Unfortunately, being able to decode a property listing on a real estate site doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get a clear picture of the house that’s for sale. Like comparing apples to oranges, one Realtor’s flowery ”luxurious master bath” may be another real estate agent’s succinctly stated “full bath.” Even real estate agents can find themselves confused when reading listings from another part of the country. Each regional of the U.S. seems to have its own unique way of describing different real estate features. Being unfamiliar with the local slang can radically skew your interpretation of a real estate listing. For example, a California bungalow could be a Midwest ranch or a New England Cape Cod. Each word conjures up a very different mental image depending on where you live in.

More than 900 nationwide multiple listing sites complicate the issue. Many determine their own listing standards. Discrepancies from one real estate website to another are often found in the way square footage is determined, how living space is defined, and how bedrooms and bathrooms are reported.

Such inconsistencies in the reporting, translation and display of real estate property data have led the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) to consider creating and adopting a standardized Data Dictionary for the real estate industry. Charged with promoting the development and implementation of data standards across the industry, the organization’s board has scheduled a discussion of the Data Dictionary proposal for its April meeting.

Real Estate Standards Organization board chairman Rebecca Jensen, CEO of UtahRealEstate.com, told The Seattle Times that preliminary discussions at the Real Estate Connect conference make publication of the first real estate Data Dictionary “very close.”

Real Estate ‘Dictionary’ Aimed at Standardizing Descriptions is a post from: Properties Online Blog

The launch of Real Estate Network will allow the 43,000 real estate brokerage firms, 376 multiple listing services and numerous real estate franchises that currently participate in ListHub to expand their real estate marketing reach by choosing to send their property listings to one or more network members. Members of the new network retain the right to pick and choose the network members with whom they will share property listings and may refuse to share listings with select network members at their discretion.

In the Real Estate Network launch announcement on PR Newswire, Move CEO Steve Berkowitz called the new network “an industry-friendly initiative” that “maximizes and ensures broker control” over the promotion of real estate listings. While Real Estate Network rules are similar to the Internet Date Exchange (IDX) listing parameters imposed by multiple listing services, the game-changing difference is that Real Estate Network mandates a uniform nationwide listing standard.

Several aspects of the new network are generating talk in the real estate community. The possible demise of multiple listing services seems to be the greatest potential impact the new network might have on the real estate industry. Some industry watchers are also predicting that online realty lister Zillow will suffer from competition with a new, broad-scale listing network. The biggest winners may be smaller real estate firms that stand to benefit from free access to real estate tools developed by their bigger brethren.

New Real Estate Listing Network Challenges MLS is a post from: Properties Online Blog

KIRKLAND, WA — (Marketwire) — 01/20/11 — Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR) ( www.MarketLeader.com : www.MarketLeader.com ), an innovator in online marketing and technology solutions for real estate professionals, has acquired kwkly, a mobile software-as-a-service lead generation platform. The innovative kwkly service has grown rapidly over the past two years and is now being used by some of the real estate industry’s largest and most prominent brokerage companies to successfully engage today’s tech-savvy home buyers and sellers.

kwkly provides home buyers with real-time access to detailed property information straight from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to their mobile phone. At the same time, kwkly connects real estate professionals with buyers immediately, giving them both the property information along with agent contact information for follow-up.

“kwkly is the most exciting tech tool I’ve seen for the industry, because of the speed, simplicity and value it brings both agents and the consumer,” said John Thompson, Executive Vice President of Intero Real Estate.

Market Leader’s acquisition of kwkly expands the offerings that the company can make available through its comprehensive business and marketing platform for real estate professionals. Kwkly has grown rapidly and brings customers associated with some of the real estate industry’s largest and most successful real estate franchise brands, including RE/MAX, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., Baird & Warner, Century 21, Prudential, Intero Real Estate and more.

“kwkly is an innovative service that has become an important lead generation tool for some of the nation’s most prestigious brokerage companies,” said Ian Morris, CEO of Market Leader, Inc. “We look forward to introducing this leading edge mobility solution to an even broader audience while helping our customers to achieve even greater success.”

For more information about kwkly, please visit www.kwkly.com : www.kwkly.com . For more information on Market Leader and its products, visit www.MarketLeader.com : www.MarketLeader.com .

About Market Leader

Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR) provides real estate professionals with innovative marketing and technology solutions that enable them to grow and manage their business. Founded in 1999 by a second-generation real estate agent, Market Leader provides real estate agents, agent teams, and brokerage companies with subscription-based real estate marketing software : www.marketleader.com/ and advertising products that enable them to generate a steady stream of prospects, as well as the tools and training they need to convert these prospects into clients.

With a long history of innovation, Market Leader pioneered online lead generation for real estate professionals a decade ago and today is the leading marketing partner to the real estate industry. The company also provides consumers with free access to the information and tools they need throughout the home buying and selling process, such as determining house values by address : www.housevalues.com/ , and providing access to real estate listings : www.justlisted.com/ , through its national consumer real estate sites. These websites enable Market Leader to provide its customers with access to millions of future home buyers and sellers while providing these consumers with free access to the information they seek throughout the home buying and selling process.

