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| CRT Report for Brokers & AEs - Summer 2005 |
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Welcome to the CRT Report. Our summer newsletter's theme is blogging. Blogs are a new form of online communication. They not only convey information but also allow feedback and can be used to form community. The articles in this edition can assist you to understand and use blogs in your business.
Look for CRT at the Leadership Summit in Chicago. We'll again provide wireless Internet access for attendees, and highlight our initiatives and projects during the NAR building tour. Contact us at: info@crt.realtors.org
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| The Lesswing Letter |
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Why a Blog?
A key part of CRT’s mission is to help members of the real estate industry stay abreast of new technology tools that can benefit their businesses. We explore the new programs and tools in the marketplace. Then we select the most effective and bring them to you. That’s a big reason we’ve decided to transition the tech version of our CRT newsletter to a blog. We believe that blogs hold tremendous potential for real estate—both as a marketing tool for brokerages and as a faster way to share new product breakthroughs. By using blogs to communicate with industry professionals, we make it easier for you to get information on new tools. We’ll also help build industry familiarity with this powerful communications option.
That’s why we’ve made blogs a theme of this issue of the newsletter. Even though the broker letter will continue to reach you via e-mail, you’re welcome to participate in the blog as well. It launches August 1 and is available at to http://blog.realtors.org/crt
While our new blog is a big focus this month, the launch represents only one of CRT’s many current projects. We’ve also been busy creating a new RETS tool—called ezRETS—that makes it easier for both brokers and non-RETS programmers to access and use information from the MLS. In addition, CRT continues its facilitator role in the real estate industry’s efforts to agree upon standards for electronic transactions.
Finally, to increase awareness of CRT and its mission, we’ve produced a new video. Associations and brokerage companies can use the video to acquaint both practitioners and real estate tech staffs with the many resources CRT has to offer them. You can access the new video at http://minidocs.net/htm/%20FV%27s%20htm/download/CRT.html
In the last decade, technology has profoundly changed how real estate professionals do business. We believe that’s just the beginning of the financial and productivity benefits you’ll see in the years ahead. Our mission is to ensure that brokerages and associations reap the reward of those benefits.
Mark Lesswing
Vice President, Center for REALTORÒ Technology
312 329 8273 mlesswing@realtors.org
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| CRT Up Close and In Person |
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Learn more about CRT. Watch the CRT video. This short video explains CRT's mission.
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| A Blog in Your Future? |
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Current Solutions
The Challenge: Discovering a way for your technology staff to share information in real time with other tech professionals in the real estate industry.
The CRT Solution: A blog for real estate technology professionals—from CRT.
A blog (short for Web log) is a Web-based publication that may comprise many threaded discussions. Blogs started out as online personal diaries that let interested visitors to the site comment on the musings of the blogger. Really good blogs can have meaningful commentary and inspire thoughtful, spirited exchanges. In fact, many blog authors intentionally make comments that allow readers to expand on a discussion. However, because of the unscripted and ad hoc nature of blog discussions, they can degenerate into the babble of a flame war. Thus, blogs are often moderated.
This notion of forming an online community around a threaded discussion is not new. Old-style bulletin boards and today’s e-mailing lists promote a similar mode of interaction. However, blog sites, unlike other options, offer the ability to interact with the content in real time. This immediacy helps bloggers solve problems and comment on breakthroughs more rapidly.
In addition to fostering discussion, blogs also provide a mechanism for disseminating information. Here’s where they overlap with newsletters. But unlike newsletters, where content is static, blogs provide for reader input, feedback, and expansion of the originally published ideas.
This ability to interact more closely with readers and thus to spur discussion is a key reason behind the Center for REALTOR® Technology’s decision to shift its technology newsletter to a blog format. The new tech blog go live on August 9.
The paradigm of interactive discussion that the new CRT blog will create reflects the profound change in today’s technology. With the launch of its blog, CRT and its many audiences will be able cooperate more fully and ensure that information on tech topics of interest to the real estate industry is always up to date.
Learn More: To access the new CRT blog, go to http://blog.realtors.org/crt
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| Blogs -The Ultimate Traffic-building Tool |
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Current Solutions
The Challenge: Helping prospects find your organization’s Web site on today’s crowded, commercial search engines.
The CRT Solution: A blog--a great way to get your site to the top of the search engines and in front of potential customers.
A blog (short for Web log) is the newest tool for many savvy real estate marketers. According to Marketing Terms.com, a blog is a “frequent, chronological publication of thoughts and Web links.” For real estate practitioners, a blog is a powerful way to share their expertise with prospects, build customer loyalty, and brand a company as an expert.
