Android Apps for Real Estate – Buyers and Sellers Will Love Them!

If you own an Iphone you know how great the applications are. I own the HTC Hero which is the third “Google phone” based on the Android operating system. According to Techcrunchies.com, the estimated number of smartphone users by 2013 is 160 million and the number of downloaded apps is 7 billion. Needless to say, apps are popular and are here to stay. Especially with the rise in popularity of the Iphone, and now the Android system.

While playing with my new phone, I’ve run across many applications I thought could be useful to real estate agents. One such app is Puluwai.  This is a mobile real estate search that allows the user to view homes for sale in a certain area. The app opens to the main search page where you can enter information such as maximum price, minimum Price, minimum number of bedrooms and any key words you would like to search for.   Or  you can have the app pull up the homes for sale by using your phone’s GPS.  So if you are on “Lover’s Lane in Sim City” the app will pull up all homes for sale within a certain radius of Lover’s Lane.  The results can be viewed on a map or in a photo gallery and will display the address, price, number of bedrooms, square feet and a short description.  The best thing about this app is it is FREE!

The agent needs to be sure his or her listings are being fed to Puluwai so they appear in search results. Your listings can appear in one of two ways, either by feeds or Google API. Housing data feeds are the most convenient way to add homes to Puluwai but you will need to update the feed when you’ve listed a home. Google base is where all types of online and offline content is submitted which is made searchable on Google and it is also the ‘platform’ used so your listings appear on Puluwai.  Basically this puts your listing on Google Maps.  Some real estate websites already feed to Google Maps, so just double check before you export them again.

This is a great marketing tool agents can add to their listing presentations. There are other useful apps available for free that I will discuss later. If you need help getting started please do not hesitate to contact us.

Useful Craigslist Tools for Real Estate

Whether you are a real estate agent or just in the market for real estate, even a rental, there are a number of cool tools to help you post and browse Craigslist real estate posts. Joseph Ferrara with Inman News came up with this handy list, which we are passing along.

8 cool Craigslist tools

Tech Tool Shed

By Joseph Ferrara, Friday, January 15, 2010.

Inman News

Craigslist.org is a very popular Web site for real estate classified ads — be it a home for sale, apartment for rent, or office to lease. And it’s a place where real estate agents and owners alike can advertise properties.

The following are some tools to reach Craigslist searchers:

Classified ad creation tools

GoGoPin lets you easily create eye-catching graphic ads. You can include photos, clipart, graphs, speech bubbles and much more. You can even add photos taken with your cell phone. (See some sample classified ads.)

What makes GoGoPin a favorite of mine is the ability to export the graphic ad to Craigslist. Simply copy and paste the HTML code in your ad. GoGoPin ads are free.

Tip: You can hyperlink your ad to any Web page by simply adding a URL when you save the ad. Now, if a Craigslist reader clicks your ad, they are sent to a more detailed page, or your Web site.

Postlets lets you create graphic classified ads that you can display on Craigslist simply by copying and pasting the HTML code. (See a sample Postlets ad.)

Viewing tool

CraigsToolbox is an amazing Firefox and Internet Explorer add-on that automatically reveals images and other features in your Craigslist search results. Beside images, you can see the map location and text preview without having to click each ad. You can also request notification, via text message, of all new ads.

The tool is available for a free trial and the annual cost is $9.99. CraigsToolbox also works for non-real estate ads. (View a video demo of CraigsToolbox.)

Mapping tools

PadMapper allows users to search for apartment and house rentals on Craigslist (as well as Oodle and Apartments.com) and displays the properties on a map with details, including the date the ad was placed. The mapped listings can be shared via e-mail, link or embeddable code.

PadMapper has good search filters, such as sliders for rental cost and number of bedrooms, listings less than seven days old, sublets, no-fee apartments (in New York City and Boston), pets, photos, and proximity to subways, etc.

Tip: Set up e-mail alerts on PadMapper to receive new listings that meet your search criteria.

MapThatPad is another rental search tool. When searching for apartments, use MapThatPad to map the properties you find, add notes, save the map and then send it to clients (or their parents). A “bookmarklet” (a small program contained in a bookmark) makes the tool easy to use. The tool currently only works for apartments but it may be expanded to include homes.

A great feature, and time saver, is the ability to contact all apartment listings with one e-mail.

