Sounds great, right?  The only problem has been that up until now, it’s been a lot tougher than it needs to be create A/B tests.  Google has been offering their Website Optimizer for a while now, but I’ve always found it to be a pain, and I consider myself reasonably tech savvy. Luckily I recently came across Visual Website Optimizer.

I was able to quickly setup a simple test to compare headlines on my homepage to see which visitors engaged on the site (in other words, if they clicked on anything at all instead of bouncing). I quickly wrote up 4 headline variations, then cut and pasted three lines of code at the bottom of my website.  Just like that, my website was serving up different headlines to each visitor, then tracking who clicked what.

The best part is that you make all the changes to your site using a visual, wysiwyg editor. That makes it ridiculously easy to throw up multiple variations. And once you’ve pasted the code in your site, you don’t need to even access your site again to make any changes. So even if you’re not super tech savvy, you can have your programmer paste the code one time, then you can test to your heart’s content through Visual Website Optimizer.

The only downside is their pricing is currently too expensive for smaller sites or those with less traffic. I’m hoping they’ll offer a “solo” plan or something similar soon for all you lone wolf agents out there.

A promising start...

In terms of acceptance of this kind of digital signature, it’s an entirely open question due to how rapidly technology is changing. DocuSign, on the other hand, has years of experience and they’ve spent a great deal of resources to ensure the legitimacy of their solution. I’m not a lawyer, and in my opinion the onus is on the company to make it abundantly clear whether something is legally valid or not.  Personally, I might use a solution like SignMyPad for simple forms/ applications/ etc, but I’d stick with a more established system like DocuSign for important contracts until I learn more. Anyway, on to the review:

Getting Started:

The documentation is minimal with SignMyPad, which is great when something’s super intuitive, but made for a bumpier start in this case. The app opens to a empty list, where your saved pdf’s would go. Maybe I’m slow, but it took me a few seconds to figure out that I had to email myself a pdf, then in Mail click “Open In SignMyPad” for it to then appear. This could be made a lot more intuitive.

Usage:

The first time I tried opening a doc in SignMyPad from Mail, it crashed. It worked the second time, and I started by selecting the “add text” option to write in the address in my sample purchase contract. That worked fine, but then when I tried to delete the text, I simply couldn’t figure out how. I clicked and I dragged until it was time for the last resort: reading the instructions.

Finding the instructions wasn’t easy: I clicked menu, didn’t see it, then clicked “PDF list”, read the instructions, and came back to delete my text (you need to double tap the text to delete). Unfortunately, my text was already gone: it doesn’t save automatically, or warn you if you go back to your list of PDFs. The mystery of the disappearing text would haunt me throughout the entirety of my review. It was not clear at all how or when your input was saved, which in a seven page contract can get incredibly frustrating.

Where are my signatures and text!?!

I tried the “save” option, and the “save/email” option, but was unable to actually save my text. I emailed myself three blank contracts, then gave up.

Bottom Line:

I absolutely love this idea, and I commend the developer for focusing on this need, but the current implementation was unusable for me. If you are highly technically savvy and patient, give it a try. From the reviews on iTunes, some people have been able to make it work for them, though the consensus seems to be that it’s pretty buggy. Until we see improvements, I would save your $4. If anyone has had a better experience, by all means share in the comments.

Current iTunes Rating: 2.5 stars

My Rating: 2 stars

Price: $3.99

iTunes Link: SignMyPad

source: Facebook

Exciting news! Fresh from today’s Facebook f8 conference in San Francisco, there’s a whole slew of new Facebook social plugins that you can easily incorporate into your site:

All Facebook Social Plugins

You can also read more about Facebook’s new direction here: The Next Evolution of the Facebook Platform

Drew and Justin have recently written some great tips on using Facebook, and with their new social plugins it’s even easier to connect your site to the social graph. You can add the basic “like” button just by copying and pasting code into your site, and from that foundation you can add a ton of additional features.   These changes go beyond just adding new plugins: Facebook believes the underlying structure of the web is changing to fully integrate our social graphs, and they intend to be at the center of it.  Below are all the new features along with the summary quoted from Facebook’s description:

Like Button: ”The Like button lets users share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click.”

