Soonr.com is an online cloud.  It’s a place where I can store specific files permanently so they are away from my computer.  It works in the background, simply monitoring folders that I specify on my MAC or PC.  When a file is added or changed, the Soonr.com agent which is always running sends that changed file to my cloud on Soonr.com.  Coupled with the iPhone, it gives me a very easy way to access those files.

What Soonr.com doesn’t do is what I really need it to do, and that is keep not only files on one computer synchronized to the soonr.com website, but also synchronized to another computer.

All of my transaction documents, contracts, HUD-1′s etc., are stored in a set of folders which is nested beneath a single folder on my desktop.  Since I use two different computers for most of my work, having quick access to the most recent file on each computer is vital to my productivity and it’s one of the main reasons I am able to deliver such quick responses to document requests.

In order to make sure that a folder on one computer appears on the other computer as well, I employ a simple program called Windows Live Sync.  I’m not a big fan of Microsoft products, but since both of these computers that I’m using are PC’s, and I’ve been working with Microsoft products for years, I figure it’s the best I can do for free.  Windows Live Sync does what Soonr.com doesn’t.  It monitors a folder on your computer, synchronizes it with the Windows Live website, then synchronizes it with any other computers that have been assigned to the same folder.

At the end of the day, a process might look like this.  1) I create a new PDF file in the transaction folder.  2)  Windows Live synchronizes it with all of the computers I have setup for synchronization.  3) Soonr.com shuttles the file up to the Soonr.com site so I can view it from any computer, AND from my iPhone.

With both tools implemented, not only do I automatically duplicate my files for a quick backup to my other computers, but I also send a version to my cloud at Soonr.com, ensuring it’s permanently preserved.

Soonr.com treats each computer separately, and doesn’t link the two together, which means you won’t see a file on one computer that you created on another computer without accessing the Soonr.com site directly and downloading the file.

Until Soonr.com implements this feature, I’ll stick with what I have, which is working just fine.

Quite honestly, this topic could go on for hours, or days, so I may be breaking it up into multiple articles, and as time progresses, I’m certain that a new tool will be discovered, or an old tool will be abandoned. The pursuit of cutting costs has become number one priority these days, and it shouldn’t be that way. What I mean, is that we always need to be cutting costs that weigh us down, on easy street, and on skid row.

Managing Contacts

Much of the corporate world uses some variation of Microsoft Outlook, whether the latest and greatest version, or an outdated version, to manage Contacts, Appointments, Tasks, and E-mail.  I recommend Microsoft Outlook as a basis by which you manage your contacts and communication to your contacts.  I’m speaking of the full blown Outlook, not Outlook Express, the kid sister to Outlook.  Outlook express comes with your computer free.

How to Get Outlook Free

A little known secret in the IT world is that you can get Outlook for free.  How?  Well, firstly I’ll explain one major condition that you must meet prior to choosing Outlook as your “Dayplanner.”

Outlook is a corporate level software application.  It’s a big deal.  It does all sorts of things that the average user is unable to take advantage of.  You see, Outlook was designed with bigger things in mind.  Outlook really shines when it is combined with Microsoft’s Enterprise Server product, Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft Exchange unlocks the most treasured features of Outlook and allows you to really collaborate with other team members.

What if I don’t have a team? That’s okay, because using Outlook all by yourself, in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server will save you thousands of dollars in the future.  You could consider Exchange Server to be your Outlook insurance policy.  You don’t have to have a team to take advantage of the features.

How much does it cost?  Well, if you operate your own server, which 99.99% of you will not be doing, you would need approximately $5000.00 worth of hardware and about $1600.00 worth of software, and a few years of IT experience.  Alas, there is a solution.  There are many companies out there that allow you to “rent” a mailbox that’s operating under Microsoft Exchange Server, allowing you all of the corporate, enterprise features for a single user, and all for around $10.00/month.  That’s cheap insurance.

Why is it a big deal?

Jennifer, anothe real estate agent, recently contacted me to talk about how she could better manage her e-mail and contacts.  “The problem with Outlook is that all of my e-mail is on my computer and I can’t get to it without my computer,” she complained, “and when I try to go online to my webmail, the inbox on webmail doesn’t match the inbox on my computer in Outlook.”

A hosted Exchange account will solve this problem.  Here’s how it works.  You setup your e-mail account with a hosted exchange server company, like Exchange My Mail.  They help you configure Outlook to connect to the server, and Outlook displays all of your data on your computer screen through the interface you’re already familiar with.  Everything including your e-mail, contacts, appointments, and tasks are stored on the server, not on your computer, so that means you could lose your computer, but you’d never lose your data.

