The post Why All Real Estate Goals Are BS (The ONE Thing You NEED This Year) appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.
from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/tv/why-all-real-estate-goals-are-bs-the-one-thing-you-need-this-year/
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Why All Real Estate Goals Are BS (The ONE Thing You NEED This Year)
from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/tv/why-all-real-estate-goals-are-bs-the-one-thing-you-need-this-year/
Saturday, December 30, 2017
The “Pitch” to Download an Agent App
I received a “pitch” from a Keller Williams agent to download their app this morning…
Customized tools to bring you the best experience in real estate search.
Are you curious about what’s for sale in your community? Would you like to peek inside that house for sale down the street? My app is loaded with helpful features customized for your phone or tablet.Features:
Easily connect with me and send property inquiries instantly.
Draw a circle on the map or drop a pinpoint to search any area.
See property details and full-screen photos, get driving directions, mark your favorites, create notes about what you liked, or share it with family and friends.
Estimate your home loans with a free mortgage calculator.
View open houses in any area.
View rental properties in any area.Download my app now to check out these customized tools that will bring you the best experience in a mobile real estate search.
I am still confused about WHY consumers would ever click download? How many buyers are there who don’t already have the Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, or Realtor.com app on their phone? And, even if they did download the app, what would get them to USE the app?
PS: Remember, Apple may be yanking all these KW agent apps this year as a result of enforcement of its 4.2.6 and 4.3 guidelines announcement.
The post The “Pitch” to Download an Agent App appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/pitch-download-agent-app/
Friday, December 29, 2017
1,000 sf Office Space For Rent Downtown Austin – Tenant Advisors
The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .
If you are a startup or small business getting started and need to rent 1,000 square feet of office space in downtown Austin you have come to the right place. Finding small offices space for rent can be very difficult and time consuming however with our knowledge, tools, and resources we can help make your small office space search easier and faster.
There are literally hundreds of 1,000 sf spaces in downtown. How do you know which small office rentals will do short term leases or have the layout that you need? Without knowing the Austin market finding the right space can be very challenging.
Once you engage us we can search for and identify only those 1,000 sf office spaces that meet your needs or that will be able to accommodate them. We do all of the legwork calling the building owners and listing agents to confirm that what they have listed is still available, gather floor plans, confirm rental rates, etc.
After touring the best options with you we draft proposals for your top 1-2 options and then negotiate on your behalf to ensure you get the best deal possible.
Some larger brokerage firms won’t help smaller companies needing to rent 1,000 sf or less, however because our Austin commercial real estate company is small, nimble, and uses the best technology in the market we are able to represent your best interests and find you that perfect space. We have over 11 years experience in the Austin market so your needs will be taken care of.
The post 1,000 sf Office Space For Rent Downtown Austin – Tenant Advisors appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.
Austin Office Space Rentals For Startup Companies
The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .
If your a startup company that is looking to rent office space in Austin it will be tough to find landlord’s willing to do short term leases (less than 3 years). For most startup companies signing a lease longer than 3 years does not make business sense however for some that are generating profits and have easy access to raising funds signing a lease 3-5 years long may be ok.
Short Term Office Lease Options For Startups in Austin Tx
There maybe a few landlords that will let a startup company do a short term office space lease however they are very difficult to find. In this case it would make sense to have an Austin commercial realtor help you find space. They typically know which landlords are willing to do leases less than 3 years OR they know of all the office subleases that have 3 years or less remaining on the lease term. If your a startup and not familiar with the Austin market then trying to find office space on your own (especially short term options) can be quite challenging.
Many startups that already do business in Austin, Tx or are considering relocating to Austin typically start off with renting Austin coworking space. These days Austin has many options to choose from and each coworking facility typically allows startup companies to sign month to month leases. They also have a ton of amenities and available services, and of course the ability to network is endless.
Most startups that I work with are typically on a budget which may lead us to Southeast or Northeast Austin where the lowest Austin office rental rates can be found. Again you can find startup office space in Austin on your own however it will take you a ton of time and effort. Consider getting help from a commercial real estate agent OR checkout some of the coworking facilities in Austin.
The post Austin Office Space Rentals For Startup Companies appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
2018 Real Estate Tech Trends and Predictions
If you’re interested in reading, apply for a membership here.