Recommendations: ”The Recommendations plugin gives users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like.”

Login with Faces: ”The Login with Faces plugin shows profile pictures of the user’s friends who have already signed up for your site in addition to a login button.”

Comments: ”The Comments plugin lets users comment on any piece of content on your site.”

Activity Feed: ”The Activity Feed plugin shows users what their friends are doing on your site through likes and comments.”

Like Box: ”The Like box enables users to like your Facebook Page and view its stream directly from your website.”

Facepile: ”The Facepile plugin shows profile pictures of the user’s friends who have already signed up for your site.”

Live Stream: ”The Live Stream plugin lets your users share activity and comments in real-time as they interact during a live event.”

Check it out!

I just heard about this and thought it might be useful for agents out there using QR codes on their sign riders/ flyers etc: Google’s URL shortener, http://goo.gl/, now automatically generates QR codes.  Matt Cutts wrote about it and provides an example here:

Matt Cutts Google QR Codes

Google doesn’t seem to have fully rolled out their URL shortening service yet (there’s no signup or obvious way to use it from their page at http://goo.gl), but I know at least one way to use it is by installing the chrome extension here.

For those unfamiliar, a QR code is a two dimensional bar code that is commonly used to store information such as a web address.  If a user has a camera phone and the proper app installed, they can simply take a picture/ scan a QR code and it will launch their browser and send them to that URL.

QR codes make a lot of sense for the real estate industry, but haven’t really been widely adopted in the US compared to countries such as Japan.  Google’s integration of QR codes is one more sign that we may be seeing more widespread use in the future.

He thoroughly examines the surprisingly complex world behind grabbing expired domains, referred to as “getting in on the Drop”.  The whole article is worth a read, and full of useful knowledge like the fact that domains don’t actually expire when they say they do:

If the owner of a domain does not renew by the expiration date of the domain, the domain goes into “expired” status. For 40 days, the domain is in a grace period where all services are shut off, but the domain owner may still renew the domain for a standard renewal fee….After 40 days are up, the domain’s status changes to “redemption period”. During this phase, all WhoIs information begins disappearing, and more importantly, it now costs the owner an additional fee to re-activate and re-register the domain…Finally, after the redemption period, the domain’s status will change to “locked” as it enters the deletion phase. The deletion phase is 5 days long, and on the last day between 11am and 2pm Pacific time, the name will officially drop from the ICANN database and will be available for registration by anybody.

Read the full walk through here: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-snatch-an-expiring-domain#ixzz0hKldA6Dc

Open Houses:

• Build a fun, interactive signup sheet for visitors. You could let them choose to subscribe to various value add lists right there, and depending on what you use it could put their info right in your list/ database, no tedious transcribing later.
• Set it on a table and play your virtual tour and slideshow w/ music.
• Let visitors dig deeper with links to your website/ blog posts about the area.
• Show them all the awesome neighborhood places on Yelp (if it’s in your area of course)
• If the listing isn’t for them, search other open houses in the area and email it to them (I smell contact info…)

Listing Presentations:

• Michael touched on this in his post, and I agree there’s a huge opportunity to make stunning presentations.
• Integrate a video resume into your keynote (the mac’s powerpoint) presentation, make the entire presentation paperless, and email it to prospects right after you’re done.

Buyer Tours/ Showings:

• Plug one of the last remaining holes in the paperless transaction: just save a pdf of all the listing sheet’s you’d normally print.
• If your MLS works on Safari, then you can easily search listings on the fly in places too fluid for a laptop (walking down the street, crowded cafes, in listings, etc). This gives you something better to do than stand there like an idiot while your client searches listings on their Redfin iPhone app
• Take notes directly into your online CRM/ organization software, with no risk of losing them and no tedious transcribing later.
• Potentially in the near future, record your client’s feedback and have it automatically transcribed for you, just like Google Voice does now with messages (this isn’t here yet but it’s just a matter of time).
• Have all your client’s info (kid’s names, etc) always at your fingertips for those with less than stellar memories.

