Real estate agents can forge connections with potential home buyers and sellers by adding QR codes to business cards, flyers, newspaper ads, direct mail, online property listings and lawn signs, using different QR codes to direct consumers to different sites or information. Different QR codes can be imbedded in different marketing vehicles to help track their effectiveness. QR codes are also proving effective in building social media relationships between real estate agents and potential clients. QR codes are still novel enough to generate excitement and curiosity. People can’t seem to resist scanning QR codes when they appear in Facebook posts and Twitter tweets. Their popularity and convenience are making real estate QR codes the preferred method of linking to detailed information and video tours of new property listings.

As smartphone become the new communication standard and consumer interaction becomes increasingly mobile, QR codes are expected to become the go-to method of imparting information to real estate consumers. PropertiesOnline.com can help you add this powerful mobile marketing tool to your real estate tool bag. Free real estate QR code generation is included with all Properties Online website products.

Use Real Estate QR Codes to Boost Website Traffic is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Easier to use and display and even more portable than laptop computers, it didn’t take iPads long to replace laptops at open houses and client meetings. Their larger screen size also gives tablets a considerable edge over smartphones when it comes to displaying property listings and running walk-through videos for home buyers.

iPads have become de rigueur at open houses. Real estate agents find tablets a convenient and eye-catching way to showcase other area properties. Touch technology still engenders a certain “oh, wow!” response that impresses home shoppers. Some real estate agents have found it profitable to join in sponsoring neighborhood open houses. Tablet tours at each property entice home shoppers to visit other area open houses. But numerous industry watchers believe that tablets and the rise of mobile communication have already rung the death knell for traditional open houses. Time-crunched home buyers would rather check out property video tours on their iPads than spend time traipsing from house to house.

The marrying of tablets and mobile technology allows real estate agents to interact with clients anytime, anywhere. Video conferencing is replacing office visits. Tweets are replacing emails. iPad and iPhone apps allow real estate agents to forward listing information and video tours to clients as soon as new listings are posted. House hunters can now peruse real estate listings from the comfort of their home or while they’re on the go. With an iPad, home buyers can check out new listings while they’re commuting to work or sitting in the parking lot waiting to pick up the soccer car pool. Tablet technology frees real estate agents and home buyers from time and place constraints, opening a new era in real estate.

If you have an iPad, you might want to check out this cool app called Open Home Pro

iPad Is Becoming a Must Have at Real Estate Open Houses is a post from: Properties Online Blog

We love technology and believe it can greatly help real estate agents. One noteworthy example is the use of QR codes for real estate. A QR (Quick Response) Code is a barcode that is readable via a smart phone. The idea is that users scan a barcode using their phone, and are then directed to a specific landing page. In real estate, we see QR codes used in several ways.

QR Codes Embedded into Print Advertising

This can definitely be useful, as it enables a prospect who looks at a print ad to scan the code and use their phone to get to the property site or to the agent website, where they can learn a lot more about the property.

QR Codes Embedded into Agent Sites

This seems to us like more hype than a useful feature. Why would anyone whip out a camera and take a picture of a QR code to bring them to a website on their mobile phone, when they could just click a link on their computer that takes them to the page?

QR Codes on For Sale Sign Riders

This is another useful tool for Agents. However, not everyone has a smart phone (yet) so Property Address Domains are much better and easier for the consumer because they can simply enter the url and go to the website, either in front of the home, or later in front of a computer.

Another issue with focusing too much on QR codes is that this marketing method pretty much eliminates anyone who doesn’t own a smart phone with internet access, and there are still plenty of those!

It will be interesting to see what new programs and platforms that utilize QR codes pop into the real estate tech field in the near future. I for one am looking forward to that!

QR Codes for Real Estate is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Ever wonder where your property website traffic is coming from? Over the past 6 months we have compiled analytics on over 1,400,000 visitors to approximately 15,000 single property websites and created this infographic to showcase our findings. Our study shows that having a top level domain name is clearly an advantage for both SEO and direct traffic.

Some of the highlights:

• Facebook has overcome Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow to become the #2 top referring website behind the King of all referrers – craigslist
• Mobile traffic is up 600% over the past 18 months
• Single Property Website can drive 55% more traffic to your listing than virtual tours or online flyers
• Google generates 80% off all search engine traffic

Single Property Websites – Traffic Report is a post from: Properties Online Blog

I was first introduced to Photosynth at Inman Connect a few years ago. It was very impresive at the time and it was obviously a great tool for real estate professionals. Yesterday MSN introduced the official Photosynth app which lets you capture panoramas of your favorite places and share them with your friends and even the world with Bing Maps. (The app is currently available via iTunes and will be available on iOS devices later today.) Photosynth’s interactive panoramas allow you to look left, right, up and down, letting you capture and view more of the places you visit.

With the app, you can process, view, and store your panoramas directly on your device. Then, share them in a variety of ways, including to Facebook as images or as interactive panoramas (hosted for free) on Photosynth.net. Imagine walking through a prospects home and creating a panoramic virtual tour during your listing presentation.