The post 2018 Real Estate Tech Trends and Predictions appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/2018-real-estate-tech-trends-predictions/
2018 Real Estate Marketing Tools – Easy Agent Pro Leads from Reviews
The post 2018 Real Estate Marketing Tools – Easy Agent Pro Leads from Reviews appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.
from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/tv/2018-real-estate-marketing-tools-easy-agent-pro-leads-from-reviews/
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Meet the Real Estate Tech Exec: Gonzalo Navarro from ArX Solutions
Without further ado…
What do you do?
I run the main production office of ArX Solutions, one of the top 10 architectural visualization companies in the world. We create different tools to provide brokers, developers, planners, architects and interior designers communicate, in a better way, their products.
What problem does your product/service solve?
The kind of tools ArX Solutions provides solve a big problem everybody faces today: buyers/clients are not always in the same city, not even in the same country as they are. Remote sharing, collaboration and sales trips are getting more usual. In the particular case of brokers and developers: until a few years ago, when VR and AR started to get steam, there was no way of showing a property without being physically there. Now that changed completely, a person with an Ipad and some VR goggles can take the experience of being in a particular space to anywhere in the world, for example: a buyer from Russia can walk a condo in Manhattan and see the views, spaces, finishes, etc. without leaving his office.
What are you most excited about right now?
The conjunction of VR and AR in our industry. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg of the new possibilities and the impact they will cause to the Real Estate Marketing business.
What’s next for you?
We are expanding our R&D into a real time cloud based solution for marketing real estate, technology is getting more powerful and cheaper everyday. It’s a matter of time since VR and AR will became as normal as a Smartphone is today.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
At ArX Solutions we like to do creative and unique images and VR because that give us the resources to do something that we do care more: social responsibility. We would like to continue growing to be able to continue supporting the multiple charities our company support, some of them are: St. Jude Hospital to provide cure for Children’s Cancer, Fundacion Maria to help kids to attend school in Argentina, and a foster house for abused children in El Salvador, among st others. We really think children are the future, and we like to give back to the community.
Thanks to Gonzalo for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.
The post Meet the Real Estate Tech Exec: Gonzalo Navarro from ArX Solutions appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/meet-real-estate-tech-exec-gonzalo-navarro-arx-solutions/
Friday, December 22, 2017
Take the Most Important Action of 2017 (Free Business Review Tool Enclosed!)
Bonus Download: The Ultimate 2018 Business Planner
It’s a little difficult to believe, but 2017 is nearly over. Figure in a few Christmas carols, a present or two, sweets at the office party, and another year will be wrapped up before we know it. If you’re like me, this news is stunning. Admittedly, I’m sometimes fascinated by simple truths – but the passing of days, weeks, and months moves apace regardless of our attention.
Meanwhile, overachievers everywhere have been planning 2018 for months. (I don’t know if that’s actually true, it’s just the sort of sneaking suspicion that I have about folks who look like they are holding things together better than me!) Fortunately, business planning is always great, whenever it happens.
It is never too late to plan for a better year. An old proverb reminds us, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Planning is like planting a tree – now is always better than later. But just before you start…
Want to jump right in and get started planning for 2018? Click here to get EasyAgentPRO’s downloadable 2017/2018 Business Planner!
Get Your Copy Of The Ultimate 2018 Business Plan!
Before you Plan – Reflect
Planning is difficult without reviewing where you are starting from. It’s worthwhile to spend a few minutes considering your efforts and outcomes from the prior year, before jumping into the next.
What went well?
What activity should you be doing more?
What didn’t go well?
What do you need to stop doing?
Using the changing of the year to get a good look at your work by the numbers helps you make a solid plan that’s based in reality. At the bottom of this post, we have a free tool to help with this process, but anything will do – a piece of paper and a pen is enough tools to engage you in some reflective activity!
Show me the Money
The obvious starting point for a review is money – and the transactions that make it. How much came into your bank account? What were your expenses? How much was left over? This last number is, of course, the biggie.
But money is a bit tricky, especially in the real estate business. Money is a lagging indicator, sometimes by several months. What does this mean? It means often you’re investing in work that pays off months later. And by the time you get the money, most of the work is completed. In other words, it’s over but the crying (or celebrating).
Counting money is useful at the very end of a period ( how well did I do this year, or over the last three) or as an ultimate measure of your progress, but it doesn’t necessarily provide the sort of insight that helps us perform better.
Ready, Set, Action!
