New eye candy from Trulia

Trulia Snapshot

What is it?

Eye candy for Real Estate searchers (AKA Real Estate Porn)

Is it important?

Let’s just say it’s neat and if it drives more traffic to Trulia’s site and then drives more traffic to your
listing then yes.

What should you do about it?

Go play with it.

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology

*** – This was deleted and reposted since I let it go live too soon.

 So in my debut post I wrote about how Firefox users can have sites open automatically using IE by configuring an extension called IE Tab. Ben from the VA Association of Realtors left a comment inquiring if there is a similar solution for Mac users.

The answer is yes, it is called IEs4OSX which is simply a Mac version of IEs4Linux, which uses WINE engine to run modified versions of IE. If you are looking to run multiple windows applications consider CrossOver which uses WINE  as well. However, if all you need is to load up the occasional site in IE then this is a great solution.

Installation is simple:

• Download the image
• Unzip and run the installer,
• Choose the versions of IE you want to install
• Wait approximately 12 – 20 minutes for the install to complete

After the installer runs you will have shortcuts to the version of IE you choose in your application folder. At this time IE7 is still in beta so I would recommend installing both IE6 and IE7 if you prefer IE7.

If you run into a problem make sure you check out the IEs4Linux FAQ and the user forum both are very good and many of the solutions should apply to the Mac version as well. Please note that the WINE engine only works on Intel based macs so if your running an older G5 or below you can’t use this or CrossOver.

I am sure your next question is that is great so how do I get IE Tab working? If it is not well I am sorry for assuming if it is while I have never done this on a Mac I have however configured it on my laptop which runs Linux.

In order to get the IETab extension to work with IEs4Linux I did the following:

• I first installed IEs4Linux 
• Next I installed the IE Tab extension (if it gives you an error just change your user agent to windows using the user agent switcher extension). 
• Finally open Firefox and under the Ie Tab options find the app path setting.

For my enviroment I set the app path to my usr/bin/ie6 folder which is where I had ie6 installed. I did not try this on the Mac but I imagine it should similarly work though the path will be different. If you get stuck then make sure you call Your Local Tech.

- Mark Flavin

Loren and I were having a mini discussion today about sites which only support IE and how often Firefox users are often left holding the bag. So I thought what better way to introduce myself to the Future of Real Estate Technology readers then by addressing how to use Firefox with sites and tools which support only IE. Which is particularly true in the real estate industry as many web-based applications including client management tools and MLS systems do not support Firefox.

So to get started if your a Firefox user and would like to still use IE only sites there is an extension called IE Tab which will allow you to open an IE only site in Firefox. Installation is easy so I will not address that here however there are some tricks which can improve your use of the IE Tab tool.

Once you have installed IE Tab and restarted Firefox you will notice a Firefox icon in the lower right-hand portion of your browser window.

For the following examples I am going to use HomesOpenToday.com a local (Bay Area California) open home portal site as it is vendor neutral and I know it loads differently in IE and in Firefox.

So if we we wanted to set every page on HomesOpenToday.com to open with IE Tab we would begin by right-clicking the icon pictured above. Once you right-click the icon an options window will appear from here simply put http://*.homesopentoday.com/* in the url box and click add. In the future whenever you visit HomesOpenToday.com in firefox, IE Tab will automatically load that page using IE as the rendering engine.

This setting is great if you want to use FireFox with your MLS or with a web-based application such as OWA (Outlook Web Access).

However, let us say that you wanted to load just a specific page using IE Tab. It is simple just bookmark the page as you always would, then append the following text at the beginning of the URL:

chrome://ietab/content/reloaded.html?url=

For example, if you wanted to always open HomesOpenToday using IE Tab :

Then bookmark http://www.homesopentoday.com and edit the bookmark by

Change it to:

chrome://ietab/content/reloaded.html?url=http://www.homesopentoday.com

Please note there will be some issues with using IE tab with unsupported sites for instance on Paragon 4.0 if you open a contact manager window or a CMA using IE Tab and IE7 you may get an error. However if you run the Paragon System Setup Utility it should fix the problem. Off the top of my head I do not know of any other browser and site specific issues but if you run into a problem I am sure Your Local Tech can give you a hand.

-Mark Flavin

Techcrunch reported last night that Google is Buying Grandcentral.

What does this mean for your Real Estate Business if you use their technology? Probably nothing at first but I am wondering if I really want Google handling my voicemail for me.

What will happen when somebody calls your Grandcentral number. When the person calls they are transfered to all your numbers until you answer. While the caller is on hold will the caller be forced to listen to an ad? Probably not but it could happen. Or maybe when you check your voicemail you get a relevant ad with on the webpage with the voicemail display. This could happen and I don’t know right know if this would bother me yet.

Now adverstising might not be even on their minds and Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch speculates:

I’m speculating on where Google will use GrandCentral, but the synergies with Gmail and GTalk are fairly obvious and could be the next step in Google’s competition with Skype and other instant messaging platforms.One possible good outcome of this purchase is that GrandCentral could remain permanently free

This could be huge.