When you have your e-mail hosted this way, there is only one copy of everything, which means you read your e-mail once, and it’s read.  There’s no more deleting mail from to places, no more scanning e-mail that you may have already read on one computer, but not on another, etc.  If you have a Windows based smartphone or an iPhone, you can also connect to Exchange and view the same information, live.  Delete an e-mail message in Outlook, and it’s gone on your phone too.  Change a contact name and phone number, add a contact, or delete an appointment, and voila!  Every device you use is instantaneously updated.  Don’t have your computer or phone on you?  No problem, just login to Outlook Web Access anywhere you can use a computer that’s connected to the internet.  All of your data is there, and it’s all in the same place you left it, in the same status you left it.

Managing contacts, appointments, tasks, and e-mail has been made seamless and extremely efficient, and secure, and safe.  I recommend considering this as your primary method of managing this part of your business, and one of the best parts about it is that whenever you use a hosted exchange company for your e-mail, you get a free copy of Microsoft Outlook with your account!  That alone will pay for the service for about a year or so.

Firstly, let me express to you that I am not a developer.  I don’t intend to design any applications for the web, nor do I intend to contribute to the open source movement which has just received a shot in the arm by Google’s new browser: Chrome.  Today is the first day that I’ve had the pleasure, yes the pleasure of using it.  In fact, I’m writing this post inside of Chrome now.

History of the Browser

The reason you may not know anything about the history of the browser is because you entered the internet arena too late.  Netscape, Internet Exploder, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and now Chrome are a part of my browsing experience, pretty much in that order.  And that represents my evolution through time over the past 13 years.  (Excuse me while I zone out for two seconds listening to “Between Us and Them” by Ulrich Schnauss.)

I’m back.

There are so many users on the internet today who rely on Internet Explorer as their primary browsing tool.  When asked, “what are you using to browse the internet,” it’s expected that a majority of the users out there will say something like, “my computer,” or “microsoft,” or “XP.”  In all cases, they are correct, usually.  The problem is that the question wasn’t specific enough…and even when it is, the specific question of “what browser are you using on your computer which is running Microsoft XP?”

Blank stare.

Right.  You know why?  Because Microsoft embedded the browser inside of the operating system.  When you boot your computer, it’s one of the free applications that you already have.  That is why it dominates most markets.  It has taken over so vastly that corporations whose applications cost millions to develop are stuck using older versions of Internet Explorer until they spend additional millions developing for a better browser, which has been, arguably, until today, Firefox by Mozilla.

Now we have something new.  We have something by Google, and we all know that Google is taking over the world…and most of us don’t really care, because they are so good at what they do.  Google released today the newest in the browser arena called Chrome.  Do we need it?  Probably not.  Will it cause development issues?  Probably.  Will it seed the internet for expansive growth beyond our wildest imaginations?  Absolutely.  Introducing open source technologies (that’s where the community at large contributes to the design and programming of applications) is what fuels this massive machine of exploding growth.

Is it overwhelming?  You bet.  But, the coolest tools we’ve seen emerge over the past 5 years have been a result of open source projects.  Mind you, it’s also a source of great frustrations at times due to the fact that some programmers are good, and some are not, and sometimes their work is supported, and other times abandoned.  But, since it is open source, others can run with it and make it better.  It’s essentially the least expensive way to hire brilliant talent without spending a cent.

So here’s the problem.  The median age of licensed realtors today is around 51 years.  This places them in a unique position, which is atop a technology fence.  Most kick and scream until they fall off the wrong side, but some of the leap with glee to towards the future, embracing change and understanding the nevver ending innovations that come about.  Since Microsoft embedded Internet Exploder in its operating system years ago, the majority of these people use it so much they don’t even know they use it.

Why do I like Chrome?

Well, I have used it to open less than 20 web pages so far, but in doing so, my keyboard habits seem to be understood inherently in the features offered.  CTRL-T opens a new tab, just as expected, to the far right of all of the other open tabs.

If I CTRL click a link, a new tab is opened, but the great feature in Chrome that I haven’t experienced before is that it inserts the tab to the right of the tab from which you CTRL clicked, keeping them right next to each other.  This is very important for someone who utilizes CTRL-TAB while browsing.  CTRL-TAB switches from one tab to the next in succession across the top.  Shift-CTRL-TAB reverses the direction.  Another cool feature is the visual effects and accessibility of downloaded files.  Try it.  Right click an image and watch where it goes and how easy it is to access the file without leaving the browser.  Brilliant.  Setup was simple and took less than 2 minutes, importing not only all of my bookmarks (shortcuts for you old timers in IE), but also all of my saved passwords.  Until I have a bit more experience with it, I’ll keep my mouth shut about it, but so far I expect it’s going to handle everything that I need it to do, much better than its competition.

