Everyday I am coming across something new that says it is the best technology since the toaster and the sliced bread. I feel compelled to use it to get my name, services and listings out there as much as I can. BUT when is it TOO much? Is it when you can't really get to every product everyday to enhance it or when there are too many places to update your listings and you forget one? Is it possible that there are so many that they are counteracting each other?

So, do you fall into the trap of new technology and try it ALL on for size only to become overwhelmed? I need a full time person to keep up with it all. It is nice when something like P2A can automatically load your info and changes, but what about the others.

What products are you using? Whether one page sites, or lists, blogs, community groups of all types and SEO.

Squidoo, Diggit, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Del.ici.ous, Postlets, Craigslist, Blogger, ActiveRain, RElib, MLS, LINK (Boston only MLS),  MySpace, Facebook, eBay, BackPage, Google features, Yahoo, LocateOpenHouse.com, Realtor.com (to enhance), Proquest, EmailFlyerAds.com, vFlyer, ShowingFeedback.com, MEEBO, Localism, GetClicky, Swicki, ETC, ETC, ETC!!

I know there are more, but I can't think of all of them. And I know there are more I will find and use. What are you using?

Aren't we supposed to be in a down market?! Then please tell me why 3 of my buyers have lost properties to other offers this month alone. And why did a couple more have to pay full price? Some of these happened in neighborhoods that have actually increase in price.

This is when i am able to break it top people that Real Estate is LOCAL!! When buyers read the news that the Real Estate industry in falling apart and you can get a deal, or its a buyers market or just wait because its falling...NOT true everywhere.

As real estate professionals we need to educate buyers on our local markets, lord knows the media isn't.

Calling all tech gurus out there. I have been scouring the web out there in search of a product and was wondering if anyone has come across or heard of anything like this. it seems to me that all products I find do part of what I want, but not all.

I want to be able to communicate 'real time' with people that visit my website no matter where I am or what I am doing. I have Meebo on my site, but I have to be signed in to Meebo on the computer to converse with people. I joined twitter, but that only allows me to tell people where I am and what I am doing.

I know this is starting to take the tone ' all about me and what I want' but it really is about my clients:)

Basically, I want to have an IM window on my site where people can ask a question and it is sent 'real time' to my Blackberry, or any mobile device for that matter, and I can respond to them immediately via text or something that pops back to that chat box.

Has anyone heard of any such product? Or is there a tech company out there looking at this and can create it?

Yes, I am beating a dead horse...don't call PETA!!

Everyone always has a different opinion on this subject and it changes from property to property, agent to agent, season to season and market to market (condition and geographical).

The reason I bring it up now is because I made a comment the other day to a fellow agent about how I hated when they didn't show key parts of a property, mainly kitchen and bath. She said she purposely doesn't put a lot of pics because she wants to get people into the property. I personally think the more pics the better. Show them everything. If they don't want to see the property because of the way the kitchen looks, then so be it. They probably don't want the property anyway, even if they do see it. I think to myself, what is wrong with the kitchen if they are not showing it. Is it really that hideous? Everyones take on something is going to be different and if you capture the true essence with a great pic, then you have nothing to be worried about. The ones that are serious are going to come see it and the ones that don't like the kitchen or bath or outside of the house are not. Work smarter - NOT harder!!

Professional photography for all!!

Check out to see who is on top...Congrats Cathy!

http://homes.point2.com/Agent/US/Massachusetts.aspx

Hi All...I know we have discussed before, but I just started really using it and I got to tell you...I LOVE IT!!

It is a free service and I don't have to follow up with calls anymore. Just enter the listing into the system, enter the showing appointment and the buyer agent/buyer contact info (which it stores all of this for you) and it automatically sends out the email. All 4 appointments that I have tried so far have responded.

Great feedback for your clients as well...and goes directly to them if you want it to.

Okay, is anyone using it?

I have been scouring P2A user manuals on how to do it and there is nothing. Then I went to the message boards and couldn't find it, but of course i got sick of looking for it. Who knows what forum it would be under...P2A - I think we need a search function on the main page of the message boards, not just in each forum.

I went to facebook and finally created my account and there are some of my listings there. Not sure how they got there and some are old, incorrect, sold, etc. How do we get our listing up there and get rid of the wrong ones?

A word to all...when you decide that you want to join forces and create a team, be sure that you are both on the same page with your business plans before doing so.

I am recently divorced from my business partner due to differences of how and where we wanted our businesses to go. We had all of the conversations in the beginning, but I think we really should have created individual "written" business plans and compared them. In hind sight I believe we would NOT have joined forces. It took a while to figure it out because there is the "honeymoon phase" and there is the "we're too busy to think about it phase" that get in the way.

