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There are a lot of exciting things coming out in the next few weeks – here are my top 3:

1. Like it? Hate it? The iPad which drew a ton of rumors and speculation is ready to make it’s debut. The 1st commercial aired during the Academy Awards (which explains why Steve Jobs was on the red carpet) and is officially going mainstream. The iPad will be on sale on April 3, 2010 and pre-orders begin March 12, 2010.

Here’s the commercial in case you missed it:

2. Better than the iPhone?! The Google Nexus One phone – the phone that had a lot of buzz when it first came out, is a phone that critics are still wondering if it can compete with the iPhone and other touch-pad type smartphones. Google has never made it a secret that they plan to release it to multiple carriers – just WHEN is the question. This phone is rumored to be coming to Verizon on March 23, 2010.

3. Wonder if I could sneak into this? :) f8 – The Facebook Developer Conference is slated for April 21-22, 2010.

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According to the Facebook blog,

“f8 has always been about empowering a community of developers to hack, to build and to delight users. We’re looking forward to continuing this tradition at our third f8 in San Francisco on April 21-22, 2010. Please save the date!”

BONUS: One more thing to add to your calendar this month. Planning on coming to Real Estate Connect SF (#icsf) – Early Bird Registration ends in 11 days! Sign up by 3/19/10 and save over $300!

Would love your comments – please leave feedback below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Despite the Government’s best efforts and greatest intentions the wave of foreclosures continues to increase. The borrowers that are now defaulting on their mortgages and not qualifying for loan modifications are no longer people with subprime loans and bad credit rating. The fastest growing demographic in foreclosures are prime borrowers with prime loans that have lost their jobs and cannot afford any kind of deal on their mortgage.

This is a tragedy for the millions of families that face losing their homes. However there is a flip side to the crisis in the housing market. The flip side is that the foreclosure market is doing great. More and more buyers with cash in their pockets are looking for bargains among the millions of homes that are going through a foreclosure.

Many have the idea that the only homes that are on the foreclosure market are located in crime-ridden areas and are run down shacks. This is simply not true, during economic crisis like the one we are now going through all kinds of homes can be found, from beachfront luxury homes to shacks in the ghetto.

There is another myth a serious buyer must forget about as soon as possible. You are not going to find a great property selling at pennies on the dollar. Sometimes you can find amazing deals but this is probably because there are other circumstances that reduce the value of the home besides being on the foreclosure market.

However, you can get some great deals and discounts. A typical discount is probably around 5% less than the market value, although you can sometimes pay up to 30% or 40% less.

If you are savvy enough, this could only be the beginning of your savings. If you buy the property from the lender you could ask/demand for some of the buying costs to be waivered. If you ask nicely you might even get a discount on the interest rate or a break on the down payment.

Buying a home, whether on the foreclosure market or not, is a huge investment for most of us. It is therefore worth us spending some time doing our research and due diligence before we spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The foreclosure ball begins to roll when a borrowers falls behind on mortgage payments. A homeowner that loves his home will try his best to keep his home, making some payments, looking for a loan modification, or any other measure he can. However, if the home still forecloses the chances are that maintenance has not been carried out for some time on the home. Include the costs of bring maintenance up-to-date in your investment research.

What this might include will depend on the property. Some just need some gentle manicuring, while others have underlying structural damage that is prohibitively expensive to fix. It is true that homes in need of some tender lover and care will come at a discount, but it is important to make sure you can afford the cost of providing it.


The sad truth is that most troubled homeowners do not qualify for a trial loan modification. Of these, only a small percentage will receive a permanent modification. Analysts estimate that over 5 million households have underwater mortgages and are struggling with their payments. This represents nearly 20% of all American households. Many of these homeowners are going to lose their houses. The question is how soon can borrowers that foreclose on their homes buy a new home. The answer depends on the type of foreclosure and the extenuating circumstances of your particular case.

Who decides how soon you can get a new home loan?

The answer is the lender and their insurer. Although there is not one central body that sets fixed rules on this issue, there are clear guidelines set by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae is America’s largest mortgage buyer. You might not even know that Fannie owns your mortgage because “she” does this on the secondary mortgage market. Because this corporation buys such a large percentage of mortgages, lenders will often follow in line with its guidelines.

What are the guidelines?

