Real Estate Blog Pro

Keep Track of Your Real Estate Life with Jott

 
Looking for a quick way to keep track of yourself?  Sure, all Pros need little help finding themselves from time to time.  In the world of Web 2.0, taking care of yourself is the name of the game!  Well, today this Pro stumbled upon a new tool that is sure to keep you in check.  Its called Jott and its a voice powered, hands-free way to send messages and to do lists to yourself.  Every real estate agent at one time or another gets the cart before the horse....well, with Jott, this actually works to your advantage. 

Ways that i think this application will prove useful:
Reminders
-call important clients
-leads that you acquire in passing
-important addresses that you want to remember
-deadlines
-paperwork
Information
-phone numbers that you shouldn't forget
-important details about property
-keeping track of new listings
-epiphanies while in the field (ahh...i didn't know Mr. SoandSo owned that too!)

The possibilities are endless....that's why this Pro felt it might be a good productivity related tool to pass along.  Got any cool tools or tips you'd like to pass along to real estate pros such as yourself?  Do so...there's a big blank comment area below, just waiting for your insight!  Good Luck Pros!

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Virtual Tours, Newsletters and Resources on the Fly! Now that's Pro!

Wanna create Virtual Tours like a PRO?  Integrate them into your blog or website?  Lifehacker told us last week about this kick ass new website called Mapwing and let this Pro be the first (ok, second) to tell you, It Kicks Ass. 


Mapwing simplifies all of the hassles involved with creating real estate VR tours.  No stitching of panoramics. No learning code in order to embed the 360 pano thingy.  None of that crap that you have to pay web designers bizillions of dollars to do for you.  Just follow the instructions to the T and you'll end up with a terrific looking floorplan with integrated Virtual Tour.  In the end you'll have the option of embedding it within your own website or emailing it to your clients! Its the perfect blog marketing tool.


Create newsletters on the Fly with Letterpop [found via Lifehacker] This is an AMAZING tool!  Look at the newsletter that I created for my father's surveying equipment supply company in South Carolina here.  This is perfect for real estate agents because you have so much flexibility with how photos and text can be displayed, you can have multiple pages and instantly email the newsletter to up to 500 people.  Give it a whirl!

A hefty list of blog resources can be found over here at Daily Blog Tips Blog.  You should definately subscribe to this blog's RSS because it always comes packin!'


Technorati Tags: newsletters, resources, links, virtual tours, Letterpop, Mapwing

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A Blog Stocking full of hacks, tools and tips and buttons

Long time no blog, Pros!  I must apologize for my lack of post-age, as I've recently taken a small break from real estate, focusing more on collaborative art and photography projects (including a book!! I will surely keep you up to date). I know, I know it was very un-Pro to have not tipped you off earlier.  I promise to be more Pro in the future.

So...right to business:

Found a few great resources to exploit in your never ending quest to save time.
250 Free Office Templates and Documents




Addthis.com offers a great tool for simplifying your social bookmarking life.

Also...here are a couple of great posts regarding Hacking your email in 99 ways [IT Security] and a variety of posts about real estate podcast marketing  and podcasting [RSS Pieces]

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Real Estate Agents Will find This Tabbed Text Editor Handy

Do you post to online sites like Craigslist and Backpage?  Sure you do.  Well check out this text editor that the Pro found over at Portable Freeware.  Its called Edit Pad Lite is sure to be a hit among real estate agents.  Now you can save all of those posts that you must constantly repost over and over in one place.  Not only that, but you can open as many text files at the same time as you want..making it easier to switch back and forth.  Thats Money!
The Pro has actually been using an program designed to write sceenplays for saving his HTML garbly gook posts.  Edit Pad Lite will help me help myself straighten up a bit and definately save some time.



Go Gettem Pros!                       Download EditPad Lite

Technorati Tags: text editor, software, freeware

Use this Gmail hack to Convert PDFs to HTML

Tired of watching your poor computer practically putter out when trying to open a PDF file?  Real estate people get a LOT of PDFs!
 Try this: Use your gmail account to instantly convert that PDF into an HTML document!   You can do this in at least 2 ways.

