Our Top 5 Favorite iPad Apps for Business

Here at the Glen Oaks Escrow blog, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

It’s interesting to think that just over a year ago no one had an iPad. After its release in the US in April 2010, Apple has sold more than 15 million iPads (including the just released iPad 2). With over 65,000 apps in Apple’s App Store, the iPad makes it easy and fun to work while you’re on the road. Have you considered purchasing an iPad for your business? The days of lugging around a heavy laptop are over!

There are thousands of apps to download in Apple’s App Store, but where do you begin? We took a look at some of our favorite apps for business and chose our Top 5:

Dropbox: FREE
With no complicated interface to learn, you can easily transfer files from your computer right to your iPad. Dropbox is the easiest way to store and share files online, without having to email anything. No matter where you are, files saved on one computer can be viewed on multiple devices, such as other computers (Macs or PCs), phones, and your iPad. When a file is updated on one computer, Dropbox will automatically save the changes on all other devices. It’s a must-have app for any real estate agent.

Keynote: $9.99
Apple says Keynote is “the most powerful presentation app ever designed for a mobile device”, and we’d have to agree. If you spend a lot of your time sitting down with clients, Keynote is the simplest way to run a powerful presentation. Keynote allows you to view and easily edit your presentation, share by exporting to Microsoft PP or PDF format, arrange objects on your slides by simply dragging them on the canvas, create sophistic animations, and more.

GoodReader for iPad: $4.99
The super-robust PDF reader and #1 selling non-Apple app for the iPad last year in the US. Read virtually anything, anywhere. With GoodReader for iPad, you have the ability to mark-up PDFs and sync your files with remote servers. In addition to handling PDF & TXT files, GoodReader supports MS Office, iWork, HTM and Safari web archives, hi-res images, audio and video.

HootSuite: FREE
HootSuite is the perfect social media tool combining Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare into one elegant and powerful interface. Spread messages, monitor conversations, and track results right from your iPad. With HootSuite, you have the ability to send and schedule Facebook and Twitter posts, manage campaigns, schedule updates, and see click-through stats for all of your social networks.

Noterize: $3.99
Noterize allows you to view and annotate any available PDF or PowerPoint document. The built-in web browser enables direct importing of files from the web, while integration with Box.net and Dropbox makes transferring documents between your computer and iPad as simple as can be. The app currently supports distribution via Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, and email. You can even choose which specific pages of a document you would like to share, and the order of those pages in the document.

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Are You Ready to Incorporate Facebook Into Your 2011 Marketing Plan?

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

Facebook.  You’ve heard all about it.  You may even have a profile, but you’re still not sure how you should use it to help market and promote your business…

Now is the time to focus on making Facebook marketing a part of your New Year’s Resolution.  We’ve found an excellent website that is offering Facebook marketing tips for Realtors every day in the month of December!  Just in time to get your Facebook marketing strategy geared up for the New Year.

Pixel Coaching will teach you everything you need to know about how to use Facebook as a Real Estate business development tool.

Topics covered so far have included:

1. Privacy: How to protect/filter your posts
2. Engagement: How to encourage interaction with your Facebook Page
3. Pages: Creating a unique landing “tab”
4. “Poking”: How to use this tool appropriately
5. Lists: Organizing your business contacts

Facebook is one of the best ways to build your social network and establish yourself as a working Realtor who is keeping up with the latest trends and opportunities in the real estate industry.  Click the “Like” button on Pixel Coaching’s Facebook Page to receive tips every day in December, and make sure to “Like” our Page too, while you’re at it!

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QR Codes in Real Estate Marketing

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

Today, QR codes, or “Quick Response” codes, can be found in newspapers, magazines, brochures, billboards, even on the back of business cards.  Think of them as “image hyperlinks” in the form of a bar code.  Businesses and marketers use them today to take their consumer to a customized URL using their cell phone.

How does it work?

