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Since 1989, Top Producer products have helped REALTORS® manage the important tasks that help achieve, and succeed, sales goals.

Top Producer 8i gives you more time by simplifying your day.
Market Snapshot™ gives prospects more information—immediately.
Market Builder™ simplifies your prospecting and helps build your business.
Top Producer Websites keep prospects engaged.

Top Producer helps you maximize new leads from every possible source, turn every contact you have into a client, provide crucial market information that motivates people to move, and manage every task and relationship so that you don’t miss a single chance for a new prospect, repeat client or referral.

REVATS is now an authorized distributor of Top Producer, so you can purchase the product directly through us.  If you do, we will set up your account and import your contacts for FREE!

Contact us for more information and to order Top Producer.

Your Way

You’re stressed. Your day is jam packed full and yet you could still use several more hours in a day, or perhaps a few extra days a week. You don’t know where to turn. Turn to us.

The virtual assistants at REVATS have years of combined experience assisting real estate agents just like yourself. A few hours a week on our end can free up much more time on your end. We are quick, we are efficient, and we do things your way.

We may offer advice, advice learned through countless hours assisting other agents and from multiple training sessions with experts in their fields. But we assure you, we will never assume we know how to run your business better than you do. Everything we do for you will be done your way.

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Increase Productivity with these Mobile Apps for the Iphone and Android

Iphone apps and now Android apps for mobile phones are being compared to what websites were 10 years ago.  Back then people would ask businesses if they had a website. Not it is understood all businesses have them.  What seems to be the new techie trend are mobile apps for businesses.  According to eMarketer, a research company that does analysis on digital marketing and media, recently stated mobile app investment should grow significantly this year.  Fewer than one-half of marketers created either a mobile or social app in 2009, but most plan to invest in a mobile app this year.  If you own a phone that uses apps, you already know why this is the new hot platform.  If you don’t own one of these smartphones, just trust me.

Earlier this week The New York Times launched a new, free iPhone app catered to apartment hunters.  It allows users to search for listings and view various information about the apartment.

Scan2PDF Mobile is an app that could be useful to agents.  This app will scan documents using your phone’s camera to convert one or more pages into a PDF.  It is like having a scanner/photocopier/fax machine in your pocket.

Spreadsheet is a professional spreadsheet program for Android, supporting the XLS format. It is compatible with Excel and other XLS-based programs.

WpToGo allows you to blog while mobile! So you can update your real estate blog while waiting in the doctor’s office, or in carpool or anywhere else you have an extra minute or two.  Features include creating and editing existing posts using text, images, tags and categories to multiple WordPress accounts, as well as viewing comments and post previews.

There are dozens more, but these are some of the best I’ve found thus far. Have fun!

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.

Microsoft Office 2010

There are some new changes coming out, and they may help  the real estate agent!

If you use Office on your mobile, then you may like the changes.  The smartphone with Windows Mobile operating system has a version of Office designed just for you.  It can be downloaded from the Windows Marketplace for Mobile website.  If you routinely use Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, you’ll like this.

If you use a Blackberry, I-Phone, Palm Pre or any other phone that does not have Windows Mobile, you still can take advantage of these changes.  Microsoft is releasing applications for your phone.

Microsoft is currently offering this in beta, until April 2010.  That means free viewing and editing of Excel, Word, Powerpoint, OneNote, and other documents.  Outlook Mobile 2010 provides new features for organizing your email.

So if you want to try this out and do not mind little bugs here and there while it is still in beta, go download it for free!

Pass along a Virtual Business Card when you Can’t Meet Someone in Person

A business card is such a basic element of just about any business, that most of us don’t give it a second thought. We get them printed up and hand them out like crazy. However, when you work virtually, as we do, it’s not easy to hand someone a business card. So we all have websites, and Facebook pages, and LinkedIn accounts…you name it, we’ve got it! But do most of us have a virtual business card?

