Real Estate Blog Pro

Viewr Adds a Lot of Updates

Remember way back (last July) when Viewr was coming on the scene?  Well, Pro just received word that there's been yet another hefty update over at Viewr and this one is HUGE!  The site now can now do Rentals, Vacation Rentals, Holiday Apartment Complexes (European term) and Multi Family.  The site is geared towards a global view of real estate- or as they put it, "People, Places and Property."  Viewr is becoming more and more customizable, allowing an agent to express as much or as little of their personality as they see fit.

There's very little limitation to what this site can do- and where it can cover!   For example, there are Cave Houses in France, Spain, Turkey, Greece and others. Many of them are associated with a kind of peoples called Troglodytes.
Check these out:
  http://www.viewr.com/search.property.html?vlsn=1000731
  http://www.viewr.com/search.property.html?vlsn=1000725
  http://www.viewr.com/search.property.html?vlsn=1000729

  As with all Web 2.0, the user determines. Everyone gets a My Viewr account management interface that allows the user to customize many aspects of how their listings are presented.  Agents can upload a picture of themselves (if they wish) and a branded logo of the company which they represent.  Give it a whirl, Pros!  Lemme know what you think!

Coming soon:  Pro will let you in on a secret regarding a certain Viewr contest that you're sure to digg!


Technorati Tags: Viewr, real estate, tool

powered by performancing firefox

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

powered by performancing firefox

Some Mobile Phone Mania to Keep you Productive, Pros

Gmail goes really mobile!  Go to  gmail.com/app  to download that new application that is bound to free up some of your time- and its free.  Now you'll be able to get all of your glorious  email (real estate related, of course) in two clicks...unless you are like me and happen to be so behind the times that your phone has basically become antique (my phone =Treo 600).  So, if you don't have a rotary dial on your celly, chances are the new mobile Gmail will save you time.
If you are living in history, Learn more about Gmail for mobile devices.  You may remember Pro telling you about Google Calender mobile a few months back.  Well...I'm just reminding you.  Pretty soon, maybe none of us will even need homes...just a place to sync our crap.  Then we won't need real estate agents, i suppose.  And I guess this blog will be pretty stupid at that point too.....hmmm. 


Now that you have all that free time...why not save more time by refusing to enter contact info from the mountain of business cards you've collected.  As mentioned before, there's a handy tool out there called Scanr that turns your camera phone into a heavy duty, light weight rolodexing machine.  Lifehacker discovered it today and gave a few tips on how to utilize this paperless beast.

Go gettem Pros!

Technorati Tags: Scanr, Gmail, mobile

Viewr Goes Live! Get your Video Egg On, Real Estate Pros

Could it be true? Viewr is live! The next highly anticipated real estate tool is finally available for your blogging and listing pleasure, dear real estate blog pros. We heard about Viewr back in July, with an update a month or so back and let's just say that the suspense has killed at least one of us.   With Viewr, agents will have a place to blog about their properties (or whatever else) and upload video content via  Video Egg software.  So far, the Pro likes it!

Viewr has a "global view on real estate" and the maps to prove it.  The (oh so very Web 2.0)interface is smooth and easy to use (so far). You can save your searched and your favorite listings.  It could be a good friend to a lot of you aspiring Pros out there.  Give it a whirl- set up a blog...see whats out there.  For god's sake, have fun for once!  Maybe real estate isn't such a drag afterall...just maybe.

Viewr


Technorati Tags: Viewr, Web 2.0, tool, real estate, New

Anothr is Another way to get your RSS Feed Fix- this time via Skype

For those of you Pros that use Skype [free internet telephony program], there's now an RSS feed aggregator called Anothr which is yet another way to get your RSS feed fix.  As RSS has become the real estate rage, those of us/ you who are ahead of the game (and are using Skype for your business) will appreciate being able to use the program as an instant messenger and RSS feed reader as well.  Time is money! Save some...


[DownloadSquad] Anothr: RSS aggregator for Skype

Technorati Tags: Skype, RSS, Anothr

Want to learn college level computer language and computer how-tos for FREE? sure you do...

Free-Ed.Net will serve up all the computer mumbo jumbo you can stand and won't charge you a penny!  Check it out for all of the fundamentals and introductions to computer stuff you never thought you'd care about, until now!  They have online classes and tutorials that will get you closer to technical insanity....enjoy!