They can be found in Fannie Mae’s website and documentation. Below I detail the current guidelines, but these can change quite regularly so I encourage you to see them as a ballpark figure and then check for yourself.

How long you must wait after a foreclosure?

The quick answer is 5 to 7 years. However if there are extenuating circumstances the waiting period can be reduced from 3 to 7 years.

What about when you carry out a Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure?

It is actually worse; you should expect to wait between 4 to 7 years. However, if there are extenuating circumstances this might be a good option for troubled borrowers that want to buy a new home quickly, as the waiting time is reduced from 2 to 7 years.

What about short sales?

The current waiting period is two years. However, and this is an important point, if you are current on your monthly payments you can purchase a new home immediately. This is a powerful reason to stay up-to-date with your payments if you possibly can.

What are extenuating circumstances?

This refers to the reasons (or excuses) you provide to explain why you cannot pay your mortgage. There are many extenuating circumstances but your bank is only going to accept those you can prove, with documentation, are beyond your control and fall within their list of acceptable extenuating circumstances.

Fannie May will consider death (of a close relative, or partner), illness, job transfer, serious injuries from an accident, and other mitigating factors that dramatically affect your ability to pay your loan and are outside of your control. Unfortunately not being able to afford your payments because the interest rate on your variable interest loan has increased is not considered a mitigating circumstance.

These guidelines can help you make better decisions when trying to find the best choice when foreclosing on your home. Make sure you can prove the financial hardship you are going through and try to work with your lender with an option that will give the best chances of getting a clean start as soon as possible.

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“I have nothing to say.”

I have heard this over and over again, not just by real estate agents – but by many people who are trepidacious about getting involved in Twitter.

To many, Twitter has become more useful as a way to tap into what’s “going on today,“ than to broadcast their own messages. And once you get acclimated to Twitter, you might just find you have something to say after all. :)

Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder says,

“Naysayers should simply log onto their Twitter’s home page and search for a topic they are interested in, whether it’s their favorite sports team, the name of their company or a topic in the news.” Within a minute, they understand the appeal, he said.

Here are 3 ways to make Twitter work for you:

1. Create a custom feed. Find people to follow by searching Twitter directories. My two favorites are WeFollow or Just Tweet It. Remember, to get followers at first, you must follow others!

2. Create lists.

twitter-list

Lists are fantastic – and a GREAT way to organize people you follow. You could make lists for news sources, fellow Realtors, geographic areas, etc. This way you can click on that list to see what those specific people are talking about. I just created the Inman Team list – as a place for people to contact the right person at Inman News (i.e. editorial, marketing, advertising, etc.) If you don’t know who the best users are on a favorite topic, look for lists on sites like Listorious or by checking profiles.

3. Check out the most discussed topics in your area. We hear it over and over again, but real estate is truly a ‘local business.’ Find out who is around you locally and what they are chatting about. Some Twitter apps, like Tweetie and TwitterLocal, let you search posts near you. Check the Web site Happn.in to see the most discussed topics in your area.

BONUS: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Once you’ve gotten your feet wet, use Twitter to ask questions such as the best place to grab a bite to eat in a new city, marketing tips, or anything else you need an answer to!

Some questions Realtors could start asking via Twitter are: “What’s the best marketing tool that is working for you?” or, “What is the most effective thing Realtors are doing to convert leads to sales?” These questions open the door to conversation and networking!

What are you doing to make Twitter work for you? Would love your feedback – please leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Tip Tuesday: 3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Twitter

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One of the best social media strategies for real estate agents is to become your network’s trusted advisor. And of course one of the best places to put that strategy into play is, without a doubt, on Facebook. So you create a profile and import your sphere list, now what?!

Well, as a real estate professional you can easily showcase your expertise and knowledge about your market area and industry trends. One of the ways I suggest doing this is by posting status updates that offer relevant info and/or tips your network would find helpful. Now some of you are already REALLY GOOD at sharing this type of info…and you might be so good at it that you decide to create a Fan Page to focus more intently on business.

