Online Real Estate Technology

Turn your mind away from things which are not permanent. – Buddha and make sure your agent updates your property information weekly.

Regards

Mike

Thanks for your question Maria and i hope the following helps: To me a good Internet agent really understands the power of the marketing tool they have at their disposal and markets themselves aggressively on the net. Firstly check out the suburb you are in or check the suburb you are thinking of buying in, look at how the agents market online on your favourite portal, check where in the suburb they rank,how they use photos, whether they have video profiles available, how they write the copy of the listing and whether they really understand the area. According to one portals profile 60% of searchers are female, therefore does this agent understand your needs. If they pass this first test, then call them and ask them some relevant questions, Do they have a data base they can market to as soon as your home is listed, do they know the searches and property views in your area, do they use E Brochures and do they provide you with a comprehensive net based marketing plan, how responsive are they to email enquiries and how often do they update your listing on the net. Once you have this information as a final check,do a virtual drive through of the suburb and check to see how many properties they have for sale, this just gives you an idea of whether the agent controls the suburb and how active they are in the area. Once this is done and you have made your choice, make sure the agents uses tools such as Property Live or Weekly vendor reports to keep you updated on your properties progress and make sure the agent updates your property weekly. Another good check point is ask if they have blogging and pod-casting and whether they use social networking sites like Facebook, these give your agent another tool to use in marketing your home.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

As part of my training for agents I often talk about the quailty of photos on listings that are published. Just thought I would share some of the more interesting ones with you on this post. These are from the US and do demonstrate just how bad photos can be.

Just the thing to Impress your new tenant

All That's Missing is You

The Cone of Silence

I’ll add more of these over the next few posts and add some of the Australian examples as well.

If you would like to know more about how to resize your photos for the major portals and what is the ideal resolution then please ask.

This is the latest release from Domain.com.au and the iphone platform, I’ll monitor the progress of the impact on real estate searching in Australia, given that the iphone is having an impact on the way Americans can search for on line real estate.  

Domain.com.au now available on your Apple iPhone

The Apple iPhone 3G is here and we’ve configured Domain.com.au so that you can search for property Australia-wide to buy, rent and share on your iPhone.

View Domain’s photo galleries, maps, videos and virtual tours just as you would on any Internet browser but from the convenience of your brand new iPhone.

You can email or call a real estate agent or advertiser directly on your iPhone, set up and receive home alerts as well as catch up on the latest news as it’s published by Australia’s leading property experts, no matter where you are.

Now you can even take Domain.com.au on your iPhone with you to your next open for inspection.

I’ll feature the impact of new technology on my next blog entry

Cheers

Mike