Still using 1990s-style voice mail and phone services? It’s upgrade time; here are a couple of cool tools to add some 21st century features to your telephone. (Extra cool, in fact, ’cause they’re free.)

First is YouMail.

Ever agonized over the right tone in an outgoing voice mail message — should you sound bone-dry and uber-professional, or should you inject a lighter tone? Do you want them to know how busy you are, or do you want to be generic?

Why not do it all? That’s the basic function of YouMail: Sign up for an account and when people call your cell number they’ll get a different greeting depending on who they are.

As the site puts it, "Be fun with your friends, sweet to your sweetie, and professional with your boss."

You can also get your messages via e-mail and listen to them on the YouMail Web site. So if you forget your phone, at least you can still get your calls.

Then there’s one of the most popular features: Disconnect certain callers (you know who I mean) without even given them a chance to leave a message. That’ll teach ‘em.

* * *

Second is Google’s GrandCentral. It works like this: You create an account and choose a phone number (it’s free and you get lots of area codes to pick from). Then you set that number to ring whatever phones you want it to.

That means when someone calls your GrandCentral number, it can ring your office phone, cell phone, and home phone at the same time. No more call forwarding, and you can change your settings via the GrandCentral Web site on a whim.

Even better, you can create groups for incoming numbers, so that, say, if a family member calls it rings all your phones, but if anyone else calls it only rings your work and cell numbers. (Or if your boss calls, it goes right to voice mail. :-)

Speaking of voice mail, GrandCentral does that, too. Not only can you access it from a phone, you’ll also get an e-mail or text-message notification so you can listen on the GrandCentral Web site from any Internet-connected computer.

There are a bunch of other neat features, too: custom rings, call screening, receive free calls via the Web, etc. I’ve been using it since I moved to Richmond five months ago, and my GrandCentral number is the only one I give out. (I don’t think my wife even knows our "real" number, ’cause we never use it.)

It’s a great way to connect all your phones without having to remember or list multiple numbers.

And did I mention that it’s all free? Google said it’s going to stay that way, too, but it will be adding some premium features you’ll have to pay for.

(Check out the site. If you decide you want to try it and need an invitation, drop me a note at Andrew at varealtor dot com and I’ll hook you up. (5/15: Invites are currently unavailable.))

All the kids are on MySpace these days. (Well, Facebook, actually — MySpace is yesterday’s news.) It’s all about “social networking,” which is a fancy way of saying “Online communities where everyone shares what they’re doing with other people.”

But you’re a grownup.

Nothing against Facebook or MySpace, but they don’t exactly scream “Professional.” Sure, lots of people and organizations have pages there — including VAR — but folks with real jobs aren’t quite the target audience.

For professionals, there’s LinkedIn. And if you haven’t signed up yet, you really should.

It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Facebook or MySpace, but you won’t find gaudy hot-pink pages, either. LinkedIn is about connecting professionals. You can even join a LinkedIn group for VAR members to help you find other Virginia REALTORS®.

In your profile you’ll specify where you’ve worked and went to school, and LinkedIn will tell you who else has those places in their profiles. Then you can send a message asking to be connected: “Andrew, a former colleague at PC Magazine, would like to add you to his network on LinkedIn…”

Once you’re connected with someone, you can see her connections, and so on, all the way back to, presumably, Kevin Bacon.

What next? If you want to get in touch with someone at a particular company (to job hunt, find a resource, or whatever), you might find someone on LinkedIn fits the bill. Then you can ask for an introduction.

It’s not much different than asking all your friends and relations, “Does anyone know someone who works at Bank of America?” except that you can see who everyone knows.

It becomes, “Charlie, can you introduce me to Beth Jones at Bank of America?”

And if nothing else, I speak from experience when I say that when you get yourself on LinkedIn, you’ll begin to find yourself in touch with a lot of people from the old days.

I want to be a better listener.

It’s not just technology — it’s a cultural shift in how Realtors work. Technology is easy; how this and the next generation of Realtors accept and implement it is often the deal-killer.

The past few weeks have brought more technologically-savvy clients my way. Not unsurprisingly, both have used Google tools to help themselves (and me) Here’s what I want -

First - why Google? Because it’s free and accessible. Did my clients both seek out Realtors to help them relocate to my area? Yes.

