ago because I don't want to leave anyone in the dark.

Before we get into the last step (for this series) I want you to sit down and write several descriptions about what your site is about. Kinda like your keywords but more of a brief summary.

All there is left to do now that we are happy with our site/blog setup is to submit it to the search engines of your choice. Once your website is submitted it will be up to you to keep your website full of good content and keep the search engines coming back.

A good site to use when submitting your website to search engines is http://www.FreeWebSubmission.com This site lets you submit to multiple websites all at once and does a great job of it.

Just remember that because your website is submitted to search engines that doesn't mean people will find it. It is mainly your job to keep your content good and to let people know what your blog is about and where they can find it through commenting on other blogs, emails and general socialization.

Have a great day,
Real Estate Technology Online

Blackberry Storm Release Date!

2008-11-16T18:07:00.002-05:00

I know this blog has become more of a "news central" for the Blackberry Storm but that's ok because I think you're as excited as I am about its release. I got an e-mail about 2 days ago that said the release date will be November 21st 2008. That's next Friday! YAY!

As you already know I will be first in line to pick mine up and do a blog post on the features of the phone and how I like it. Stay tuned and check back on the 21st of November.

Thanks,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

I held the Blackberry Storm....Finally

2008-11-08T18:03:00.004-05:00

Hello again everyone,

I wouldn't call myself an impatient person all the time. Only when there is something new I want. Like the Blackberry Storm. I have literally been bugging the poor Verizon people weekly to find out any information I can about the release date of the storm. When I ask "When does the storm come out?" I always get the answer "They don't tell us that".

Well today was a little different. I am currently in Orlando FL at the NAR convention 2008 and I ran into the big Verizon Wireless booth. When I asked the young lady behind the booth when the storm was being released she said......."They don't tell us that!" AHHH! It drives me crazy. I then went to another area of the NAR expo and found the actual Blackberry booth. I figured where better to get the information I need than from the source.

I approached another young lady at the Blackberry booth and asked her the same question. As she began to mutter the words "They don't" I had to stop her and tell her my story. She gave me a sad look and handed me some pamphlets about the storm hoping to make me feel better. At this point I knew I had to pull out the big guns to get the info I needed. I started to ask her all kinds of technical questions about the storm like processor speeds, EVDO rev, storage capacity, OS capabilities etc. and finally she leaned over and whispered "There's one here if you want to play with it."

HOLY COW! There's a storm at the convention and she is willing to let me play with it. FINALLY!! I obviously agreed so she took me behind a curtain behind the booth and handed me a real fully functional Blackberry Storm. I was in heaven. The phone is everything they said it will be.

She asked me not to take any pictures or videos of the phone because it was not even supposed to be at the NAR convention much less activated and turned on. So I did the reasonable thing and recorded a short video while she wasn't looking. Below is a very short clip of me holding the final blackberry storm. I hope you enjoy it and from what I can tell this phone is going to take things up a notch.

Thanks,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

SEO Series | Part 2 Search Engine Compatible

2008-10-30T16:30:00.005-04:00

Part two in our series is going to ensure your website is "search engine compatible". Now that we have discussed the keywords and key phrases you are going to use in part one we can actually go into the guts of the website by discussing how to keep search engines happy with your site.

The first area we have to look at is what are the search engines looking at? What makes a search engine dislike you? Search engines have small programs or "scripts" that run called robots. These robots search through your site looking at your "code" and "content". Things that turn robots off are things like pop-ups, an over usage of pictures instead of text or all flash and no text content.

The key to keeping search engine bots happy is simply valuable easy to navigate content. Just be sure to keep your methods ethical and your content valuable. I tell people all the time that most search engines have gotten to the point where if your website truly deserves to be number one in the search result it will be.

Now for those of you that build your own site or have one built the following is for you. Make sure your "meta" tags are all relevant to your content and keywords. Always make sure your internal pages link back to your homepage so bots do not get lost or hit a dead end. Use external CSS whenever possible. If your using flash have a text version available for people without a flash player (iPhone users).

What this all comes down to in a nutshell is - the most important part of your website is how valuable and relevant your content is to the spectrum of visitors you are trying to appeal to. Like I said in step one the search engine world is a giant popularity contest and even if you have a sure fire way to become the most popular site on the net people will never consistently return if your content is no good and remember returning visitors shows Google that your content was worth coming back to.