Usually, that sort of insight comes from measuring activity. Actions are a leading indicator that helps you measure if the investment you’re making in time and effort is at a level that’s likely to generate the sort of payoff you want.
If we’re running the math forward, we’d say:
x amount of advertising (ads, Facebook ads, open houses, cold calls, drawings at the mall, etc.) generates x leads
And x leads = x amount of activities (info requests, showings, listing appts., etc.)
and x amount of activities results in x amount of transactions.
Once again, this is one of the benefits of looking at this for a big chunk of time. In any given week, you might say well, I ran an ad and no one called. But over a year, you can say ‘all these activities brought all of these people, which brought all of these transactions.’ Time brings perspective.
All Systems Go
Lastly, I think it’s a good time to review your systems. Sometimes when you’re in the heat of the battle, you don’t spend a lot of time thinking if you’re fully using your CRM or if you website really reflects the brand and messaging you want to portray. But again, at a stopping point, it’s good to review these things. Are you fully leveraging referrals? Following up with leads? Using your CRM to keep you steady even in the busy periods? Do you need to use these tools better or find better tools?
Make sure you also consider ‘Am I using all of these tools?’ Sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on ‘getting leads’ that you miss the fact you can’t handle any more details and actually your personal glass ceiling of time and process management is what’s holding you back, not more leads. Is your whole pipeline functioning? Do you have consistent efforts in each area? Or do you only market after you run out of transactions? Only follow-up in slow times? Drop direct mail pieces when you’re flush with cash?
Consistent, effective effort at increasing levels will result in growth – do you have the necessary infrastructure to support you at the highest level of personal performance?
Could You Just Behave?
The last category I find worthwhile to consider is my own behavior. While the above items are important, in a small business, the most important actor is you. So in the midst of counting money and reviewing systems, take a minute to reflect on your own performance.
There are lots of ways to gauge your conduct. Perhaps your own spiritual path offers some wisdom in this area, or you have your own personal inventory. The thing about reflection is that almost anything will do – what we need to consider is how well do our actions match our intentions – and what needs to change to improve that alignment.
If you’re looking for a list, I’d offer these gems from the book, The Four Agreements.
Be impeccable with your word.
Don’t take anything personally.
Don’t make assumptions.
Always do your best.
It’s hard to imagine a human taking that inventory without finding a few areas that could use improvement. Good – who wants to have it all together already? Taking note of and recommitting to focus in areas where we’re lacking is an important step toward improvement. Be brutally honest – business can be a great screen for avoiding ourselves, but remember, the businesses we build reflect our own dysfunctions, so if you want something beautiful and healthy that lasts, you’ll need to grow too.
Assuming you’ve taken stock of your performance in all these areas, and you’ve celebrated the triumphs and appropriately regretted the misses, you’re ready to move forward. 2018, here we come.
Need a tool to help you organize this process – click here to get EasyAgentPRO’s downloadable 2017/2018 Business Planner!
Get Your Copy Of The Ultimate 2018 Business Plan!
The post Take the Most Important Action of 2017 (Free Business Review Tool Enclosed!) appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.
from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/blog/free-business-review-tool/
Zillow’s House Tour Highlights, and Winning the Consumer
Read this post from 2015 about a public marketplace for CMAs.
You may have seen Zillow is testing “Home Tour Highlights” (Inman story). This is the first step to doing exactly that. Once ZG get agents leaving comments on listings they’ve visited in person — it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine ZG asking agents to leave public CMAs on those same properties.
Smart, Zillow. Smart…
Here’s the industry counter (no need to do this nationally). Create a real CMA, involving a real agent, for every home in a specific subdivision within your farm. Put that into a spreadsheet. Hack together Google maps and some pushpins. Then send a postcard to every owner in that subdivision (or knock on their door). The message is “Want to know what a real agent believes your house is worth?” Send it. Gauge reaction. Repeat.
Will the industry counter quick enough to deliver the consumer win on their own before Zillow delivers another massive win to the consumer? I’ll leave you to think on that one.
Happy holidays.