Fan Pages are becoming more popular among real estate professionals for several reasons. Most importantly, it is more widely accepted (and preferred by Facebook) to utilize a Fan Page for promoting your business and sharing comprehensive listing data. NOTE: There are some people that truly ROCK the essence of Facebook and have mastered the art of the 3 P’s (personality, passion, profession) from their profile and don’t need to maintain the separation of church and state….or personal and professional. However, for many the draw of a Fan Page breaks down to the ability of sharing listing data, as well as relevant market data in a more appropriate fashion…with an opt-in network of interested folks.

Up until now adding real estate specific applications to a Fan Page has been, to say it nicely, less than effective. Many of the listing applications copy Website functionality and seem to have forgotten the nature of this network. Ideally, these applications need to offer more than just listing information but a way to provide interaction….or a rich data set of relevant information.

And that is why I was very excited to hear about  a new application for agents that launched this week! The Roost Social Real Estate Application is the first app of its kind to offer agents the opportunity to:

  • Showcase their expertise from a Fan Page
  • Provide valuable market data and information for a particular area (city) to their network
  • Easily customize and install on your own Page (in 5 minutes!)
  • Avoid the cost of hiring a professional to customize a local resource tab for you (this app naturally integrates local market trend info via Altos Research, active listings via Roost, mapping via Google, school info via Education.com, and neighborhood info via Walkscore).

The Roost Social Real Estate Application is clearly a value-add now…but there are more goodies to come with this app! Derek Overbey and Alex Chang of Roost took some time to share some important details about using this new app, as well as what’s in store in the future! In the coming months, Roost will add the ability to share market data for up to 5 cities! In addition the feature scope will widen to include featured properties, testimonials, and IDX compliant MLS search (inside Facebook)!!!

I have to say it’s very refreshing to witness a company like Roost incorporate Facebook functionality and real estate expertise…and deliver it to agents for FREE! Yep, this app is currently available on Facebook for FREE. You can add it to you Fan Page today, simply search “Roost Social Real Estate” once logged in to Facebook. Several agents have already taken advantage of the opportunity to add the app, check out Brad Coy’s Page,  Heather Elias’ Page, and Engel Real Estate Page for great examples of customization.

To add the Roost Social Real Estate Application to your Fan Page, follow these steps:

(1)    Visit the Roost Social Real Estate Application Page inside Facebook, and click on “Go to Application”.

(2)    You’ll be prompted to customize the app to your selected Fan Page by selecting: “Create Profile”

(3)    Next customize the application with your contact information, logo, and informational verbiage. NOTE- You can update the marketing verbiage periodically to share the latest trends and tips with your local network.

(4)    Finally, you’ll need to add the app to your Page. FYI- Facebook must render some images of the app so if it doesn’t load completely at first, be patient!

Once the tab has loaded onto your Page, you can direct your clients to the info by announcing it via a status update on your Profile, and even on your Fan Page! Also, be sure to share your Facebook Page URL on all your marketing. Write a blog post letting your clients now about this new feature on your Page, or create a postcard to share with your farm.

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Yesterday, the “IE6 funeral” took place in Denver. This is what appeared on the funeral site:

Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.

Those mourning the Web browser, but unable to attend, were asked to send flowers. So, Microsoft sent a big bouquet!

20100304flowers

In the photo above, a funeral guest is showing off the card that arrived with Microsoft’s bouquet. Microsoft confirmed the test and also that it sent the flowers (according to SeattlePI.com.)

The card reads:

Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven.

The Internet Explorer Team @ Microsoft

Internet Explorer 8 has been in existence for over 8 years and Microsoft plans to continue support until 2014, but many in the tech world are happily ready to move on and ‘kill’ IE6 – especially with all the problems and bugs it has caused users.

Still using IE6? Please, either upgrade or I recommend switching to Firefox or Chrome!

What’s your browser of choice? Would love your feedback, leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Loan Modifications have taken over the financial news in the last year. This is not at all surprising, with over 11.3 million people, nearly 25 per cent of all homes, with underwater mortgages; this is an issue that has the nation’s attention.

This makes any research into the issue of loan modifications and their effect on foreclosure of great interest to borrowers, banks, and the government.

One professor whose research has received a lot of attention is Sanjiv Ranjan Das, from the University of Santa Clara in California. Last year Das attacked the underwater issue, this refers to borrowers whose mortgage balances are larger than the market value of their homes. The underwater issue is one of the big problems the United States housing market has to deal with.