The first buyers interviewed a couple of Buyers Agents and ended up selecting me. As part of the process, they emailed me a published Google Doc with their already-trimmed-down list of specifications - preferred location, what they want to be close to, what their needs and wants are and their “would like to haves.”

The second buyers, through the process of our working together and narrowing down their search area/criteria, emailed me a link one day to a Google My Map with the things that are important to them. Schools, gym, grocery store, specialty grocery store, kids’ activities - and oh, yeah - houses pulled from Google Base - were all on the map.

I want the consumer’s search to be as powerful as mine, while keeping all the protected information necessarily behind “Realtor” lines (lockbox codes for generic lockboxes, alarm codes, “seller is out of town,” etc.)

I want background checks on Realtors to validate their ability to keep safe said private information.

I want the search to allow overlays of important data - crime, Walk Score, GIS information, neighborhood boundaries, and more, and I want to be able to share that search with my clients, readers, customers - and allow them to better narrow their searches, thereby allowing me to help them best - by listening and interpreting and advising.

Good Realtors do more than just search for homes - interpretation, guidance, advice, negotiation - client representation - is far more specialized than search.

(Posted here at request)

Looking for a way to set apart your property marketing?  Try adding floor plans!

A few months ago I discovered MetroPix, where you can design floor plans using their FREE online service.  You can pay a bit more for floor plans with color, or in three-dimensions, or with photos, etc., etc.  Thus far, I have only utilized their free service — and then added some color afterwards.

Do you know of other free floor plan drawing tools?  Let me know!

Hello … my name is Jeremy, and I’m a Twitter addict.  It started innocently enough - a Tweet here, a Tweet there, but then suddenly I needed more.

This is my story, my story of how Twitter became a business tool with a very real Return on Investment.

What’s your story?  Will I see you on Twitter?

Google Maps recently rolled out its new Street Level View service in Richmond, the first city in the Commonwealth to get it. Believe it or not, a Volkswagen Beetle outfitted with a 11-camera apparatus covered hundreds of miles in the Richmond area last fall to capture street-level photos of a large portion of the metropolitan area, literally snapping hundreds of thousands of pictures of entire neighborhoods.

Here’s how it works. Go to Google.com/maps and enter a street address in the Richmond area. Here’s a search for 10231 Telegraph Road, home of the VAR offices. A dialog box pops up and you can actually see a small thumbnail of the street level view on the search results page. As in the picture below:

Then, if you click that thumbnail, you’ll open up a larger window that you can use to navigate around the area. For a sample of the level of detail you can get, here’s a zoomed in shot of the VAR sign in front of our offices:

As long as you are in street view mode in Google Maps, anywhere you see a blue outline on the street, a street level view is available. Now your clients can show themselves around the neighborhood before deciding whether or not to look at a house. That could be one fewer showing to enter into VAR’s ideal route mapping tool!

Several times in recent weeks I’ve read blog posts horn-tooting about how the blogger had now achieved a certain number of friends on Facebook or connections on LinkedIn, and thanking their adoring fans contacts for helping them achieve that significant milestone. “Stop the presses!” I think to myself (an unfortunately anachronistic exclamation, in this case), trying to figure out why such self-serving announcements are remotely newsworthy — particularly in light of the fact that I’m betting a goodly number of those LinkedIn folks are people you’ve never met (See my friend Cindy Butts’ rather astute take on that phenomenon here). While I subscribe to that blog for a reason (I generally get value from the blogger’s opinions and perspectives), helping him rejoice in his large number of “friends” (I use the term loosely) is not that reason. So why is he clogging my feedreader with such useless, conceited pap? Get over yourself, I want to say.

This, I think, is different from achieving a milestone in terms of number of subscribers to your blog; even magazines brag about such things. Having a large number of people read you says something about your credibility, and is worth telling (though not too often).

But friends on Facebook or connections on LinkIn? I’m sorry, but I don’t care. Unless I should care, and I’m missing the point.

Am I missing a potentially beneficial opportunity to brag about how many friends I have on LinkedIn? (148 as of this morning, including a few I don’t really know, but I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.)