Because it’s a terrific search engine optimization tool, a marketing blog will dramatically increase traffic to your Web site. The in-depth content on a blog increases a site’s relevance, and thus its search engine ranking. Blogs also typically include numerous links to other relevant sites--another factor search engines consider in their rankings.
Several REALTORSÒ I interviewed for this article reported dramatic traffic increases on their sites since they launched their blogs. Carol Williams of Top Properties Real Estate.com in Wenatchee, Wash., saw a 53 percent surge in traffic a month after launching her blog.
Beau Betts of John L. Scott Realty in Seattle, Wash., reports that “with the blog I experience consistent Web traffic that is significantly higher than my traditional e-mail real estate marketing efforts were generating.”
There are some potential pitfalls to blogging. For one thing, it can be time-consuming. Most real estate bloggers told me they spend from 15 minutes to one hour daily updating their blogs. Yet, for a blog to remain interesting and fresh, you must make contributions regularly. If the content goes stale, you may start to lose readership quickly. You also need to be sure that you avoid writing anything that is libelous or misleading in your blog. In addition, be clear when you are stating fact and when you are giving your opinion.
While blogging does have its pitfalls, Williams believes it’s well worth the effort. She thinks her blog differentiates her from her competitors and lets her potential clients get to know her and develop a sense of loyalty.
Learn More: To learn more about how a blog can improve your search engine rankings, go to http://www.blogger.com or http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
This article was contributed by Marilyn Wilson, a partner in the at the WAV Group http://www.wavgroup.com, a consulting company for the real estate industry. She can be reached at marilyn@wavgroup.com
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| Blogging to Build Customer Loyalty |
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Current Solutions
The Challenge: Building name recognition and customer loyalty with younger, more Internet-savvy homebuyers.
The CRT Solution: A blog of your own—the key to building trust with tomorrow’s homebuyers.
For today’s twenty-somethings, the Internet is not just an alternative to print or voice communication. It’s a unique way to create community and share ideas. Younger Internet users are drawn together around Web sites they like to read. They return to them again and again.
Younger users want to be able to contribute material directly to these sites. That’s where a blog comes in. When you host a blog, you not only provide a way to share your expertise with users interested in real estate. You also create a forum where users can comment on other postings and develop a dialog with each other. Users become emotionally attached to a site that publishes the opinions of others.
This sense of trust and relationship makes blogs an ideal prospecting and customer cultivation tool for real estate professionals. Because many buyers spend weeks or months learning about real estate and looking at homes online, an informative blog will allow you to gradually develop a rapport with younger prospects. Then when they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you first.
A key part of this customer development strategy is providing quality, timely content on your blog. Only blogs that post reliable information build trust and loyalty. A first step in creating content is deciding on a focus or theme for your postings. Begin by asking yourself, “Why would anyone come to my blog?” You should think about what keeps your clients interested when you talk to them face-to-face. The same topics will probably also appeal to online prospects.
Some possible themes that might attract consumers include:
- Home improvement. Partner with a local contractor to offer regular tips on how consumers can make their homes more appealing. Then encourage site visitors to comment on your tips and share their own ideas. Over time, you’ll develop a community where users comment on tips from other consumers. Thus is a community born.
- Local events. Offer a calendar of upcoming community events and post reviews of events in your area. Solicit contributions from nonprofit organizations that do worthwhile work in the community and ask users to share stories of their activities. This civic pride orientation can be effective in cultivating remote buyers who want to get a feel for the community.
- Real estate as an investment. Provide advice on analyzing properties for investment, tips on being a landlord, and suggestions of how to find good buys. Partner with a financial planner to show how real estate fits into an investment plan. This has been a hot topic over the last couple of years.
- Horror stories. Capture the zany side of the real estate industry by sharing crazy incidents that happened to yourself or others. Focusing on the FSBO experience might be a good way to get things rolling. Everyone loves to laugh, but comedy is a harder than it looks. Also be sure to avoid picking on other real practitioners.
Keeping the content relevant and fresh is the most challenging aspect of blogging. But in the blog world, content is measured in much smaller units than in print or Web design. Keep your blog entries brief and crisp. Offer more depth by linking to other sites.
Another challenge in creating a successful blog is anonymity. The users who comment on to your blog do so anonymously. Screen names or e-mail addresses may be published, but you seldom know the true identity of the contributor. You can encourage anonymous users to contact you by posting links to your Web site and your e-mail address on your blog, but there’s no guarantee they’ll follow through. Yet even with the challenge of anonymity, blogging is becoming a critical marketing tool for the real estate industry. Give it a try.
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| ezRETS - Easy Access to MLS Information |
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Current Solutions
The Challenge: Using MLS information in Excel, Word, or other business applications without rekeying.