PS - Our LIVE Real Estate Technology show will be aired Saturday 8pm instead of Sunday 8pm. We will be out of the country starting Sunday morning.

Have a greay day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Live Video Screen Captures | Freebie!!

2008-10-26T17:53:00.003-04:00

So you've seen Jeff Turners instructional videos and you've wondered to your self..."How does he capture his screen into a video like that?"

Well we have searched the internet universe up and down to bring you "Debut". Debut is a free screen / video / audio capture software that can create very nice screen capture videos for your website or blog.

The features of Debut are listed below and you can read more and download the software from NCH Software

Records video in many different file formats including .avi, .wmv, .flv, .asf .mpg, .3gp, .mp4, .mov and more
Ability to record from:
- Camera (webcam)
- Video Input Sources with a USB Capture Device see here...
- Screen. Almost anything you can see or play on your PC can be recorded.
Records audio with the video (optional).
Multiple video and audio encoder settings.
Snap-shot saving feature.
Text caption and timestamp features.
Ability to adjust resolution and framerate of the output video.
Color settings and video effects for the output video can be changed.
Lets you record for set specified durations (h:mm:ss).
When recording period is over, you can either stop recording or create a new recording and continue.
Mirror recordings to a network or backup drive to keep your video files safe.
Can be set to automatically send video via email once the recording is completed.
Can automatically transmit video files via the internet using FTP.
Find and play recordings ordered by name, date, format or size
Ability to burn directly to DVD with Express Burn Plus.
System wide hot-key assignment to control recording while working in other programs.
Debut Video Recorder has an incredibly intuitive and easy to use interface.
Compatible with BroadCam Streaming Video server to distribute your recording.

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Meet Matt Fagioli | DiamondDwellings.com

2008-10-24T17:34:00.007-04:00

Today I got the chance to speak with Matt Fagioli about his innovative "blogging brokerage" and also about his technology panel at the upcoming NAR 2008 Expo.

Matt is a pioneer in the new "blogging brokerage" frontier and I couldn't agree with this business model more. If you stand back and really look at what this type of brokerage is doing it's a no brainer when someone asks what brokers will still be standing after this hard economic time.

We already know that almost 90% of people go to the internet first to buy/sell/invest in real estate. This makes a blogging brokerage perfect. The idea is that if you only have a website it's going to be very difficult to stand against the larger brokerage companies when it comes to the internet, but if you have a blog where all of your agents can post topics about real estate in your area it shows an always evolving web presence that will always stand out among search engines.

If you would like to contact Matt Fagioli about Diamond Dwellings his email is matt@diamonddwellings.com

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

SEO Series | Part 1 Keywords

2008-10-22T19:54:00.006-04:00

We're going to get into our new series about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The video above is a brief summary from our live show last Sunday night (www.realestatetechnologyonline.com/live).

Before you ever get in front of a computer or meet with a web developer you have to grab a pen and paper to ask yourself a question.

Question 1 - What do I want my website to be found for? or What will people be searching for when they find my website?

That question will lead you into the first step of your SEO plan; "Keywords". Search engines work by using what is called "robots" to search through the text and links of your web page to find certain repetitive keywords. After robots search your site they use your "keywords" to associate what your site is about to what people are looking for from the search engine.

Take your pad and pen and start to write down words or phrases that you want your site associated with. These phrases can be "real estate agents Denver" or "relocation specialist Denver " really whatever you want to associate yourself with.

Now that you have your certain keywords/key phrases you'll want to make sure these key terms are maximized by using the Google Adwords Tool. This tool will show you how to tune your key terms to get the most out of them.

Once you get to the tool type in your first key term such as "real estate agents in Denver". My results show that on average 110 people search for that specific key term each month. Now looking further down at those results I can see that the search term "Denver real estate agent" is searched for on average of 40,500 times each month or "Denver real estate" is searched for on average 165,000 times each month. So just using that one tool I have tuned my key phrase to appeal to 165,000 people instead of only 110. That's a huge difference.

We'll that's it for part one of SEO. Get settled down and find out what keywords / key phrases will work best for your site and maybe next we'll actually start on the website.

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

The SMS widget was a success!

2008-10-14T20:18:00.007-04:00

Hello again everyone,

I'm here with my friend caffeine and we are very excited about how the text messaging widget has done in the "real estate industry". It has been 4 days and we've had around 200 agents implement this widget into their website/blog. I really give all the credit to my three favorite websites/people (in no order).

