My wife's parents have started growing strawberries. But apparently the native birds love to eat the juicy fruit. The ugly bird netting that they use works fine, but little birds still find their way in. Unfortunately, they don't always find their way out. Well, I have a better solution... A ScareCrow®.
The ScareCrow® is an automated animal deterrent. It's basically a water sprinkler with a motion sensor. See it in action and watch how it can protect your garden (and keep your garden green!).
Whether it's a phone scam, Internet scam, or some other type of scam, you need to know how to protect yourself.
One way to protect yourself: Don't give out any information.
One way to protect others: Stay on the phone and ask a lot of questions. Here's a few that I like to ask. These are used for those special people that call my personal phone number (that's on the National Do Not Call Registry).
What's the weather like where you are? Then go on to talk about the wonderful conditions where I live. It's a great opportunity to sell them on your area.
Where are you calling from? If they can't tell me that because of "security reasons", I press them by asking "If I guess it right, will you tell me if I get it?"
Do you like your job? How long have you been in your current position? How can I get a job application?
I know people suggest hanging up right away. But think about it. The goal for a phone scammer (I'm not saying telemarketer. Many telemarketers are legitimate no matter how much you don't like them.) is to quickly find a victim. By preventing them from making another call, you can save effectively delay their feast. You might even save the world! :-)
If you're looking for "authorized" and practical measures of thwarting evil in this world, check these out:
I recently received a phone call from a phone scammer. This one was related to domain name renewal. But as you know there are many others out there: mortgage scams, insurance scams, etc.
I did a reverse search on the phone number and found some interesting links. This includes forums where other people have received the same call. One of the best resources I found was Who Called Us.
Who Called Us is a sort of reverse directory of "UNAVAILABLE" phone numbers. It's better than a typical reverse phone search because it includes phone numbers of scam artists (not normally listed in the white pages). In addition, you can review others' comments to see what they experienced.
NOTE: While writing this post, I just received another call from them.
So there you go... Another resource to put into your arsenal of tools to protect your clients and yourself.
Update: Three calls so far this morning (all from the same people). I've reported them to the FTC.
Newsletters are easy, once a month shots at communicating with your clients and customers. And wth the right company, it's practically automated. Blogs are time consuming and can take you away from "making rain."
Can a blog really improve your bottom line? Or is it just hype? Well, Sellsius puts forward a good argument for blogs over newsletters. They say blogs:
Are interactive
Build trust
Have interested readers
Have a larger audience
Give you future growth potential
Are 100% Google Juice
Allow more innovation
Warms leads
Are free
Good points. I would add to and expand a couple of the reasons. I also don't completely agree with number nine. But I think I'll save my detailed commentary for another time.
I'm sure that most will agree that the MLS is an excellent place to market your home. However, I've recently learned that some agents do not enter all pertinent information about a property. Or more accurately, they do not check all the boxes. They do this to help certain features of a home stand out more (i.e., better marketing). Do you think this is good practice? Is it good representation?
To me, it seems like an extra step that wasn't willing to be taken. But I can also understand, somewhat, the argument of "trying not to cloud the waters" with too many features.
Granted, some things may be insignificant like whether curtains are included in the sale or not. I'll let you decide which items are worth checking. Here are a few of the check boxes that are frequently omitted (even if it applies):
Den/Office
Heat source
Included appliances
Exterior/Siding Type
Ammenities (pool, security systems, view)
Porch/Patio type (open, covered, enclosed, etc.)
So what do you think? And if you don't mind, what do you do? Do you check all the pertinent ones or do you check only the "biggies"?
"It"came in. I mentioned how it seemed easy to setup and you wouldn't need a "real" network administrator. Well, you don't. The new unit was up and running in less than ten minutes... really.
Now for the rest of the story...
The ten minutes included the time to open the box, install the software on the host PC, and plugin in the monitor. With this completed, I was able to sit down at the new workstation and use the majority of applications. However, there were two applications that did not work as intended:
ScanSnap Manager, and
Voyager2
ScanSnap
The ScanSnap Manager allows a computer to connect and use the Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner. This software wouldn't work because, at least this version, is intended to operate with only one computer connected to one ScanSnap scanner. I needed to remove the software from startup to remove an error message that I was receiving. A possible solution for this would be to use Ncomputing's L200, which apparently supports direct connection to USB devices, then connect each terminal directly to the ScanSnap via a USB switch box.
