I had an early post months ago in March about the billboard interactive home search that would be coming to times square to display home listings that can be changed when you text your zip code to the text number. The correct text number which you can now text to is 30241 and your zip code the picture in my original post from information I received from Coldwell Banker before had the text number 4663.
The billboard is another step in a larger program the company has been implementing since last September to provide interactive and engaging ways for people to search listings, find brokers and learn about local communities when and where they want to, said Michael Fischer, senior vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker.
The billboard is located above the W Hotel in Times Square through Aug. 2. The messaging lets people know they can use their mobiles to text the word "homes" and any zip code to 30241. Within moments, the highest-, median- and lowest-priced properties in that area will display. Coldwell Banker will also send a text to the phone with a link to more information.
A promotional video on YouTube shows a Coldwell Banker employee showing demonstrating how the billboard works.
"We have a strategy of commitment to innovation that we want to carve out in the real estate industry that anywhere our consumers are they can find Coldwell Banker listings and we think that's a great proposition," Fischer said. "
Last September, Coldwell Banker launched a customized online platform for iPhone users specifically designed for smaller screens to make it easier to search for real estate listing while on the road. The platform includes a home-value estimator and search functions to find a home and agent.
In March, the company released an application it created for Microsoft Surface, a computing platform, to search for listings. (It's the touch-screen technology that was regularly used by CNN anchor John King during the 2008 election coverage). The tabletop technology is being purchased by affiliates and will be used at sponsored events, Fischer said.
And through a partnership with YouTube and Google, the Coldwell Banker on Location channel debuted in May that is populated by brokers and sales associates. The number of videos on the channel has grown to 3,000, after launching with 300 prepopulated videos.
Mobile Agent also offers consumers the following features and benefits:
- Information on comparable properties with similar prices and features. - Click-to-Call feature empowers consumers to instantly connect to their Coldwell Banker sales associate. - Activity tracking of all homes viewed, along with mapping of the properties. (After using the service, go to log in using your cell phone number.) - Mobile Agent works on all cell phones without downloads or special phone browsers.
Mark Ford, CEO of CellSigns Inc. said, "We are pleased to add Coldwell Banker to our growing list of clients. It clearly demonstrates their commitment to provide a higher level of service in their market by offering mobile access for their buyers and agents on the local MLS. It's the perfect service during this changing market, and fills the gap where the Internet leaves off. A buyer inevitably leaves their computer and begins traveling around town in search of the ideal home.
Our service gives buyers important access to any home for sale, anytime, anywhere."
The popularity of text messaging has never been greater. Text messaging usage continues to increase by more than 150% year over year. As of June 2008, CTIA, the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry, estimated that more than 75 billion text messages were sent/received in the United States every month.
• In order to help drive home our message of "listings anytime, anywhere", Coldwell Banker®will use outdoor advertising to promote the accessibility of our listings on Smartphones.
In a first for the real estate category, Coldwell Banker will make use of a digital billboard in Times Square during the month of July 09. Passersby will be encouraged to text to see listings in their area of interest and the results will display on the billboard
Hwy. 85 North to Redstone Ave. (after hospital) go right. Straight through stop sign (at Brookmeade). Left onto Broadsword (second s/d). Left onto Citadel at stop sign in Iron Gate I S/D. House is on right (corner house).