Multi-location search tool

SearchTempest lets you do a proximity search of Craigslist, based on distance from a specified ZIP code area or in many selected states and cities, thereby saving you the time of searching each area separately.

What’s nice is that CraigsToolbox works on SearchTempest, allowing you to see images in the results. SearchTempest also has a forum to help you get advice and help.

You can get an RSS feed for any search you do on SearchTempest, to keep up to date on new listings.

New alert tool

CraigslistChecker is one of many ways to set up and receive alerts about new Craigslist ads, and its beauty is its simplicity. Just enter the URL of your search results and every hour you will be notified by e-mail about new listings that meet your search criteria. End the updates by simply clicking the cancel link in your e-mail. Simple.

Mobile app

Craigly is a mobile Craigslist app for iPhones. Among its neat features is a multiple-location search by city, state or distance from your location, image preview, and portrait/landscape views. You can also post ads with photos. The current cost of the Craigly app is 99 cents.

Hope one or more of these tools are useful to you. What Craigslist-related tools do you use?

Joseph Ferrara is publisher of the Sellsius Real Estate Blog and a partner in TheClozing.com, a real estate news aggregator site. He is an attorney with 25 years of experience in New York, and he also coaches agents on the use of blogging and social networking.

Did you know that your REVATS Virtual Assistant can help you manage all of your real estate listings? Getting them up and running on Craigslist is just one small part of a complete package!

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REVATS is a team of independent virtual assistants working together to bring comprehensive virtual services to real estate agents around the USA. Contact us today for more information!

Foreclosure Alternatives Program will Hopefully Speed Up Short Sales Process

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) Program is a recent supplement to the Making Homes Affordable Program that was implemented earlier this year.  HAFA was released November 30, 2009 and provides additional options to avoid foreclosures plus also offers incentives to borrowers and investors who utilize a short sale or deed-in-lieu.

This plan goes into effect April 5, 2010 and ends December 31, 2012.  Borrowers who have mortgages through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, as well as those held by 14 mortgage servicers, including the five largest fall under these new guidelines.  The plan also provides incentives to borrowers.  If you complete a short sale you will be released from all mortgage debt and receive $1,500 in moving expenses.  The plan allows the borrower to obtain a pre-approval for short sale conditions before their home is put on the market.  Currently, servicers will not discuss acceptable terms until an purchase contract has been received.

HAFA has also streamlined the documents used during a short sale.  One standard set of documents will minimize the complexity of short sales and the time it takes to complete a short sale.  Caps have also been set for payments to subordinate lien holders (second mortgages). Previously these mortgage companies wanted large payments to release their claim, thus blocking a successful short sale.  Another change is that lenders will now have only 10 days to approve or reject a short sale once a complete package is presented.

There are many more changes that you can read about in the Home Affordable Foreclosures Alternatives guidelines.  REVATS has helped real estate agents with marketing and closing short sales. If you would like help in this process, please contact us.

TopProducer and Your Virtual Assistant: Managing Your Listings

Part 3 of TopProducer and Your Virtual Assistant

TopProducer is a good tool for tracking your leads and managing your mailing campaigns and to-do-lists, but did you know you can also use it to track your listings?

Once a seller lead turns into a seller-with-an-active-listing, be sure to add the listing info to TopProducer when you add it to all your listing locations.

The listing will be linked to the seller if set up correctly. It will be available to pull into flyers, post cards and letters. You can track showings and link them to other contacts.

You can also set up unique action plans specifically for current sellers. Tailor these to remind you or your assistant of all of the steps you typically take with a new listing and maintenance.

Be sure to set up emails or letters to send to your active sellers on a regular basis, just as you do with your leads. These emails are specific to individuals selling their home and preparing to move.

As you probably know, a virtual or in-house assistant can handle the posting of your listings to all of your websites, the tracking of your listings in TopProducer, etc.

Why spend your “spare” time uploading your listings when you can hand it off for an affordable fee? Wouldn’t you rather spend that time either pursuing more business or enjoying your life?

We have barely scratched the surface of what you can do with TopProducer. Just about every aspect of it can be customized to fit your needs. What do you do with TopProducer?

—Kim, virtual assistant with REVATS

REVATS is a team of independent virtual assistants working together to bring comprehensive virtual services to real estate agents around the USA. Contact us today for more information!