Thank you Google!

While impresive in it’s concept it is certainly the most cumbersome way to post articles to the masses. I recently installed the wordpress application on my iPhone and am very impressed with how easy it is to connect to my self-hosted wordpress-based blog.

I’m not so impressed with the speed at which the mobile device allows me to write. Although superior in speed to most mobile phones and smart phones, for someone who is used to typing 80 words per minute, I’m liable to go out of my mind touch-typing.

One of the more impressive features of the iPhone which makes writing this article much faster than expected is the accuracy of the spell check dictionary and speed at which the typos are corrected. It’s as though the phone can sense context.

With a Bluetooth portable keyboard, I can see the day coming where I won’t need my laptop to write compelling content for my blog. Rather, the laptop will become a tool solely for touching up posts and embedding context-sensitive media and a way to modify underlying code to massage and grow the functionality and design of the site. Until then, the wordpress mobile app for yw iPhone will be a fantastic way to start drafts.

80% of all buyers use the internet to shop for a home.  It takes an average of 12 to 18 months for them to actually purchase a home, from the initial thoughts of selling their home to the process of purchasing yours.  Since those people start on the internet, listing your home without photographs would be as effective as driving a car without gas.

Think about how many products you’ve been sold on because of the marketing that goes into it.  How much of that marketing contained images of people, places, the actual product?

If your house does not have a photo, people will not look at it.  They will not show it, they will not even think about it.  It’s gone, and getting them back will be difficult if the image is added too late, and here’s one reason why.  When I look for new homes on the market, I skip the properties without photos at first, then I go back to look at the ones without if I think my client would like it, based on my knowledge of the area.  If I go back at a later date and a picture has been added, it actually has a greater chance of being skipped because at that point, I’m looking for the results that don’t have photos.

The new FlexMLS allows us to search for listings based on whether or not they have photos.  This basically eliminates properties from my search if it doesn’t have a photo.

Part of my marketing plan, which is by no means an added benefit, is that I take lots of photos.  I say that it’s not an added benefit because no property should be listed without photos, period.  I don’t just take photos, I publish a property website for each listing, publicize it to as many places on the internet as I possibly can, and I create my own custom slide show for your home.

ARMLS used to offer photography services for us.  They would take a shot of the front of the property for us and we wouldn’t have to do anything, but it would only be one mediocre photo.

ARMLS announced today that they would be discontinuing this service and they offered the following reasons for the change:

• Over half of the listings currently in TEMPO were marked “do not photograph” when they were entered into the system.
• 80% of the half that WAS photographed by PhotoReal had their exterior photo replaced with one supplied by the listing agent within two weeks of the listing going active.
• 90% of the current listing database has photos provided by agents rather than the PhotoReal photography service.

What’s the most important thing to note in these three points?  “WITHIN TWO WEEKS OF THE LISTING GOING ACTIVE.”

The fact that agents enter listings AT ALL WITHOUT PHOTOS is hurting the potential sale of your property.  List with me and I’ll make sure you don’t experience those gaps in service.

For an example of a website that I created for one of my listings, click here.

Yes, I’m now an iPhone owner.  After a few years, well, let’s face it, 36 years of waiting patiently by the phone (sorry about that) I finally caved…(needle scratching a record)….CAVED?  Are you kidding, this is one of the best purchases I have made in ages.  From the Apple IIc which I had when I was 14 years old through the ages to the iPhone, with more computing power than a nuclear missile en route to the moon, I finally have arrived.  It’s almost a religious experience, owning an iPhone.  I can flick and touch and tap my way to freedom now!!!

Apple announced this morning that it had sold 1 million 3G iPhones over the weekend since the device’s launch on Friday. The device launched in 21 countries (France, one of the original 22 countries, is sitting this one out until July 17) to long lines that lasted throughout the weekend, making this the most successful device launch yet—at least in terms of sales.

The selling point on the iPhone 3G was the enterprise Exchange Server connectivity, which I utilized with my Windows based phone.  It was the only “feature” that made the Treo 700W worth carrying around.  Now with the sleek and light design of the iPhone I’m enjoying life even more.  The interface just works, and the phone does not crash unless you put it under undue stress, such as running an application from the iTunes application store that isn’t working right.  Other than that, it has not failed, it has not annoyed me, it has worked worked worked every time iTouch it .

With a cost of only $200, it’s probably the last phone I’ll need until another iPhone comes along with more features that help me lower my costs.  Thank you Apple.  Now I am truly one in a million.

