A virtual phone service allows the user to have one phone number for all phones and phone calls are all funneled through this one number.

“With a virtual phone, you can set it to ring at the office or on your cell phone or go to voicemail if you don’t want to be disturbed,” Vezina said. “One of the features allows you to receive an e-mail or voicemail notification about messages.

“For a real estate office, a virtual phone service replaces an expensive phone system and allows agents to be accessible from one unique phone number,” he added.

Some virtual phone services work with a virtual receptionist first answering the call and then directing the call to either the agent or to a dial-by-name directory. “This gives the real estate office a more professional appearance and helps ensure that all calls are answered,” Vezina said. “It also offers voicemail for all employees, main and after-hours greetings, informational messages, call screening and conference calling,” he said.

Some virtual phone services like Google Voice may offer a free plan while others may charge additional costs ranging from $10 to $50 per month depending on the features added. The ultimate benefit is flexibility, mobility, productivity and the ability to respond quicker to clients.

One billion Internet consumers are using search engines worldwide, Fox noted. That makes having a presence on the web critical to future success, she noted.

Fox, who recently addressed REALTORS® at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference, said, “You need to think about the behaviors of your audience. For example, 59 percent of social media visits are to Facebook.”

The Internet has seen a 41-percent increase in search volume and a 60-percent increase in social media usage in consumers ages 35 to 44, according to Fox.

That’s why web site content becomes more important because consumers may not necessarily go directly to a home page, Fox said. “How well does each page of your web site work as a home page? Each page should be branded because people aren’t going to hunt around your site. You need to have a call to action on each page,” she added.

Fox advised doing a keyword search to see what comes up when consumers search: real estate, homes, homes for sale or specific local communities. “Dive in to see what people are searching for,” she said. “No one calls anymore. More people are searching for services online.”

Creating a brand awareness of the real estate company helps target consumers to the web site, Fox said. “Remember to have lots of information and good photos on your web site,” she added. Provide answers to consumer questions like “what neighborhood is the most walkable?” or “when is the best time of the year to sell my house?”

Fox reminded REALTORS® to review information on Google local and yellow pages to make sure their individual contact information is accurate.

REALTORS® should also be aware of the kind of traffic they’re getting on their site and how long consumers stay on the site. Fox also suggests having an Internet strategy so REALTORS® can track results.

RealAgile.com uses predictive analytics to help REALTORS® determine which consumers have a high probability of moving, according to Ed Neiman, executive vice president of marketing and sales for RealAgile. The patent is pending on the product.

“We have an innovative product that uses 270 different sources of information, from demographics, MLSs, psychographics and more to rank the highest probability of when a property owner will be ready to sell,” Neiman explained. “In our ‘MoveScore,’ we rank properties in a geographic area based on the probability it will be offered for sale within six months.

“When we go back in 18 months to test the accuracy, we find we’re capturing 40 to 60 percent of the MoveScore list,” he added. “Our product allows REALTORS® to focus on people and properties that have a high probability of moving which saves the REALTOR® time and money. Most of all, it makes them relevant to the consumer. They’re not spending a lot of marketing efforts on people who have no probability of moving at all.”

The company also allows REALTORS® to rank their own sphere of influence by taking advantage of the MoveScore analytics. “CentreScore provides a totally new way to find the potential sellers and buyers that are hidden in a REALTOR’S® sphere of influence,” Neiman said.

Bob Bohlen, a real estate coach with both Preview Properties in Brighton, MI and Signature Properties in Andover, MA, said preliminarily RealAgile looks interesting.

“While it’s in the early stages, we received a list in November, sent a mailing in December and got an eight percent response rate from the mailing, which is about 16 times more than normal,” Bohlen said. “It seems to be a good tool and if it proves as successful over the next six months as it has starting out, it could be a real asset.” He said RealAgile is one of three systems his company uses to generate leads.