Any person with a smart phone can take a picture of the QR code (using any QR code reader software).  After the photo is taken, the software will direct the user to a specific landing page associated with that particular code.  These codes can be scanned from printed ads, signs, t-shirts, even computer screens.  By scanning a QR code, smart phone users can access a wealth of more detailed information while on the go.

This technology is being used in many different markets, and is especially making its presence known in real estate marketing.  Real Estate agents have incorporated QR codes on “For Sale” signs, large window ads, flyers, etc. The possibilities are endless.  Once someone scans the code, the customized URL they are directed to could feature details of the home for sale, a view of the floor plan, colorful photos, a video of the inside, a map showing details of the location or additional properties around the area, etc.  They could even be given a way to contact the listing agent immediately.

QR codes make it easy for prospects to get information on properties instantly and easily.  Instead of remembering an advertised URL, it’s so much more convenient to simply take a photo on a cell phone and be redirected within seconds to the customized URL.  There are many different QR code generator websites, such as www.qrstuff.com and www.interlinkone.com , and QR code reader software, such as I-Nigma, Optiscan, and QuickMark.  Generate your free code today to begin using the latest strategies and trends in real estate marketing.

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Answering the Realtor Question: What is a Widget Anyways?

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

As I speak with Realtors I am reminded that technology is bringing to agents a whole new vocabulary. In my constant endeavor to discuss the opportunities that technology provides the modern Realtor, I have written on many basic technology terminology which Realtors need to understand in order to put together a strategy for success in today’s market. Terms such as: Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, and Blog. Today I’m adding another terminology to the list – Widgets. Many have heard the term, but most don’t have an understanding of what a widget is or how a widget can help them. This post is designed to clarify a thing or two.

A widget is a piece of code that can be embedded within a web page. Basically, it is a mini-application provided by a 3^rd party that you choose to install on your website or blog. Why would a Realtor do this? Well, because there is lots of information out there that consumers want and this is a good way to give it to them. Many 3^rd party vendors are offering a no-maintenance way for you, the Realtor, to provide valuable information on your site. If you are interested in providing the consumer what they want on your website (and why wouldn’t you…this is how you get traffic and have people come back to your site), you should look into the myriad of real estate widgets that are available out there. Many of them are even free.

This great article lists a few widgets for the Real Estate world, it was authored by Nicole Nicolay of MyTechOpinion.com. In it, she points out that there are great real estate widgets out there that provide helpful information for visitors in a variety of categories such as Property Search, Home Valuation, Industry News, Information and Statistics, and Calculators. The article was written a couple years ago so things have evolved (for example, check out some of the neat free real estate widgets that Trulia now offers Realtors here), but her article still gives a great list of useful real estate widgets by functional category.

Think widgets might be for your website or blog? Great. Widget-away. BUT, a word of caution – plan your widgets carefully. There is a thing as too many widgets on a site! It is very easy to add too many widgets to your website and the result can not only be disruptive to the visual integrity of your site, but also cause your site to load slowly. I’d say a good rule of thumb is to add 1-3 widgets to your site.

Lets look at a great application of widgets by a Realtor:

Heather Elias of Century 21 in Ashburn Virginia incorporates widgets into her her blog at www.locomusings.com:

Heather has included a widget on the right hand side that provides consumers with a slideshow of featured listings. This is a widget or what the company calls a module on their website but it’s effectively the same thing (a piece of code added to your website). The featured listings module that Heather uses is available through Diverse Solutions as an MLS IDX search option for agents. Diverse Solutions has three available website modules for featured listings, the Slideshow, Map and Map Search modules. When a visitor clicks on the featured listing they are taken to a page hosted by diverse solutions that provides a very detailed property listing and a way to contact the agent.

Heather also incorporates a Facebook widget lower down the right hand column. This widget displays her current Facebook activity and allows the visitor to become a fan with one instant click.

She has a Chat widget that invites the visitor to “Chat with Heather Elias”. At the moment of this screen capture, Heather was busy, but when she is online and available, visitors have the ability to simply type her a question and have her respond in real time. Talk about rapid feedback and being available to the consumer! There are several chat widgets that are out there such as the one provided by Meebo.