-MyTechOpinion.com
-Agent Genius
-The Jeff Turner

Now that the widget craziness is over I can get back to my blog series about agent websites and can start the new series about SEO (search engine optimization). If you want the widget click here.

p.s. - I swear the text message in the video was not planned and if you were wondering about the greatest and most potent energy drink on the planet that was featured in my blog it was the Rockstar - Blue. (be careful with it)

Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Get text messages from your website!!

2008-10-09T21:28:00.003-04:00

Get It Here!

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Master Twitter.....Done & Done

2008-10-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

-Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Your Agent Website Series | Part Three

2008-10-06T22:25:00.006-04:00

"What in the world should I put on my website?" I get this question a lot and the first thing I always ask back is "What do you want your website to do for you?". Amazingly this always has a way of puzzling real estate agents. They never seem to sit down and think what their website should so for them.

The first thing I think a website should do for you is generate leads. Generating leads is how you make your money so of course that should be priority one and maybe even the only priority. After that realization we then have to figure out do we want buyers, sellers or a little bit of both? Right now I am in a buyers market like most of the country so I have tuned my website to be more friendly to buyers, but still work well with sellers if needed.

By tuning my website I mean I have made it easier to acquire buyers over sellers. I did this by giving buyers the number one thing they want most - A PROPERTY SEARCH - this is they key to generating traffic to your site. You have to have a way for buyers and even sellers to search the current market. Now since I have that taken care of my next priority would be to pre-qualify these new buyers. This is done with a giant button that says "Get Pre-Qualified Here" and when the potential buyer fills out that short form there info is sent to my preferred lenders and the process begins.

Now for sellers I can provide and quick "Find out what your home is worth form" that will set me up to do a market analysis for them and hopefully lead into a listing if I want it. For the most part I am currently not trying to take on any new listings but I will if they present themselves.

Some quick features you may want to add are Videos, Text Messaging and a fun/open description about yourself. These things can add a lot to your site.

I'll go over more in the video above but for now just remember to make your siute fun and useful while keeping it simple.

-Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

My New Toy | Acer Aspire One

2008-10-02T19:20:00.002-04:00

Here is my Acer Aspire One 9" NetBook. This thing ROCKS for only $350! The video was shot in the back yard so there is some wind noise. Sorry.

For more info click here

Your Agent Website Series | Part Two

2008-10-01T20:56:00.005-04:00

During this series we are going to talk about many different aspects of your agent website and since we have already covered domain names in the last post we now have to decide what type of site we want? I know your thinking "Well, I want the "web" kind of site".

There are a couple of different types of websites available for you. First you can host the site yourself and control every tiny aspect from creation to editing and so on. The method does have its ups and downs just like all of them. The benefit of hosting & building your own site yourself is the level of customization is limited only by your experience and skill. The downfall of hosting and building your own site if you are not experienced can be greater. It is by far the hardest to get up and running, you must know at least basic html to start and maintain and it takes much more time to keep up to date.

The second method of obtaining a website is buying pre-built. This option is great because you don't need to know HTML, you usually just pick a custom template to get started and you get to choose your own custom color scheme. The downfalls are you have to rely on tech support if there are any problems and it is not as customizable as a custom built page. This is most likely the best option for the average real estate professional that doesn't want to spend the time to try and build their own site.

The third option to obtaining a page is using a free pre-configured site given to you by your brokerage or board or Realtors. This is not my favorite option because it is always so generic and they all look the same. All the sites have a large header on top of some generic picture then on the left it has a "frame" style menu with a picture of the agent. These pages give you control over nothing, they look just like everyone elses, you gain minimal lead generation and there is no WOW! factor. I do use these pages whenever given to me just to have a picture, description and my name on the web but I would never run my business from one.

So it boils down to this... If you are good with web based programming or know someone who is then by all means have a custom site built that is like none other. If you want to get on the web quick with a semi-original page then go with pre-built and if you just don't care and want to just see your picture on the web run your business from the free broker page.

Now the last question. What pre-built website company do I recommend? I am going to leave this up to you the reader to recommend companies in the comments section for everyone to see. Just tell the company name, website and a brief description/experience so we can check them out.

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Just testing out a new toy.

2008-10-01T16:19:00.001-04:00

Hope everyone is doing well. I just got a new toy I wanted test out in the back yard.