The first way (as described by Labnol) is to upload the document as an attachment in a Gmail message, then email it to yourself at the same account.  Check your inbox.  You have mail (from your former frustrated self)!  Open the message and click on "view as HTML."  Now congratulate yourself for being so smart.
The second way is something that i came up with tonight.  remember a while back when i told you about GDrive  (don't forget the Firefox extension that lets you use your Gmail account as a file server-GSpace)?  Get the extension. Log into your account through the FTP and then search your computer for PDFs.  Once you've uploaded what you like to your account, go to your inbox and send yourself the emails containing the files that you want to convert.  Now, sit back and congratulate yourself for reading this post.

Oh yeah...you can use this technique for many types of documents other than PDFs. Labnol points out a few for you:

(MS Word .doc, Excel .xls, Powerpoint .ppt, Rich Text Format .rtf),
OpenOffice.org Document Formats (Writer, Calc, Impress, Presentation)
and WML Files (Wireless markup language) to HTML.

Good Luck Pros!


Technorati Tags: gmail, hack, FTP, PDF, documant

If your Client uses Gmail, Call Them on It

Apparently, if you are one of the trillion zillion people out there using Gmail, there's a feature that has been discovered that will allow you to call other Gmail users.  Google Blogoscoped told us of this along with another handy tip about a GTD  ("getting things done") Firefox extension that adds handy tasks list, advanced labels and the ability to save specialized searches.   Whoa....real estate agents should have no problem putting these tips to use. 
Keep at it Pros!


Technorati Tags: gmail, google, calling, call, getting things done, GTD

Instant Messenger to RSS to Email Hack

If you've ever wanted to send yourself to-do items from your cell phone, here's a mashup hack for you to try out:  IM to RSS to Email. [via Library Clips]  You can start by looking at the possibility of using Gmail as a to-do service from Devin Reams.   Its basically just sending yourself tasks to your email and doing them as you read them.  Then look at John Tropea's  Gmail RSS Reader hack but replace the step of emailing yourself with a subscription to an RSS feed (try using Sabifoo), so that you are automatically updated.  Set up your RSS feed through one of those RSS to email services (I prefer Rmail as well).  Now, you can send to-do items to your Gmail account from out in the field.  
What a great field hack for real estate Pros!


Technorati Tags: hack, instant messenger, GTD, mashup, Rmail

Edit your Flickr Photos Online with Preloadr and a Hack using Picasa

Now this is bound to be useful to all of you real estate Pro bloggers- edit your Flickr photos online with Preloadr!  This will be extremely useful when on the run or using your office computer or a public one.  I've been waiting for Pixoh to integrate this sort of function and lately they added a Flickr Export feature.  Nevertheless, if you are near your home computer (provided you use a PC), I recommend a quick hack i learned somewhere along the way. All you need is to have Picasa (Google's Image software) installed.  You can get it here:


Pro has talked about using Flickr before.  Here's another hack:  First, go to your Flickr account and look in your account setting for the option to email from mobile.  Flickr will give you an email address to use for mailing photos strait from your desktop to your photostream.  Now using picasa, you can edit your photos and email photos to anyone using the email function at the bottom- including your Flickr account. 

Find the photo that you want to add to Flickr, edit it and send it via email.  Use the subject line of the email to title your photo and the body of the email to describe the image.  Hint:  you can do the same thing when emailing strait to a blog post.
Good Luck Pros!


[Preloadr tip via Lifehacker]


Technorati Tags: images, Flickr, hack, Picasa

Create Property Diagrams and Plans Online with Gliffy and a Peak inside Pro's Del.icio.us account

On Pro's way to becoming Pro today he stumbled across a post from good ole faithful Lifehacker- (which happens to have a completely new blog design btw and lookin' good!!) regarding a new online diagram creator thingy.  It's called Gliffy [beta] and it looks pretty interesting. But most importantly, it looks like it can be very useful to all my favorite real estate agent 2.0 Pros out there. Its quick and easy to use- Pro tried it out already- thumbs up!  Give it a whirl and see if you can start making your own floor plans.  Good luck!


