Property Management Software

If you are one of the hundreds of agents who have run out to get their property management permit and "get in" on where the $$$ is well you have better be prepared to not only know how to be a property manager but utilize software to make your life as a property manager a little less complicated. The number #1 complaint from owners is "I never hear from or get info from my property mgr."

Ready Set Go....

• www.Propertyware.com
• www.rent-right.com
• www.tenantfile.com
• www.rentmanager.com
• www.landlordmax.com
• www.yardi.com
• www.irealtymanager.com

Are just a few of the players in this arena.

Low Cost Scanning Systems - Must have technology

Are you still scanning pages using a flat bed scanner or a old school one sheet at a time? I say stop the madness now and purchase a low cost scanner that will scan, compress to a pdf file ready to email. Most of these units have a 30 sheet capacity so they are perfect for contracts.

The software is easy to install and operating the unit is even easier. In most cases, you connect via USB port, load the documents and press scan. You will be able to scan 30 pages in about 4 minutes and be ready to email. The prices are listed below are for new products and potentially onsale so if you choose a used product it may be less expense or the price may be entirely different.

Here are my recommendations:

• HP ScanJet N6010 Document Sheetfeed Scanner - Document scanner - Legal - 600 dpi x 600 dpi - up to 18 ppm (mono) - ADF ( 50 sheets ) - Hi-Speed USB $412
  
• Simplex Color 18PPM 600DPI 24BIT USB 2.0 50 Page Adf Scanner $367
  
• Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Sheet-fed Scanner $399
  
• ScanSnap S510M Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner $499
  
• Microtek Artixscan DI 1210 ( 1108-03-550011 ) $285
  
• Plustek Smartoffice PS282 Smartoffice PS282 Duplex Scanner $371
  
• Canon 2454B002 imageFORMULA DR-2010C Compact Color Scanner $422
  

Thanks if you have any questions please send me an email.

Adobe Acrobat 9 Released

View CNET Video on the new Google Phone

View CNET Video on the new Google Phone with the Android OS.

Check out Streaming TV on the Web for FREE

One of the latest technologies to hit the Web is instant television. Miss a show no problem because you can catch it later on the Web. Tivo is great but Hulu is better. Check out one of the funniest real estate shows on Cable. Flipping Out.

Amazon is coming, Amazon is Coming

Did you know Amazon.com is opening a massive warehouse in North Las Vegas? First, CDW now Amazon moved part of their operations to Las Vegas, NV possibly due to the favorable business climate compared to CA.

The technology boom happened in SF but the costs of office space and an overheated valuation of the companies eventually lead to SOMO or South of Market demise. Las Vegas is primed to be ground zero of the next technology boom where startups can find low cost office space, pay no state taxes, and import high tech talent to Vegas where housing has settled down to an affordable range.

Technology Startups are coming. Scott Blum built a technology startup incubator in Orange County in an area where commercial space is off the charts - Think Vegas Scott - if you are listening restart it in Vegas.

New GLVAR Panoramic Tours

Free Tours via the MLS are great for all REALTORS® so take advantage of it and add those tours for your million dollar listings as well as your condo rentals.

Pictures and Video do make your listings stand out in a MLS that is flooded with listings with no images. Not one image. Not only are there no images the descriptions are usually weak and directions incorrect. Gate code good luck. These are generally the short sales and bank owned properties.

Here is the rub - we tour as many foreclosures as possible on a weekly basis’s and I shoot at least 30 to 50 pics if they are good, less if they are mediocre and 50 if they are really bad, but I actually offered a REO agent free gallery if he gave us permission to market his listing and you know what - he never responded.

A Free 50 photo gallery so he could even use a few photos for the MLS and the Agent NEVER responded.

Keep taking photos and video and spice up your listings - it does make a difference.

A Few Must Have Software Programs

Protecting your information and your clients information is very important so I recommend the following programs on your home desktops and notebooks/tablets for mobile use. You must put safe guards in place to protect against data theft and personal information. Always shred documents or use a shredding service. Shred-it in Las Vegas provides "Shred Day" a few times a year around the valley. Take advantage. If you have any questions on the software below you can call me to schedule an appointment or email me.

Virus Protection:

1. AVG Virus and Spyware
2. Norton 360
3. McAfee

Spyware:

1. Spybot - Search and Destroy
2. Ad-Aware 2008 by Lavasoft
3. Spyware Doctor

Firewall Software:

1. Zone Alarm
2. Sunbelt Personal Firewall

Privacy Software:

1. Speed Tracks Eraser
2. Total System Sweeper
3. Wash and Go

Personal Lock Services:

1. LifeLock

Thanks and stay safe online and off

Jason

Do you use RSS Feeds?

If you haven't heard there are a ton of news readers and aggregators on the Web like Newsvine, Digg, Fark, Technocrati, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Slashdot, Propeller, Mixx, Furl, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Windows Live, Ask, MyAOL to name a few.