Professor Sanjiv Ranjan Das had a large and interested audience to his research; one big fan was his namesake Sanjiv Das, a top executive at CitiMortgage, the fourth biggest bank in the US, lender and servicer of over seven hundred billion dollars in mortgages.

Interestingly, these two men, one a professor and the other a banker, share more than just a name. Not least among the things they have in common is an education at the Indian Institute of Management.

Now they are working together on research that seeks to explain the behavior of borrowers that are stuck with underwater homes, unemployment and mortgage payments they cannot afford.

Interestingly the partnership between the two Das, began when the professor started receiving emails meant for the CitiMortgage Das. However, the accidental emails were great for the research of Santa Clara’s professor.

According to Das’ research the perfect or optimal loan modification includes an element of forgiving some of the balance in the loan. This is not easy for bankers to accept. Reducing the balance of the loan increases the speed at which the bank must accept losses and there is the added fear that it will create a counterproductive culture among borrowers.

However research has shown that re-defaulting on mortgages is much higher among borrowers that do not receive a reduction of their mortgage balance. This is because having an underwater home, a house with negative equity, makes many homeowners feel there is no financial sense in keeping their homes. However, when a principal reduction is carried out, even if only a modest one, re-defaulting on mortgages is sharply reduced.

Nevertheless lenders still shy away from this radical loan modification method and prefer using interest rate reductions and term extensions to reduce the monthly payments of troubled homeowners.

The good news is that the research carried out is getting the attention of the right people. The more is studied about the effects of income shock, or wealth shock, on troubled borrowers the more effective loan modifications and debt management as whole will be.

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Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find an email newsletter from – TWITTER! I guess it shouldn’t suprise me – but at first I was a bit surprised that the company that made “140 characters” a household name, decided to get a message out to their members via email.

Good reminder to all of us that email is still a great way to get a message out – especially to your loyal fans (or followers!)

Here is the body of the email in it’s original form – lots of great new things coming down the pipeline from Twitter!

Hi there,

In the early days of Twitter, I used to send out short updates just to keep everyone in the loop since so much was happening. It’s been a while, but you signed up for short, monthly updates from Twitter so we thought it was time to start sharing more information. We’ve had quite a year. If you haven’t visited in a while, we’d like to invite you to come have a look at http://twitter.com — we’ve been busy!

Growing Up
In the course of a year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500% and our team has grown 500%. Recently, we hired our 140th employee! His name is Aaron and he’s an engineer focused on building internal tools to help promote productivity, communication, and support within our company. We celebrated with a little dance party.

Features of Note
Some features of note that we released over the course of a year include the ability to create lists, quickly spread information with a retweet button, and an easier way to activate your mobile phone to work with Twitter over SMS. We also built a new mobile web site that looks and works much better on smart phones.

Feeling Inspired
By working together during critical times when others needed help, sharing important information that otherwise might not make the news, and inventing new and interesting ways to use Twitter, you’ve shown us that Twitter is more than a triumph of technology — it is a triumph of humanity. Projects like Fledgling and Hope140 were inspired by you.

Chirp!
While there may only be 140 full-time employees working at the Twitter offices, there are thousands of dedicated platform developers who have now created more than 70,000 registered Twitter applications creating variety and utility for all of us. We’ll be gathering this spring at Chirp, our first ever official Twitter developer conference.

Thanks,
Biz Stone, Co-founder (@Biz)
Twitter, Inc.

Would love your thoughts on email newsletters. I am a big believer in them myself – especially to drive traffic to your web site or blog. I also think they are a fantastic way to keep your ‘raving fans’ updated on the latest and greatest that you are promoting.Leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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One of the topics people ask me frequently about is social media – and specifically they ask me for how to make the best use of their time. Anyone who has dived into social media knows that it is not “free” – it takes time and a thoughtful effort to make it work your time.

If you are like me, and seem to be “always connected” – whether it’s Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc  – it’s a great reminder that you need to be smart with your time. If you’re not careful, social media can be a time suck!

george-nelson-ball-clock

So how can you be more smart with your time?

Plan social media into your schedule for 1 hour a day: 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes late in the day.

The key here is multi-task, move fast, don’t get distracted.