Gliffy
CNET [review of Gliffy]
Make diagrams online with Gliffy [Lifehacker]

ALSO....  i just wanted to mention that I appreciate all of the nice comments and questions that you guys send me via email.  If at all possible, lets try to start putting questions and remarks in as comments so that everyone can benefit from your inquiry.  No question is too stupid for the Pro- he's just trying to help you out.  Its hard to find that in real estate 1.0.


Keep this in mind:  If you ever have a specific question or are looking for direction on your own, a good place to check first is my del.icio.us account.  If you are not yet familiar with what this (ie. del.cio.us) is, its a way of publishing all of your bookmarks to the public- or social bookmarking, rather.  Search in the tags for the subject that you have in mind and take a stab at it.  Pro doesn't have time to post every trick that he finds or comes up with, obviously.  Therefore, in between posts, you can always find goodies in my bookmarks.  Happy Hunting!

and if you like tag sifting, check out this new site TagFetch [via Webby's World]


Technorati Tags: property diagrams, online tool, gliffy, tips and tricks, del.icio.us, tagging, bookmarks

How to work that digital camera (when you need primo real estate photos)

Here's a great 8 part article about digital cameras and approaches to real estate photography as a real estate agent.  Pro just thought it would be nice to pass it along. Here's the breakdown of the different parts (just in case you think you're already bordering Pro).  Thanks Digicamhelp! 

IN THIS ARTICLE




1-Introduction




2-The essential digital camera feature(s)




3-Recommended accessories




4-Taking interior photos



5-Taking exterior photos



6-Composing exterior photos



7-Editing real estate photos



8-Top
tips for real estate agents

speaking of photography, there's some nice shots over here

Technorati Tags: digital photography, real estate, tips, tricks, howto

A top menu bar Typepad Hack

If you noticed the Pro's new navigation menu up top, you might be wondering "How the hell did he do that?"  Well, if you use typepad blogging platform from six apart, you know that hacking it isn't all that easy- and there arent too many hacks out there for typepad.  Nevertheless, check out Jimmy The Geek for this top menu bar hack.  I promise that if you follow the steps as laid out by Jimmy, you'll have one for yourself in no time.
This is especially useful for real estate agents who might want to keep their listings blog and company blog separate from their personal blog.
For other typepad hacks, check here.


Technorati Tags: typepad, hacks, sixapart, navigation,

Add Reverse phone lookup tool to your Google Home Page

If you are indeed a realtor, Pro doesn't need to elaborate on many uses that one may have for a reverse phone number looker upper.  If you're just waking up, here's a clue: This module searches for the owner of the specified phone number. Follow this link and add it to your Google Homepage. You'll thank me.


Have fun with those "for sale" signs, friends!


Technorati Tags: phone numbers, google, reverse lookup, homepage

Use your Gmail account as an FTP server

gDisk is a software that turns your GMail account into a portable hard
drive so you can always have your important files accessible accross
the Internet.




Technorati Tags: gmail, harddisk, files

Feeling overwhelmed? Here are six steps for learning difficult subjects quickly

I know.  All of this blogging biz can be a little overwhelming at first.  Believe me, looking at RSS, AJAX, and all of the other stuff one should know when blogging, its enough to make you wanna dig a hole and crawl in.  and In fact, if the Pro had begun blogging knowing that there would be all this stuff to learn, he might have gone about it a different way.  But for your sake, its good he didn't!  Everything that you are learning on this blog was self taught and most of it had to be figured out becuase there havent been many tutorials around for this stuff for very long.  If you stick with it, it will be worth it to your business and your clients.  This much is for certain.  With that in mind, take a look at these six steps for learning difficult subjects quickly (Paul's Tips). [link Lifehacker]
Step 1: Bombard yourself with information
Step 2: Identify the key concepts and make them yours
Step 3: Only memorize what absolutely has to be memorized
Step 4: Get some feedback on your understanding
Step 5: Bombard yourself with some more information, but from another source
Step 6: Get some real-world feedback (blogging makes this one a given...)
[read them all in detail here]