Again, these are just a few ideas, and just as we saw thousands of new apps appear for the iPhone, I believe we’ll see thousands of even more innovative apps take advantage of all that new screen real estate. The only question remaining for me is one that haunts many geeks… do we jump into the inevitably buggy first edition or be patient and wait for the second one?

It honestly couldn’t be simpler: after a very quick install, you’ll have a dropbox folder on your computer.  Just drag your files into the folder, and they’re automatically backed up and available on any other computer or mobile device.

Want to share files? Just drag them into your folder, then invite people to them. You can also send them a link to a specific file in your Dropbox folder.  Want to share disclosures with another agent? Just email them the link.  Want to share files with your assistant or team members? Once they have access to your folder, all you need to do is drop files in there and you’re done.

Need a backup solution? All the files in your dropbox folder are automatically backed up to their secure servers.  Perfect for everything from transaction documents, to your music and video collections.

As they say on their website, Dropbox replaces:

• Emailing file attachments to yourself and other people
• Using USB drives
• Renaming files to keep a history of previous versions
• Complicated backup software

The best part? It’s free for up to 2 gigabytes of file sharing.  So if you use it just for real estate documents, you should be able to fit quite a few transactions before paying a penny.  The 50 gigabyte plan is $9.99, and the 100 gigabyte plan is $19.99 per month.

If you’re wondering why I sound like such a cheerleader about Dropbox, I have to admit I have an ulterior motive: I’m emailing this post to my brother, who’s also in real estate. I’ve been trying to convince him to use it for weeks instead of uploading things to a server we share, but so far no luck

If you’ve never heard of electronic signatures, the concept is simple: instead of physically signing documents, you sign a document electronically by typing your name, clicking with your mouse, or a variety of other methods. Electronic signatures come in many forms, and you’ve likely already used them without even thinking about it. If you’ve ever faxed a contract or attached one to an email, you’re already using electronic signatures.

The question is whether the time has come to make the switch completely by using companies such as Docusign (the only company I’ve personally used) to remove pen and paper from the process entirely. In terms of ease of use, there’s no comparison. If you’ve ever found yourself printing a document just to sign it and then scan it right back into your computer, then you can see the advantages of electronic signatures. Adding insult to injury, if you keep electronic records you’ve now got nothing to do with that paper but shred it and put it in the recycling bin, hopefully destined for a more noble purpose next time.

In California, the Association of Realtors offers it members Winform Online, which lets us draft contracts right online. It’s integrated with Docusign, so you can create a contract and prep it for signing without printing anything at all. Your clients are notified by email to sign, and you get an email as soon as they have. I’ve had contracts and extensions signed and returned by out of town clients in less than 10 minutes. As an added bonus, they can’t accidentally miss any spots to sign, since the program highlights each area and checks for completion.

So what’s the downside? While for starters, it’s not free. Pricing on Docusign’s website starts at $15.95 per month. For part time agents or those with low volume, the convenience might not be worth sacrificing the four lattes a month you could be enjoying instead.

The biggest drawback I’ve found, though, is that not all brokerages and companies will accept electronic signatures.  In fact my most recent transaction involved Cartus, a large relocation company, and they would not accept them. I try to always check beforehand so I don’t look foolish in front of a client, but sometimes a third party will send us back to the starting line. I’ve also reviewed the legal resources available on the California Association of Realtor’s website, and there are some specific documents where electronic signatures are not allowed. I was hoping for a simple “yes, electronic signatures are legal and effective all of the time”, but at the moment it’s not that black and white.

In short, if your brokerage is not already currently using electronic signatures, you should certainly discuss it with your manager before making the leap on your own.  If they are using electronic signatures, you should definitely take the time to learn more about it and give it serious consideration; I’ve found them to be a huge timesaver and well worth the cost.  And of course, saving a few trees doesn’t feel too bad either.