The CRT Solution: ezRETS, a new software solution that lets you simply and seamlessly transfer property data from your local, RETS-compliant MLS to many commonly used business software programs.
Most MLSs are a treasure trove of information that real estate professionals could use to create CMAs, marketing brochures, and market trend graphs. But until now, accessing that data has been a time-consuming, error-filled headache. ezRETS changes all that. Once it’s installed on your computer, ezRETS from CRT pulls information from the MLS using database query wizards. These wizards are already built into programs such as the Microsoft Office Suite and Crystal Reports. You don’t need any knowledge of RETS to use ezRETS. All you do is answer the questions posed by the wizard. The wizard then creates a data query that retrieves the data you want from the MLS. Once you have the data in your application, your uses are limited only by your imagination.
In addition, ezRETS makes it more cost effective for your brokerage’s staff or outside consultants to create solutions in other programming languages that must interface with MLS data. Rather than taking the time to learn RETS—at your expense—they can use ezRETS to achieve their connections.
Learn More:
To see examples of how ezRETS can be used to create a CMA, click here. http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/ezrets/examples
Try this simple tutorial http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/ezrets/documentation/ExcelTutorial/ on accessing MLS data from Excel to see just how much easier ezRETS will make your data transfers. Once you’ve tried ezRETS, you’ll never waste time cutting and pasting MLS data again.
To download ezRETS, go to: http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/ezrets/
Note that currently, ezRETS is available only for Windows-based applications. A version for Mac OS X should be available by the end of 2005. If your company uses the Linux operating system, your IT staff will need to build an ezRETS program from source. E-mail info@crt.realtors.org for more details on this option.
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| Electronic Transactions Finally Come of Age |
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Future Innovations
The Challenge: Bringing the real estate transaction fully into the electronic age.
The CRT Solution: Transaction management software for every stage of the deal.
Vendors, lenders, and cutting-edge real estate companies have been experimenting with transaction management software for years in efforts to achieve a paperless real estate transaction. Now NAR—through CRT—is helping to make this long-sought goal a reality.
The widespread use of transaction management software will make the business more efficient and cost effective for all stakeholders. For brokers—especially those who work with more than one MLS—TMS will allow easy transfer of transaction information. It will greatly improve the flow of property data to mortgage and title operations, making these ancillary services more profitable for brokers. The software will also simplify data transfer to back-office operations.
During the NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in May, CRT met with transaction management software vendors to discuss hurdles to creating widely accepted transaction management software. The group came to the conclusion that an agreed-upon definition of the real estate transaction would help frame the discussion. This definition will blend both technical and business elements and provide a roadmap for adopting a standard for all TMS vendors. CRT took on the task of generating these broad definitions.
After gathering additional information from brokers, MLS executives, and ancillary software vendors, CRT completed the first definition and circulated it to TMS vendors in July. This definition covered the "cradle-to-grave" life cycle from a REALTORÒ perspective. It began with prospecting for customers and ended after the transaction had closed and the client was added to a practitioner’s customer database.
The second definition, which CRT is developing now, will focus on the transaction from offer to close. The definition will cover interfaces with lenders, MLSs, and brokerage back-office operations. It will map how to create, submit, and track service orders to third-party vendors. It will also address security issues at each stage of the data transfer. Finally, the definition will include solutions for achieving compatibility between data standards (such as RETS) used by different stakeholders in the real estate transactions. CRT is working to get preliminary results out in during the fall of 2005.
CRT’s leadership role in developing transaction management software is in line with its goal of identifying approaches and methods that will lead to a more efficient and secure real estate marketplace. For every party included in the real estate transactions, including brokers and consumers, TMS will provide efficiencies that have long been sought.
Learn More: For more information on the TMS standards effort, contact CRT at info@crt.realtors.org
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| PolicyPage - Web Site Monitoring Made Easy |
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Future Innovations
The Challenge: For associations, finding a cost-effective way to evaluate members' Web sites for IDX compliance. For brokers, ensuring that all members with Web sites in a market follow the same IDX rules.
The CRT Solution: PolicyPage, an innovative software program that automatically reviews association members' Web sites for compliance with NAR's IDX standards.
Instead of spending staff hours and dollars to review sites manually, associations and MLSs can use PolicyPage technology to apply objective standards to each site. The automated process also helps eliminate assessment errors that could result from manual operations. When used in conjunction with a RETS feed for listing information, PolicyPage will allow MLSs or associations to compare the listing information displayed on a Web site to the information originally sent from the MLS. Such a scan ensures that all brokers display MLS data correctly.