Legal:
IRON GATE S/D PH I LOT 13 BLK E
Nice and bright, like new, well-kept 4 Bedroom, 2 Bath home. This meticulous house sits on a corner lot and is beautifully landscaped with canary island palms, rose bushes and hydrangeas. The front porch is covered and offers plenty of room for your rocking chair to sit back and enjoy the long southern nights!! The yard also has a sprinkler system, gutters were installed as well as flood lights for added security. Privacy fenced back yard. Pride in home ownership really shows with this property! There is a two car side-entry garage with windows. Long hallway as you enter the home with dining area that affords nice windows off to the right. Kitchen is very open with light colored cabinets and a long breakfast bar. Side by side refrigerator conveys. Island in kitchen has cabinets underneath for extra storage, double sink too. Large pantry and extra laundry room that leads to the garage; plenty of room for high efficiency washer and dryer. Large and open living room features tiled corner fireplace and high cathedral ceilings and planter ledge. This floor plan is great for entertaining etc. since it is very open. Split bedroom floor plan. Master bedroom and bath are large. Master bath affords his and her walk-in closets with a large garden tub; double vanity which boasts two sinks and elegant lighting. Plantation style blinds throughout. Iron Gate subdivision is within walking distance to the new Shoal River Middle School and Riverside Elementary that will be opening it's doors for students for the 2009-2010 school year! Close to shopping, beaches and military bases. Buyer to verify all pertinent information.
ElemSch: DESTIN Middle: DESTIN High: FORT WALTON BEACH
Dir:
East on Hwy 98 coming from Destin Commons - turn left at traffic light at Emerald Lakes Subdivision. Go through gate and follow Tequesta through roundabout to the right look for sign on the left.
Legal:
EMERALD LAKES PH III LOT 25
From the moment you enter into the driveway, the details will take your breath away! The antique fountain invites you through the mahogany entry doors of this true stucco house where 22' ceilings welcome you into the foyer. The home boasts Brazilian cherry hardwood floors, crown molding and bull nose throughout. Not one detail has been overlooked in the magnificent construction and design of this home, to name a few, trayed ceilings, built-in fish tank, solid oak staircase, solid oak garage doors, 5 1/4 baseboards, cherry wood cabinets, granite, central vac,security system with front and back video surveillance, CAT 5 wiring for highspeed DSL internet, multiple surround sound systems and over 78 recessed lights for maximum lighting. The kitchen is every gourmet cooks dream complete with 40" stove, solid cherry cabinets, enormous island with sink and one of a kind Picasso gold granite! Not enough? then enjoy your indoor kitchen that can easily be converted to an outdoor kitchen for those lazy summer evenings and grilling on the natural gas grill. Even the laundry room has been designed with porcelain sink, cherry cabinets and granite. The oversized master bedroom has an arched hallway leading to the master bath containing a bidet, massive walk-in closet, separate shower and Jacuzzi tub. Lounge on the balcony off the master bedroom and take in the breathtaking views of the lake and sunsets. Fenced-in backyard set on natural lake with unique nature view. Situated in the gated community of Emerald Lakes you are only a minutes drive from Destin Commons, the magnificent sugar beaches and everything else that Destin has to offer. Amenities available include, swimming, tennis, basketball, fishing in stocked lakes and canoeing. This house is priced to be yours, originally built for nearly a million! Free Home Warranty.
Brandon as promised your banner should be live within the hour, please feel free to click on the link bellow in about an hour, this will take you directly to your Banner on Realtor.com.
Thank you
The custom creative that you have submitted has been loaded and will be live on Realtor.com within an hour.
It may take up to ONE HOUR for your new/revised creative to appear via the TEST link above.
The TEST page is for demonstration purposes ONLY. Please be assured that your Ad(s) will serve on Realtor.com in the actual Market(s) that you have purchased.
If you have more than one version of creative in rotation, you will need to refresh the page a few times to preview all versions. (To refresh the page, click F5 on your keyboard.)
I now have just gotten off the phone with Realtor.com someone that was very helpful alejandzra.isola@move.com she had informed me that it was not under Realtor.com control to upload on their site the banners that they have contracted that out and the space on their site is uploaded with access granted from Realtor.com to Custom Creatives and their GoLive@CustomCreatives.com department. She had also informed me that an email sent from Custom Creatives putting the responsibility of uploading my banner on the Realtor.com was not accurate.
While writing this post I received a call from the Featured Agent customer service head rep. That stated she was made aware of my post on Active Rain and would like to do what she can to resolve this. I will keep everyone posted.
