Browsing the blog archives for September, 2006

Ubertor Training Sessions

News, Technology

At the end of April, we attended a Ubertor training session.  The workshops are tailored to aid the new Ubertor user, but the sessions are open to all real estate agents and are free to attend.  Essentially, we were on a fact-finding mission since the large majority of our clients were Ubertor clients as well.  

By attending the training session, we were hoping to learn more about their philosophy and how it is implemented in to their products.  The training gave new users all the necessary insight into both creating and modifying pages within a website and maintaining listing information.  Even more interesting to us was their emphasis on search engine optimization.  Ubertor websites have been created to allow any real estate agent to easily set up and maintain their website, and during that process, optimizing the webpages for search engines such as Google. 

The training session was filled with insights and strategies to help agents get the most benefit from their website.  After the attending the training session, we realized the effort that Ubertor has put into simplifying and optimizing websites for real estate agents.  We liked what they were doing so much that we altered our own website using some of the approaches they were using. 

The benefits of having a Ubertor website are both immediate and long-term.  The short-term benefits are the attractive design and ease-of-use interface.  More importantly, the long-term benefits of having a website that has been optimized for search engines may prove to be even more valuable in this ever increasingly competitive world of real estate. 

Ubertor posts all their upcoming traing sessions here.  Their next session in Vancouver is on Monday September 18th at Sport BC, 1367 West Broadway.  I would highly recommend attending.

Sayward Hill

News, Real-Estate

About 2 weeks ago, we had the opportunity to travel to Victoria.  We were asked to produce a video for Sayward Hill, a Jawl Development Corporation project on the Island.  We spent the day with our gracious hosts Ingrid Jarisz and Karen Jawl. 

Sayward Hill is a self-contained community consisting of luxury condominium living set on top of spectacular grounds that are home to 2 golf courses (Cordova Bay Golf Course and The Ridge Course at Cordova Bay), the beach, Lochside Trail, a shopping concourse (Mattick’s Farm) with markets (Red Barn market), restaurants (Bill Mattick’s Restaurant, Adrienne’s Tea Garden and The Ridge Cafe), garden center, mini golf, ice cream shop, liquor store, and other retail stores, with a seemingly never-ending view of the mountains and water.  It was a wonderful way to spend our day. 

The video has been linked to their website and is being included in their next monthly email newsletter.  Here is the video we produced:

Sayward Hill Video

Showing a Home – The Video Openhouse Way

Real-Estate

I’m curious.  On average , how many showings does it take until an offer is tendered?  Is the number 10?  20?  100?  How many people attend an open house?  Are they buyers or just the neighbours in for a look? 

Each of the videos we produce receives hundreds of views.  Some of our videos have even been viewed over a thousand times.  The majority of traffic comes from property listing websites, such as mls.ca and realtylink.org where people are actively looking to buy real estate.  We believe that our videos get buyers past the front door, and into the house.

Let me sum this up:  Each video is seen hundreds, if not thousands of times, by an audience of buyers actively searching for real estate and the video they are viewing has your brand prominently displayed for the duration of the video.  See the video, see the value.

Affordable Laptops

Technology

I was flipping through the flyers that were tucked into my daily newspaper the other day.  With students heading back to school this September, laptops were prominently featured in all the electronic stores’ inserts.  What stood out for me was the affordability of good quality laptops at all the major retailers.  For under $700, you could buy a laptop that has a reasonably fast mobile processor, a large amount of memory, a DVD player/CD burner and lots of storage space.  It seems that prices have fallen by almost half since I bought my laptop 18 months ago. 

I recently wrote a post about city council’s plans to transform Vancouver into a wireless villiage, offering unrestricted high-speed access to the Internet across the city.  Combine this with affordable hardware and truly mobile computing will be a reality before the Olympics arrive here in 2010.

Note From The Past President of the REBGV

News, Testimonials

We received a nice thank you note from Stephanie Corcoran, the past President of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.  Andrew Hasman and Stephanie had a website created for a very unique property, 4716 Belmont Avenue in Point Grey.  We produced a video for that became an integral part of the website.

Here is what Stephanie had to say:

Thank you –

The seller is very impressed and pleased with the results.

Stephanie C

Wireless in Vancouver

News, Technology

Last week I read a great article in the Vancouver Courier about the plan to offer wireless access across the city by the time the Olympics roll into town.  It’s a goal that city council set for itself this year.  Currently you can find “hotspots” scattered randomly over our city, a mix of unsecured home networks, wired restaurants and cafes and at educational institutions such as UBC. 

In Toronto, where I moved from earlier this year, the local hydro company is planning on installing a wireless access point on every 4th or 5th hydro pole in the downtown core this fall.  In some other major cities, such as San Francisco and Philadelphia, the transformation has already begun.  It is inevitable that over the next 4 years, technology will make it easier to be connected to the Internet without having to lug around a laptop.  The opportunity to provide broadband access to all the residents of Vancouver will allow businesses that are tech savy to further distance themselves from their competion.  Realtors take note, ensure that you are providing your audience with high quality content that captures their attention.

Know Your Clients – Skateboarders Are Buying Homes

News

Generation X are entering their prime earning years.  Those same kids that you saw riding skateboards just a few years ago are now buying their first or second home.  In attempt to better understand this sometimes mysterious real estate customer, I will reveal some important characteristic they share.

1)  Tech Toys – Generation X has grown up with computers.  That said, they quickly adapt to new technologies and use them in their daily lives.  Cellphones, text messaging, iPods, instant messaging, file sharing, blogging are just a few of the examples.  They shop and bank online and use the Internet to make purchasing decisions. 

2)  Resistant to Marketing – Having been bombarded by hundreds of hours of television commercials, billboards and magazine ads since birth, the Gen Xer has built up a hard shell and have become skeptical of marketing.  They will not be as influenced by standard marketing methods.  They search for authentic information, Generation X will look to their peers, the online community and the influence of the “credibility” they find on the “street”.

3)  Educated – Though they may not look the part, Generation X is highly educated.  They often stayed in school because they couldn’t find a job.  It is not uncommon for Gen Xers to have multiple degrees/diplomas and post graduate educations. 

Have you thought about how your business will be impacted as the baby boomer generation enters their retirement years, downsizing, selling their home for the final time?   As I can guarantee this, Gen Xers will be searching for their next home online. Â