After scanning a member's Web page, PolicyPage generates a compliance report and sends an e-mail to the site operator identifying any issues with the site. Issues could include a lack of appropriate disclaimers, missing copyright or fair housing notices, or listing information that differs from MLS data. The software creates a separate report that identifies where each problem occurs on the site and which policy governs each issue.
The program also provides separate, customizable letters that can be sent to members outlining site problems.
The first version of this free product is available now for download from CRT. The initial release tests only for text-based components such as disclosure notices, copyrights, and links to the association. Version 2.0, which is scheduled for release in late October or early November, will be able to check listings using a RETS data feed from the local MLS. Version 2.5, planned for early 2006, will include a spidering capability that gives users a way to check for the presence of listing data on nonmember sites.
CRT will be demonstrating PolicyPage at the upcoming Leadership Summit in Chicago, August 18-19. Demos will take place at the CRT WiFi hot spot outside the ballroom at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and during the NAR building tour on August 18.
Learn More:
Go to the PolicyPage web page for general information.
Go to the PolicyPage project site to download the application and documentation.
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| Free Software with a Click |
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Best Practices
The Challenge: Beating the high cost of keeping your software current.
The CRT Solution: Free, open-source software on the Web.
Many non-techies associate the term “open source” with the arcane world of systems administrators. But the idea of open-source software shouldn’t intimidate you. In fact, open source is a great benefit to every computer user. Open source software is free for anyone to download and use. The creators of these programs also provide free access to the original source code for the program (hence the name). This access allows advanced users to modify a program so that it will work better for them. It also gives the software developer hundreds of free programmers to test and improve the software. This translates into high-quality, well-tested software at no cost.
Chances are you’ve already used open-source software. When you surf the Web, your browser is likely accessing Web sites hosted on an open-source Apache Web server. Apache servers host 69.7 percent of Web sites worldwide, according to Netcraft.com. There are also full-featured, open-source versions of many common applications. Some of the most popular are Gimp, a graphical tool similar to Photoshop; OpenOffice, an office productivity suite much like Microsoft Office; Firefox, a Web browser with many of the same features as Internet Explorer; and Thunderbird, an e-mail program similar to Microsoft Outlook. All of these applications can be installed without affecting existing applications.
Not only are most open-source programs easy to use, but those that are guaranteed by the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) also issue free, open-source updates and modifications. These updates help ensure that you are using the most current, bug-free applications.
Working with open source
The easiest way to obtain open-source software is to download it from the Web. Many of these downloads are also available on a CD for a small fee. Most open-source software installs as easily as other types of software. For Microsoft Windows users, installation usually entails clicking on an “.exe” file. Some sources for high-quality open-source programs include:
Firefox (http://www.firefox.com/): The second most popular Web browser in the world (after Explorer). It’s a full-function browser and may have fewer security problems with viruses than Explorer.
OpenOffice ( http://www.openoffice.org/): An office suite with functionality similar to Microsoft Office and with much the same look and feel as the Microsoft product.
Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/): An e-mail program that has IMAP and POP support, a built-in RSS reader so you can easily create a news feed on your site, and HTML mail support that allows you to used graphics in your e-mails.
Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/): A program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
TheOpenCD (http://www.theopencd.org/): A collection of open-source software that you can download and burn to a CD. The programs can also be downloaded individually and installed directly onto your computer.
KNOPPIX Linux Live CD (http://www.knoppix.org/): A great resource for open-source software for users of Linux-based operating systems. Programs can be downloaded to a CD or DVD format.
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| New CRT Surveys Available |
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Two new CRT surveys are now available.
The 2005 MLS Technology Survey reviews MLS technologies and the Realtor® business practices they support.
The 2005 REALTOR® Technology Effiiciency Survey reveals areas where technology can be used to improve real estate processes.
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| Is Your IT Professional Current? |
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Don’t make your IT professionals work in a vacuum. Now technology professionals working for real estate brokerage companies, MLSs, CIEs, or REALTORÒ associations can receive a free subscription to a special technology update newsletter from the Center for REALTORÒ Technology. If you’d like your IT staff or outside consultant to receive this quarterly update on technology trends and tips, have them subscribe at http://www.crt.REALTORS.org/newsletter-tech
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| Make CRT Your Tech Resource |
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Let CRT help you find the best solution to your toughest tech challenge. If there are technology issues or products you’d like the CRT to investigate or just a question you’d like answered, please e-mail your suggestions to info@crt.realtors.org
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| Opt-out |
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To unsubscribe go to http://www.crt.REALTORS.org/newsletter-broker
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Copyright© 2009, National Association of REALTORS®
About CRT
Questions? Send an email to info@crt.realtors.org
CRT Report Editor - Jeanne Tillman
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