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 meet or have attendees choose based on your availability. There are multiple meeting options to choose from including web conference, phone conference or a simple in-person meeting.

Check out an example of a meeting invitation I sent out for next week:

One of my favorite features is the way meeting attendees can reply to your meeting requests: Instead of having to register so they can respond Timebridge lets attendees click the ‘Reply’ button in their email and adjust time/confirm the appointment without registering.

Learn more about Timebridge by visiting their website. The service is free to use with a premium service offered at around $8.95/month. For in-person meetings the free service is all you’ll need.

What are your business resolutions for the New Year?

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 SVT Software. [iTunes Link]

I -love- this app for a few reasons including the option to create separate pre-filled loans (I’ll explain more in a minute) and the option to email all of this info to your client. Check out more of the app in screenshots below:

Longwood Model Loan Scenario

In the screenshot above you can see the last loan you used before closing the app. In this case I used a pre-created loan for one of my models at Brighton Green called the Longwood. Because the community is FHA approved I used presets including a 3.5% down payment with the monthly HOA of $220 and annual taxes estimated for that model.

This is particularly useful when you’re touring one of the models and need to run quick numbers for a client! Editing your loan scenario is also super easy with the clean number and percentage interfaces shown below:

Easy Number Panel

Down Payment Scroll Panel

Aside from ease of input, you have the aforementioned option of emailing loan details to your client. If you want to stay within the application you still get a full breakdown of interest, principal etc. paid over the course of the loan in addition to the total cost of everything factored into the loan at the bottom. Have a look at an example for the Longwood model:

Payment Schedule

Lastly, creating a new loan type is a simple one click on the bottom menu which brings you to a ‘New Loan’ window. You write in a name for your loan and then you go to your ‘Favorites’ menu to choose from all of your saved loans. Here’s a look at the saved loan page:

Loan Selection Menu

There are a few things missing from the app that would be useful like PMI but for $0.99 you can’t go wrong. It’ll also serve you well in the field when your clients want quick numbers on a potential property. Click here to learn more about the Mortgage Calculator Pro app. [iTunes Link]

Do you have any preferred real estate iPhone apps that you use?

Gifts Under $50

There are a ton of great gifts available for less than $50. From a 7-port USB hub that keeps all your gadgets connected at once to a double dose kick in the ass from phenom Gary Vaynerchuk, the under $50 list will keep your geek busy well into 2010.

Kensington 7-Port USB Hub [Amazon Link]
Kingston 16GB Flash Drive [Amazon Link]
Trust Agents Book by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith [Amazon Link]
Crush It! Book by Gary Vaynerchuk [Amazon Link] and Vook [$6.99; iTunes Link]
iTunes Gift Card
Griffin AirCurve iPhone/iPhone 3G Amplifier [Amazon Link]
Dolica 62-inch Tripod [Amazon Link]

Gifts Under $100

Video is fast becoming the medium for getting to know each other online. With all that video comes editing. An external hard drive is good for keeping excess clips from weighing down computer performance.

The Roku HD media player is a cutting edge way to put digital video (Netflix/Amazon on Demand) in your living room without all the intricacies of a traditional home theater PC.

Samsung Story 1TB External Hard Drive – $99.99 [NewEgg Link]
Roku HD Digital Media Player – $99.99 [Amazon Link]

Gifts Under $200

Audio Technica AT2020 USB Microphone – $101.97 [Amazon Link]
Flip UltraHD (120 Mins) – $151.98 [Amazon Link]

One rite of passage for real estate techies is to develop their own online brand. Podcasting and video blogs can be done in half the time once you’ve got the right equipment listed above.

Klipsch iGroove SXT iPod/iPhone Sound System – $149.99 [Amazon Link]

After experimenting with podcasting and video blogs it’s only natural that you’ll come away with a little more rhythm. The Klipsch iGroove is a cool way to keep the party going.