Heather Elias is an outstanding example of an effective use of widgets. Her use of widgets is useful to consumers, not overwhelming, and maintains the attractiveness of her site and blog.

So, widget sparingly and appropriately, and you too can effectively extend the value of your website and/or blog.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

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How to Email Articles (Posts) to Your Clients

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

You may have noticed that we’ve been providing some escrow education and answering a lot of great questions here on our blog (even though you may be getting this in your inbox, the article is still also part of the Glen Oaks Escrow Blog and permanently archived/available there). Topics like Options for How to Hold Title – The Vesting Form Explained and What Day Is Best To Negotiate Close of Escrow? Although there is new topics/articles on our site every week, the old topics remain on the site and are available for you and your clients anytime. And, it is simple to share these articles via email with your clients. Here’s how:

Step 1:

Go to the site and find the post you are looking for.

Say you want to email the article Choosing A Notary When It’s Time to Sign Your Escrow Documents. Go to the site and locate the post so that it appears in the main area on the left of the site:

Step 2:

Scroll to the bottom of the post and locate and click on the “Share This” icon.

Step 3:

Click on the Share This link and select the Email option under Send.

Step 4:

Fill in the form and select the Send button.

That’s it! Your client will now receive an email from you that links them to the post and includes your message.

It works for any of the posts we do. Share away!

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

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List Local, Promote Global | International Websites For Your Property Listings

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

Are you looking for an international buyer for your listing which would make a fabulous second home? Interested in getting your listings exposed to those potential foreign buyers? Although sites like Realtor.com do a great job of reaching a national audience, wouldn’t it be better if your listing was appearing in the currency of the country that it is appearing in? How about having your listing translated into the language of the country you are targeting? Or maybe you just want to make sure your listings are appearing on sites that rank well with Google in foreign countries. Although still fairly new and evolving, a growing area of online real estate marketing is in international listing websites and portals. Some are specific to a country, while others are trying to develop a global listing database. It is still too early to determine who the winner of this latest phase of real estate website positioning is going to be, but here are a few sites to watch, and check out for your current and future listings:

GlobalEdge:

Billing themselves as “The Business Portal for Overseas Properties” this site is based in the UK is “an award-winning trade portal designed to help real estate agents and property developers do business overseas”. In order to participate on this site, you need to create an account. They have several pricing models which range from free to £250/month. For £15/month you can showcase 3 of your best listings. In addition, this site has a property portal section which is an “independent analysis of the best overseas property portals” presented by region and by country. This is an excellent resource if you are trying to target a specific country for your listing.

Enormo:

With the tagline “Every Property, Everywhere”, this site aims to be an international listing portal and translates your listing into approximately 30 languages for a moderate monthly fee. Realtors can list their properties on the website, provided they have a website of their own. Specific details and pricing information is available by viewing the add a listing page found here.

Property Showrooms:

Based in Spain and a respected site amongst the European investor community, this site allows agents to post unlimited listings for 75 EURO/month with a 3 month minimum sign up period. Their site describes itself as:

Winner of CNBC Best Portal, frequently mentioned in the worlds press such as The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, and The South China Morning Post. As a result we appear at the top of Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines providing extensive background information, up to date news and services for both the public and industry alike.

Point2Homes:

A listings syndication service based in Canada, Point2Homes has a free 3 month trial membership where you can upload your listings and choose where they are distributed. After 3 months, the price is $19.99/month. Point2Homes is a great way to exposure your listings to many sources at once, including leading national, and international websites. The process is manual and requires you to create an account and upload your listing data.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

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Connect with Glen Oaks Escrow on Facebook