The post Zillow’s House Tour Highlights, and Winning the Consumer appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/zillows-house-tour-highlights-winning-consumer/
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Upcoming Workshop: Tenants In Common (TIC) Conversions
DATE: TUESDAY | JANUARY 23RD
TIME: @ 6-7:30pm
PLACE: THE RENTAL GIRL
4760 YORK BLVD. HIGHLAND PARK, CA 90042
*RSVP AT INFO@THERENTALGIRL.COM
DETAILS:
Have you thought about converting an apartment building into condos? And then been discouraged by the lengthy, costly and often impossible task of doing so? You have another option! Tenants in Common (or TIC) is a brand new way to hold title in Los Angeles. With TIC ownership, you are able to sell off each unit in your building separately, without having to subdivide the parcel with the city and state. Though TIC conversions are common in other major metropolitan cities, such as San Francisco and New York, they are new to the Los Angeles market. Due to our tight inventory, and difficulty for entry level buyers to buy in to the neighborhoods of their choice, a TIC conversion is proving to be a smart move for the savvy Los Angeles investor.
Our Broker, Liz McDonald who represented the first TIC conversion on the Eastside will be leading the workshop, along with Henry T. Jeanes of Sterling Bank. Sterling Bank offers fractional loans for buyers of TIC’s, making a TIC purchase an affordable and practical option for first
time homebuyers. We will be covering all aspects of the TIC conversion process – from timeline, legality, financing, and covering the costs involved. Whether you own a building already, or are looking for ways to invest in real estate, this is a workshop you won’t want to miss.
SEE YOU THERE!
The post Upcoming Workshop: Tenants In Common (TIC) Conversions appeared first on The Rental Girl Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://rentinginla.com/upcoming-workshop-tenants-common-tic-conversions/
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2018 is the year of the dog and its characteristic word is ACTION. This year, we’re excited to be a part of the larger political and social change that is happening in our society. And on the individual level, we’re here to help you take action. Whether it be making the move to buy your first home, your next investment property, or diving into a home improvement – we’re here for you and all your real estate needs.
TAKE ACTION: CONNECT WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS
This year we have a series of free real estate related workshops for you to attend at our headquarters in Highland Park. There, we host a variety of free events for our community. We invite you to follow us on social media to stay up to date on upcoming events! We also host local community members to showcase their art and craft. Whether it be yoga, artists, or any speciality – we love our community and love connecting people. Join us!
Hacker Connect in New York (& $100 Off)
Are you going to be in New York for Inman Connect at the end of January? Are you more tech savvy than the norm?
If so, why not attend…Hacker Connect?
When: January 22nd, 9 AM – 5 PM
Where: Marriot Marquis (1535 Broadway, New York, NY)
Cost: $299
Register: Here
Note you may use the “geekestate” discount code to save $100 off the listed ticket price of $299 (if you use this link to register, the discount will be applied automatically).
Hope to see you end of January!
The post Hacker Connect in New York (& $100 Off) appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/hacker-connect-new-york-100-off/
Lemonade, Peer to Peer Insurance, and Giving Back
Lemonade raised $120 million this week. When I saw they are doing peer to peer insurance, it caught my attention because home owners / renters insurance are both antiquated products in need of modernization. I poked around their website, and found this:
How is Lemonade’s business different from that of a traditional insurance carrier?
Traditional insurance companies make money by keeping the money they don’t pay out in claims. This means whenever they pay your claim, they lose profit. This is why getting your claims paid fast and in full is sometimes so hard.
Lemonade was built differently. We take a fixed fee out of your monthly payments, pay reinsurance (and some unavoidable expenses) and use the rest for paying out claims. In essence, we treat premiums as if they were still your money and return unclaimed remainders in our annual ‘Giveback’. Giveback is a unique feature of Lemonade, where each year leftover money is donated to causes our policyholders care about. We treat policyholders who care about the same causes as virtual groups of ‘peers’. Lemonade uses the premiums collected from each peer group to pay for the group’s claims, giving back any leftover money to their common cause, and uses reinsurance to cover for cases where the group’s claims exceed what’s left in the pool. This way, our customers enjoy amazing insurance, and society gets a little push for the better. It also means that, unlike traditional insurance companies, we’re not in conflict with our customers, so we’re happy to pay claims fast and with no hassle.
I just checked their video, and certainly like what I see/hear…
Obviously you know that I love seeing giving back built into core business models (their giveback page is here).
This is certainly one startup I’m going to keep my eye on in 2018.