So, lesson learned and I am sure a lot of you have been though this. Make sure you are on the same page!!

https://www.reliberation.com/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?selectedNavItem=Posts&sectionid=1205&postid=31663 

We got the check for that condo I was telling you about in an earlier post...all 5%.

Now, what we did do is give a referral fee to the other agent even though technically we didn't have to. Basically letting them know that they did wrong by not contacting the agent that showed it to them, but also letting them know that we are still good business people and we look forward to doing business with them in the future.

We had a situation recently that is quite new to me. Someone in my company took a 2.6 million dollar listing with a 6% commission, which is the owners price. We said it should be more around 2.450, but signed it up with the understanding that it would be reduced at a certain time written into the listing contract.

Additionally, we took a $10,000 deoposit up front for a marketing budget refunded at the sale of the home. If the home did not sell with our company then there was no refund. There was no sense in us dishing out all kinds of money on an overpriced listing especially when the seller knew it was overprice but wanted to try it.

Have you done this?

Hi...we need your help!

Kerry & I are changing our business direction and therefore our team name. We are preparing ourselves to grow out team and don't feel that our names are the ones that should be in place to do that. So I want any input you may have.

Some of the criteria we are trying to meet for this name:

Upscale without alienating lower priced properties

Would prefer to have it Boston/Massachusetts related, but hard since so many names are taken

Would like to have it somehow real estate related

Must not sound funny when said

OR it could be some random name that sound Bostonian.

Any thoughts?

Hi...I am not sure if this has been discussed in the past. So, for anyone that has seen it I apologize for the repost and for those have not try this out.

Now that you can keep your phone number when you switch companies make it a dot com. I have purchased the domain names according to our cell phones and team numbers: 6178333376.com (joe cell), 6178176602.com (kerry cell), 6178949494.com (team cell-also forwards to 800# for local presence) & 8006769617.com (our proquest line).

All of these number.coms are pointed to our sites. This way when we are talking with someone on the phone and we want to have them go to our site and they don't have a pen because they were driving by a sign and dialed and kept going. We just tell them the number you just dialed is a web address also. Type in numbers only with a .com at the end and you are at our site. You can also purchase with dashes if you want to make sure they get there.

One more way of making sure you capture leads with ease. Try buying the main office number as well. Just thought of that-I might have to go do that.

Okay, I have an interesting one for you. I won't have the ending just yet, but will follow up when all said and done.

So, I go on a listing appointment for a condo in the South End, but it is not the owner I will be dealing with...it is someone that has POA for the entire process from signing the listing contract to signing the settlement at closing.

We get the pics done and uploaded into MLS. Two showings happen immediately. Next day two offers come in. Then we hit the brick wall. The 'owner' tells the person with the POA that she sold the unit. What?! Put the unit into 'temp withdrawn' status in MLS so no other agent can contact. So this goes on for 2 months. Then all of a sudden it falls apart. The buyer walked because she was told the wrong condo fee. Mind you the 'owner' had not paid it for about 1 1/2 years and didn't know it went up about $200 per month. Now at $614.

Then we are about to go back to the people that made the initial offers and try to put something together...but wait, the 'owner' tells the POA that she has a backup offer. OMG! Now in the meantime I have received a call from another owner in the building, who wanted to make an offer but all this other stuff was going on, asking who the buyer was because he heard it was another agent. So I call the POA and ask who the buyer is. It was a young woman, not the agent. Guess what, the back up offer was from the agent. So the POA calls me a week later because I brought this up and asked if I knew any of the names he mentions as the new buyers. 2 of the names were the agents that had put an offer in originally for themselves.

So, now what? Technically there is a commission due because there is a contract. The owner told the agent there wasn't a contract. He probably should have contacted me anyway, since I told him of the POA situation in the beginning. Well, the buyer signed the closing paperwork on Monday night...seller signed the next day...then the closing attorney got the closing figures. Kind of backwards. The owner is a "slick" so to speak.

On the HUD it states commission due...the whole 5%. Next thing you know the owner is calling my owner. He is not returning a call jsut yet. Letting the attorneys deal and see where the chips land. The agent called me personally after he found out what happened to let me know that he had no intentions of going around me and that the owner called him. She knew he was looking in this building. I told him that he should have paid attention to the MLS and probably would have been wise to make a call to me anyway since he came through me originally. Technically it was still listed.

I will let you know when and if we get a check. Hope all this makes sense.