I had a few realtors comment on my post to keep them updated on how everything goes with this featured agent banner and here is the update. I had everything finalized and was charged 2 weeks ago on my credit card for doing a featured agent banner.
I had never received a confirmation that the ad had been sent to custom creatives which is who Realtor.com uses to do their banners. So I called in after a few days and guess what it had never been sent over to Custom Creatvies until just then when I called how do I know that ? Custom Creatives sends you an email after they call you to go over the layout of your banner I was never called. I called in after I hung up with the rep that sold me the featured agent package "Sean Merchant" and customer service said it was sent to over just minutes ago to custom creatives so I did verify with Realtor.com customer service that they had it in their computer to be sent over which it really was.
I noticed ad banners for like 5 other agents in our area all look the same I thought that was a weird thing but may be they just never got a chance to check Realtor.com to see what their banner look like?
That was not the case at all as I now know as I have layed out everything with custom creatives and they have sent me confirmation now that they sent everything to realtor.com last week for uploading.
I have found my banner now up and running but without the Broker name and also with a landing page that goes to an error 404 page. So this is not a good start.
By the way I was told I was talking with "Sean Merchant" The only thing I received from Realtor.com was a thank you for your order which was sent with Sean Merchants name in the body but the email address was from a fouzan.hussain@move.com . I called the rep back he said you would need to talk to customer service as this is a tech question and would need to talk with those who do the uploading. Which I have an email into them dont waste your time trying to call them by the way. Other than that I will keep you updated.
If anyone else is doing the same thing here you go.
For customer service, sales or technical related questions, please contact our Customer Care department at 800-878-4166 or by emailing customercare@realtor.com. We are available between the hours of 6am to 5pm PST, Monday - Friday. We look forward to assisting you!
Sincerely,
REALTOR.com® Customer Care Move - Operator of REALTOR.com® PO Box 4455 Scottsdale, AZ 85261-4455
How Often Do You Check Your E-mail I found it interesting that this seems to be a wide spread problem the in the industry. I have to say that in our area this is not really a problem. The only time it has come up for me it seems is when I am trying to contact another Realtor during holidays and/or if the Realtor is part time.
After a few weeks of glitches in our points system, we have finally been able to repair most of the major glitches. Points should now be working close to 100%. There still is one minor issue that we are aware of and need your assistance in correcting. It appears that if you go back and edit posts that have previously been published that the system is deducting points from your total. We are working hard to correct this issue but need detailed examples to get this issue fully solved. If you have an exact example please post in the comment section below in detail to assist our developers in correcting this issue.
The major loophole that was allowing some people to post more than 10 posts in a week and receive points for all posts has been closed. It is now back to 10 posts per week, 10 comments per day with 200 points awarded for posts and an additional 25 points if you put it in a channel and 25 points per comment left.
One major change that has taken place is the schedule for posts. The posting week now starts at Monday at 12:00:00am and ends Sunday at 11:59:59pm.
If you are experiencing the glitch above please post in the comment section below. Also, please do not flood this post with amount of points you have lost over the past few weeks. Those comments will be deleted to keep this post as clean as possible for our developers to track the issue and resolve. If you did experience the loss of points, use the Contact ActiveRain at the bottom of this post. Please be patient if you submit a ticket regarding lost points and condense your list to one ticket. If multiple tickets are submitted it will slow down the response time for not only this issue but other crucial parts of the network.
Thanks to everyone for your patience during this time and continued great contributions to ActiveRain!
I went back to try to add a footer to the first post I have written on ActiveRain to add the LinkedIn profile and Facebook,Twitter that I am putting on every post. I noticed after going thru about 10 post that my score was going down on ActiveRain and the post would not appear in the point summary. I contacted Active Rain and they sent me to Points System Patches & Changes I guess this has been going on since May but I was unaware of the problem existing. Here is the post that I was updating and have left a comment like others have on the points system patches post.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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