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"100 Tools" for Better Real Estate Sales - What's Your Favorite?

I'm starting a long term project. Hey, that is a really big deal for me because I'm usually working on stuff that's due 5 minutes from now. I think this has something to do with my extremely short attention span? To plan six months in advance is just NUTS for me. (wow, maybe i'm growing! :).

Anyway, Brad Nix and I are starting to work pretty hard on the Atlanta Real Estate Conference we call REtechSouth. Brad & I co-host the event. Our first event last spring was a huge success and we can't wait to do it again even bigger! It's gonna happen on March 20, 2009. Here's a link to sign up if you plan to attend.

(note: there is a vicious rumor - that I'm spreading - that the greatest AR party ever will happen that weekend in the ATL) (Just sayin').

So, my point...

I think the #1 thing that all of us RE.net agents get excited about is "the tools". We're all pretty much total geeks! Give us some new web-based tool and we get distracted for 30 to 60 minutes playing around with it to evaluate it's level of coolness.

Oh wait, is that just me? Am I the only one who will halt the most important project of my life for up to one hour to play with some new tool that I randomly find? OK, fine. If you are not really like that (denial?) then you may not want to help me with my project. If you're a geek-like-me, then please help me out.

So, here's the project...

"To develop a list of the top 100 web-based tools that can be used in real estate to improve your business"

This list of tools will be presented at REtechSouth 2009 and I just bet that will be the most attended session of the day! Of course, I also want to post the list here, there and everywhere.

But, I need your help. What's your #1 favorite tool? What other blog posts have you read about Great Online Tools? Could be an AR post or it might be from somewhere else entirely. Anyway, PLEASE COMMENT HERE and give me the goods. If I add the tool that you suggested to the presentation, I'll also give you attribution for it as well (free link love!).

So, here's a couple of my current favorites to whet your appetite...

Skitch .com - perhaps the absolute coolest tool for marking up still images and screenshots EVER.

Totally idiot-proof (an important feature for me).

Ustream.com - One of the new streaming video sites.

We used this at NAR 2008 to stream our panel session. (thanks to @realestatezebra :)

ooVoo.com - Video Chat, but so much more.

My favorite part of this is the resulting "interview" video recording you can create.

So, what's the coolest tool that you've found lately? Are you actually using it? Or it is just "cool but useless"?

Lemme know... and please reblog!

Posted by Matt Fagioli on 11/24/2008 06:03 PM

Comments (46)

100 Cool Tools in the Technology and Tools Channel

cool real estate tools

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46 Comments on "100 Tools" for Better Real Estate Sales - What's Your Favorite?

NOV

2008

Ok Matt...I was about to call you my new best friend with this cool new tool called Skitch! Till it says it's not available for Windows? UGH! What's up with that?

Now I'm not so sure! I'll have to think about it!

P.S. Remember to let me know how I can help out with March 20th! (Besides attending!)

Matt... You know I have to reblog this, right? I'm also going to try to kill the comments and send them to this post.

Thom... Matt is one of those Apple People. Don't hold it against him, he can't really help it.

I will keep coming back to see what dvelops here. But what the hey I will go anywhere there is an AR party so count me in.

Skype

Gmail

Those are two main ones for me.........

I have a long list, but will let others add a couple to get your comments going...

Sounds like an awesome event. Not sure I will be able to attend as I am supposed to deliver our baby about 5 weeks before. Will you send highlights out?

Skype is a good one - Ventrillo is also a decent tool. Hotlanta in the Spring huh?

Jott.com

Great way to email by voice and email myself by voice

Ted Guarnero

Jupiter Florida real estate

Evening Matt, Maybe you need some categories ( Apple compatible, etc ). Not sure how my suggestion fits but I have used a free software site ( www.GiveAwayOfTheDay.com ) frequently. They scan them for viruses and each day offer a different type of software. Many have nothing to do with real estate but some are very helpful. And, free is good ! Hope it helps and good luck with your spring event .

Sure you don't want to hire us for this job? Might make things go faster :)

Matt~ Jott. Wait, that's already been jotted. I like the distinction Mac vs. PC. Will come back....

I like iContactcom to stay in touch with my clients with a newsletter or survey.

When it comes to new technology...I'm like a kid in a candy store. I want ALL of it, but I just can't handle it all. I'm learning one step at a time. Thanks for sharing!! GBU~

I wish I had all the time for all these great tools Where do you get the time?

I agree with Russ- how do you find the time for this? Awesome stuff though - I think i'm just jealous!

I'm staying tuned to this post... sounds like all the secrets in one place! I know I'm behind the times, but I love snagit!

Matt. Thanks for doing this. I'm not much of a techno geek but I will bookmark this and look forward to seeing what makes your top 100 list.

I will be interested to see the suggestions that you get here. I was not familiar with Skitch yet - thanks!

I will be watching and waiting to learn all the new stuff.

Thanks for the links for the conference...I'm signing up!

I love when these tools get posted, it just blows me away. Today I was reading about getting a video posted onto youtube of a property listing. That would be great on a listing presentation to a Gen Y or Gen X seller. Very cool stuff looking forward to seeing the results.

Hi there,

Wish I could add something here. I need to reveiw my notes from blogworld to see what else...guess that shows I haven't implemented much, right? Anyway, I'm interested in your event, besides I've always wanted to visit Atlanta.

Matt - I was very disappointed to learn Skitch was only for MAC users! Looks like a cool tool! Any idea when it may be available for those of us that are VISTA users?

NOV

2008

Matt,

Thanks for all of the tips. I am going to bookmark this blog so I can stay tuned to see what other great ideas are shared.

Scrapblog.com is a great FREE place to dress up photos, make a presentation etc.