What is pretty cool is the way the app works with Bing Maps. After capturing a panorama of a public place (like a historical building or park) you can choose to publish to Bing Maps and it could be seen by the world. From the map, “dive in” and see your panorama next to that park or building.

With the Photosynth app you can:

• See your panorama take shape with each picture you take
• Get high-resolution results in all directions with advanced, on-device stitching
• See most panoramas within seconds of taking your last picture
• Zoom, pan, stretch, and view your panorama in landscape or portrait mode
• Save and view your panoramas on your device and view them online at Photosynth.net

New Photosynth Mobile App – Awesome for Real Estate Pros is a post from: Properties Online Blog

If you’ve been ignoring the mobile trend, assuming it’s “just a phase” or just not finding the time to deal with it, we urge you to reconsider. Mobile is hot, and real estate mobile is here to stay. In fact, all studies point at one direction – more and more people will choose to access the Internet through their smartphones, and more and more people will expect the ease and convenience of mobile apps.

Smartphones are convenient, and more and more consumers are seeing them as part of managing their hectic modern schedule. As of Q1 ‘10, Nielsen data shows that 23% of mobile consumers now have a smartphone, up from just 16% in Q2 ’09. Experts agree that penetration will near 100% by 2013. And the global market for mobile applications is expected to more than triple from just under $10 billion at the end of 2009 to $32 billion in 2015.

But what does mobile have to do with real estate? A lot! As a real estate professional, you must assume that a growing number of prospects will have smartphones, and Internet access on the go. Be conscious of that as you plan your marketing and make sure you make the most out of that Internet access. Include QR codes in your print media and on your lawn signs, for fast access to a listing’s site. Optimize your website and property sites for mobile viewing, or at the very least create special optimized landing pages and make sure the QR codes direct to them.

Another great way to make the most out of the mobile Web is to develop a real estate mobile app, that would enable prospects to access the Internet directly, will provide an optimal Internet experience, and will – of course – have a “cool” factor that would make it fun to access the app and use it. After all, “fun” and “cool” are just as important as “fast” and “useful” when it comes to the mobile Web in general, and to mobile real estate in particular.

Real Estate Mobile is a post from: Properties Online Blog

QR Codes are great, but if you have a lot of listings, it can get a bit confusing. Here’s an idea that should help. Why not create one QR code that directs your visitors to a webpage that showcases all of your listings? If you have a page on your website  called “My Listings”, you can easily create a QR code that sends people directly to that page. There are several free QR Code generators that you can use to create your QR Listing Code, but we have provided  a few of our favorites:

• Kaywa
• QRStuff
• QuikQR

Hopefully your website is Mobile Ready and can be easily viewed by mobile surfers. If not, ask your website provider to create a mobile friendly version of your site or go with a website company that already provides this (shameless plug: RealEstateSites.com or ListingsUnlimited.com).

Scan this code to see how a Mobile Ready listing page should look.

Remember, QR Codes are FREE to create so don’t waste money hiring a company to do this for you when you can do it quickly and easily by using one of the above mentioned generators.

QR Codes for Signs

One of the easiest ways to add a QR code to your For Sale Sign, is to print it out, and have it laminated at your local print shop. If you are using the SAME QR Code (outlined above) for all of your listings, why not start adding that to your For Sale Sign? Some Brands have special requirements so make sure to check with them first to make sure you are not violating any identity standards.

One and the Same QR Code for ALL of your Real Estate Listings 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.

########################

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

In two words: use technology!

While flyers are still an integral part of running a real estate business and promoting new listings, and lawn signs are also a great way to let local prospects know a home is available, technology can help you reach an audience that is far bigger than the audience you could reach using traditional marketing methods.

Here are a few ways you can take advantage of modern tools to blast your listings in ways that were not available to agents just a few short years ago:

Promote them on your agent website

An agent website is your digital business card. But it is so much more than that. It can be so rich in content, in articles, blog posts, photos and testimonials, that it beautifully demonstrates your knowledge, your expertise, and the value you will bring to clients. Use software such as Real Estate Sites to make building the site a snap and to include important features and tools to make it search engine friendly and to highlight and publicize each new listing.

Create Single Property Sites

A single property site is usually the first Google result that someone will get when they search for a listing’s address on the Web. It’s one of the best, fastest, most cost-effective ways to drive more traffic to a single listing.

Get Social

Social media allows you to reach out to prospects in real time, telling them about an exciting new listing and encouraging the to share it with their friends. Social media is inherently viral – postings of interest are reposted, shared and re-tweeted and so are exposed to a large audience.

Get Visual

Creating a video for each of your listings maximizes the “fun” and “cool” aspect of modern technology. Post the video on your site or on your blog, share the link in social media, and people will love watching the videos – and sharing them with their friends.

Get Mobile

Make the most of the mobile trend and drive more traffic to your listings. Make sure people can easily access your listings from their smartphones by including a QR code on your lawn signs and on your print media, and make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

Technology is giving you the tools to drive serious traffic to your listings. Are you making the most of it?

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Listings in 2011 is a post from: Properties Online Blog