Your Website should be taking full advantage of these tools to speed information from the World Wide Web to your Website into your hands and the hands of your customer. A professional, well designed Website will give you a competitive edge over your competitors. Believe me when I say, “Just having a Website and a Domain Name isn't enough."

If you are going to put up a site that is under construction or with outdated content don’t bother. Free sites, generic sites are passé'. There are a few keys to building a Website are Usability, Accessibility, Fresh Targeted Content and Design.

We use proven methods to meet all of the criteria and more to generate the best Website we can to meet your Vision on the Web.

DOJ & NAR Settlement

Getting a Ton of SPAM - File a Complaint

If you are getting bombarded from eflyer companies who send SPAM on a daily basis please file a complaint at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ .

These companies claim to comply with CAN-SPAM Act but they violate the law right out of the box.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.\In this Act: (Click Here to View)

(1) AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT.—The term ‘‘affirmative consent’’,when used with respect to a commercial electronic mailmessage, means that—
(A) the recipient expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuousrequest for such consent or at the recipient’s own initiative;and
(B) if the message is from a party other than the party to which the recipient communicated such consent,the recipient was given clear and conspicuous notice at15 USC 7702.
PUBLIC LAW 108–187—DEC. 16, 2003 117 STAT. 2701the time the consent was communicated that the recipient’s electronic mail address could be transferred to such otherparty for the purpose of initiating commercial electronic mail messages.

What are your choices for PDF Software?

eFax and most other online fax programs utilize .PDF for documents. You have a few choices in the software realm to choose from:

1. Adobe Acrobat 8.0 (Special offers on Adobe products.)
2. Nitro PDF (Website)
3. CutePDF (Website)

In order to edit documentss and add stamps you need an editor besides efax software or high end software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.

Cox Caught Blocking Traffic

As we have discussed previously, Cox was blocking emails due to filtering. Their TOS details what they can and can't do but that all may change if a new Federal regulation is put in place "Guaranteeing Net Neutrality"

Cox blocks emails I send across the desk to my wife arbitrarily or sometimes blocks them all because we are on a residential account. Everyone may at one time or another send an email from home concerning work or to a colleague. Based on their terms of service their is no guarantee it will make it there.

Ever email a client from home with no response?

They may have never got that email and you wouldn't ever know it went into a filter blackhole.

We will see what happens. Here is a link to the article on CNET

Best Photo Manager Period

One of the best available photo managers and html album generators is ACDSEE. To get a trial version click on the banner below.

Anti-Virus, Firewall and Spyware

Norton, McAfee and other Virus protection companies are bundling too much into their packages including backups run, email scanning that constantly locks up the computer and other problems I have seen on Windows XP and Vista.

AVG Virus, Spyware and Firewall is $99 and runs clean. I recommend it. For backups I recommend a seperate network drive NAT Storage if you on a small network or a personal USB 500MB harddrive to insure your data, contacts and email are all backed up. Both of these systems run at night while you are sleeping.

Questions: email me

Helpful Technology Links for Agents or Small Businesses

• Great Free Image Editing Program - Free from Microsoft www.getpaint.net/
  
• Google has a ton of Webmaster tools that can assist youin tracking incoming links, garnishing traffic and creating instant traffic via adwords. www.google.com
  
• Online Meeting Software - Dim Dim that just came out of BETA is great for holding online meetings like WebEX without the cost. www.dimdim.com
  
• Backup Products - Maxtor, Seagate and many others have NAT (Network attatched storage or USB to backup your PC automatically. 1 TB of backup storage is running around $250 which is cheap. Don't Wait - run down to your local Best Buy, Frys or Office Max/Depot.
  
• Blogging Software: Do it yourself with wordpress.com or blogger.com.Typepad.com has fees but is also a robust application that is partblog, part website and part community.

See you on the Web - Jason

The Moble Agent - Tablet PC

If you are considering purchasing a notebook don't consider purchasing a tablet pc. A tablet pc will give you more flexibility while you are out of the office & the ability to show clients properties while you are out and about. Compaq/HP, Gateway, Lenovo and Motion Computing have a good offerings online priced from $999.

Best Buy, Frys and Office Max usually stock one tablet in stock so the best way to get the best price is online.

Desktop File Scanning - Paperless Systems

By now you all know we are big fans of the paperless office, well almost paperless. We have to factor in the inital offers, counters, escrow and loan docs but archiving docs after the fact on CD digitally is the best way to preserve the files.