I used to teach real estate agents how to use their technology in a forward thinking way. Most of them didn’t understand the concepts. The ones who did understand already understood before coming to me because they had the ambition to learn on their own. They typically just used me as their general consultant and laptop provider. A select few picked up on the concepts, but there’s still a bit of confusion regarding digital signatures versus digitized signatures.

Anything that is converted into a format that a computer can read is said to be digital. The screen I’m looking at now is digital, it’s fed by tons of ones and zeros. So in essence, whatever you see on the screen is digital.

When we speak of digital signatures regarding contracts in real estate, what we’re referring to is the ability to authorize a document as a fully executed contract without bringing pen to paper. Some people would say that hand writing your signature on the screen of a tablet computer is a digital signature. While it’s on the screen and in a computerized format, it’s still a digital representation of a hand-written signature, so it’s not really a digital signature.

I could take a handwritten signature on one of your personal checks, scan the check into my computer, use photo editing software to extract the signature, and paste your signature on any document I wish. There is no accountability for this. No system in place to protect you, and no way to prove that you actually signed the document. Once I print it, granted I’ll have a forged document, to the recipient, it’s as good as executed.

Digital Signatures work differently than hand written digitized signatures. The digitizer tablet is a convenience and a more advanced way to capture your hand-written signature, and it simply removes one step out of the process of scanning your documents. The digital signature involves no hand-writing, and protects you. Here’s how it works through DocuSign, the company that I use to execute contracts between all parties in a transaction.

On my computer, I draft a document. I print it, and when I select my printer, I choose “Send in DocuSign Envelope,” a small program that I installed when I signed up for DocuSign. The computer whirls and spins and converts the document into a PDF file then uploads it securely to DocuSign. Docusign asks me who I want to send the signature request to, and I select someone by entering their e-mail address. DocuSign then allows me to assign areas on the document that need your initials or signature. I send the document and you receive notification that there’s a document to be signed. You login to DocuSign and setup your account the first time, which involves verifying a few details about you. Then, DocuSign opens the document I sent, allows you to review it, and shows you where you need to “click” to confirm that you agree to the terms. There’s no risk of missing pages where initials should have been because I have defined where you need to sign in advance. Once you have clicked all of the spots you’re supposed to click, the document is considered executed. The document is stored at DocuSign and I am notified that you completed the signing. I download the document from DocuSign and deliver a copy to my broker.

The benefits of this are vast, as long as you have an e-mail account and access to a computer, anywhere. The industry is going to change so much over the next 10 years, and if you’re not in tune with the way of the electronic world, there’s a good chance that you’ll find it more and more difficult to conduct business the old way, as you watch all of the youngsters beat you to the punch.

I’m not a programmer by any means. I’m good at setting up systems that work towards a purpose. I can dive into a mechanism clear it out, and put it back together so I understand how it works. Creating it from scratch will be left up to the programmers, the geniuses.

When I adopted WordPress a few years ago, I migrated from MoveableType, a site that I was turned on to by Michael Parrish of Oblivio.com, who I found after searching Google for nailbiters. Apparently he has a nail-biting habit. I fell in love with WordPress, and in essence, all of the WordPress code junkies out there that bring true value to the blog platform.

My site has undergone numerous changes, and I have tested and tinkered with hundreds of different plugins. I’ve gone through the updates time and time again, and I can say that it’s getting easier and easier to stay on top of managing this self-hosted blog.

In searching for the right theme for my real estate website, I have designed a myriad of templates for myself that just haven’t been what I want. Since I’m in the business of selling real estate and not in the business of designing WordPress templates, I decided to set out on a journey to find a theme that someone else had created that I could simply modify.

It’s been a long road, and I don’t know for certain if that road has actually ironed itself out, but I have chosen a theme, thanks to the Phoenix Real Estate Guy. After browsing his site and listening to the technology symposium on the Scottsdale Association of Realtors website, I decided to eliminate the chore of designing the perfect site and go with a template that seems to work. There are, of course, minor customizations that still must be made when implementing someone else’s template, but that’s easy, especially after hours and hours of designing other templates.

One of the blog templates that I created from the ground up can be seen on my blog entitled “The Executive Apprentice.” This was a project that I worked on to learn the ins and outs of monetizing a blog. It failed to produce income, but it taught me a lot about blog templates.

So now that I have chosen a template to stick with for a while (we all know that more technologies are invented every day that continue to shape and change the landscape of the internet), I’ll focus on what I really enjoy doing, finding you a new place to live.

Thank you Jay, and a special thanks to Flisterz of Flisterz.com for designing the foundation of this website’s theme. Nice work.