ZingDing.com is $50 for the year and you can do some very creative things like adding a moving burning fire to a fireplace in a still photo or butterflies in a garden or birds flying in the sky. I've used them for many things including V-tours.

MLBroadcast is great for V-Tours and creating a video podcast. They syndicate to youtube, itunes and MANY more sites, they've given me a HUGE SEO Boost.

Of course AR for the million reasons posted throughout the network

Widgetbox.com is FREE and a great way to display your blog feed and post throughout other sites in an organized way.

Propertypreviews.com is a simple V-tour service that is FREE and they offer syndication to youtube and a few other places on the web, so good for SEO as well.

RealBird is another great FREE online marketing tool. You can make flyers, post to Craigslist or add a domain name to make a Single Property Website. Also great added SEO.

ePropertysites.com is $10 per listing to make a Single Property Website and they offer a text to cell lead capture and branded sign rider.

PhotoBucket and Flicker are handy to have for photo HTML

LinkU makes the best websites and they charge $30 per month - www.TheGardnerTeam.net

I'll think of more... I love to share ideas. Thanks for putting up this blog, it'll come in handy as many of us prepare for new 2009 goals and such.

KEEP SHARING!

Amber

I'm still trying to catch up on all the possible tools everyone on AR discusses. I can't wait to have a few more thrown at me here.

I think I'll park and see what comes up. I don't have much to share that hasn't already been shared. Can't wait to check some of these out.

I have a feeling this is going to be filled with MANY comments! Will definitely be checking back.

I'm posting tools on both of my websites so won't bore you with them here. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

uhm, WOW! it's pretty fun to see all these great comments and great new tools posted so far in the comments.

Since I'm such a master, of course I knew about all of them already... NOT! :)

It seems like there are as many great tools as their are great agents to use them sometimes.

Russ & Bridget, I think the trick is to use the technology to improve efficiency and NOT get caught in the "time suck" effect. (note to self: take own advice immediatey)

Thanks to Amber Gardner for the long list of tools. Thanks to everyone else too.

I'm going to work on an updated post to bring more of this together so keep the suggestions coming please.

And, thanks AR for the feature of this post!

I love Jott....use it every day for my travel log....bookmarking this for future use. Thanks!

Matt. I would like to throw AgentShield.com in for consideration. Agent Shield provides free web tools and widgets for Realtors to sell new construction, second and resort homes.
Thom. Windows Vista has a "Snipping Tool" which is a good Windows alternative to Skitch.
BudURL.com - this free service shrinks long URL's and includes usage/click tracking -- this comes in very useful when sending people to specific listings on your websites.
www.getdropbox.com - free online file storage. Neat thing about this service is that you can sync your online files with multiple computers.

Totally idiot-proof, ha ha. I like that.

But really, things need to be these days if lots of poeple are going to be using them right.

I may be biased but the Text messaging widget at www.RealEstateTechnologyOnline.com/widget isn't bad?

Thanks,

Matt Rains

Good start here, Matt. I've seen Oovoo and thought about trying it out. It would be hard to nail down my favorite but recently I have been quite impressed with ClassifiedFlyerAds.com. You can build a webpage for your listing pretty easily and the SEO they do is really nice.

Thank you for sharing your 100 tools...... I wish I had 100 tools to share..... I only have one service for realatrs...... I am not a realtor...

Notify me of comments or suggestionsd on how I can use 100 tools to share my business.

Great Post Idea... I like robust freebies. Here's one for you. micropoll at micropoll.com

This is a free web poll tool that has a lot of useful features such as syndicate and share or direct publishing to a blog. Some other great features are enable user suggestion for a poll, view past polls, comments and even poll via SMS. To take it to the next level micropoll even has the ability to rotate embedded polls that will keep your polls fresh.

Check it out..

I love flock web browser.

I am definitely going to check back here to read the comments left from the brilliant minds here on Active Rain and find out their favorite real estate sales tool. Lord knows I need some very,very bad. Great post.

I discovered a free website that is real cool. It is www.zoho.com. One this site you can have a free contact management. Yes, you heard me free contact manager.

NOV

2008

mapsalive.com - create interactive floor plans for a small fee, first one is free, here is one I did if you want to see a sample

URL:	http://tour.mapsalive.com/4104

googleearth - you can download aerial picture files of your listings for free, looks nice particularly for larger properties or for properties that are located near something marketable - lake, ocean, a park, etc

NOV

2008

Here's another nice free tool provided by wheatworks software called Home Buyer's Calculator. It's a financial calculator application that you can do a bunch with. The one feature I like the most is the amortization schedules that you can create. The difference with this tools amortization is that you can add extra payments--single or range. More importantly you can save that particular amortization schedule for later use. This is a tool that you can refer to a land contract or owner financing type client.

http://www.hsh.com/hbcalc.html

NOV

2008

Hey....a cool one I found, and forget I have is DropCard. Set up your free account, and when you forget business cards, you can send an e-mail from your phone, to the person you are talking with, and they will get an e-mail with all your contact info. It's pretty cool!

NOV

2008

Lots of good ideas growing here. I love Picnik.com for creating and editing images. Both my buyers and sellers like my VisualTours.com

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the awesome comments.

If you feel like a challenge, here it is...

Comment back here again with your top 10 online tools. I promise to post a complete list soon after.

I'm also going to mind map the list as well. (yet another tool!)

Here's my new post about Mind Mapping.

DEC

2008

Hey Matt,

Well, my Matt is turning me into a huge fan of Google products...so my favorites are Google Picasa, which I use for editing photos. It is very user friendly and easy to use.

Also, I love Google Docs because you can share your docs with others and edit them from any computer in the world.

Anyways, good luck with all the planning of RETechSouth.

--Anne Rains

http://activerain.com/blogs/ladyofrealty

www.TheRainsTeam.com

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