Worth a Look...

One of my original goals for this blog was to use it to shine light on lesser known companies, and easily missed solutions, tools and ideas which might benefit real estate professionals

Because of the work I do for Realtor, I get email from start-ups and entrepreneurs with a new product or service they want to promote. Sometimes they’re just looking foran unbiased opinion or suggestions. I hold onto these with best intentions to write them up. But. it’s not always easy to find the time to give them their due and point readers in their direction. With this entry I hope to rectify that by highlighting just a few

Some innovative solutions are developed by Realtors themselves, although it can be a while before their great ideas reach the mainstream. When a real estate pro can harness technology to address a particular challenge, or provide a better model for disseminating information, there’s more potential value than when someone outside the industry proposes a better way of doing things, without really understanding the nature of your job and challenges you face..

So support these fellow Realtors and take a look at hat they’ve been doing

Last week I got an email from Frank Borges LLossa, broker owner with Frankly Real Estate, Alexandria, VA. He’s pioneered what he describes as “the World's First WIKI MLS.” Follow the link, he explains it better than I can here. The idea of a “wiki”— a deepening well of user-driven information on the topic, in this case listings— offers one more example how you can tap the reach, access and immediacy of the Internet to disseminate and share timely information and insight. His wiki won’t be the last.

In the Chicago area, Doug O’Reilly took it on himself to devise a mobile solution for retrieving listing information via smartphone. mEstate takes a feed from the MLSNI and delivers it, with photos, to most smartphones, including Blackberries, Treos and iPhones. Enter mEstate’s URL on a Web-powered phone and you can search the database by address, price range or MLS . WIthin seconds you’ve got the essentials, including contact info for the listing agent. This is a labor of love: O’Reilly developed and delivers the service for free. What a welcome precedent to set!

Out West, Philip Farrar brought a background in accounting, finance and computer systems to his real estate career with Windermere Real Estate Capitol Hill, Seattle. When he started keeping the books for himself and his wife, also a Realtor, he was surprised there wasn’t an easy answer to financial management for real estate agents.
So, Farrar partnered with a programmer to develop Wallaby as a Web-based solution. He designed Wallaby so agents can adapt it to how they run their business and manage finances. He’s got 100 subscribers so far, primarily in Washington state, and is putting the final touches on version 2.0.

How Do You Make Your Case?

Before you can get that buyer or seller to sign a contract, you’ve got to make your case. It might be on paper, viewed on your notebook or the TV, maybe something you distribute via email or on disc, but there’s some sort of presentation involved.

I’m working on a guide to presentation solutions for Realtor Online’s May issue and I’d like to get some input on what works and why. Is a printed CMA on paper, pulled from your MLS, all it takes? Are you using PowerPoint to convince that buyer or seller you should represent them? Have you experimented with presentation software? What about video—is it worth the time and expense, on or offline?

If you’ve got experience, observations or insight you’d like to share, please email me.

Transaction Management

March’s buying guide in Realtor Online takes a look at transaction management solutions. With space limitations we can’t include every company, but I try to identify the major providers in these guides. Spend a lot of time searching the Web, soliciting input from brokers and agents, asking contacts about their products and competitors. No matter, there’s almost always some left out or overlooked.

I’m hoping to use this space to supplement or expand on the coverage there. Coming out of this story, the most important thing I heard from vendors and successful users of transaction management systems: assign someone with primary responsibility for managing that system, entering listing data, contracts and forms, contact info, etc

Some are selling the systems, and some are buying into the concept, with the idea that a Web-based transaction system is going to make life easier for the agent, centralize all their records with a system for tracking progress toward closing.

What I heard, though, is the transition can be counterproductive if you force them to learn and adopt new habits.
Relieve them of that responsibility by assigning it to or hiring a listing coordinator or transaction manager,(however you describe that position) and everyone benefits. Agents can focus more time on clients, assured everything is taken care and nothing will be missed. Clients and their representatives can monitor the progress and see what needs to be done.

And the system which improves efficiency while allowing agents to spend more time with buyers and sellers gives the broker a potent tool for recruiting.