For more information on Market Leader visit www.MarketLeader.com : www.MarketLeader.com .

Market Leader Acquires KWKLY is a post from: Properties Online Blog

QR Codes, short for Quick Response Codes, have been quite a hit overseas for some time now but are just starting to make some noise in the US real estate marketing arena. A recent study by Morgan Stanley’s analysts believe that, based on the current rate of change and adoption, the mobile web will be bigger than desktop Internet use by 2015. With mobile traffic on the rise and projected to surpass desktop browsing in less than 5 years, QR Codes are a quick & easy way for real estate professionals to drive mobile traffic to their website. Real estate professionals can take advantage of this free and innovative way to promote their listings by adding these codes to their business cards, flyers, newspaper ads and more. It takes only seconds for a smart phone to scan the code and redirect visitors to a website with additional details and photos of a property listed for sale.

“QR Codes are a great way to drive mobile traffic to our users’ websites.” says Amanda Cornelius, President and CEO of Properties Online, LLC. “With our new system we can save our users time by creating the QR Codes for them. All the agent has to do is save the QR Code and incorporate it into their print marketing efforts.”

The QR code creation process is very simple. When a Properties Online user creates a Listing Domain website or adds a listing to their agent website, a QR code is automatically created for that listing. Properties Online takes the QR code one step further with a built in tracking system that allows users to track and quantify the number of visitors each QR code has driven to their website.

Some companies are charging a monthly fee for this service but Properties Online has chosen to offer this as an added value service to their over 20,000 users. In February the company plans to print the QR Codes on their Domain Rider signs for a nominal fee. Also in February Properties Online will be releasing a new flyer builder program allowing real estate professionals to create print quality PDF brochures for each listing complete with QR code. Because not everyone has a smart phone, it is important for agents and brokers to include the direct URL of the property, i.e. 555MainStreet.com or 555Main.KimAgent.com. Properties Online includes Property Specific URLs with their Listing and Agent website products.

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About Properties Online:
Properties Online is dedicated to helping real estate professionals grow their business by offering innovative and invaluable technology tools with a smile. With a user base of over 20,000 real estate professionals, Properties Online products and services empower agents to efficiently expand their business while generating more traffic and leads. Their web-based software is extremely easy to use and makes creating a website, a flyer or a video simple and fun!

Properties Online Incorporates QR Codes into their Website Builder Software is a post from: Properties Online Blog

On Sunday, December 12 2010, 1.3 million Gawker media accounts were hacked. Some of the information – emails and passwords – was released on the Internet.

Gawker has asked all its users to change their passwords. While this is certainly an inconvenience, the issue is far more serious for anyone who’s been lazy with their passwords.

Let’s face it – modern life demands that we use countless passwords. Our bank, online grocery shopping, social media sites, email, and many other sites are asking that we create an account and register with them prior to using their services. For many of these sites, it’s a great way to develop a huge email list for marketing purposes. Some demand that we register to avoid spam.

For us, as users, it means that the temptation to use a single user name and password across all accounts is huge. But as convenient as this might be, the recent Gawker Media fiasco demonstrates just how risky it can be. If you use the same user name/password combination across all your accounts, a hacker who hacks into one account gains access to all of them.

So what should you do? You can use password management software. If you prefer to manage your passwords by yourself, ideally you should have a separate password for each account. Keep those passwords written somewhere, but not stored on your computer.

If this is too much if a hassle, at the very least, you should create a separate password for each financial account. Never use the same password that you use on low-security social media sites, for example, for online banking. And if you have more than one online banking account, it’s best to use a different password for each of those accounts.

As for the passwords, do yourself a favor and – unless the account is of no importance to you – avoid the most common passwords that people tend to use– these include “123456,” “password,” “letmein” and more. The best passwords have at least 12 characters, are random (not a real word), and include a combination of lower and higher case letters and of special characters.

Password management is a big headache, but it’s part of modern life. Don’t be lazy with your passwords! The risk is simply too high.

Don’t be Lazy with Your Passwords! is a post from: Properties Online Blog

For those of you who couldn’t make it out to New Orleans this year for the National Association of Realtors Convention, I thought I would hit the highlights for you.

LOWES
Let me just start off by saying I can be bought with cookies. Lowes had (by far) the best give-aways at the show. I walked off with a 1 gig jump drive, a mini mouse for my laptop and freshly baked cookies (with coffee to boot!).

This friendly booth made me remember why I do my home improvement shopping at Lowes. Not only great products and services, but great customer service!

Terri Murphy
If you ever have a chance to hear Terri Murphy (@terrimurphy) I would suggest you take advantage. Her insights on real estate and technology are right on the mark. I have seen her speak at a Century 21 regional event and now at the Kodak booth in New Orleans.

As a top producing sales person in the Chicago area for over 24 years, Terri understands the unmatchable power of strategic alliances that truly create a strong differentiation in the market today.