Motorola Droid – $199 [Verizon Wireless Link]/ iPhone 3GS – $199 [Apple Store Link]

All-in-one devices are all the rage these days which makes the Motorola Droid (Verizon Wireless) and iPhone 3GS (AT&T Wireless) the hot stocking stuffers to have this year.

Gifts Under $300

Garmin Nuvi 765 – $209.99 [Amazon Link]

If you’re looking for a dedicated GPS unit the Nuvi 765 serves as your North star, in-car bluetooth communication system and traffic guidance via FM updates. Now you’ll never get stuck in rush hour snarls while on tour again.

1-Year Lynda.com Subscription – $250 [Link]

How did I go from video editing slow to pro within 3 days? Lynda.com. The site offers up an all you can watch buffet of video tutorials on computer software like Adobe Lightroom 2, Photoshop and iMovie ’09. The videos are short, educational and clearly laid out which means you can find what you’re looking for in a snap.

Amazon Kindle – $259 [Amazon Link]

For the tech savvy bookworm, Amazon’s Kindle can download the hottest new books in under a minute. There is even PDF support so you can read ebooks, contracts and other documents on the go.

Xbox 360 Elite – $299 [EBGames Link]

The Xbox 360 isn’t just a video game system anymore. Featuring Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm integration alongside Netflix Instant movies, the 360 will help you stay on top of your social media empire without leaving the living room recliner.

Gifts Under $500

The real estate photo bar is on the rise and you (and your geek) should be ready to dazzle future sellers with outstanding photos. Newer point and shoot cameras can capture professional quality results with ease. Check out the hot new Canon S90IS and it’s primary competitor to see how you too can attain listing photo euphoria.

Canon S90IS Digital Camera – $399.00 [Amazon Link]
Alternative: Panasonic DMC-LX3K – $436.17 [Amazon Link]

Gifts Under $1100

Video editing, podcasting, photo enhancing. All this -ing will require some beefed up computing power. Refurbished Macs are an awesome way to put the preferred tool of digital creatives in your hands at a price you are happy with.

Refurbished Macbook Pro – $899 [Apple Store Link]

Desktop Alternatives:
HP TouchSmart 300-1020 20-Inch Black Desktop PC – $848 [Amazon Link]
Refurbished 24-inch iMac – $1,099 [Apple Store Link]

Gift Under $27,000

Finally, if you’re really looking to make a big impression on that special someone or have been rolling around in a clunker waiting for the perfect intersection of value and clickity clack gadgetry, I present to you the 2010 Mazda 3.

Complete with cool geekery like push button start, adaptive lighting system that steers the headlights as you turn your wheel and highway mileage of up to 33 mpg (29 mpg on 2.5L models), the Mazda 3 will give you a fresh dose of style and tech.

Such a delicacy isn’t for the price conscious as a full spec model will set you back nearly $26K but if you’re car shopping this pick should make your short list.

What do you think about our top 20 gift guide for real estate geeks? Do you have any gifts you would add to our list?

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 listing video shoot below. I also included my first listing video at the bottom of the post for you to critique. It’s not perfect but check it out anyway!

1. Create a list of the video shots you want/need. - I picked up this cool tip from the photography blog of Scott Hargis. It’s so easy to get caught up in the craziness of taking pictures and video of a home that you forget what you wanted to shoot.

Make a list of what video angles you want for your video (a storyboard is a great way to summarize this) so you can remember to focus on those before getting other shots.

2. Make sure you’re using the right equipment. - Okay, confession time. I attempted the video you see below once before but scrapped all of the video because I used the wrong equipment. I thought it would be okay to use my photo tripod for video but that’s not the case. Get a smooth panning video tripod like the Slik U9000 so your video doesn’t come out jerky or jittery.

3. Find your style. - I watched hours of real estate videos including videos by Ian Watt, Mike Lefebvre and stuff I found on WellcomeMat before planning my first video shoot. I didn’t get to capture everything I wanted because I rushed the video on this project (violating tip #6 below).

