Every day we offer 24 hour discount deals, on a Windows
software application, or a web service. We feature our deals at a substantial
discount; the discount is available for that day only.
We don't process the sales; we just arrange the discounts
and provide the links. You buy the program right from its vendor. Everything we
feature is a legal, current version of the
product.
What is RealAgent Accelerator?
No one needs to tell you that the real estate market is not what it used to
be. Today, the real estate agents that continue to thrive in this struggling
market are those who manage their businesses efficiently, actively cultivating a
steady stream of referrals by maintaining close relationships with their
clients.
RealAgent Accelerator is the all-in-one toolkit for real estate
professionals, enabling you to effectively market your services, manage clients,
keep track of appointments and tasks, create and send email templates and
newsletters, and track commissions.
With RealAgent Accelerator, you’ll be able to leverage the power of
today’s hottest technologies to ensure you’ll always be two steps ahead of your
competition! Imagine using a web form on your website that allows you to pull
buyer and seller leads directly into your RealAgent Accelerator
software. And you won’t believe this – RealAgent Accelerator will even
send you a text message on your phone every time a new lead comes in! No more
missed opportunities!
Everything that you need to know about your clients, properties, and lenders
is organized and maintained by RealAgent Accelerator. Task management and
calendaring become second nature, and you can even see your client’s properties
mapped by Google Maps for easy reference. And, while you’re tending to your
stable of existing clients, RealAgent Accelerator will also be helping
you to generate new leads by producing email campaigns and newsletters that will
serve only to expand your reach. You can import client lists from any CSV format
file!
You’ve never seen your real estate business run as efficiently as with
RealAgent Accelerator! A full set of features helps you to manage income
and expenses and calculate commissions automatically, and a plethora of reports
and forms helps you to generate the documentation you need in a snap. All
reports and forms can be customized for your logo and presence and exported as
PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, or TIFF format for the ultimate
flexibility!
RealAgent Accelerator, our all-in-one business management software application for agents, is now available for $179.99. There are no recurring fees, no subscriptions. You get everything for one low price.
With RealAgent Accelerator, you can manage every aspect of your real estate practice. It comes fully equipped with all of the tools you need to effectively market your services, manage clients, keep track of appointments and tasks, create and send email templates and newsletters, and track commission.
Visit our website at www.realagentaccelerator.com for more information and to see screenshots of RealAgent in action.
In deciding to write this post I knew I'd be up against some stiff arguments. After all, to fly in the face of innovation and progress and suggest that "Web 2.0" has flaws requires a thick skin. However, I'd like to propose some ideas, if only for food-for-thought.
For all of its value and wonder, the web still is a very disconnected, ugly wasteland. Web sites don't talk to each other well, though this is improving with innovations like RSS, Atom, and publicly releasable developer APIs. The web is also still quite sluggish, with its request-response model of click a link, wait for the page and its content to be found and loaded, and continue. This concept also is improving, with technologies like AJAX (better Javascript), tried and true Flash animation, and new ideas like Silverlight from Microsoft.
Still, for most of the web, there is almost no drag-and-drop support, no advanced controls like treeviews, dials, sliders, no useful right-click and context-specific menus, no double-click concepts, and no usability heuristics that model the real world.
The best software occurs when the user-friendliness and "richness" of desktop apps meets the connectivity and distributed nature of the web. Things like Google Earth (not to be confused with Google Maps) come to mind - a beautiful, powerful software application taking advantage of the great interface and processing capabilities of the computer on your desk, while connecting itself to a world of information.
The difference with great applications like Google Earth is that we aren't talking about web SITES. We're talking about web SERVICES. And we're talking about desktop software programs that don't suffer from poor web interfaces.
Our software, RealAgent Accelerator, is a desktop application. Our users benefit from being able to use software in a way that's not foreign to them - the controls are responsive immediately, and there is next to no waiting for "the page to load" or to "submit" something.