If you think that one is helpful, you might wanna also check into the Five Minute Organizer [Success Begins Today]



Technorati Tags: tips, real estate, learning, organizer

Create an RSS feed for feedless sites and real estate hack tip

Sometimes there are those sites that just don't have an RSS feed to subscribe to. I know, crazy right!?!  Well, in a land far far away, many years ago there were these things called websites and they just sat there.  This was before there was such a thing as a blog and life wasn't very exciting, to say the least.  Well, those days have passed (thanks G_d), but there still are those dinosaurs out there that contain the info that we need.  As Pro bloggers, versed in the ways of RSS, this can be frustrating as we must always go through the motions and type in the URL, visit the actual site, sift through pages of babble to get what we want, blah blah blah.  What am getting at?  Precisely this:  There are tools out there that will allow you to create an RSS feed out of a site's data (as long as it changes from time to time), even if the site doesn't already have an RSS feed ready made for you to subscribe to.  Pro is going to tip you off to a tool that will allow you to do just that, first.  Then, he'll give you an example for how to use it that you won't find anywhere else- a hack, if you will- exclusively for all you bloggin real estate agents out there.

1) Take a look at Ponyfish
[
link via LifeHacker]
Ponyfish is a terrific solution for creating an RSS feed from a site that either A) is fairly old and just doesn't have RSS format B) is a company website that you might like to keep track of or C) (Pro's favorite) happens to be a site with content that changes dynamically (such as property search websites and databases), with a webmaster that would rather not make the content as easily accessed as say, one with an RSS feed.  They want you to visit their site!  Sometimes its because they want the adsense money that rolls in with every page view, sometimes its the nature of the content. In either case, a tool like Ponyfish can help you out.

2) The Hack:  Pro chooses not to point any linky fingers at particular real estate websites that can be hacked in this nature- partly because he would rather not single out certain sites that belong and are maintained by his friends.  But lets just say that you are a real estate agent and you'd like to be notified everytime a new property hits a particular database.  Go to Ponyfish and follow the instructions for creating a new feed.  Find the page on the web (within the site) that you usually go to when you want to see if anything has been added.  Enter that URL.  Create a feed and add it to your feed reader or RSS notification service and you're set.  Don't bother begging the webmaster to integrate RSS into his/her site.  They won't! Chances are, if they don't already have the service, they would rather not make it that easy on you.

I know...you must now use your brain.  Have fun!  It won't hurt. Pro promises...




Technorati Tags: RSS, hack, realestate, tools, tips

Mobile Real Estate Field Hacks (for Palm)

In the field, it helps for a real estate agent to have some sort of edge as well.  There are millions of interesting mobile applications out there that can give an agent that ever so slight advantage over his/her competition that will inevitably close the deal.  Anybody can search for software such as this (made for RE agents), download them strait to their PDA and go, but Pro likes to think outside the box (while of course, considering the nature of the box). If you're a Palm user,  Pro has found a few  terrifically useful (free) software applications for all of you real estate professionals to check out  (owners of other platforms needn't worry, he'll dig up something soon for you too).  If these can't  keep you going in the field, nothing will:

1) ScareTheDoggy -Ever walked into a space that still had people living in it? Even worse, Fido is still there and refusing to move?  This handy dandy application will take care of the situation, so that you can close the deal. "Dogs are sensible to certain frequencies, around 16 kHz, virtually inaudible for adult humans. Scare The Dog produces just those noises. [link]

2)Palm Mirror - Get the crud out of your teeth before talking to those investors. This simple application gives you a comletely black screen so you can tidy up before that big appointment.

3) Bubble Wrap - Need something to keep you busy while waiting on that client that always shows up late? Afraid no one will come at all to your open house?  Don't eat all of the cheese dip!  Play with your digital Bubble wrap.  Its hours of free fun.

10 Most Bizarre Palm OS Programs [Gizmodo]