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

Are you on Facebook? If not, and you are a sphere of influence (or social) farmer, you probably should be. Facebook is a Web 2.0 site that is one of the greatest ways for Realtors to create a social networking strategy. Facebook currently has over 175 million users and makes it so easy to connect with people you already know from all parts of your life. It is a great way to let those who already know you, what you are currently up to (for example, that you are a Realtor and have a particular expertise in real estate in the Glendale area – think of the potential for referrals!). Find and connect with friends from high school, college, your company, or others in the industry, like Glen Oaks Escrow. Glen Oaks Escrow has a new “fan page” (Facebook terminology). By becoming a fan of Glen Oaks Escrow on Facebook, you have an easy way to stay connected to all of the training and event opportunities that we offer and support. In addition, by connecting with Glen Oaks Escrow on our fan page, you have a way to subtly remind your other Facebook friends that you are in real estate, as they will see you interacting with other professional organizations in the industry. So become a fan! Here is how:

Step 1:

Login to Facebook. (If you aren’t yet on Facebook, it is easy to create an account. Simply fill in the Sign Up section on the homepage and follow the directions to get started)

Step 2:

Search for “Glen Oaks Escrow” in the Search box in the upper right hand corner of the Facebook screen .

You will get this as your search result:

Step 3:

Click “Become a Fan”

That is it! Once you click “Become a Fan” the wording will change to “You are a Fan” and you will be connected to Glen Oaks Escrow on Facebook.

Step 4:

Check out our fan page. You can now click “Glen Oaks Escrow” and see the details of  our fan page where we will keep current all of our training opportunities (stay tuned…a training session on Facebook for Realtors is coming soon!) and you can keep up with the latest events and announcements from Glen Oaks Escrow. You can even send us a message on our fan page.

Just another great way to build your social network and establish yourself as a working Realtor who is keeping up with the latest trends and opportunities in the industry. We look forward to seeing you on our fan page!

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

Become a fan of Glen Oaks Escrow on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Understanding What "RSS" Means | A Key Concept In REALTOR Social Media Education

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

Have you ever noticed that little orange icon that appears on web pages and blogs everywhere? (If you haven’t, after reading this post, you will – trust me!). Are you curious what it is? That icon is the symbol and the cornerstone technology that has enabled the explosion of blogging and transformed how information is consumed in a web 2.0 world. And, it is called RSS. My personal journey into social media started the day I discovered RSS. Understanding RSS is what allowed all kinds of doors to open for me in social media and the web 2.0 world. My hope is that it will for you, too.

The stage has been set for this post. In previous weeks I have defined “blog”, and discussed in detail the concepts of web 2.0 and social media, and discussed how these pertain to real estate. If these concepts are still new to you, it will be helpful to review my post on blogs as a basis for learning the power of RSS.

So then, what is RSS?

Most literally, RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. But, this is such a bland definition, and one that is generally irrelevant to understanding the true meaning of RSS. Following are 3 different (outstanding) sources who have a slightly different take on how to describe and understand RSS. Go with the one that resonates best for you:

If you are a visual learner, here is the Common Craft video explaining RSS in plain English and points out that RSS is “like Netflix compared to the video store”:

Interested in a straightforward, practical explanation of RSS? A great working explanation of RSS is provided by ProBlogger Darren Rowse who explains RSS as:

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites.

In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added.

The problems with bookmarking

• You as the web surfer had to do all the work
• It can get complicated when you are trying to track many websites at once
• You miss information when you forget to check your bookmarks
• You end up seeing the same information over and over again on sites that don’t update very often

RSS Changes Everything

What if you could tell a website to let you know every time that they update? In a sense, this is what RSS does for you.

RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published.

I find the ‘subscription’ description helpful. It’s like subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to you periodically but instead of it coming in your physical mail box each month when the magazine is published it is delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.

Let me say right up front that I’m not the most technically savvy guy going around – but even I can use RSS. At first I found it a little strange to make the change from bookmarking to RSS but I found that when I started that I just couldn’t stop.

Still a little foggy on RSS? Here is “The Oprah Way” of explaining RSS, courtesy of Stephanie Quilao who explains RSS “The Oprah Way” in her great, non-technical post (read her full article here):

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

So, how does this all relate to real estate?