Neiman, who worked in real estate for 25 years and helped start ZipRealty, said, “If you’re prospecting, cold calling, sending out postcards, you can feel very irrelevant. You talk to 256 people and you might get one lead. If you can get that down to one in 12 – then you feel more compelled to call people. Our product helps you focus your efforts.

“This technology creates a whole new way of marketing and thinking,” he added. “REALTORS® are able to focus, spend less of their budgets on marketing and get better results.”

REALTORS® are able to subscribe to this service on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

Chorew, a trainer and coach based in Connecticut, spoke at the Triple Play REALTORS® Convention in Atlantic City last week and said, “Photos are the most important aspect for consumers searching for a home.”

She said since consumers find homes on web sites, it’s very important to create online appeal. “The number one thing consumers want to see is photos,” Chorew added.

Chorew recommended purchasing a good digital camera and learning how to use it properly. “If you don’t know how to use it, take a digital photography class at a local community college or shadow a professional photographer. It’s worth the money,” Chorew advised.

Consumers want to see at least 15 photos of a home but the more the better. For the best photos, stage the home for the camera by utilizing the natural lighting. Add additional lighting if the photos do not feature the home’s best assets.

Chorew recommended:

• Start at the entrance of the house and lead the consumer throughout the property
• Imagine the house through the eyes of the buyer
• Purchase high-end home magazines and study the photos
• If the price of the home is more than $350,000, hire a professional photographer.

“REALTORS® aren’t in charge anymore, so get over it. With a click of the mouse, a consumer can leave one REALTOR’s® site if it’s not appealing and hop onto another one,” Chorew said.

Since consumers are in control of which sites they view, Chorew added, “Yours needs to be the best.”

There were some who thought computers were a passing fad when it came to converting the MLS system to computers.

Melanie McLane

With more than 32 years in the real estate/appraisal business, Melanie McLane, a REALTOR® and appraiser, has seen a fair share of changes in the industry.

And while appraisers have been fairly quick to adopt new technology in their businesses, McLane said many of the changes were industry driven.

She’s teaching “Technology and the Appraiser” at Triple Play in Atlantic City on December 10. The course will highlight the practical applications of new technologies available. “This course is a lot of fun because appraisers will get to think about other technologies, how they apply to their businesses and they’ll see where the industry’s going,” she added.

“It’ll also answer important questions like should you be using the newest equipment to measure a house?” McLane said. “Should appraisers be using social networking like Facebook and LinkedIn?

“New technology is very helpful with appraisals,” she said. “So appraisers need to decide do they embrace new technology or will they be left behind?”

McLane will also be teaching “Crossing State Lines and Keeping it Legal (NJ/PA)” and “AVMs and the Appraiser.”

Virtualization is having one server host several servers in your office. One machine means significantly fewer hardware and utility costs, as well as less administration time.

It used to be that companies were forced to host massive server environments, which would each have its own hardware and setup quirks. The time to set up each server, along with the associated costs, made setting up an office a daunting task.

But things have changed. VMware, Microsoft and Symantec specialize in creating newer services that allow you to purchase a healthy amount of hard disk space. For a real estate office, I’d recommend starting with 12 gigs of RAM and go up from there.  The software incorporated with these new servers then migrates your older servers over to the new unit. To the outside world and your in-house users, nothing has changed. They have access to everything they had before and each server appears as before but now you have options.

With these new systems, you can create a new server in minutes, change assigned hard disk space and RAM for each server as your computing needs change and clear away the clutter of old machines.

A new feature available through virtualization is called a snapshot. The software allows you to create a snapshot of any server it hosts. Even a large server can create a snapshot in minutes. This snapshot can then be either saved to the same machine or offloaded elsewhere. This makes backing up your data extremely convenient. You now can restore an entire server in a minute in the event of an emergency. If you’re using an old server, it would probably take you at least a day and a half to move everything over after a crisis.

The cost savings are many. You’ll save the costs of buying a new computer every time you want a new server; you’ll save money on software since most entry-level virtualization solutions are free to download and with the deregulation of electric utilities, you’ll save the rising power costs of running multiple servers.

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