Welcome to the CRT Report. Many of you indicated you enjoy our new format, that features color, graphics, polls and recordings. Trying new methods and ideas is just one example of CRT's mission - to explore and explain new technologies while stripping away the hyperbole.
Look for CRT at the Association Executives Institute in Vancouver. We'll again provide wireless Internet access for attendees. Contact us at: info@crt.realtors.org
|
|
|
| The Lesswing Letter |
 |
|
|
 The Center for REALTOR® Technology is looking forward to another exciting year serving the technology needs of the REALTOR® community. The publicity surrounding our 2004 efforts made many more of you aware of the valuable assistance CRT can provide in helping you meet today's and tomorrow's technology challenges. Increased recognition also helped us build our volunteer base of software developers so that CRT can create more real estate-specific products. More volunteers mean that more of the creative ideas we hear from members can become working applications more quickly.
In 2005, CRT will fine-tune successful programs such as REALTOR® Secure. This innovative program to help brokerages, associations and MLSs strengthen their data protection systems was widely applauded by the industry. Now, with further improvements that simplify the program and offer different pricing options, even more companies can easily implement REALTOR® Secure. REALTOR® Secure is now aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency that sets standards for a wide variety of devices, programs and industries. This alliance will give real estate the benefit of work done by other industries and the federal government as we wrestle with the data security issue.
To expand the real estate industry's awareness of CRT's programs, I and other CRT staff members will be attending many state and local board functions this year. Going on the road also helps us learn more about what CRT can do to help you resolve your most critical technology issues. We will also continue to participate in industry-wide events such as Real Estate Connect, sponsored by Inman News, and the Council of MLS.
Based on feedback and discussions with members, CRT will add several new projects in 2005. Exciting projects scheduled for completion this year include Policy Page, an application to automate the Web site review process for associations checking for compliance with MLS display policies and a new suite of Microsoft Office desktop tools that will help REALTORS gather and analyze data more effectively. Look for more details on these projects in the spring CRT newsletter.
Thank you for your support last year. The year's achievements would not have been possible without your input and feedback. I'm confident that CRT will continue to help the real estate industry achieve the greatest benefits from technology in 2005.
Mark Lesswing, mlesswing@realtors.org
Vice President, Center for REALTOR Technology
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Streamlining Transaction Management |
|
|
|
Future Innovations
The Challenge: Encouraging all segments of the real estate industry to come together and work toward viable industry wide transaction management solutions.
The CRT Solution: During 2005, CRT will assume a new, more visible role in NAR's efforts to simply the transfer of documents during the real estate transaction. To do so, CRT will reach out to all segments of the real estate technology industry in a variety of ways.
As a first step, CRT recently sponsored and participated in the Transaction Management track at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in New York City. During these sessions, representatives of many transaction stakeholders—title companies, brokerages, and lenders—discussed the business architecture and standards that will be necessary for successful transaction management to be put in place. Participants shared what they have achieved, and what remains to be done, before the paperless real estate transaction becomes a reality. All agreed that integration and simplicity will be essential elements of any workable transaction management platform. They acknowledged that while one, definitive system is unlikely, there is a need for defined standards that can be shared by multiple vendors.
NAR recently invested $1.2 million toward developing a REALTOR®-centric transaction management platform for both the real estate industry and other related industry service providers. For more information on the project, go to http://www.rebt.com
CRT's participation in this conference is just one example of our ongoing outreach efforts. As NAR's technology group, CRT offers free technology review, selection, and implementation assistance to REALTOR® organizations and MLSs. We'll help you and your staff evaluate technology alternatives and show you how emerging technologies and industry standards can be put to practical business use. CRT will also support your staff in implementing advanced technologies.
Learn More: For information on the CRT outreach program and the events in which CRT is participating e-mail info@crt.realtors.org or go to:
http://www.realtor.org/CRTWeb.nsf/pages/CRToutreach?OpenDocument
For more information on the Inman conferences, go to http://www.inman.com
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| No More Lost Internet Leads |
|
|
|
Current Solutions
The Challenge: Salespeople who take days to respond to time-sensitive, Internet-based prospects.
