Being relatively new to email administration and faced with the need to choose which email service Prudential Preferred – Chicago was moving to, Camden Daily faced a unique challenge.
It appears that he chose – wisely, and he has become somewhat of an internet poster child for Google Premier.
The decision to move in this direction was not one solely of cost or function. There was a larger picture, or future vision, that Camden was looking towards. Seeing where those choices have led in the past (see Google Earth Integration), this is/was a crucial step in the puzzle. Luckily, I could ask him about some of his thought process.
Continue reading ‘Envisioning a better email system’
Its not just for REALTORS anymore.
We know how much fun you have at annual, its now their turn!
Many cogs make up the framework that support the Real Estate industry. As technology growth exponentiates, the techies working behind the scenes are playing more of a vital role with this day to day operation.
While in the trenches, I never felt as if I was in competition with another IT person from a competitive brokerage. In fact, I replaced someone that went to another brokerage, and needed to get assistance occassionaly. I did, however, really want to find a way to bounce progressive ideas off my constituants and learn some of their take on how new technology can be applied to the industry.
Continue reading ‘Pack your bags, and your techies!’
Taking a neighborhood stroll Sunday morning, I came across a wifi coffee shop which I had thought (unfortunately) went under. It turns out, that it had, but it has also been given a rebirth, this time with a Real Estate spin to it.
@Spot re-opened its doors earlier this year in conjunction with Chicago based @Properties. The new venture, if successful, will be 1 of 4 planned rollouts for this year.
The concept is to help brand @Properties to the demographic that is also searching online for homes. Keying in on this trend could prove to be strategic in deeply establishing and maintaining a foothold within the competitive Chicago Market.
I really like this idea. As brokers are wrestling where to apply their advertising budget, why not establish a dedicated presence right in the neighborhoods in which they serve without opening a full blown office?
Could this concept be taken one step further, and compound it with ‘virtual offices’. Add in a conference room, voice-over-ip soft phones, access controlled printing and you have a branch office that a typical on-the-go agent can work out of.
What better way to establish a neighborhood image, all at the same time of getting prospective clients in the door. Plus its a whole lot cheaper than buying a sports arena!
Now, can I expense my coffee while there, as I will be doing industry research?
Lets preface this entry with an introduction and welcome to the newest member of the CRT family, Mr. Andrew Tillman. Andrew joins us with a strong Java development background working on mission critical hedge fund trading systems. With Andrew’s addition to the team, CRT is going to continue, while accelerating, their contributions to Real Estate Technology. Welcome Andrew! You’ve figured out all Variman’s code by now. right? 
Now with the formalities out of the way, how do you get a techno-geek real estate newbie up to speed in the mezzmerizing world of Real Estate? You of course load up his RSS reader with a bunch of useful feeds! So, while at it, may as well share some of the my daily morning rituals.
Real Estate
Geekdom
Fun
Let us know what your top 5 feeds are!
This is a short post but I thought the community might be interested.
If MLS issues are your thing, you should checkout the new blog sponsored by FBS. The tag line of the blog is “Conversations about the MLS industry, creating software, and employee ownership.”.
Their first post, “Death of the MLS?” is a great start.
During one of the Contact Management Sessions last week at the Freeport-Galena Area Association of Realtors, a conversation came up regarding slick and efficient ways to keep in touch with your email while out on the road. Of course, with a trusty PDA/Phone (or most web enabled cell phones) you can log into your email system and dig right into your inbox. But what if you are waiting for a specific email, such as closing document fax or a confirmation on a showing appointment?
Continue reading ‘Keep your cell phone happy with email’
Yesterday, Kevin from Prudential Tropical posted a comment to the Google Premier Post. That lead to a brief email discussion about email and voicemail requirements within a brokerage, which then lead me to remember some thoughts I had on that topic, which, in this very wordy explanation, lead me (and ultimatey you) to this post!
Now that you don’t really know what you are reading, let me begin. There are many paths that you can take to end up at any technological solution for yourself (or organization). You can custom build something inhouse, you can use a third party package, you can use a hosted solution, or you can cheat and rely on other services to do your dirty work for you. Each have their merits, pros and cons, and dependant on the application some have more leverage (or make more sense) than others. Email is a great example of how any of these can be used, and what direct benefits come with the path chosen.
Continue reading ‘Email <inhouse@hosted.forward>’
Google Blogoscope points out some Super close images with Google Maps…Check it out. It may be the set of National Geographic data that will may soon be accessible via the GMaps Interface?
If they get coverage like this for US residential, how great will map based search be?
One of my favorite daily reads (via RSS) is the website Worse Than Failure. The site used to be known as The Daily WTF, but the guy running the site decided to officially rename it so WTF is “worse than failure” instead of what WTF stands for to most of us. A lot of the readers complained about the name change and What Could Possibly Be Worse Than Failure? was an article posted in response.
What I really liked about the article is the main concept he pushed: being in production does not mean that the software project is a success.
While seemingly obvious, its something I never consciously thought of, and its definitely something I’ll keep in mind in all future software tasks. How much better would IT be if everyone had that mindset?
Yes, I’m obviously behind in my reading.
“I love things that are great!/ Good things are fantastic!”
Tony Bennett(as played by Alec Baldwin)
Only 8 days until the grand opening of the Blogger’s Lounge at the swinging Omni Shoreham Hotel.
We’ll be serving beverages and snacks along with some terrific free gifts. CRT staff will be on hand to answer tech questions and talk about what we’ve been up to.
Dates and times:
The Lounge will be open May 15th through the 18th from noon to 8pm.
Location:
The Forum Room.
We weren’t able to book Tony or Alec so CRT’s own Chris McKeever will be performing a medley of showtunes every hour on the hour.