In the end, I still feel like the final result encompasses some of my style by being fast paced and upbeat. My goal was to create a fast, fun video that didn’t oversell the home and didn’t feel like it was dying of the generic feel many real estate videos have.

4. Set the stage for your video shoot. - This tip is a twofer. Not only should your property be set to stun when you’re filming but it should be absent of any homeowners, kids, pets, aliens and other assorted types that could pop up in the video.

Remember, video is the one medium where you can’t easily edit out stray elements. If you’ve got a kid staring at you from outside the window your video is wrecked and needs to be redone.

5. Practice! Practice! Practice! - Just like an athlete needs to train before a marathon, you should practice using your tools (tripod, video camera etc.) before game day. I didn’t practice panning on my new tripod as much as I should have and it shows in the video. Because it’s my first video I was a little bit more lenient with the quality but you can guess who is getting double time training before the next shoot.

6. Be patient and make sure you have plenty of time to shoot. - This is the most important tip, ever. Shooting video takes a good amount of time, especially when you’re new at it, and its not something you should try doing in a pinch. You should be well rested and have a few hours blocked out for filming until you get your own filming routine down.

7. Shoot in the late morning/afternoon only. - Ready for my biggest pet peeve? I hate shooting video in the late afternoon/early evening because the outside lighting change is so obvious. In my video I neglected to follow this tip but next time I’ll start filming around 11:00 am instead of 2:00 pm.

Also, don’t record video at night if you can help it. For one, the windows turn into mirrors making filming much more difficult than it needs to be. Blacked out windows don’t look great on video either.

8. Record the same scene multiple times. - The saving grace for my video was the fact that I filmed the same scenes 3-4 times. Some of the clips were downright shake ‘n bake awful while other first cuts ended up better than my later attempts. You can NEVER have too much video.

9. Know your post-editing requirements and process. - How much hard drive space do you need to download one hour of 1080i HD video? I didn’t measure my HD video download because I have a 1.5TB external drive but a quick Google search indicate one hour of HD video will consume 4GB of hard drive space. Grabbing an inexpensive external drive will save you time later.

Another bottleneck common in video editing is an older computer that doesn’t comfortably process video editing. My aging Macbook Pro collapses under the pressure of video editing + multi-tasking so I picked up a refurbed iMac to handle video editing.

10. Choose a video host wisely. - With all this talk of videography there is one important point that we almost overlooked. Did you know that Vimeo explicitly forbids real estate video walkthroughs? They’ll delete those suckers on ya, even if you’re a paid member.

Viddler, made famous by super blogger Gary Vaynerchuk and tech blog Engadget, is free for non-commercial use but business use starts at $100/month.

Brightcove (used by the Better Homes and Garden Real Estate Blog) is similarly priced at $99/month.

You could always go the YouTube route which I did for the time being but I’ll probably pick up a Viddler subscription when I’m ready to host these videos on my sites. YouTube is okay but it has a chintzy Walmart feel to it (in my opinion) because of the diverse subject matter the site is known for. Your video host reflects on your business so keep that in mind while shopping video hosts.

Without further ado, here is my very first listing video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q03qVVdp0Uc

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 about building a business and integrating technology into it by using social media.

Using Twitter I:

• Became a recurring attendee of Lucky Strike Social Media Club meetings run by the already (in)famous Rob Hahn (aka Notorious R.O.B.) It’s not technology per se but we all talk about geeky stuff over dinner in Manhattan. I first met Rob and learned about LSSMC through Twitter.
• Started using Freshbooks and the unrelated but equally useful BookFresh. The latter of the two was recommended to me by @jasonsandquist who has already picked up a few clients with it.
• Discovered who Gary Vaynerchuk was. Seriously, I had never heard of him but people I follow kept writing to @garyvee so I investigated. His latest business book is awesome. The vook (videos + book) [iTunes Link] is even better. Buy both, it’s worth it for the business building plan of attack alone but be warned — it’ll motivate the hell out of you.
• Brought a new buyer client to contract (closing in April 2010, new home) on our first tour. My client didn’t use my IDX to submit his contact info but he did register to receive @mikesimonsen‘s Altos Research market reports on my website. Didn’t know these automated market reports existed before but now I’m a customer for life. Thanks to @ericstegemann for recommending Altos to me!
• Learned more from and met some of the most brilliant people in our industry including @1000wattmarc, Marc Davison; @topbrokerOC, Bob Watson; @sueadler; Sue Adler; @jolenta, Jolenta Averill, and @ericbramlett, Eric Bramlett. The countless things I’ve learned from each of them have significantly impacted how and, most importantly, why I run my business.