Hope everyone is having a great day and enjoying this great weather.

-Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Your Agent Website Series | Part One

2008-09-29T23:07:00.005-04:00

The first part of our series on agent websites covers a very simple procedure on how to purchase a domain name since naturally this is the first step in owning your own website. If you are already a domain name buying pro you can have a hall pass and check back in tomorrow for the next part of our Agent Website series (you will not want to miss that one).

So the first step in the longest & most important journey you'll ever take in your career begins with purchasing a $10/year domain name. I know it's so cheap, that's because everything else from here out is so expensive (j/k).

I always recommend GoDaddy.com for domain name purchases because they own around 80% of all domain registrations around the world and I never have to worry about them going out of business and losing my domain names. The one thing I will say about GoDaddy.com that I don't like is they try and sometimes succeed to up-sell agents on things they don't need.

If you don't own a domain or haven't actually purchased a domain yourself all you need to do is watch the second video above for a step by step tutorial on how to buy a domain name from GoDaddy.com.

Here are a few tips on some domain names:
- always buy www.yourname.com, .net, .org, etc.
- choose keywords you want to be recognized by (your location, homes, real estate, etc.)
- if the domain name you want is taken use GoDaddy's tips to choose one that is available
- Just remember Domain Names are the new "Net Estate" buy as many as you can!

Hope step one gets the ball rolling. I can't wait for step two.

Have a great day,
Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Sorry it's been a while..

2008-09-28T20:40:00.002-04:00

I went to Miami last week and right before I got on the plane to come home I ate a slice of pizza w/ mushrooms (big mistake). I got sick during the flight and turns out food poisoning will keep you down for about a week. Well, i'm feeling better now and I've got a new series coming tomorrow about agent websites.

I have to take a long 7hr USPAP course tommorow but I should have time to put the first video in the series up tomorrow.

See everyone soon.

Matt Rains
Real Estate Technology Online

Great News!

2008-09-18T14:09:00.004-04:00

We got some really great feedback but I need more. I need Jim Whatley, Scott Dilbeck, Pat Williams and John Palmisano to skype me to talk more about your ideas. If your not on the that list and you have some great ideas about what agents need in a website call me on skype so we can talk about it. It's not like i'll be in Vegas at REBlog World :(

-Real Estate Technology Online

I need your help. Calling all agents!

2008-09-15T23:28:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone,

I need some help with getting a grip on what agents want in a real estate website. I am an agent but i'm kind of disconnected with what everyday successful agents need in a real estate website. I know I have had huge success with my pre-qualification system and my lead generators but I want the little things. Do agents want mapping systems like google earth do they want their listings displayed in a special way? Do they want their clients to have special log in information? Do they want a heavy page or a light page?

I need some help? Just post a comment or e-mail me if you have any ideas.

-Real Estate Technology Online

Going Green with Technology | It's Easy!

2008-09-13T13:42:00.010-04:00

I have tried and tried to wait for someone to do this post because I just didn't want to. I didn't want to fall into this whole "Go Green" movement but it has been brought to my attention that it just has to be done.

I am going to briefly talk about how to make your real estate career "greener" using free technology available to everyone.

First we have to go over communication. Some people like to have face to face meetings and therefore will not use their cell phone to talk with you. Instead of driving 20-30 minutes to meet them just download Skype and have a video conference with them and that way no one has to waste any gas driving to a meeting point.

The next "green" thing agents can improve on is the time spent driving around showing houses. I really think it is silly to drive all over the place showing 20 different houses when we have the types of technology available to us were we can do all of this from home. Take Google street view for example, this mapping technology allows my clients to literally walk down the street or around the neighborhood of a home they may be interested in. They can evaluate the neighborhood without ever leaving their computer. Then when a client does find a home and location they are interested in I should be able to call the listing agent and have a full interior video sent to me by e-mail so my clients can do a "video-tour" of the home before we set out and waste more gas.

I am trying to keep this short but I guess what I am trying to say is agents need to use the tools that are readily available to them so they can save time and money while also being "green".

Any Questions? Contact me at info@retechblog.com

-Real Estate Technology Online

Facebook.com & First Time Home Buyers

2008-09-08T19:59:00.003-04:00

I know this one's brief but it's dark, raining and i'm tired :( I hope it does give you some quick pointers on Facebook though.

-Real Estate Technology Online