Voyager2
Voyager2 is a desktop MLS application by FNIS. Whenever running, it locks the local database allowing only one person access at a time. The solution, that I hope works, is to use special windows environment variables to give each user access to their own database. I would also need to create a copy of the database for each user. Not very practical for a large group of users. It's doable for three.
Everything else seems to be working dandy. Let me know if you have questions about specific applications. If I have it, I'll check it out for you!
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all have come out with their little API's (Application Programming Interface) so you can create maps on your own website. However, API's middle name is "Programming", which means it can easily fly over the head of most people. Easier option? Yep, I got one for you.
Instead of writing your own map from scratch, try Map Builder. Map Builder is a free online application to get you started quickly. Everything is relatively intuitive allowing you to choose custom points and icons.
Update: There is a monthly fee-based real estate option. I haven't signed up for it, so I'm not really sure what the added benefit is. If anyone signs up for it, please fill us in!
Other than its ease, why or how else would you use it? Here are a few ideas:
Interactive maps have been one of the hottest tools (trends?) in online real estate. You have Zillow, Trulia, and others that offer capabilities beyond what you would probably do on your own. Well, I'm a Type E and am always working to implement new and exciting ideas, especially maps.
Something that I've been working on has been a way to take city, county, and utility info to map service boundaries and availability. Thanks to Real Estate Tomato, I came across a site that has some of the ground work already laid. Nothing pretty, but very functional. Check out the boundary maps.
A couple of days ago I mentioned that I'll be testing a thin client device from Ncomputing. And more than likely will be purchasing a couple for myself. I'm looking forward to trying it out as I think it could really cut down on computer/network management for real estate offices and teams. This means less computer management time, lower operating costs, and more time doing what needs to be done (and a life).
If you've worked with GoToMyPC, VNC, WebEx, LogMeIn, or some other remote computer access software, you're already familiar with the technology. The difference with Ncomputing's solution is that it's a hardware solution. By connecting one of Ncomputing's devices to your network, you can have an instant computer. Just add a mouse and keyboard.
There are a lot of questions that are up for debate on this one. But the big question is:
Thick or Thin? Translation: Why not buy a cheap computer?
I won't answer this for you, but rather I'd love to get your thoughts on it.
Just a little more info about tagging and why it can help you. It's my last post on tags. I promise... At least for today.
When tagging content in your blog, you can automatically generate highly relevant, inbound links to your site. (Is that good enough a reason to tag?) This happens because of two things.
Unique tag pages on your website
Third-party tag pages that point to your posts
Unique tag pages
I'm not referring to tag or topic clouds here. Tag pages are dynamically generated pages that consist of only one tag. They list all posts in your blog that are tagged the same. On my AR blog, for example, I have a blogging tag page that lists my posts tagged with "blogging." If you appropriately tag your posts, your tag pages become nutritious spider food.
Third-party tag pages
Tag pages on other sites work just like tag pages on your own site. In addition, they include posts from other websites. The nice thing here is that you are usually getting a free deep link to your site.
Beneficial Inbound links
Services like Technorati and IceRocket can be pinged (notified to make them aware of a change) which helps to automate the process of generating free inbound links. This is beneficial from an SEO standpoint, but it's also beneficial from a people standpoint.
How? People have a greater potential of discovering your blog when you're listed on these sites. This can be through better search engine placement, related blog searches, or even syndicated blog headlines. The main point is that you're simply in more places to be found.
Submitting your feed to blog tracking services is like placing clues all over the Internet. The more clues you place on the Internet, or the more places you submit your site to, the more likely people will find you.
Tagging Services
Technorati has probably been on of the biggest players in the blog tagging and tracking market. However, they are not the only one. Following are a few services that you can ping. These are the ones that specifically have tag pages as described above and purposely do not include social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and BlogMarks. Also, be sure to check out other blog pinging services that cover the whole shebang.
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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