Are you interested in offering creative ways to gain more exposure for your clients? Or maybe you are you interested in simply expanding your knowledge base of what you can do for your clients. How about syndicating your listings information out to the internet? Maybe you just want to stay on top of what is going on, or learn from others. As Keller Williams Simi Valley, California agent Ted Mackel points out in the following video, these are just some of the benefits that RSS has afforded his real estate business. Ted created this video as part of a 2008 MyTechOpinion.com contest asking for submissions from real estate folks about which technology has impacted your business the most. Take a look:

You too can benefit from the power of RSS. As a first step, I suggest signing up for a Google account (if you don’t already have one) and sign up for their feed reader. Then, every time you see that RSS logo out on the web on a site that interests you, add that site to your reader. It will open all kinds of doors for you in this internet and social media world and help you to better serve your clients as social media becomes an ever increasing part of real estate.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

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Did You Claim Your Facebook Vanity URL?

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

Have you claimed your Facebook username yet? If not, you should do so! It makes it easier for friends, family, and clients to find and connect with you on Facebook.

In June of 2009, Facebook gave users the opportunity to claim a “vanity URL” that represents their profile on Facebook. Over 6 million people registered their username within the first week. This optional process gives Facebook users a distinct web address for their profile and makes it much easier to share and promote your Facebook presense with others. If you haven’t registered your username, the URL for your profile looks like the before picture below. After you register your username, the URL for your profile will look something far more friendly (see the after image below).

To claim your username, go to http://www.facebook.com/username and follow the simple process that Facebook has set up. You can select a username that Facebook suggests or create your own. Select “Check availability” to check for available usernames. If the desired username is available, click “Set Username” in order to confirm your choice.

A few notes:

• Facebook usernames are permanent. In other words, they cannot be changed or transferred! This is an important consideration. How are you branding yourself? Are you using facebook for business or personal use, or maybe for both? Should your username be your full name or something more tailored to business (staceyharmon vs. RealtorStacey). Only you can make that decision. But, keep in mind that it cannot be changed. So choose wisely and make sure it is a username that will represent you over time.
• Your username must be at least five characters in length and only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), or a period or full stop (“.”)
• Once you have your new friendly “vanity URL”, consider adding it to your email signature to encourage those you deal with to interact with you on Facebook.
• It is possible to also have a vanity URL for a fanpage, but you must have over 1,000 fans and have registered your page before May 31, 2009 in order to qualify. More details can be found here.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

Become a fan of Glen Oaks Escrow on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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REALTORS: Learn How To Change Your Internet Browser Home Page to Something Useful

Tuesdays, here at the Glen Oaks Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the REALTOR®, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of real estate.

When you open your internet browser window, wouldn’t it be nice to see something useful? Is there a site you visit every time you browse the web? If so, wouldn’t it be helpful to have that set as your home page on your browser? It’s very simple to change and this week’s tech tip is designed to show you how to do that.

Some suggestions of sites that might be relevant to a REALTOR to set as your default home page:

• Your MLS login screen (are you at the computer mostly to check the MLS?)
• Glen Oaks Escrow (new tech tips and escrow posts will automatically appear on your homepage!)
• AgentGenius.com (real estate magazine)
• MyTechOpinion.com (tech magazine for the real estate industry)
• Google.com (the search engine – good one to choose because it loads quickly)
• WSJ.com (leading business and financial news)
• InmanNews.com (real estate news)
• Realtor.org (NAR’s REALTOR site)

First step is to pick a default home page. Select one from the list above or select your own (ANY website will work).

Once you decide what site you want, follow these step by step directions on how to change your default home page to something useful.

Most of our readers are on PC’s and using Internet Explorer, so these directions are geared towards them. If you are on a Mac and in Safari, directions can be found here and if you are using Firefox, you can find directions here.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (Glen Oaks Escrow) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

Become a fan of Glen Oaks Escrow on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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