Technorati Tags: education, tools, classes, free

Google Reader Launches New Interface

You real estate blog Pros out there may enjoy this new (friendlier) interface on Google Reader.   Personally, I find the Reader to be a helpful tool for staying up to date on real estate this and that via RSS.  Here are a few of the changes:

• Expanded view and list view
  
• Simplified sharing functionality
  
• Improved read-state management
  
• Infinite scrolling
  
• Unread counts
  
• Mark all as read
  
• and a bunch more...
  

Check out the new Google Reader here



Technorati Tags: google reader, news

A New Google Page for (real estate-ish) Web 2.0 Tools

Pro made a tools page for you guys to bookmark and refer to periodically.  From now on, a list of resources and Web 2.0 tools can be found there.  There are so many tools that come out, that its hard to keep track of them all.  Thats why I try to only pay attention to those that might be useful to real estate agents.   We can all help each other grow into the next this technical age.
If you have something that you would like to add, please to write me. 

[btw.  I made said page from a Google Pages.  It can be created through (and attached to) your gmail account. If this is confusing, let me know.  As you know, happy to help.  Good Luck Pros!



Technorati Tags: tools page, tools, google pages, resource

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

Clients can send you text messages with TxtDrop- even on your MySpace page

If you maintain a MySpace profile, TxtDrop may be a good way for potential clients to reach you.  More and more people are using MySpace for business and this is just one more way for small groups of people to stay connected.  Just add the widget, but be aware of a few security issues.  This type of technology can make real estate very interesting!

[via MobileCrunch and  TechCrunch]


Technorati Tags: text messaging, SMS, MySpace, widget, txtdrop

What exactly will Viewr be?

Finally back in town- did you miss me?  Well today instead of a tip, Pro is gonna ask a question.  Does anyone know what Viewr is gonna be?  Apparently it has something to do with a Global view on real estate, but I suppose we will see.  Any hints out there?  I truly hope it will be more exciting than Zillow [don't get me wrong- Zillow is cool, but the hype on the front end was a bit much]

 [flickr-justiNYC]

[found via Coolzor Blog]


Technorati Tags: web2.0, web, tech. site, viewr, global

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

An RSS tip for all you soon to be Pros

Randy Morin from RSS blog published a terrific set of RSS guidelines (pdf file) which he recieved from another blog buddy, Nick Gogerty of Inclue! Thought it might be good to share the wealth and keep it going.  Today's my birthday!!!- sorry i haven't more to share....The Pro will make it up to you next week!






Technorati Tags: RSS guidelines, RSS,

Picasa Web Albums released, A Yamanner Worm warning and a bit on Blogging for business

Google's Picasa finally release their online Web Albums thingy.  However, you must be invited, so sign up now with your Gmail account because it's first come first serve. This should be great for real estate agents who want to host property pics with links and such.  And it's still free [but there is an optionalstorage upgrade option ]! This has been a long time in the making.  Here's the blog link about it.  [and Lifehacker and an tester example]


QuickOnlineTips Blog may have helped the blogosphere out today tremendously by posting a warning about a javascript worm virus that travels via Yahoo! email.  Its called Yamanner Worm (or JS.Yamanner@m )and it can get onto your computer when a particular type of loaded email is opened.  Cases of the worm exploiting users have reportedly involved emails with a  subject line such as "New Graphic Site," according to QuickOnlineTips. Apparently those who use the new Yahoo! Beta email are safe. More on this read the Symantec Virus Threat Advisory.

Problogger had a great post regarding Blogging Business 101.  As usual, he answers many of the questions that we ask ourselves regarding how this whole blogging thing is supposed to help our business.  And because he isn't exactly a Pro business blogger (read his disclaimer), his advise is so much easier to digest. If you haven't check this Pro out yet, you're missing out!

Use these tips real estate agents and go forward in your blogging quest.  Remember that the Pro is always in your corner.  May the force be with you!


Technorati Tags: yamanner worm, yahoo mail, picasa web albums, business blogging, tips, warning

Two new helpful tools: Joe's goals and Rendr, the HTML tool

Rendr is a live HTML and CSS testing web tool.  This can become quite handy if you are one who likes to create your blog a piece at a time.  Make sure your HTML is valid with this little tool. As Lifehacker points out, Firefox has an extension that works in a  similar way for web developers with an option called "Edit CSS." Remember:  The cleaner your code is, the better chance you'll have at hitting those high ranks in search engines.
 