Terri is the President of Terri Murphy Communications and Chief Information Officer of U.S. Learning in Memphis, TN.  She is the founder of www.WomensWisdomNetwork.com., an online resource network for women in business.

RealBiz Media
Next One Interactive, Inc. (OTCBB: NXOI) and RealBiz Media have launched a unique real estate marketing platform for real estate companies and professionals called “Connextions”. In a nutshell, these two companies have developed a technology platform that is able to take virtual tours, make them broadcast ready, and feed them to the largest real estate websites (Realtor.com, Trulia.com, etc), social networking sites (Facebook.com, Youtube.com, etc) and now …. television! Connextions is the only real estate marketing technology platform that is able to combine the power of the Internet and Television and provide it in a single automated marketing solution for the real estate professionals.

I caught up with Steve Marques at NAR to brefiely go over the new program.

Wells Fargo MTG
Winner of this years “Fun” booth. At the Wells Fargo booth, visitors are able to play a series of games including Texas Hold-Em and “Bop the Mole” in hopes of winning cash, cooking gadgets and the coveted Wells Fargo stuffed horse. It is always fun to see what Wells Fargo will come up with next.

QR Codes
QR (Quick Response) Codes made an appearance at this years shows. Several companies are trying to turn the QR hype into a business. A few companies were offering the QR codes for a flat or monthly fee. You are able to add listings, and create the QR codes that will redirect visitors with a QR reader to the listing page you created with the company. The issue I have with this product idea is that you (the agent) can create QR codes for free using Kaywa and you can send the visitors directly to the listing page on your website. Seems more cost effective and less time consuming to do it that way – no? It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

We (ListingDomains.com & RealEstateSites.com) are in the process of adding a QR code generator to our Listing and Agent websites service. We do not plan to charge anything additional for this service. We will also offer a sign rider with the QR code for an added fee. More to come on that …

NAR 2010 Highlights is a post from: Properties Online Blog

By now you know that as a website owner, one of your main goals is to make sure your visitors to not just find your property website, but stay on your website for as long as possible. Of course, you also want your visitors to come back to your site.

By placing a mortgage calculator on your property site you are giving your visitors an ability to perform important financial calculations without ever leaving your site. This means they are going to stay longer on your site. It also means your property site adds value to your visitors and gives them a good reason to come back.

This is why all our Listing Domains single property websites include a built-in mortgage calculator. Another huge time-saver for potential buyers, which helps you turn leads into transactions: we have partnered with several mortgage companies to allow your buyers to get instantly pre-approved for your listing. When using this feature, you may choose to override any default link with the mortgage broker of your choice.

Buyers Love Property Websites with Mortgage Tools! is a post from: Properties Online Blog

While now is generally a good time to enter the real estate market, unemployment rates are still high, and obviously it doesn’t make sense to take a mortgage unless you’re fairly certain that you are not going to be laid off. So the question of how secure your job is becomes a major factor.

In addition, it’s important to realize that although the housing bubble has burst in most US markets, there are still some local bubbles around the nation, so if you reside in one of them, it may still be prudent to keep waiting. A good way to determine whether your local real estate market is still in a bubble is to look at the rent ratio – the higher it is, the more cautious you should be.

The bottom line: the housing market is not detached from underlying economic factors such as growth in jobs, growth in output and rising consumer confidence. Watch for those, as well as for the rent ratio in your community, and take into account the stability of your own job. All of these factors should be considered before you decide whether now is a good time to enter the real estate market. From where we are, all of these numbers look positive – but the ultimate decision should of course be yours and based on your individual situation.

Real Estate Market Update is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Home prices remain low in most US markets, but prices have stabilized and are no longer falling. Low prices combined with historically low mortgage rates and a nice-size tax credit (extended to April 30) may make this a good time to finally make your move and enter the real estate market.

Of course, in some areas home prices may continue to fall, while in others they may stagnate for years before starting to go up again, which means that investing in real estate could still be risky at this point.

In addition, rushing into a real estate deal just to take advantage of the tax credit doesn’t really make sense given the complexity of most real estate transactions.

We believe that right now, the biggest risk for those who are still waiting on the sidelines is a jump in mortgage rates after the Fed stops stop buying mortgage-backed securities. Of course, this is a risk only if home prices in your area won’t continue to fall.

Real Estate Market Update: Should You Buy Now? is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Since one of your main goals as a real estate professional is to make your website as “sticky” as possible – to make people stay longer on your site and return for future visits, adding market reports and recently sold properties to your agent website makes a lot of sense.

Market reports also have the added benefit of adding depth to your website. The more interactive your real estate site is, the more you fill it with relevant tools and information, the more attractive it becomes to clients and to prospects.

Our real estate sites include built-in market reports (except for non-disclosure states and counties, where this service is not available). Using tax record information and graphs provided by Zillow, your clients can run an instant report showing them all of the recent home sales in their neighborhood.

If this tool is available in your state, do remember to take advantage of it. It is one of the best tools we offer for keeping clients engaged and interested in your real estate website.

Enhance your Agent Website with Market Reports is a post from: Properties Online Blog