Author Archive

Lately I’ve been revisiting my goals from 2009, setting new ones for 2010 and trying to find ways to streamline my workflow to make things more efficient. One web-based trick I’ve been using to do that is Timebridge. Timebridge gives you the power to set up a meeting without all the typical back-and-forth emails trying to hammer out the perfect time and day. You can send as many invites as you need and you can either propose up to five times on different days to … Read More »

Back in July of this year I wrote a post about the 10 most useful iPhone apps for real estate pros in which I recommended a mortgage calculator titled “Loan Calculator – What If?” Since then Apple’s App Store has grown significantly and the number of mortgage apps has increased dramatically as has the quality of each app. Sadly, I can no longer recommend “Loan Calculator – What If?” because it’s been trumped by a new competitor, offered at $0.99, called Mortgage Calculator Pro by … Read More »

With the plethora of gift options out there it can be tough to choose what to buy for your lovable geek. So, whether you’re seeking ideas for others or a few treats for yourself this year, the following list of top 20 gifts for real estate geeks will help point you in the right direction. To keep it simple the gift ideas are sorted by price range. Gifts Under $50 There are a ton of great gifts available for less than $50. From a 7-port … Read More »

Ah, video. It’s the sexiest new trend in real estate presentation and is, by far, one of the most difficult skills to build up while juggling every other task an agent has resting on their shoulders. Although there will definitely be a learning curve when you start doing video I can assure you the payoff will be more than worth it. To help save you a ton of time and frustration I’ve outlined ten tips I learned on the path to my first real estate … Read More »

Drew’s post of Matt Dollinger’s video on Web 2.0 paralysis by analysis made me think back to how I have adapted technology and whether it has affected my business in any way over the past year. My initial foray into social networking definitely consumed more time away from my business than it should have but I now block out time before or after the work day to jump on Twitter. Despite the learning curve that took precious time away from work, I’ve learned a ton … Read More »

When I call a prospective client for the first time I don’t use a script to qualify and understand what they’re looking for. Instead, I have a general idea of the things I need to know like number of bedrooms/bathrooms, location and where in the home buying process they are. I begin my initial call to a new website prospect/referral by asking a few open ended questions and listening which will usually yield all the answers to the questions posed in the checklist below. The … Read More »

WordPress is full of great plug-ins, as many owners of full WordPress sites can attest, but some are definitely more valuable than others. At any given time my real estate website is running 10-15 plug-ins but my two newest additions really stand out. Sidebar Countdown Plug-in – There are a lot of opportunities to use a countdown plug-in on your site. First, you can use it to create urgency as home buyers visit your website and see the $8,000 home buying tax credit slipping away … Read More »

There is a lot to be said about how to design a website and what works best for which industries. You can get design advice from eye tracking experts, your Mom and your co-workers but the simple fact is testing and trial and error are the best ways to hammer out a new design. Since starting my first real estate site a couple years back I tend to change my site design every six months or so trying to improve visitor conversion rates and usability. … Read More »

I recently had the pleasure of transferring my real estate site, which runs on WordPress, over to a new host. Moving your site from one host to another can be a tedious process but the process is amplified by 10 if you have to transfer a database of content with it as you do with WordPress. Even so, once you know what you’re doing it can be done pretty painlessly. A few notes before we get started: This tutorial assumes you have an SQL database … Read More »

As a real estate agent and a full time road warrior, I always look forward to the next iPhone application that will streamline my workload and save time while showing houses. If you have an iPhone or are thinking about picking one up, here are ten of the most useful iPhone apps I use on a regular basis: 1. Zillow Real Estate – Zillow has received numerous accolades for their first iPhone app that allowed users to pull up homes for sale and recent sales … Read More »