Definitely check out Matt’s video because he nails it when he talks about not allowing technology and social media to consume your business. Business should always come before experimenting. Now that we’re approaching the traditionally slower winter months of real estate I think now would be a good time for some experimenting.

New to Twitter and don’t know where to start? Check out @nik_nik‘s Twitter guide: Twitter For Real Estate Twits.

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 checklist was created out of my need for continuous flow during the first call and to help me recall exactly what my prospective client is looking for.

Was there major emphasis on mass transit? Which type of mass transit does my prospect prefer? Are they open to communities with homeowner’s association fees every month in exchange for more community amenities? These questions are all addressed in the checklist.

I encourage you to download and use the following checklist as a guide while you converse with your prospects. There is a large area at the bottom of the third page where you can write additional notes like home style preference and other special requests.

[slideshare id=2195637&doc=buyerchecklistpdf-091012003400-phpapp01&type=d]

Did you find the checklist above useful? Are there any changes/improvements you would make? Let me know in the comments below!

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 second-by-second (See an example here, right sidebar).

Another great option would be to use it as a countdown to your upcoming home buying seminar or to track how much time is left for a once-in-a-lifetime builder sale.

Next up, this breadcrumb navigation plug-in saved my website theme’s butt by adding a breadcrumb trail to the top of every page and post on my website. A breadcrumb navigation is basically a virtual trail listed at the top of every page showing you the hierarchy of the page you’re currently on.

So, for example, if a user is browsing my Brighton Green community profile they will see a trail showing how far in that page is from the homepage and what that page’s parents are.

Here’s a visual example of what a breadcrumb navigation element looks like:

Based on the above example my homepage leads to an Orange County, NY page which houses a town page for Newburgh. The Newburgh town page serves as the parent of my Brighton Green community profile. Now a user can click back to any one of those pages without having to use the ‘Back’ button every time. This greatly improves your website’s usability as shown in the community profile page above.

Here’s how to get that effect with one plug-in:

Breadcrumb NavXT – This plug-in does require some template edits but following the guide on the author’s website makes for a very quick and easy install. This plug-in alone will dramatically improve the usability/navigation of your site.

Do you have any must have WordPress plug-ins you would add to the list? Let me know about them in the comments below or on Twitter!

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. Over those years I’ve learned a few good lessons on what to do the next time you decide to change your site design:

Customize your design on a dummy/development site first. – When I was a total newbie I would make changes to my live site on the fly regardless of whether it was being used at the time or not. I wanted it done and that seemed like the only way to get the job done. Now I use a dummy site or, in other words, a website whose sole purpose is to host designs in progress until they’re ready to go live on your real site.

Building a dummy site is easy enough; buy a new domain and add it to your hosting account. Install WordPress automagically and then import your real site’s XML export file into the dummy site. Hack away and then upload the finished design to the live site and change over.

Structure your page hierarchy right the first time. - This is mostly for SEO purposes because waiting for all the search engines to 301 redirect to your new page hierarchy can be a complete pain and affect your search engine rankings for a while.

Take some time to mind map your site’s page hierarchy (i.e. yoursite.com/countyname/town/) and get it right the first time so you don’t get stuck in 301 redirect hell. A side benefit is you won’t have to go patrolling for broken links within your site’s older pages.