Instead of trying to explain what is happening I want you to visit Bloodhound Blog and Active Rain and TechCruch

Go over to Bloodhound Blog and read Greg’s indepth article on the happenings at Zillow. Greg’s writing on the subject is much better than anything I can say at this point.
Link here = Zillow News

Excerpt of whats happening at Zillow

The News

An upgrade made tonight to Zillow.com’s on-line home evaluation system will add the following new functionality:

• Owners or listing agents for any of the 67 million homes in Zillow’s database will be able to list those homes for sale at no cost.
• Owners of any Zestimable homes will be able to post a “Make Me Move??? price on their homes, the price at which all objections to selling will have been overcome.
• Zillow is creating a real estate wiki to serve as a sort of Wikipedia.org-like encyclopedia of real estate.

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology

This is news to me but may not be news to everyone.

I was on the phone with Top Producer today helping a customer (agent) and he has a pocket pc phone. We were trying to get it to work with Top Producer Sellphone. Yes we got it to work, yes it sucked.

Top Producer SellPhone is great for a standard cell phone with a WAP browser. But Pocket PC phones (Winblows Mobile) uses IE so we had to enter a special http address to access Top Producer SellPhone. It works but its kludgey.

Getting to the point.

The support rep on the phone said that there is a Windows Mobile and Blackberry sync client in beta right now and the plan is to release it in January.

So for you Top Producer users that want to ditch the Palm and go Windows Mobile you can have your Top Producer data and have Supra eKey soon.

Side note.
I do not recommend Top Producer but I won’t say its a crappy product either. I just thing that most agents don’t need it because they don’t use it to its fullest capabilities and then becomes a waste of money.

If you are one of those that don’t use all the features then just switch to Outlook.

I will have more articles about CRM (customer relationship management) apps soon.

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology
Your Local Tech

How to put listings on your Video iPod.

This is for a customer that asked if it was possible.

I first asked Joel over at Future of Real Estate Marketing if he had heard of it being done. His response was that it was possible but kludgey.

So I thought about it and here is what I came up with:

Step 1:
Create Video of house
It can already be created for you but you need something to upload to YouTube.
YouTube needs these formats QuickTime .MOV, Windows .AVI, or .MPG files AND they recommend these specs MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 320×240 resolution with MP3 audio.

Step 2:
Get a YouTube account and upload video.

Step 3:
Install Firefox browser if you don’t have it.
www.getfirefox.com

Step 4:
Install Greasemonkey for Firefox – http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org

Step 5:
Install Script for Greasemonky to add dowload link for YouTube & Google Video
http://www.joshkinberg.com/blog/archives/2005/11/greased_google.php
Once this installed you will get a link at the top of all pages of youtube when viewing a video.

Step 6:
Download and save your video with Firefox.

Step 7:
Download and install Media Coder:
http://www.rarewares.org/mediacoder/

Step 8:
Convert your video you downloaded from YouTube

Almost done

Step 9:
Copy your newely converted video to your iPod
Show your listings

Yes THIS IS A PAIN IN ARSE.

Anybody else have any other ideas?

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology

From the people who have brought us the So-So CRM program Agent Office, they may be bringing you soon a high quality product that will help you with your e-signature goals.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Information Services, and real estate technology company VREO have teamed up in an effort to spread adoption of electronic signatures by real estate brokers and agents.

VREO  is the company that brings you Real Estate Dashboard® software for tablet PCs is the easiest way for REALTORS® to sign documents electronically from anywhere at any time.

I have not talked about Tablet PC’s yet, but if you want to be on the cutting edge of Technology you NEED to be on the Tablet PC bandwagon.

I will be covering more on Tablet PC’s as time goes on.

Loren Nason
Future of Real Estate Technology

 
I found this tool on a fellow bloggers site Real Estate Tomato
Have you ever needed to resize a picture but didn’t have any tools at hand and needed it done quickly? Use this site. With pixer.us you can edit your photos online using only your browser.

Upload your photo using the “load image” form. In a few seconds, the image will be displayed on screen and you can start to play with it.

After you’re done fixing your photo click on the “Save” button to download it using your preferred file format.

Now another easy tool is just to use the FREE Windows Power Toy to resize pictures. It doesn’t give you as many options but it loads on your machine and you don’t have to have internet access.

Get it here
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

Loren Nason
The Future of Real Estate Technology

Google Apps for Your Domain

This is a Tutorial of how to enable Google apps to work on your domain name. What I will be covering is how to ONLY setup EMAIL and NOT WEBHOSTING. Why NOT hosting? Because almost all of you have a descent site now and will not benefit from moving your website.

Why would you benefit from moving your email to Google?
Because most of you are using a free email service for AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, RoadRunner, etc… and this does not portray a professional image. See the post Are You Judged By Your Skills?

Step 1:
GoTo www.google.com/a and sign up for an account
If you already have a Gmail email you can use this account as the primary account to setup all the settings, or you can sign up for a new Gmail account
Step 2:
Setup Domain Details.
Your Name, Your Organization, how many users, etc…

Step 3:
Setup the Primary Master account

Step 4:
Setup What applications you want
For most of you your just going to want to setup Email and Calendar

Step 5:
The most difficult part is the Changes to DNS you will have to make.
These next steps below are copied directly from Google. They maybe a little different depending on what domain host you use.

If you need any more help with this Contact Us and we will help you set it up.

Loren Nason
Your Local Tech