If I was a real estate agent – this is how I would do it:

AM: 1st thing after or before you check your email

1. Turn on your computer. Open 7 windows: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your web site, your blog, your favorite news website (i.e. Inman News :) ), and your favorite ‘drip marketing’ social media site (my fave is Hootsuite). Move fast, don’t get distracted.

2. Facebook: Scroll through the page – make 3 comments on other people’s posts. Post what you are up to that day. Respond to anyone who has commented on your or left you a message. Move fast, don’t get distracted.

3. Twitter. Click your @ button (i.e. – @katielance). Anyone who has mentioned you – thank them publicly. Respond to DM’s. Scroll through your home page and re-tweet 3 things of interest. Move fast, don’t get distracted.

4. LinkedIn: Post your status update – have it feed to Twitter (check the ‘Twitter’ box to do so – so easy!) Respond to any messages in your inbox. Check your groups. Not in a group? Join a group and comment on 1 discussion a day. Move fast, don’t get distracted.

5. Close these 3 windows: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Keep Hootsuite.com open and your web site, blog, and your favorite news site. Pick 6-8 links to share that day in Twitter. One can be a listing. The rest must be good content or newsworthy. Pick 3 links to share for Facebook. Twitter moves faster than Facebook which is why you need to post more often. Plug your posts and links into Hootsuite. Space them 1-2 hours apart. If something is a hot topic you can schedule it to go out more than once. Move fast, don’t get distracted.

PM: Repeat!

Next day: Repeat!

Do this everyday 5-6 days a week. If you follow this schedule it will become a habit. Also don’t underestimate the power of commenting and interacting – this is probably MORE important than posting your own content and links. Social media is just that – social!

BONUS TIP: Plan into your schedule an additional 2-3 hours a week if you are a blogger. Also plan one time a week to search for new friends, fans, and followers.

Looking for more info?  Stay tuned… I have something exciting in the works that will be revealed in a few weeks.

I would love to hear how you formulate a schedule for social media – what works and doesn’t work for you. Please leave me your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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This Thursday the Obama Loan Modification Plan, HAMP, will be a year old. It was on the 4th of March, 2009 that the Obama administration started the largest and most ambitious homeowner’s aid package since the 1930s. The goal was to stop the wave of foreclosures that was destroying the housing market. The Government’s reply was huge. The aim was to help four million homeowners avoid foreclosure and they were willing to spend $75 billion to do so. How are things looking as we approach HAMP’s first birthday. By December 2009 there were nearly 760,000 loans in the trial stage of the program. This three month trial stage is designed to test if the homeowner will pay his modified loan for three months before the modification is final. However, only 31,000 homeowners had actually received a permanent loan modification by the end of 2009. Of these many had seen only the slightest of changes to their monthly payments. The Obama administration realized they needed to do more, and quickly. This triggered a list of amendments and countermeasures designed to speed up the process and open the doors to more homeowners. Soon it became obvious that the issue was not the interest rates of bad loans that were hurting homeowners but the increasing rates of unemployment that was reducing the income of homeowners that could not afford to pay for their mortgage. In fact, the fastest growing demographic in the foreclosure market consisted of homeowners with prime loans that had lost their jobs. From the beginning of the program, the Treasury Department made it very clear that the program would not cater for families that no longer had an income because of losing their job. The aid was focused on families whose income had shrunk but could still afford the payments of a modified loan. Another issue was the complexity of the loan modification process. Homeowners complained that mortgage servicers were not consistent, lost important documents regularly and did not provide accurate information. Mortgage servicers on the other hand explained that homeowners often did not provide the right documentation and were less than honest when filling forms. Treasury reacted by simplifying the system and providing greater concessions to lenders and mortgage servicers. Industry leaders often made the valid point that the HAMP plan incentives did not cover the costs and it was better for them to continue charging fees from delinquent homeowners and foreclosure proceedings than approve loan modifications. The reaction was to increase the incentives and the arm twisting of lenders that would not comply with the program’s expectations. The incentives did become rather generous for both servicers and borrowers. Every loan a servicer modified came with a $1,000 upfront payment, with an extra thousand dollars every year the homeowners was current on payments. This means the Treasury will pay $1,000 every year the borrower is not delinquent, to reduce the loan balance. However the biggest subsidy was offered to reduce the actual monthly payments of mortgages. If the lender could reduce the monthly payments to 38% of the borrower’s income the government would pay for the cost of reducing the payments to 31% of the family’s income. The problem is that these measures have not been sufficient to stem the increase in foreclosures and new guidelines are being worked on to look for a solution. Unfortunately the prospects do not look good for the second year of the Obama Loan Modification Plan.