Cannon, HP and Microtek all make pretty good 50 sheet small footprint desktop scanners that will scan about 10 pages a minute to PDF. Fujitsu has a very lightweight mobile scanner but it only holds 10 pages in sheetfeed (1 or 2) shy of a contract. See Video

Expanded List:

• HP - HP Scanjet N6010 Document Sheet-feed Scanner 50 page $499
• Microtek - Microtek ScanMaker 5950 - document scanner 50 page $166 -$250
• Cannon - DR 2050C - document scanner $499
• Fujitsu - S300 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner $295
• Xerox - Xerox DocuMate 252 - sheetfed scanner $795
• Plustek - PL806 - document scanner $250

Thanks and lets all try to save a tree when we have a chance

Real Estate and Adobe Acrobat

The paperless office is coming, the paperless office is coming... we have heard the hype and now we have digital and hard copies to track. There are a few technologies on the horizon that will provide secure signatures that will be adopted but until then we will still be working with faxes.

Hopefully by now you are using efax or some other type of digital fax that converts your documents to PDF files. Adobe Flashpaper and Adobe Acrobat are two great programs that get the job done. Acrobat will give you editing capabilities where Flashpaper is the end of the road in the PDF world. You can check out Adobe Acrobat 8.0 on Adobe.com.

Tools of the Trade - What you need to compete!

Most saavy REALTORS® who stay up to date on technology use TREOs or other Palm devices to access the MLS and check email while they are in the field. Carrying a full size notebook can be cumberson touch to drag around town.

The new Tablet PC has made it possible for REALTORS® to utilize the power of a lightweight reversible tablet with broad band access allowing them to write offers, search the full MLS and print from anywhere at anytime. Imagine having access to all of your files and business tools wherever you are with access to the Web at broadband speeds.

There are many tablet PC makers out there heating up the competition but be sure that your cell phone provider has the right card for your tablet. Verizon and At&t have both a full-size PC card along with the newer express card slots. Access with run you around $59.99 per month giving you access from Las Vegas to a beach in Maui. Dell, Sony, Lenevo and HP are actually building in WAN access internally giving you access your business-critical information in 13,000 cities and towns and in 130 countries around the world.

I will be posting a short list of new tablet pcs for your consideration.

Permission Based email Marketing Etiquette

email marketing is one of the keys to successful marketing on the Web!

There are few points you might want to consider following in order to be in compliance with CAN-SPAM Act and keep your members or customers happy.

Consider the following:

• Permission to Send
  
• Frequency of emails
  
• Privacy and Security
  
• Client/Customers Expectations
• Compliance
• Relevancy

Over the next few posts I will break down each section and explain in detail each point.

Perfect Office Suite for your Office

If you don't have $400 for Microsoft Office professionl you might want to take a look at Open Office Suite at www.openoffice.org . This free application includes everything MS Office has + tools to interface with powerpoint and photoshop files. Free.

Virtual Brokerages in 2008 and Beyond

The brokerage shakeup continues in Las Vegas with some of the larger brokerages filing for bankruptcy protection due to their heavy over-head with many agents not producing.

When the market was hot thousands of new agents were added in Las Vegas each quarter eventually topping over 17,000 REALTORS® flooding the market.

As the market returned to normal, many of these new agents had not experience in a normal or declining market so we are seeing the pool of licensees decline in 2007 and 2008.

Agents who have been in real estate either in Nevada or other states for 10 years have been through up and down markets and realize real estate is in a constant flux.

There is why Triple8 Associates has jumped into the Las Vegas market with detailed plans to optimize many of the old school processes with new technology tools that are easy to manage and cost effective.

Information packed Websites, Lead Capture, Email Marketing, Blogging, Video Tours, Photo Gallery Tools and using a Paperless Brokerage System is key to creating a more flexiable system that works well for everyone.

If you are interested in joining Triple8, please contact Olivia McClellan, Corporate Broker for a confidential interview. (702) 372-2671.

Email Marketing Tips - eBlaster Edition 2.0

eBlaster Email Newsletter Tips

Over the past few years the number of email newsletters we are receive has gone up and up and up. Businesses are catching on that their clients would rather receive an email than a letter or phone call so why not embrace email marketing it's cheaper.

888VG eBlaster Templates are custom designed to brand your company image, colors, theme and overall look and feel of your Website. The design will fall in line with your business cards, fax sheets, and any other marketing material we design for you.

The goal is to expose your clients to your message and brand as often as possible so when they think of the business you are in and will remember you and only you. Colors, logo and content are very important when implementing high value email marketing to you client base. You must insure that you are sending relevant information on a consistent basis.

How often should you send emails to clients because frequency is a big concern? We recommend sending one email per month unless you have a group that has specifically agreed to unlimited emails. For example: if you have a foreclosure group that is updated 4 times a month and your list wants foreclosure info, it would be acceptable to send four emails a month to that group.

888VG eBlaster takes all of these issues into account and more with added reporting and schedule it is the perfect tool for your small business to stay in touch with you client base in a professional, consistent manner.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me.

Home Automation - Wired or Wireless?

Building a new house or retrofitting an older one there are many choices of companies that can provide low voltage wiring to prep the home for broadband, automated lighting, alarm and remote control systems.

OnQ/Legrand has been in providing quality products to new home builders since 1999.

Here are some other links:

• Hawking
• Eaton
• iControl
• Lagotek