So as my friend (and VAR past president) Kit Hale of Roanoke likes to say: “Help me understand…”

photo credit: kellypuffs

Did you know?  In Virginia, out of the estimated 7.6 million residents, nearly one million speak a language other than English – about 13 percent of the population.

With markets in Virginia changing rapidly to include a multitude of nationalities, REALTORS® sometimes clamber to minimize the risk they take when working with a non-English speaking client while maximizing their ability to get the listing, make the sale, and nurture their relationships with clients.  With the introduction of a new benefit for VAR members, bridging a language barrier is a professional advantage that Virginia REALTORS® have that competitors don’t. 

Interpreters were not always readily available or affordable, but VAR members have a new tool to help them capitalize on the growing international market.  VAR has recently partnered with a Virginia-based company, LLE-Language Services, to provide discounted rates to Virginia REALTORS® for telephonic interpretation and document translation services in over 150 languages.  LLE has been in business since 1979 and is recognized nationally as a leading language services provider to government, business and non-profit organizations.  Their accurate and reliable telephone and face-to-face interpretation as well as document and e-mail translations are provided on a pay-as-you-go basis, making it that much easier for Virginia REALTORS® to accommodate a wider array of clients and customers. Now, VAR members can access LLE’s world-class services at a negotiated low price.

Communication breakdowns cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. And it’s not just the language that gets lost. The rapport, loyalty, and the productive business relationship are hard to create and maintain when languages separate the REALTOR® from the client.

Virginia REALTOR® Jo Anne Johnson, managing broker at Westgate Realty Group, Inc. in Falls Church, says most clients who do not speak English are uncomfortable trusting English-speaking REALTORS® – especially with financial information. Agents can’t figure out what houses to show clients if they can’t find out what the clients can and cannot afford to buy.

Having someone involved in a transaction who does speak both English and the clients’ language is handy, but as Sarah Stelmok, an associate broker with Century 21 New Millennium in Fredericksburg, explains, that’s not always the solution, either. Her Spanish-speaking buyers were doing great throughout most of a transaction with the aid of a Spanish-speaking buyer’s agent, but when it came down to presenting the HOA documents, the buyer’s agent wasn’t available, leaving Sarah’s team scrambling to try to find someone fluent in English and Spanish to help the buyers over the hump.

The competition for clients is fierce. Finding your edge is your key to building business, and with a growing segment of the home-buying public speaking another language these days, figuring out how to break that language barrier might not be a bad way to spend a strategy session or two, or at least to minimize risk and keep your non-English speaking client transactions on track.

Information about VAR’s new member service partner, LLE, can be found at www.VARealtor.com/LLE.

It’s not even the “Gateway” anymore. What it is NOT is an MLS. It is not intended to be an MLS and is not designed to be an MLS. It is intended to be the one and only source of real estate information for Realtors to better do what they do.

Don’t be misled by the title “The Real Estate Channel” - it is a fill-in for what is a yet-to-be-determined name for what used to be the “Gateway.” Virginia was well-represented by Bob Blount and Tom Innes on the Presidential Advisory Group* that deliberated over and ultimately delivered the following report linked here (PDF).

Rather than explain what it “is” read the Questions and Answers document - I have omitted some of the questions to focus on those below that highlight the basics, MLS’ and cooperation and compensation. If you have further questions, please ask.

—————

“Q. 1 My MLS meets my needs. I don’t need information about property outside my market area. Why should I support TREC?

A. Comprehensive real estate information currently exists but that information is not always analyzed, categorized, or readily available in an easy-to-use, trusted format focused on the needs of REALTORS®. Consumer-focused real estate websites are gathering more and more information and REALTORS® will come increasingly to rely on those websites. Without convenient, immediate access to information to analyze/interpret for their clients and customers, REALTORS® will no longer be at the center of real estate transactions. TREC will also enable REALTORS® and MLS participants to access essential information about properties in their market area which may be “just outside” the area served by their MLS, and TREC information will be richer and deeper than what is available in MLS compilations.

Q. 3 How will TREC help me make money?

A. Time is money. TREC will ensure that REALTORS® and MLS participants have immediate access to the information they need to serve clients and customers in a “member-focused” format. Much of the information that TREC will deliver will not be otherwise available conveniently or economically.