I came across just such a virtual business card yesterday. The website is BusinessCard2 and it took just a few minutes to put mine together. It holds a great deal more than any paper business card! Not only does it have the basics, such as name, business, and contact information…it also has a location for business description, experience, and much more. It accepts up to 10,000 characters for those descriptions…so you can express yourself in great detail!

The information is condensed in a size comparable to a paper business card, with little buttons that bring up the various bits of information. The card can be given as a link, or it has code that allows you to embed it in your website. (Which I think is pretty neat!)
The best thing about it is the price…it’s totally free and the website says it will continue to be free. Time will tell on that, especially since it’s in Beta form, but for now at least it’s a bargain!

A virtual business card will certainly never replace a paper business card when dealing with people face to face, but if you are looking for something to take its place in the virtual world, BusinessCard2 may be just the thing you want.

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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!

Tips to Build Your Business Online and Offline

Recently we attended an all day webinar through Virtual Rebarcamp and learned great information about marketing real estate agents, as well as ourselves.  One of the sessions I attended was titled “The 7 A’s To Building Your Business Online & Offline” hosted by Darin Persinger.  Because of his experience as a trainer and coach in the real estate industry, the session was very valuable.

Below are highlights of this great information. It outlines strategies to use when building your business.

• Audience – Know them! Who are they, where are they located?  For example, if you are an agent in Manhattan, your blogs are probably not going to reference planting a garden in your fenced back yard.  However this may be appropriate for the agent blogging in a small town in North Carolina.
• Availability – Make it easy for your audience to contact you.  Make sure your phone number, email and office number are on each page of your website.  Some agents have an area of the website where the user can click a button and immediately contact the agent.  Even if the lead gets a voice mail, that is okay. As long as the call is promptly returned.
• Approachable – Does your audience feel like they can contact you?  When you first obtain a potential client/lead, do you make it known they can call you any time and there are no ‘stupid questions’?  Generally with potential clients, you will give more at first and expend more effort.  Do not get discouraged if they don’t respond at first.  Be friendly and cooperative. And most important, be patient.
• Acknowledge – EVERY email, every facebook interaction, every twitter @, every voicemail.  Time is important to people.  If they take the time to write or call, even if it is 120 characters on Facebook, acknowledge that.
• Appreciate – There are 9 billion web pages and 200 million blogs out there today.  There are also 6 billion tweets.  There are so many places your clients can go to get information, or referrals, or real estate agents.  Appreciate your clients.  Time is even more precious than money because it is non-renewable.  How do you say “thanks” to your clients or to people that refer clients?  How do you acknowledge them?
• Authority – People use the market leader.  With so many options, they want someone that knows what they are doing and has their act together.  Be confident. Learn it…share it!
• Authentic – Be you! Not everybody will click, so there is no point in spending time being disingenuous or being someone you are not.  Get involved in social media like Facebook, and be yourself.  Most people can see through insincerity.  They want someone that is going to be genuine and honest.

Some of these tips are pretty useful and some are common sense.  But still a great reminder.  Hopefully you’ll find them helpful as well!

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!

Do You Use Twitter But Are Not Sure Where to Find the Tweeples?

Recently while attending an all day webinar I learned even more ways to utilize Twitter for lead generation in real estate.  One recommendation was to find tweeples (or people that use twitter) who are searching for homes in your area.  There are endless possibilities for what groups of people you may want to follow, but chances are you want to stay in  your geographic area.  Now there is a simple way to find those twitter users.

A new Twitter application called GeoChirp uses Google maps to pinpoint the most recent tweets from a zipcode. You can set it to search within a 1 to 50 mile radius.

The example given on GeoChirp’s website states:

if you want to search for people Tweeting about ‘Golf’ in Richmond, Virginia, you can just select the area in the map, set the radius within 1-50 miles of that area, enter the keyword “Golf” or any other related keyword and BOOM you have all the people Twittering about ‘Golf’ in Richmond, Virginia.

So you just set the location, set the filter and see the results.  This is a powerful tool and can connect you to hundreds, even thousands, of potential home buyers in your area.

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!