TR - Job search cartoon - Replacing Paula Abdul

Problem: When someone in the real estate industry goes job-hunting, it can be difficult to navigate through all the listings posted on Monster, Career Builder or some of the other online job boards posting up.

In addition, when an employer or real estate brokerage is looking for someone with specific real estate experience, it can sometimes feel like a ‘needle in a haystack.’

Solution: Vendor Alley has a BRAND NEW job board up just for real estate job postings. I think This is a great idea. It takes a a common problem  (unemployment in the RE industry) and makes a super-easy solution.

As of right now, there are 4 categories:

  1. Sales
  2. Tech
  3. MLS/Association staff
  4. MLS/Association CEO

This is a version 1 release. Vendor Alley plans on adding additional features, ‘bells and whistles, and possibly additional categories down the line.

Greg Robertson, Co-Founder, W&R Studios says, “I get a lot of requests for job postings on Vendor Alley or people wanting recommendations.  I also saw that there was no single place for people to look for jobs in the real estate industry.  Since Vendor Alley gets such diverse readership (vendors, MLS professionals, sales, tech, portal, brokers, agents, franchisees, etc.) I thought it would be a good place to start a job board.”

Posting a job is really simple – employers form to fill out that includes a place for a job descriptions and contact information. It is only $29.95 to post a job for 30 days via PayPal.  They are also thinking about the idea of charging an additional amount to also do a post about it on Vendor Alley.

Greg has requested feedback, so please check it out and feel free to leave a comment below.

Written by Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Since I came to Inman News – one of my big goals was to hit the coveted “10,000 follower mark” on Twitter. As we came closer and closer, we thought it would be fun to have a contest. We decided that the Inman News 10,000th follower would win a free Connect SF ticket.

10000

DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

So yesterday. We hit our goal and we are pleased to announce our 10,000th Twitter follower is: @Rofo_SF

These guys have a great company concept; and having a soft spot in my heart for companies that help small businesses, I was thrilled to be able to present Alan with his free ticket!

Rofo.com, which stands for “Right of First Offer”, is an office space search engine for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Rofo aggregates commercial real estate listings from top national brokerage firms to local building owners and everything in between.  In addition to browsing available real estate listings, businesses can put Rofo to work by posting their specific real estate requirements and receive competitive proposals from local landlords and brokers.

Alan Bernier, CEO for Rofo.com says, “The idea for Rofo and our unique focus on smaller commercial space (less than 5,000 sqft) came from first hand experience as brokers.  Entrepreneurs and smaller businesses who represent the majority of real estate transactions do not have the same access to resources and professionals as larger companies.  The goal at Rofo is to empower smaller tenants in their search for space and create an environment where those looking for space are easily matched with those who have it.  As a growing startup who has moved 3 times in 2 years we’re eating our own dog food.  And we now have an even greater appreciation for the platform we’ve created.”

Congrats again @Rofo_SF!

If you aren’t following Inman News yet on Twitter, I invite you to join us to get the latest in real estate news, marketing and technology!

Now onto 100,000 )

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Congrats to our 10,000th Twitter Follower!

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In the last few weeks or so, I have noticed an incredible amount of GOOD content coming down the pipeline. Like you, I subscribe to blogs, RSS feeds, Twitter lists, etc. But what has grabbed my attention lately has been my Facebook feed. Anyone who know me, knows that I am a huge fan of having a Facebook Fan Page. I think it is still one of the best ways that a brand, company, or individual can ’speak’ to it’s audience.

 content-is-king1

So today, I wanted to share with FOREM fans, a ’snippit’ of my Facebook feed and the articles that jumped out to me. You’ll notice that these articles are all across the board – not just real estate. 

When talking to FOREM founder Joel Burslem awhile back – he reminded me of something so powerful and gave me some great advice:  “Read blogs and news sources from outside your industry – we can learn so much by seeing what other successful companies and brands are doing – that aren’t necessarily in real estate.”

