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Yesterday I posted that the LA TImes was ending the Real Estate Section.

I just received an email from one of my customers that was sent to them from the LA Times

No.  The Real Estate section and the Business section are going to be
combined on Sunday. So you will get a verity of readers on that day.

All of your ads that you run in that section will still be placed in that section;
you will just have more readers going to that section. (Real Estate & Business people).

If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call. 

Best,

Kevin J. Bauer

Los Angeles Times, Real Estate Advertising

 

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In case any of you in the Los Angeles area publish your listings in the L.A. Times Real Estate Section you will have to find another avenue to get your listing noticed.

Eric Blackwell posted about the news -> Bloodhound article. Eric was got the tip from Real Estate Industry Watch.

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That is the ultimate question, but what is THE answer.

Contrary to popular belief, there will never be THE ultimate game changing device or program. Many out there claim this little doo-dad or whatchamacalit will be the Future of Real Estate Technology and how EVERY Real Estate Agent must have this tool. But that is not the case.

So, what IS the Future of Real Estate Technology?

The answer is YOU! The key to Technology is YOU!

To be on the cutting edge of technology you can’t just rely on what someone tells you is the best newest product. You have to take what many say about a product and then try it for yourself. I don’t mean just trying it for a day or a week, I mean really learn the product. Learn all the tricks and tips. See how others actually use the product. Don’t just buy it, try it and then declare it sucks. Learn it.

Now before you can start using cutting edge technology products you need to really learn how to use your computer. I’m not talking about how to turn it on and off and how to use the programs in a simple way. Really get into the computer, learn how to change settings in the Control Panel and for Mac learn where the settings menu is. Change settings, don’t change settings. Learn where the options menus are in programs. Learn the Names of the programs you are using. You are not Typing a document in Vista 98 or Internet Explorer, you are most likely using Microsoft Word (insert version here).

Here is another thing to learn/stop doing. When using the internet (either Internet Explorer of Firefox) learn where the address bar is. Typing the website you want to visit in the search box on your home page is NOT the same as typing the address into the address bar. There is a difference and sometimes it is important. Especially when someone is giving you a specific address to type, sometimes that specific address will not come up in a search. So, when you search for it, it will NOT be found.

There are many great books out the and the For Dummies series are great. I have actually bought myself the Power Point for Dummies so I could get up to speed.

To really be able to learn technology you have to take this phrase out of your vocabulary.
I CAN’T or IT’S TOO HARD. If you can’t stop using those phrases you will never become technology proficient.

Remember, The Future of Real Estate Technology is learning to use the technology tools that work best for you. If it’s a Mac of a PC it doesn’t matter. Use what works for you and really become a power user.

Loren Nason
Technology Coach

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Roger Theriault wrote and released an appropriately titled Great Real Estate Plugin. Roger sent me an email last week announcing this new plugin. But with work pilling up over the past month including setting up a new brokerage in I didn’t get enough time to review this plugin so I want you to check out the reviews at My Tech opinion noted below.

I did a quick review of the plugin and it is great. The real estate wordpress using community has been looking for a plugin like this.

Reggie over at My Tech Opinion did an in-depth review of the plugin also agrees that this plugin is great.

You could argue the only WordPress limitation for real estate agents has been the difficulty of displaying listings in an attractive and useful format…until now.

Reggie also has an interview of Roger that you should check out - Roger Theriault Interview

WordPress allows you to have a unique site at a low cost, and easily create new pages without worrying about HTML or paying a web designer each time you need to tweak your wording. It just hasn’t allowed agents to manage their property listings as well as a custom or template real estate site. Hopefully I can help with that.

This plugin looks like the answer to many bloggers out there.

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology

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Trulia today release Trulia Pro, a local advertising service for real estate agents, mortgage brokers, business and local service providers. Zillow also has a similar product called EZ ads.

The best part about Trulia Pro is that it offer unlimited impressions for the same $39 dollars a month or $29 if paid for a year in advance.

Joel over at Future of Real Estate Marketing has a great write up on Trulia Pro and makes a great point

…fortune will favor the early adopters - the more people piling into the mix later on means the fewer impressions go around. If you get in early, right now you can own a city - for a while at least.

This service is a great way to promote your blog. If I was an Agent I would jump on this in a heart beat. Why? because it’s cheap advertising to promote your blog.

Loren Nason
Your Local Tech

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Would you like to feature foreclosures on your Real Estate blog?

Now there is a solution.

Foreclosure.com Wordpress Plugin

WordPress Foreclosure Listings Plugin delivers a complete real estate search and navigation environment quickly and easily by querying the Foreclosure.com database in real-time. Once you download and activate the resource, WordPress Foreclosure Listings Plugin will create a WordPress page and a search widget. Much of the data will be served by the Foreclosure.com database but will appear to come from your blog.

This plugin is very full featured. Once you activate the plugin it will automatically create a “Foreclosure Search” page for you and then you can also add a search widget to your sidebar. The plugin also has a MS Virtual Earth pop-up so when a visitor puts their mouse over a listing they get a satellite view of the property.

The biggest problem I see with this plugin is that it is actually a lead generation tool for foreclosure.com NOT YOU! Now if you want you can sign up for an affiliate account with foreclosure.com and earn commissions.

IMO - I would NOT run this on my Real Estate blog that you write. It might benefit your readers but it drives traffic AWAY from you. Now I could be wrong but I don’t know if foreclosure.com would send the lead back to you if the searcher wants to make an offer and needs a qualified REALTOR.

Loren Nason
Real Estate Technology Coach

(Thanks to Wordpress Garage for the tip)

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Since Windows 95 was released Windows has what’s called the Task Bar. The task bar is that bar at the bottom of your screen (by default) that has the start button, shows running programs, shortcuts, icons of background programs running, and the clock.

Did you know you can move the task bar. I had a customer call me over the weekend and couldn’t figure out how the task bar had moved. I’ve seen this many times as an accidental click&drag can make the task bar move if you aren’t paying attention.

To move the task bar all you need to do is click and drag the bar to the top or the left/right side and let go and the task bar will move. If it doesn’t work that means the task bar is locked and you will need to unlock the task bar before trying to move it.

To unlock the task bar you will need to right click on it and on the menu that will appear, uncheck “lock the task bar”. To lock the task bar do the same right click and check “lock the task bar”. To do the check/uncheck all you need to do is click on the menu item of “lock the task bar”.

To help you visualize I found a video on You Tube for you to watch.

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Joe Hall wrote a post on the Marketing Pilgrim blog. This article is a good read to help you create your strategy on dominating the search engines (Google).

Bulletproof SEO Strategies for Real Estate Professionals

Loren Nason

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New eye candy from Trulia

Trulia Snapshot

What is it?

Eye candy for Real Estate searchers (AKA Real Estate Porn)

Is it important?

Let’s just say it’s neat and if it drives more traffic to Trulia’s site and then drives more traffic to your
listing then yes.

What should you do about it?

Go play with it.

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology

*** - This was deleted and reposted since I let it go live too soon.

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Last year I told you about the Dash GPS with internet connection and how a broker should write their own application to show listings on the receiver and hand them out to customers. Original here -> Dash GPS

Coldwell Banker has done just what I said somebody should do just they are not handing them out (or maybe they are). Mike Price posted at Geek Estate today about Coldwell Banker’s announcement about them teaming up with Dash GPS to feed their listings into the device. Now anyone with a Dash can look see houses for sale on their GPS if they turn on the application.

Did the get the idea from me? Of course they did.

Loren Nason
Technology Coach

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