That is not to say however, that our software suffers because it is not a website. RealAgent Accelerator connects to "back-end" web services that provide the same level of connectedness of any website. Data can be shared with other users, or uploaded and viewed from a PDA. Anything that can be done from a web browser can be done from a desktop application. However, not everything that can be done on a desktop can be done from the web - at least not yet. Have you tried using an online image editor? Terrible.
With websites, there's also an issue of privacy. Are you really sure that your client's personal information is housed in a safe manner? Are you really sure that your data, and that of your clients, are not sold to marketing companies? How would your client feel knowing that their home address, its value, and their mortgage information were stored on a web server in Mumbai, India? I'm can't speak to individual website privacy policies, but I'm not certain as to the legalities of whether your client submits to have his or her contact information posted on a website (secured or not) when he or she agrees to use your services.
Despite Web 2.0, the web still has a way to go. I'm all for innovation, but desktop applications aren't going away any time soon.
New RealAgent Accelerator Pricing Structure Effective Immediately
In response to the needs of our user community, we are pleased to announce a new price structure for RealAgent Accelerator.
RealAgent Accelerator is now available for a limited time for $279.99. There are no recurring charges - this is a one time license fee.
You will receive a license to use RealAgent Accelerator in its entirety. This includes email technical support and upgrades for 30 days.
You can elect to purchase subsequent upgrades for only $34.95 each.
Our mission is to develop quality software solutions for the real estate industry and to grow our user base by providing value to our customers. In doing so we wish to remain competitive in the marketplace by providing affordable, easy-to-use software packages, backed by friendly and helpful technical support.
To take advantage of this special offer, please click here:
For those of you looking for contact management software, or are looking for an alternative to Agent Office or Top Producer, we've released RealAgent Accelerator, an all-in-one toolkit for real estate agents. We like to call it 'swiss-army software for real estate'.
To get right to the point, we are currently offering two special benefits for AR members:
1. The unique ability to have features you require built right into the software. Our development process and team is quite agile and we are able to build features you request right into each and every new release. New releases are free for all customers.
2. 25% discount off the monthly license fee for AR members only. Enter a special coupon at time of purchase and receive our software at this great discount!
Visit our website at www.realagentaccelerator.com for more information. We've had a tremendous response from the agent community thus far - we'd love it if we can earn your business.
As the co-founder of RealAgent Online Inc., you'll have a direct line to me to discuss any special requirements, or questions you may have about the software.
As an observer of the real estate industry from a technology standpoint, I’ve always marveled at the relative ugliness of agent websites.
Now, before we go any further, I’d like to clarify a few things – first, that I certainly don’t want to paint every agent with the same brush; there are some outstanding agent websites out there that are both highly functional and beautiful.
Secondly, that beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, and this holds true for design and user interface layout. I don’t claim to hold a monopoly on what’s esthetically acceptable, but I can offer food for thought.
Templates
The majority of agents wisely look to a third party to develop their website (as opposed to a do-it-yourself approach). Most agents spend their money on the hosting and management of the site, and spend little or none on the look and feel, opting instead to select from a variety of supposedly customizable templates. While fees for this sort of service vary, one thing is obvious – the development company that developed your website is turning a profit because they sell the same set of templates over and over – leaving customization options (sometimes very little) up to you. It’s a great economy of scale and it works very well for web developers, but it doesn’t make you stand out from the crowd.
One big offender here (in my opinion) is Point2. I can spot a Point2 website a mile away – just about every one of their websites has the same font styles, the same layout, and the same “generic house” or “happy family” imagery. These sites also have the same focus on lead generation – almost ad nauseam – with every link promising ‘free information’ or ‘find out what your home is worth’, just type in your email address and phone number please!
My feeling is that while it may cost more up front, the benefits of a custom designed website that doesn’t look like it just rolled off an assembly line are hard to ignore. I would find it difficult to select any professional if they did nothing to demonstrate that their services are unique, high-quality, and not like the pack.