Here are the 10 stories I enjoyed from my Facebook feed today – in no particular order:

Starbucks Gets Its Business Brewing Again With Social Media

How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media

VIDEO: Posted by Fans of CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

VIDEO: Facebook is the ‘Ultimate” Viral Video Tool, Ethan Beard

Realtor Mag Marketing Makeover Challenge

RPR revamps MLS licensing agreement

Want More Twitter Followers? Tweetmeme Has A Button For That.

10 Must Have Facebook Plugins For Wordpress

To Tweet or Not to Tweet: Expert Tips about Using Social Media

How to Make Money on Foursquare

Shameless plug: If you’re not following the Inman Fan Page, I encourage you to check it out! Get all the top news headlines delivered right to your Facebook news feed. Plus, be the 1st to know about contest, promos, and more.

So what are your favorite posts from your Facebook feed today? Have a great tip? Leave me a comment here!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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I’m sure none of our loyal FOREM member commit any of these ‘blunders’ ) – but just in case… I figured it would be fun to do a little post about it today.

Feel free to pass this onto anyone “not following the rules!”

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Top 5 Real Estate Social Media Blunders:

1.    Talking about yourself to no end. Enough about me, let’s talk about ME! Yes, social media is social – but at some point, it is NOT all about you! This is tough in real estate, where you learn from every marketing person to ‘sell yourself’ and ‘you are your brand’ – which is true – but many people (especially the Gen X and Gen Y crowd) don’t want to hear all about you – they want to know about the interesting things going on in the community, in their neighborhood, local market stats, and other things that make what YOU do valuable to them.

2.    Only posting your listings. Major faux-pas!  Luckily I have not seen as much of this lately, but it’s still happening.   You can post your listings – but make sure you post other great content. (See my ideas in #1 above)

3.    Copying content and claiming it as yours. Big “no no” here. There is so much great content out there – it’s fine to use an excerpt of something and then credit the source, but don’t copy someone else’s  material and claim it as your own.

4.    TMI. There is a fine line between being social and giving out “too much information” – no need to tell your social network everything and anything!

5.    Speaking the same on Facebook as you do Twitter. Maybe this is my own irritation, but whenever I see hashtags and @ signs on Facebook I cringe a little. The language on Facebook is different than Twitter. I think it’s fine to duplicate messages on both channels (especially since a LOT of people are only on one of the channels and not both) – but if you do, take a moments to adjust your language to be more “Facebook friendly”

I know there are a lot more blunders – what’s your favorite one? Or the one you see agents doing over and over again? Leave me a comment below.

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Fun Friday: Top 5 Real Estate Social Media Blunders

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Planomatic recently released PhotoPlan Mobile 1.0 Beta - the first mobile interactive floor plan presentation optimized for the iPhone in the virtual media industry. iPhone users now have the ability to interact with real estate listings’ floor plans from any point on earth with internet service.

iphone

Planomatic seems to really have hit the nail on the head. The coolest part of this product is that the consumer can interact with it.

Once you click on the floor plan, you can pick from a drop down menu and choose which room you’d like to ‘decorate.’ Once you select the room, you are given a large variety of ‘furniture’ to choose from – including colors and styles, as well as the ability adjust wall and carpet colors.  I really like that a lot of thought went into the interactive part of this app. For example, you can pick different styles and colors of furniture – which really help to ‘put you in the house’ and paint the picture of what it would be like to live there.

One thing this app has going for it is the ‘fun factor.’ If I was a buyer, I could definitely see myself using this app especially for homes I was really interested in. It could  help a buyer make that decision when they are wondering:  “Is this the house for me?”

Kori Covrigaru, the CEO of Planomatic says, “It’s quite unique, and in my opinion (yes, I’m obviously biased) the coolest thing to hit virtual tours/iPhone in quite some time.”

To access the apptap this link  from your iPhone – Safari will recognize that it’s on the iPhone, and automatically display the PhotoPlan Mobile:

Interactive FloorPlan Presentation

There are other great floor plan programs out there such as: United Lane or Floor Planner but none have the interactive iPhone app that Planomatic has.

According to Kory, the BlackBerry and Android apps are on their way!

What do you think of this app? Would love your opinion of it!

Do you have a unique or new product coming to the market? Drop me a line at katie@inman.com or post it in the comments below.

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Interactive Floor Plans Going Mobile

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