Rendr  [via Lifehacker via Mefi Projects]


Joe's Goals is yet another to-do-list, but this one is in grid format.  It looks as though it could be useful to the real estate agent who needs their day laid out in front of them in a more visual format. Its super simple to use and the Pro is gonna test drive it for a while.

[via Download Squad]

Got any tips you'd like to share?  Hand'em over!  We're all tryin

 to become Pros here. 


Technorati Tags: to do, HTML, CSS, productivity, tools

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

Textcasting: Podcasting for text will be BIG for real estate listing syndication

Almost a year and a half ago, LoftNinja began to maintain an all text blog for strictly listings-at the time, the blog was called Ninjalistings.*  He chose Blogger as the platform because its ownership (Google, duh) and began to use Talkr (a text to speech feed reader) so that his subscribers could download the listings to their iPod.  Just a few days ago, Library Clips Blog posted an entry about Textcasting (which is essentially the same thing) and confirmed further speculated that syndicating text via podcast could be the next thing!  Today, you can still recieve listings from the LoftNinja on your iPod...its still somewhat of a guerilla housing operation, but that's what makes it fun i suppose.


Today's Paper on your iPod [Slate]
Podcasting Listings are we? Hmmmm...sounds mighty familiar, don'tcha think?[Urbanfoto]
The fotoUR BLogger of the Day on iBlogthere4iM [Urbanfoto] (provides a bit of background and links to an interview with LoftNinja's friend- The fotoUR)

* its probably important to note that while one becomes a Pro [ie. zero experience---->learning process through self teaching], sometimes you will run into roadblocks such as getting hacked by outside entities.  In the case with LoftNinja and Ninjalistings (version 1), he hotlinked an image by permission from another blogger's site and one day that blogger's little brother thought it would be funny to insert a pornographic image in place of the original image (on like this: ) and all of a sudden the oh-so innovative real estate blog turned from respectable to smut.  Luckily he caught it right away, but had to delete the entire thing and start over....thus, the Typepad turn.  I tell you thins so that you will learn from the mistake.  1) Make sure your images are hosted safely in a place under your control and 2) Remember that there is always someone out there smarter than you- and if they aren't, thier little brother or sister will most certainly be.


Technorati Tags: textcasting, blogging, ipod, technology, real estate, housing, innovation, guerilla housing

Blog Dictionary will keep your words in check

Blogging Dictionary may be a very helpful allie in your quest to become Real Estate Blog Pro
[Lifehacker via Quick Online Tips]


Technorati Tags: dictionary, blogging dictionary, tips

Alphabetical List of 101 Software Freebies

Pro thinks that it may be time to devote a few posts to useful links with links.  As a real estate agent, you can never have too much information- you just have to gradually learn how to filter the good stuff out.  This tip should help you out in a tight pinch.  Check out this list of 101 Fabulous Freebies from PCWORLD because you never know what you might need. [link Digg]  Now get out there and sell!



Technorati Tags: tips, software, free, linkswithlinks, links

A tip for realtors regarding links and linking correctly

The RealtorWeblog posted a useful tip yesterday for realtors regarding linkage.  With Google apparently "cracking down on unrelated links" (per Matt Cutts of Google), it may be time for you to think about who you trade links with.  Realtor Marketing Blog has a few suggestions for who to jump in the linking game with:

Mortgage companies

Home renovators

Mortgage brokers

Banks

home inspection

Realtors from out of town

Technorati Tags: marketing, linkage, realtors

Spread the word (Part 3): RSS Real Estate Feed Sites and where to submit yours

Real Estate RSS feed sites have sure blossomed over the past 2 yrs!  Considering the fact that Pro's friend, LoftNinja, was actually the first realtor in the United States (at least) to offer real estate listings via RSS feed [link has now moved to Ninjalist], this topic hits pretty close to home (pun intended). This post will show you how to put your feed into play, on sites that allow you to submit XML data.  RSS syndication is a terrific way to create content once and make it accessible in a million different ways.