The CRT Solution: Messenger, an innovative event based notification system that forwards prospects' e-mail requests into voice-based messages that go straight to a salesperson's phone.
One of the biggest frustrations for MLSs and companies that maintain extensive listing sites is the lag between the time a motivated prospect asks for information via e-mail and the time the salesperson gets around to responding. This lost time may be a problem even for tech-savvy agents when they're away from a computer. For salespeople who aren't active on the Internet, the customer loss can be significant.
Messenger solves this problem by integrating a software-based private branch exchange called Asterisk with your listing Web site. Asterisk software can be used as the central telephone system for a small, 20- to-30 person office and works with most existing telephone equipment. But it is so much more than a phone system. When combined with special XUB software developed by CRT, Asterisk uses voice over Internet protocol technology to forward calls from the Internet to an agent's desk or cell phone
When a prospective customer uses a form to request more information on a property listed on a Web site, the form composes an e-mail, which is then sent to the Asterisk server. The server, in turn, uses its voice synthesis capabilities to "read" the e-mail message to the agent by phone.
To implement a Messenger solution at your organization, you'll need free Asterisk software (http://www.asterisk.org/ ), a PC to act as the Messenger server, a copy of the free Linux operating system (http://www.linux.org ), a specialized modem card, and the free XUB software from CRT. The entire system can be purchased for as little as $800.
Installing the hardware and software components requires some level of technical expertise, so you'll need help from your tech consultant or IT department. But once your project is complete, you'll never have to spend your time wondering if your agents have followed up on their Internet prospects.
Learn More: To read more about the Messenger project, click here. http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/messenger/index.html
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Take the 2005 MLS Technology Survey and Win an iPod |
|
|
|
To better understand your technology needs and focus CRT research, we request your input! Please complete a short survey about MLS technology and win an iPod! http://survey.crt.realtors.org/crt/2005MLSTech.html
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Tailoring the Data to the Market |
|
|
|
Current Solutions
The Challenge: Finding a time and cost effective way to enter your listing data once and yet easily send out tailored versions to various IDX, VOW, and newspaper listing Web sites.
The CRT Solution: The new Variman server from CRT. The Variman server has business rules that allows MLSs to limit the number of listings shown on a given site as well as the number of data elements visible for each listing. With Variman, your MLS can fine-tune data feeds by emphasizing only the properties and listings that will appeal to a particular market.
Another valuable Web tool that enables brokers and agents to customize their Internet listings is the new version of CRT’s Retriever. In its original version, Retriever allowed users to display specific listings on their Web sites without obtaining the entire data feed from an MLS. However, Version 1 did not allow brokers and salespeople to search for a particular listing. Users had to know in advance which listings they wanted to display. Now with Version 2.0 brokers or consumers can enter queries, and Retriever will automatically search for listings meeting their criteria across multiple MLS sites.
Learn More:
For more on Variman, go to http://ww.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/variman
For more on Retriever, go to http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/retriever
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Building Better Passwords |
|
|
|
Building Better Passwords
The Challenge: Finding ways to create effective passwords but are easy to remember.
The CRT Solution: The first-ever CRT Best Practices section, loaded with simple, yet sophisticated, tips on choosing better passwords.
You've heard it all before. Don't use personal information that's easy to access—your mother's maiden name or even worse, your own name. Make your password at least 8 characters, combining numbers and letters. Change your password frequently. And never write your password down. Sounds smart.
Then reality sets in. You either give up and hope that hackers don't find you, or you spend your life hitting the "Forgot My Password" button on Web sites.
Now there's a better way. Try these easy options for creating hacker-resistant passwords. For an additional list of Password Dos and Don'ts, use this link to the CRT Best Practices Web page.