The post Lemonade, Peer to Peer Insurance, and Giving Back appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/lemonade-peer-peer-insurance-giving-back/
A Look Back on Real Estate Innovation in 2017
The topics I predicted would see the most innovation:
- AI
- CityBldr
- Premier Agent Concierge
- Trusted Curation + Real Estate Search
- CRMs
- Partial Home Ownership
In this week’s private newsletter for Geek Estate members, I wrote a few thoughts looking back at those topics in 2017.
There are only a few founding member slots with discounted pricing left. Fill out the form here if you’re interested in one of them (first come, first serve).
The post A Look Back on Real Estate Innovation in 2017 appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/look-back-real-estate-innovation-2017/
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Meet the RE Tech Founder: Pat Healy from Prismana
Without further ado…
What do you do?
Prismana is a business intelligence company that offers its customers the ability to better understand where their efforts are yielding fruit and which ones may need adjustments. The platform came about from me having one too many meetings with my clients where they were going to make decisions that I knew would not be in their best interest but they didn’t have the best information possible. After a lot of research and conversations with several companies in the small business space, I grew frustrated that there was no cost effective way to do this. There were plenty that helped big companies but nothing for companies under 100 people. Marketing intelligence systems at the time were complicated and expensive – often costing more per month than the clients’ entire marketing budget.
What problem does your product/service solve?
Prismana helps clients understand which channels are converting regardless of how their customers choose to contact them. It’s a unified solution that doesn’t require companies to couple together lots of different solutions (call tracking, commerce tracking analytics, etc) and hope they work in order to measure the effectiveness of any given channel. It’s also really easy to implement and use. Most people can be up and running in a few minutes once they’ve decided how they want their customers to be able to contact them and how they choose to capture the lead. Prismana is not intrusive so it won’t disrupt your current systems so you don’t have to worry about a lot of messy integrations either. Lastly, Prismana is cost effective so it won’t break the bank in order to let you know if your lead generation efforts are working or not. You can put that extra money towards something else – like giving your best performing employees spot bonuses or something.
Prismana can work with just about any online marketing effort you can think of:
- Organic Search
- Paid Advertising
- Email Marketing
- Referral Sources
- Affiliates
- Social (organic and paid)
It also doesn’t care how your customers contact you. This is great for business that have a mix of forms, inbound calls, email, chat, etc. It takes all of your leads in and passes the source to you instantly so you can capture that in any system you may be using. It’s really kinda cool when you think about it. We’ve worked hard to simplify things.
What are you most excited about?
I’m really excited about all of the enhancements we’ve been making and the growth we are experiencing. We’re a new company so growth is our big objective next to delivering the best product possible. Growth means we can hire more people and step up our product road map velocity. That’s been the hardest thing for us up until recently. Small teams are great for being nimble but we’re certainly looking forward to putting more hands on the product so that we can do all of the things we’ve been envisioning.
We take a lot of time to speak to our customers to find out what their pain points are in terms of making decisions about their business. Lots of conversations about what they love about what we do and what they feel is missing. Between those conversations and our team’s internal sessions there’s A LOT of things we can’t wait to get to.
What’s next for you?
The next big thing for us is developing our insights feature where customers can see high level intelligence about which channels are getting the most activity, missed opportunities, and recommendations of possible new channels they may want to consider exploring. There’s a bunch of other things we are still discussing putting in there but we want to keep it simple to start and fold in features that our customers are asking for – not what we think they want. The platform is so flexible that we find a new use case every week and that keeps us thinking about what is next. We’ve got some pretty big plans for it if that’s not obvious from these answers. 
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
SEO Trend Data: Growing or Shrinking?
Organic SEO traffic is an increasingly competitive user acquisition channel for brokerages/agents — especially as the big players gobble up organic slots with domains like RealEstate.com. I do wonder whether SEO as a whole should be a shrinking or growing area of strategic investment. Rand at Moz published some great trend data for those who think about SEO’s long term trajectory like I do (or do SEO for a living).
Two important take aways I noticed:
- The 5.41 clicks/10 queries in October, 2017 is 23% lower than the 6.97 clicks/10 queries we had back in November, 2015. That’s a lot of lost SEO opportunity
- SEO still gets ~20X more traffic than PPC, and it doesn’t cost anything close to as much, so there’s still a massive advantage to ranking organically
The data and his thoughts are worth reviewing in full.
Are you going to be investing in SEO in 2018?
The post SEO Trend Data: Growing or Shrinking? appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/seo-trend-data-growing-shrinking/
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