RSS GOODNESS


Here are a few sites that will accept your feeds:
Check out RealtyFeeds

Check out RealtyFeed Search


Check out Edgeio



Some other interesting RSS related links:
RSSTop55 Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites [Robin Good]
you could spend some time on this one....it give nearly every possible site to submit your feed!
The RSS Blog [Randy Charles Morin's RSS blog]
you could do a LOT worse than to keep track of this guy- he's truly the king of RSS! This is his blog about RSS, OPML and the XML platform. He also has a killer blog search engine and several other tools and gadgets worth looking into. Not to mention, he's the creator of Rmail (as mentioned before)

[RSS Specifications] an informative blog with a focus on everything involving RSS.



Technorati Tags: RSS, links, feeds, RSS feeds, real estate, blogging, syndication, listings

See who links to your blog...and then link back if you like them.

That's what bloggers do!  Check out WhoLinked and customize your own titlebar and colors to see who links to you in real time. 

[link via RSS Blog via Micropersuasion]


Technorati Tags: linkage, blogging, management

Reach out with both hands to your audience with Skype

Another terrific suggestion from the Pro's buddies over at Sellsius RE Blog regarding the use of Skype, in real estate blogging.  Sellsius bloggers suggest looking into Skypecasting, which is a lot like podcasting except your audience has the ability to respond and discuss topics in real time.  Or to put it another way,

It will allow real time online conversations with a community of
interested people. You can set it up to work on your blog or your
website. Want to hold a meeting with a group of clients, or colleagues,
scattered around the world? No problem, host a Skypecast. Just announce
the time of the meeting and everyone can skype (link) in. You have your
group meeting at absolutely no cost. -Sellius Blog

In Pro's opinion, Skypecasting (or something like it) could quite possibly become as popular as "traditional blogging" (whatever that is).  But its industries such as real estate that could make it popular.  Neighborhood experts and property gurus could become a whole other level of celebrity once the general public start to catch on to this technology.


Technorati Tags: skype, blogging, skypecasting

Some say this is the Most Powerful Windows Application available

Its the Total Commander PowerPack and its BAD!!! [that means good] The best part about it-its free! 

* file-manager inspired by Norton Commander, but with a modern Windows interface
* has two panes for easy file management
* every pane can have as many tabs as you want
* advanced file search with regular expressions
* rename multiple files
* split files (useful if you want to send a large file by email)
* pack/unpack files in ZIP format
* compare directories
* synchronize directories
* FTP client with support for SFTP
*
document viewer that supports: text files, source code files
(Assembler, C++, CSS, Delphi, FoxPro, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, SQL, XML),
HTML, RTF, Word documents, Excel sheets, OpenOffice documents,
executable files, DLL, INI files, registry files, image files (PNG,
JPG, GIF, Paint Shop Pro, BMP, PSD, ICO, CUR, ANI, MAC, WMF, EMF, PIC),
Flash, media files (MP3, WMA, OGG, AVI), database files (FoxPro, dBase,
Paradox, Access, MySQL, CSV), archives (RAR, ZIP, TAR, GZ, 7zip,
bzip2), disk image files (ISO, BIN, IMG, NRG)
* AES encryptor (encrypt/decrypt files with 128bit key using password or keyfile)
* decompilation of 32-bit PE executables (EXE SCR) and libraries (DLL OCX CPL BPL), resource files (RES DCR)
* create a list file with all selected files and directories
* count the size of all files in a directory
* shows informations about solar and moon dates, celebrations and calendars
* synchronize your local computer with atomic time via Internet
* browse NT events and services faster
* view/edit/kill processes that are running currently on the system
* RSS Reader
* CD/DVD burning
* view and edit files on ext2 partitions (useful to manage files on Linux partitions from Windows)
* mount disk images as additional virtual drives in system
* much more...

Pro found this helpful tip (and many others) from the Google System blog.


Technorati Tags: windows, tools, applications

Find the number you need online with Calcr

This handy little online calculator (found via Lifehacker) may save you time. Its called Calcr and although there are several alternatives out there that do a similar job, Calcr seems simpler to use and the interface is much more attractive.  If you like crunching numbers on the web, its not  a bad idea to check out Google's calculator capabilities and there's thsi other one as well called Calcoolate that can handle the scientific math of a TI-82.

technorati tags: calculator, online, tools, realestate, timesaver

Why real estate broker-owners arent blowing their advertising wad online

 
Today on Inman Real Estate News - No tipping point offers a few terrific reasons for why real estate broker-owners may not be spending their advertising cash online.
In his blog, Brad Inman give ten reasons for why this may be:

1. For decades, their tried and tested model for getting business is paying sales commissions to real estate agents.
2. Agents tend to pay for consumer marketing, not brokers.
3. The lead management technology out there to help brokers digest and distribute leads is not very good.
4. Brokers are incented to give Web leads to low performing agents, for better splits, that creates trouble in the office with top producers and gives an inferior experience to the consumer.
5.  Some brokers who have tested online lead programs have been disappointed with the results.
   