Make sure your design has all the page templates you need. - Making sure your theme has all the page templates you need is crucial. If your theme doesn’t have a certain template, like a full width template with no sidebars, you’ll have to shell out and wait for a coder to create a template for your site. Full width page templates are useful for your IDX feeds which tend to take up most of the page width when displayed.

Keep the homepage clutter free. – This is huge. Cluttering up your homepage with added graphics, widgets and statistics that aren’t relevant to your overall goal (getting a buyer to register or contact you and make a sale) shouldn’t be on your homepage. Visitors are easily distracted and you don’t want them playing with your traffic stats widget or, far worse, not being able to find your real estate search among all the visual mayhem.

Leave lifestreaming on blog pages only. – Lifestreaming, also known as broadcasting social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.), is okay for your blog since that is a more “personal” outlet. Having your Twitter feed and Facebook info on your entire website (especially the homepage) will not only increase load times for your website visitor but will also create visual distractions preventing them from doing what you want them to do: ask you for help buying a home.

Make your real estate search front and center. - Keller Williams top producer and all around super agent Sue Adler was kind enough to point out to me that my previous site design wasn’t exactly straightforward with how to search homes for sale. I made the button background red so it would stand out more but with so many other features on the site vying for user attention it got lost in the chaos.

Check out the real estate search difference between my old design and new design below.

Old Design

New Design

Which design do you think has the more noticeable real estate search?

Deactivate unnecessary plug-ins. - For users of CMS platforms like WordPress you can sometimes accumulate a surprising number of plug-ins that, after a while, can really drag out your site’s load times. In other instances (like my own) a plug-in can end up causing a conflict that hurts your site without you knowing it.

For me I had a page redirect plug-in that created a 301 redirect loop between two page links (I changed my page hierarchy and changed it back) forcing the page to not load in any browsers.

I eventually (3 hours later) figured out it was a plug-in causing all the trouble and needless to say I deleted it. Keep your CMS install lean and mean by only using essential plug-ins.

Do you have any website building tips to share or had experience dealing with one of these issues? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below or on Twitter!

A few notes before we get started: This tutorial assumes you have an SQL database of less than 7.1MB, access to a one-click install application for WordPress on the new host and access to PHPMyAdmin.

Follow the simple eight step guide below to learn how to move your WordPress database like a pro:

1. Identify your WordPress database. - Since MySQL databases are used for everything from WordPress to forums you can wind up with a lot of options when you need to download your database. First, download the wp-config.php file from your previous host FTP server and open it with a text editing program.

You should find the following under your MySQL settings:

// ** MySQL settings ** //
define('DB_NAME', 'sample_db'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'sample_user'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'sample_pass'); // ...and password

This will give you the info you need to look up your database via PHPMyAdmin.

2. Log into PHPMyAdmin on the server you are moving from. – Once you log into PHPMyAdmin (accessible through cPanel on most hosts) you will find the database names on the left side. Select the database that you want to back up.

3. Export your WordPress database. - Now that you have selected your database you need to go to the top menu bar (below) and select ‘Export’.

Select 'Export' to bring up the export options.

You’ll have a multitude of export options to choose from. Skip past all of this and go straight to the bottom where you’ll see this:

Remember to check 'Save as File'.

Check off ‘Save as File’ and click ‘Go’. This will bring up a save window and will save the database on your hard drive as an uncompressed SQL file. You could always zip or gzip it but in the interest of keeping things simple I like to go uncompressed.

4. Install a fresh copy of WordPress on your new host. – Most hosting companies today use cPanel as a backend which means you can use the Fantastico server application to install WordPress in one fell swoop. Just choose the directory, configure your options and install. Hosting companies that use a proprietary backend like Dreamhost offer one-click installs for WordPress as well.

5. Log into PHPMyAdmin on the new host and find the WordPress database you just created. – If you don’t know the name of your new database you can open the wp-config.php file in your FTP app on the new host and look at the MySQL settings using the instructions in step one. Choose the newly installed WP database on the left side so you can begin making the transfer.

