I was totally pumped to get home today and whiz through bottle washing, a listing appointment, an episode of Law and Order SVU and some serious Sociology homework because I got the e-mail today saying "Welcome to Growth Leader"!

For those of you who haven't heard, Growth Leader by Market Leader is a new product, currently being tested on agents throughout the country.  I am one of those agents.  (In my own famous words, "because I'm cool like that.")

So as I'm exploring after midnight on a Tuesday night (which is going to require the use of a morning Amp Energy Drink, because I'm due to supervise a propane tank set up on one of my pending listings in approximately 7.5 hours...), I wanted to share with you what I see as I begin to play with my new Growth Leader website.

First of all, I had to head to my new website.  I was kind of disappointed by the fact that my welcome e-mail did not include a direct link.  I scrolled down my page, but stopped to admire the featured listing (which is one of mine, of course!) and the IDX setup.  I'm anxious to try that out.  I will admit, I currently do not have IDX on my website.  I am SO picky about the search functions and layout, and cannot find what I want.  I know what I loved when I was looking at houses, and I haven't found anything that quite fits yet.  I'm hoping I'm not let down!

I login, and immediately am greeted by a Vision Administration screen.  For those of you who haven't heard, Vision is the contact management software built in to my Growth Leader website.  It is quite elaborate, and I'm dying to get a lead that I can do something with! 

From there I went to Admin Tools, and began to play with my profile settings.  The first thing I did was add areas of service.  At sign up, I was posted in Mora, but I continued to add other towns.  It is recommended that you add no more than 10.  As of right now, I added a fair amount more than that.  I will see how things work, and possibly narrow it down.  Right now my fear is that being in the rural area that I am, limiting myself that much may turn out to harm me rather than help me. 

There's an awesome chart for tracking prospects.  I can't wait to see how that fills in once I get a lead or two!

My favorite part, though, is the Craigslist posting.  However, mine didn't work.  When I click the "open" button to post, I get a blank page.  I'm hoping this is a bug that is fixed, soon.  I'm anxious to see what the CL ads look like.  They are automatically optimized for searches, which is amazing.  Those little things that make my life just a bit easier are a huge help, and greatly appreciated.  I love the counter for each property, which you reset by clicking the "posted" button.  It then starts at zero and tracks how long your posting has been up for you until you click the button again.  What a great way to help keep me organized.  I'm constantly digging around in my CL account, looking at when I posted and if I should repost or not yet.

There are more awesome features that I'm excited to explore, like the marketing report for a home seller and even the Instant Messaging feature, which uses the top messenger programs.  I will keep you posted on what happens, and the things I learn!