6. To do it right, brokers need to invest big dollars, like Weichert has, in e-commerce systems.
7. To justify the economics of the investment, brokers must also sell a referral program inside the company, which is not very popular with agents.
8. The housing market has slowed, putting broker attention elsewhere.
9. Technology intimidates many brokers.
10.  Many brokers put their attention on fighting Web innovation instead of embracing it. What do you think?

                   -B.Inman 

Brad hit the nail on the head with almost all of these.  Nevertheless, for our purposes the last two are the most important.  The Pro hopes to help with the woes of techno-intimidation by offering a few routes towards success to embrace.  Your voice matters.  The real estate market is influenced by you.  Why not make your presence as colorful as possible?

 

technorati tags: brokers, realestate, online, advertising, technology

Save time with AJAX enabled homepage

AJAX ain't just something to clean with

You may or may not be aware of what AJAX is, but it is a definate timesaver for the real estate agent.  For most agents (that I've talked to, anyway), AJAX seems like some sort of computer voodoo- it might as well be magic.  Nevertheless, for the real estate agent, it can be a time saver.  For example, ever wonder how it is that you can move the screen with your cursor on Google Maps, without switching screens? AJAX. I'll be honest about the fact that much of it is foreign to me as well, but for our purposes we'll just explore a few of the current uses of AJAX enabled websites and applications that will enable the real estate agent to save time.  You need not be able to code it to use it. With a little patience, you can put it to use for you without really having to know exactly how it works.  There are (but definately not limited to) three ways that a real estate person could utilize the power of AJAX: with homepages, with Flickr photosharing and by using certain Firefox extensions that plug into your browser. For our first lesson, we'll look at AJAX Homepages.

Basically, an AJAX enabled homepage will allow you to have almost all of your most frequently visted sites all on one page, along with your favorite RSS feeds, your photos and your del.icio.us bookmarks (more on this soon)- not to mention your ever important things to do list and calender. All of this information (even constantly updated media such as blogs) can be accessed from one custom page that you create- and best of all, you needn't know any code and you'll have the ability to move the content around and rearrange it however you like (just like Google Maps!).  This is a timesaver!  Why? 1) Less typing in URLs 2) less plowing through bookmarks 3) all of your photos and feeds in one place and most importantly, more time for you to spend working on the most important tasks, like  being a dynamite real estate professional. You design your page in whatever way you like, just like 1, 2, 3. It's remarkably fast! Howver long it takes to put it together is all up to you. The more content you want, the longer it will take you (obviously), but for the sites that I am about to show you the average time was 15 minutes for setup.

AJAX enabled homepages to check out:

• Eskobo
• favoor
• Google (yes, Uncle Goog has one and it will work with your Gmail and Google RSS Reader)
• Gtalkr (I personally prefer this one over Google Homepage, because it integrates Gtalk-Google's instant message program)
• Goowy (Flash, not Ajax)
• HomePortals
• Microsoft Live (extensions available here)
  
• Netvibes
• Pageflakes (our personal favorite, at the moment)
  
• Protopage (updated recently and looking great!)
  
• Wrickr
• Zoozio
  

The guru on the subject of AJAX (and most any other current techy subjects) is Techcrunch-which has some very nice detailed descriptions of each site, if you don't have time to sift through them all.   What the REBlogPro recommends is to spend a little time finding the one that works best for you and appeals to your senses- then go about gradually adding the content until you have a  managable homepage that holds all of the information that you need during your daily routine. Be sure to go into your Tools header and select Options and then in your General preferences pick Use Current to set your homepage at  the one you chose.

For a great overview of how AJAX works internally, check out this article.  Be sure to check back in a day or so as the Pro will demonstrate a few more terrifically tactful time saving secrets for the hard working real estate agent.

By the way, ever checked out Google Suggest?  Its powered by AJAX too.

technorati tags: AJAX, tips, tools, realestate, timesaver, agent, homepage, tech