Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Online Transaction Management - RELAY or Transaction Point?

Online Transaction management is a technology that is of great value to a broker or agent having several transactions. It reduces the amount stress related to the transaction and the time from contract to close. There are many features such as email notification of deadlines, document uploading, service ordering, and more.


It is important to choose the right software to perform your online transaction. So which software should you choose? Some software will offer you the benefits that you need for your transactions and the price range which you are comfortable with. I would like to discuss two programs and a few of the features that they offer.


Relay and Transaction Point both have some great features to offer. Both programs offer the feature of uploading your checklist/task list associated with each transaction. Each has the feature of due date alerts. You can receive emails daily that will keep you informed of the important tasks that need to be completed for that specific transaction. You can upload the specific documents that are associated with each transaction.

The broker or agent can choose who should see the progress of the transaction from listing to close.


One neat feature in Transaction Point is that you can send letters (customized or template) from the program itself. These can be welcome letters, reminder letters, touch point letters or whatever you choose to send. It gives you the merge fields and also converts it to a Word document. And you can save your own customized letters as future templates.


This is a great feature to have when dealing with multiple closings. There are some other benefits that both programs offer.


Relay offers integration with Zip Forms, while Transaction Point offer integration with Zip Forms and Agent Office.


Relay offers a 2 - 3 screen shot of your task lists while Transaction Point offers a one screen shot. You have the header and footer located on the screen while scrolling through the one page of task list - no matter how long it is.


Did you know that you can access TransactionPoint through the Listings and Sales module of AgentOffice?


For those using AgentOffice that is a great tool to have a seamless integration, so you will not have to switch from one program to the next.


So whether you choose RELAY or TransactionPoint, both programs are a wonderful help to a broker or agent looking to simplify the OTM process!


Roxanne Tidmore, NAR Certified REPA

www.EliteREVA.com

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Real Estate Video Hosting Alternatives to Youtube

Real estate agents realize that it is harder to sell a house today using traditional methods. They have to become more creative in their listing and marketing abilities. A real estate virtual assistant can help you accomplish this. Creative Real estate agents have been turning to YouTube to host their video listings. But there are other alternatives to hosting your video listings. They are free and easy to use.

The video hosting sites not only give the property listing more exposure but it will excite the seller to see their home on the internet in a different media format. It is becoming more and more an effective way to sell homes.

Listed below are some alternatives to www.YouTube and some of the main features to each site.

www.Blip.TV

  • Free Hosting
  • Great Audience Reach and built-in syndication to AOL Video, Yahoo! Video, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, MSN Video, Google Video, Blinkx, iTunes and the Apple TV, Blogger, WordPress.com and much more.
  • Promotional Opportunities for your video and the tools to help you promote it.
  • Supports every video format under the sun, from Flash 8 (much higher quality than most Flash video) to Quicktime (for the all-important iTunes) to DivX and 3gp and cell phones.

www.Break.com

  • Free Hosting/Submission
  • Content is syndicated
  • Formats Accepted include: XVID, DAT, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DV, GVI, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, or WMV. (Sorry, no RAM, RM, or SWF.) *Files must be no larger than 500MB in size

www.JumpCut.com

  • Email Links or post to another website
  • Automated links (and link updates) post directly to many popular websites, including: MySpace!, Facebook, Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, Digg and del.icio.us
  • Remixing
  • Easy Feature-Rich Editing
  • Instant Publishing

www. Revver.com

  • This is a video website that works great with your real estate blogs. So this would be really terrific to advertise listings.
  • It has a video plug in feature that makes it easy to create a video that you can share with your target audience and they can submit video responses if they desire. It is more of an interactive tool for your blog. It really works great with WordPress.
  • They have a feature that allows you to directly upload video directly from your blog
  • Money Earning potentials
  • Easy managing of your video library

Happy Video Hosting!

Roxanne Tidmore, NAR Certified REPA

www.EliteREVA.com

Real Estate Listing Pages Should Be a Rich Experience

Real estate listing pages should capture the interest of your intended target audience. They should be rich with content and use different media.

A real estate virtual assistant can help an agent accomplish this. Listed below are three quick points to consider.

  1. Add a page from your blog. This will help it to be indexable by the search engines.
  2. Add some media, such as www.slide.com, www.YouTube, or www.photobucket.com. Add audio such as a podcast about the listing. The real estate agent's goal is to hold the interest of viewer and for them to stay on the site for as long as possible.
  3. Try to stay away from acronyms or abbreviations. Some viewers may not be aware of all of the meanings and that will take away from their experience that you want to create for them.
The real estate agent should have the goal of making that critical first impression in the first few seconds of a website visit. And to make the visit as impressionable as possible.

Hopefully you have a few ideas from this list. I would like to hear from others, to see what tips they have used and what has worked for them!

Have a Prosperous 2008!!

Roxanne Tidmore, NAR Certified REPA
www.EliteREVA.com