Q. 4 How does TREC differ from Realtor.com?

A. TREC is not advertising and will not be publicly accessible; TREC will be revenue neutral and will not sell ads to its users.

Q. 6 What about cooperation and compensation?
A. Accessing TREC will not involve offers of cooperation or compensation. Cooperation is a Code of Ethics issue. All REALTORS® cooperate with other licensees except in those rare instances where cooperation is not in a client’s best interests. Cooperative compensation is an MLS issue. TREC is neither an MLS or an association of REALTORS®.

Q. 8 How will TREC impact current MLS vendors?
A. Data standardization may create a more competitive market for MLS.

Q. 10 Is TREC a national MLS?
A. No.

Q. 12 Will the public have access to property data through TREC?
A. No.

Q. 13 Can a property owner opt-out of having their property included in the TREC database?
A. No. TREC is not an MLS and is not an advertising vehicle. Information from the TREC database will not be publicly available on the Internet as are listings on MLS “public sites” or the Internet sites of third-party aggregators (e.g. realtor.com).

Q. 16 What control will individual MLSs have over the rules if they participate in TREC?
A. MLSs will retain complete control over their own rules and regulations, including the authority and responsibility of enforcing those rules.

Q. 18 Who is the “real estate community” that will be involved in TREC? Are they Zillow, Trulia, Google et al.?
A. No. The “real estate community” is MLSs and local and state associations of REALTORS.

Q. 20 How will the integrity of data in TREC be ensured?
A. TREC will rely on – and its success will depend on – quality data being provided
by MLSs and other information sources. Stringent technology safeguards will be
implemented to foreclose the possibility of unauthorized access.

Q. 23 How will duplication of property listings be avoided on TREC?

A. Every parcel of real property will be included on TREC – irrespective of whether it is currently available for sale or lease. Those available for sale or lease will be identified (“flagged”) accordingly.

Q. 24 How will NAR benefit?
A. TREC represents an opportunity for NAR to better serve its members and to facilitate a more efficient real estate marketplace. TREC will keep REALTORS® at the center of real estate transactions. TREC is revenue neutral and costs will be no more than what is necessary to develop and operate TREC. It will not be a revenue source for local associations, state associations or the National Association.
Copyright NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®”

—————-

Know this - where we started with this project and where we are today is very, very different.
To get to where we are today, read some of the background on how we got where we are today.

FBS blog
RealCentralVA
BHB
Agentgenius

*The author of this post, Jim Duncan, was also a member of the PAG.

Technorati Tags: NAR, real-estate, realtor

When I started blogging five months ago, I did so in hopes of:

1. creating an opportunity to more fully engage with my current and past clients,
2. creating an open platform for commentary and discussion of our local real estate market, and
3. becoming a trusted adviser on all things real estate in the Central Shenandoah Valley.

As a result of pursing the goals above, I hoped that in the long-term (perhaps after a year or so) I would see:

1. an increase in traffic to my web site
2. an increased sphere of influence
3. an increase in sales

Focusing, for a moment, solely on the web site traffic — here’s what I’m finding after just five months . . .

You’ll see that I had experienced relatively unchanged levels of traffic to my web site for seven straight months — until I began blogging. Furthermore, the increased traffic since I started blogging has been astonishing — certainly beyond my expectations.

A few disclaimers, explanations and miscellaneous thoughts:

• I have a combined web site and blog — and the traffic trend line above is for the traffic to that combined site. Interestingly, the traffic increases have existed not solely in the blog section of my web site, but in the searching section (and others) as well.
• When I began last November, there weren’t any other Realtors in my marketplace blogging. There are several more now, but I imagine being the first one out the gate may have contributed to my growth.
• I have learn a lot from fellow Realtor bloggers around Virginia and beyond about how to promote my blog — commenting on other local blogs, highlighting it in offline printed marketing materials, etc.
• In addition to increased traffic, I have certainly seen an increase in my sphere of influence — I have established many new relationships with people in my local market area.
• I have not yet seen an increase in sales as a result of my blogging activity — but given all the increases in traffic and the increase in my sphere of influence, I imagine that will happen in the coming months or year.

Are you thinking about starting a blog? While I’m certainly not yet an expert on blogging, you are welcome to contact me — I’d be happy to share some of what has worked well and not worked so well for me over the past five months.