Links
A huge usability barrier that I see on many agent sites is the vast number of links and menu options. Exacerbating this is the fact that many of these links point to the same information or end point, which lead users into circles of redundancy – and frustration.
A key decision to make is to really decide what side of the transaction your website should cater to – buyers or sellers. The focus should be tailored to that – if your business deals with both, separate those into two distinct sites (you don’t need two domain names, just two sites that don’t overlap) and really streamline your site to what’s really important to someone who is trying to select a reliable, competent agent.
Listing-centric or Client-centric?
Another issue that I see with many agent sites is that some go to great lengths to show me ‘featured listings’. This is a great feature when done tastefully, but with the mish-mash of listing engines and feeds, it’s rare to have this displayed seamlessly on your site – which adds confusion when your visitor clicks a listing and is whisked away to ‘listings-R-us’!
One thing to consider is that the type of customer that is web-savvy enough to even seek out and find your website is probably knowledgeable enough to use MLS-based websites, for example, and already has an idea of the homes they want to purchase. What they *are* seeking is a reputable, trustworthy agent to provide them with respectful service first, and listings second. MLS sites may have won the game of publicly accessible listings, but they can never replace good, quality relationships and customer service. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have listings on your site, but do focus on the battles you can win.
Site Rot
Site rot is what I call websites that take up space on the internet and are like old billboards on dusty roads. Sure, they have information, but it’s stagnant.
Thankfully, with the proliferation of blogs and other dynamic content (RSS feeds, etc.), site rot is less of a problem than it once was. The best thing you could do as far as ‘keeping up appearances’ on your website would be to have some content on the first page dated for TODAY. It means you’re active, you’re in the mix, you work for a living. The death knell for me would be to visit an agent’s website and see “Last Update: 2005” or a posting about median home values in 1999! Don’t just have a website to seem “with it” or because everyone who’s successful has one. It’s like a corn field – you reap what you sow.
Bottom Line
I’m a technology guy – I make a living helping people select technology solutions that harmonize with how they work in the real world. I don’t claim to know all of the nuances of real estate marketing – but I can tell the difference between a website that resonates with me, and one that has zero pizzazz. How you answer the phone, how you stage a home, how you dress and speak – all of these are a reflection of you – and your website is no exception.
Most of us can see the value in computer software these days - there's a lot to be said for the kind of productivity and efficiency that comes from having a computer automate as much as possible. The trouble with most software that you can find in stores is simply that it’s too complicated.
Off-the-shelf software is too complicated because it tries to be all things to all people. Programs like Quickbooks, ACT!, and even Outlook offer too many features simply because they’re designed for the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. While it’s true that most people really only use the same 30% of the functionality of any program, it’s also true that the other 70% of the software makes it bloated, slow, complicated, and cluttered.
From a real estate standpoint, the problem with most contact management or accounting software is that there isn’t much in the way of fields specific to real estate or the way you track buyers, sellers, and listings. Sure, you can look at your clients as “customers” in Quickbooks, and collect “payments” and post “sales for services rendered”, but is this really how you want to track your most valuable assets, your clients and your listings?
As far as ACT! and Outlook go, the same problem exists – you can create “contacts” but can you really track things like ‘desired neighborhood’, ‘square footage’, or home photos?
So we can certainly make the case that you really need an all-in-one solution, not a one-for-all solution. We designed RealAgent Accelerator to be an “organically” grown program that grows according to how our users want it to grow – we don’t charge for support and we answer all of our email – there’s nobody overseas to deal with, just friendly staff that developed the product and know it inside and out. RealAgent was designed by agents (imagine!), so it contains the sorts of things that we ourselves use to better manage our clients and improve the way we do business.
Any thoughts? We’d love to hear your thoughts on your experiences with software – good or bad. What kinds of things frustrate you about software? If you were designing software yourself, what one feature would it *have* to have? Let us know!
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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