Password Strategies
Method 1: License plate. Take a phrase and squeeze it into eight letters as if you wanted to put it on a vanity plate. The easiest way is to leave out the vowels and compress multiple letters that create one sound (here the ck) into one letter with the same sound.
Ex. Computers rock becomes cmptrsrk
Method 2: Acronym. Create a password by making an acronym out of the initial letter of each word in an easily remembered phrase.
Ex. Most people enjoy mustard and relish on hotdogs would translate nto mpemaroh.
Method 3: Interleaving. Combine two easily remembered words or a word and a number.
Ex. Orwell and his most famous book, 1984, would give you 1or98we4ll. Notice here that the numbers are interleaved around the letter, making the password more difficult to guess. You won't get confused if you always use the same pattern for interleaving, such as one number, then two letters, then two numbers, etc.
The next step in interleaving is to mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and/or symbols into your letter-based password. Some passwords actually require a combination of letters and numbers, and even when it isn't essential, adding letters and symbols makes the password more difficult to hack. Remember not to use the same numbers or symbols every time.
Variation 1. Looks like/sounds like. An easy way to remember what symbols or numbers you've substituted is to develop a password using methods one or two and then substitute a number or symbol that physically looks like the letter.
Ex. For the password cmptrsrk, substitute a < symbol for the c since the two look alike to get A variation on the idea is to use a symbol that you can associate with a letter, like a $ for d (as in dollar) or a # for an n (as in number).
Variation 2. Patterned response. Develop a substitution pattern for adding different cases, numbers, or symbols to your passwords. To substitute uppercase letters, create a password that capitalizes the first and fourth letters. Then when you change the password, capitalize the second and fifth letters, and so on. You can also use similar patterns for adding numbers or symbols. To help you remember which numbers you've substituted, chose a combination of numbers you can remember easily, perhaps the year you moved into your last house or bought your first car. Avoid birthdays, anniversaries, or other numbers that will be accessible to hackers. Use some of the date as numbers and substitute the symbols that appears on the typewriter key over them for the other numbers, such as the # sign for number 3 and so forth.
Ex. If you begin with the password, mpemaroh from Method 2, you could capitalize letters two and five to mPemAroh. Next, choose the date you first bought a car, 1978. Then add these two letters and two symbols on either side of the capital letters. Then you'd have
1P(e7A*oh.
Note: Do not use any of these sample passwords.
Once you've learned these easy password builders, you've taken a big step toward safer data and access.
Learn More:
To test out your password skills, go to http://www.securitystats.com/tools/password which will test your passwords. Note that you must not type passwords you actually intend to use. The ones you do type in will be out on the Internet unprotected.
Or follow these links for additional password methods.
http://www.crt.realtors.org/passwordtips.html
http://www.symantec.com/homecomputing/library/pass_w.html
http://www.wm.edu/it/index.php?id=82
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Meet with CRT |
|
|
|
CRT will participate at the following industry events:
Association Executives Institute
March 10-14
Vancouver, BC
http://www.realtor.org/aeihome.nsf/pages/postshow?OpenDocument
CRT will sponsor wireless Internet access for attendees and be at the consultants corner.
Connection 2005
Hilton Head Island, SC
March 30 - April 1
http://www.connection2005.com/
CRT is a conference sponsor and exhibitor.
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Is Your IT Professional Current? |
|
|
|
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
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Make CRT Your Tech Resource |
|
|
|
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
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| Opt-out |
|
|
|
To unsubscribe go to http://www.crt.REALTORS.org/newsletter-broker
|
|
TOP
|
|
|
| |
|
Center for REALTOR Technology
National Association of REALTORS
430 N Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
312/329-8646
info@crt.realtors.org
http://www.realtor.org/CRT
Copyright© 2009, National Association of REALTORS®
About CRT
Questions? Send an email to info@crt.realtors.org
CRT Report Editor - Jeanne Tillman
|
|
|