6. Drop all the tables in the new database. – Since you want to transfer all of the contents from your backed up database in step three to the new database you just installed you’ll have to empty the new database of its content first. Select ‘Check All’ to highlight all of the tables.

Check all tables and select 'Drop'.

This will bring you to a new page asking if you are sure that you want to drop all the tables in your new database. Select ‘Yes’.

7. Now go to ‘Import’ at the top to import your backup SQL database content. – Find the backup SQL file you made in step three on your computer, choose it and click ‘Go’. This will import all of your tables from the backed up database to your new database.

Note: SQL databases over 7.1MB may need to be sent to your host’s support team to be uploaded directly.

8. Open the new host up in your FTP application and edit wp-config.php. – Your database name, user and password should remain the same because you just dumped one database and imported another database’s content in its place. Though the name and login info might be the same you need to make sure your table prefixes are still correct.

What to look for in the wp-config.php file:

// You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each a unique prefix
$table_prefix = 'wp_'; // Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!

Your table prefix is what you see in the table title field. It’s the prefix before the table name. For example, using the photo of the tables above, in “wp_ngg_gallery” the “wp_” is the table prefix. Update the table prefix in the wp-config.php file if needed and save it to your server.

That’s all there is to it! Have a question or struggle? Found this tutorial useful? Let me know in the comments below!

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 based on their current location. Use the Zillow app (free) to show your buyers what homes recently sold for in the area and what nearby homes may also be for sale.

2. Google Maps/Earth – The Google Maps app just got 100x better with the newly introduced iPhone 3G S because it can now pinpoint your location and give you directions based on the direction you are facing. You can also look up a neighborhood and use Google’s StreetView to show clients what they can expect before driving to the home. Google Earth allows you to see surrounding terrain in vivid detail like the mountain of a nearby ski resort.

3. Loan Calculator – What If? – Have you ever had a buyer pose the question “How much would this home cost per month?” Using the Loan Calculator – What If? calculator you can easily calculate monthly payment based on their interest rate. The calculator also gives you the option to email the payment terms and information to your client from within the application.

4. Compass – The Compass app is only available with the iPhone 3G S but is certainly worth the price of admission for upgraders and new users. Using the Compass application you will become a master of feng shui by knowing which direction a home faces and where the sun will rise and set on the house your buyers are considering.

5. Trip Cubby – Up until earlier this year I always kept a pretty poor set of mileage records. Each year I would put in an earnest effort but I wouldn’t have time to add/subtract miles and write them down in the book somewhere in my glove box. Trip Cubby saves you all that hassle by putting your mileage for a trip into your phone with just a few clicks. It even saves the purpose of your trips so the next time you’re out on a tour with the Smith family you can just tap their name from the drop down and be on your way.

6. Tweetie – For today’s modern real estate agent, Tweetie will keep you connected to your sphere by giving you all the power of Twitter in a lightweight, easy to use iPhone app. Check your @replies, send out a tweet and read direct messages on the fly.

7. Urbanspoon – Are you planning to meet a VIP client who loves Japanese food and want to make a great impression? Use Urbanspoon to sort through local restaurants based on location, food type and cost. Then shake and see what Urbanspoon picks out for you! Click on the restaurant name to see local reviews and shake again to pick another place.

8. Air Sharing Pro – Designed for the true road warrior, Air Sharing Pro lets you print documents, view high resolution photos and PDFs and share files with other Air Sharing iPhone users. I always keep a folder of high-res listing images on my iPhone so I can show them to buyers who might be interested in one of my homes.

9. Flashlight – Light is quite simply a white background that turns your 3.5-inch iPhone screen into a very bright flashlight. You won’t get a lot of distance with the light but it’s perfect for illuminating dark doorways.

10. Restaurant Nutrition – Being on the road all the time, Restaurants is my favorite nutrition guide application. Load the app up and you’ll have access to a variety of fast food restaurant nutrition charts including Subway, Taco Bell and McDonalds. Now you can eat smart no matter where you are!

Have you used any of the apps above or do you know of any great alternatives? Let me know in the comments below!