Posts belonging to Category Technology

TOMORROW
Howlin’ for Habitat. This is our second ever “Howlin’” karaoke party benefiting Habitat for Humanity—don’t miss it! It’s tomorrow, Thursday, May 9, 5 – 8 p.m. at Krewe de Gras. Have fun with your friends and “karaoke for a cause”—you’ll have plenty of chances to sing (and to avoid singing, if you’re shy…). 

THIS WEEKEND
Parade of Homes. The Tallahassee Builders Association’s annual Parade of Homes is coming this weekend and next, May 11 – 12 and 18 – 19. Jane Bixler Conn, chairman of our REALTOR®/Builder Committee, will announce the winners of the REALTORS® Choice awards at the Tallahassee Builders Association awards ceremony on May 15^th. Winners will also be posted in eBoard Briefs the Friday after the ceremony, and again in that Sunday’s “Real Estate Corner” in the Tallahassee Democrat.

NEXT WEEK
NAR Midyear Meetings. I’m looking forward to NAR’s Midyear meetings in Washington, D.C. along with Jeff Doxsee, TBR President-Elect; Steven Louchheim, TBR Executive Director; and Paul Galloway, TBR Manager of Association Technology. We have a full schedule: updates on Federal priority issues, professional standards, and member policy. We’ll meet with Rep. Southerland and Senators Nelson and Rubio. Paul will meet with our membership software vendor, Rapattoni and attend CMLS training—a designation for MLS executives. Steven will attend an update from Supra, our lockbox and key provider. I’ll report the details in June’s President Message.

DON’T MISS
CATRS Technology Forum & District 8 Summit. We’re wrapping up this month at TBR with an amazing technology program on May 30—with panelists, tech roundtables, and technology vendors; plus prizes, lunch, a social, Florida REALTORS® candidates and leadership… It’s almost too much to mention! This event, organized by TBR’s own Paul Galloway, is a great resource for TBR members—and we’re welcoming Florida REALTORS® District 8 and the public to attend, as well. Even though this technology forum is three weeks away, very few seats remain…so register now; you won’t want to miss this.

RECAP
Great American REALTOR® Days. April’s Great American REALTOR® Days at the Capitol was a rousing success with the Rally in Tally. Over 80 TBR members attended the rally, joining nearly 1,300 REALTORS® from across the state. Congratulations to Jack Davidson and Dorrece Lisenby, our iPad winners! And thanks to Kristina Petrandis, Governmental Affairs Chairman, and her committee for their hard work. When you see Tiffany Hamilton, YPN Chairman, and the members of the Capital Area Young Professionals Network, congratulate them on a job well done—they raised $1,200 for Habitat and RPAC with their GARD After Party, which was a huge success and a model of teamwork and creativity.

Frank A. McClean
2013 TBR President
Community Property Management, Inc.

Coming May 30: CATRS Technology Forum and District 8 Summit. I sure hope you’ve already registered and have this event on your list of “gotta do’s,” because if you live in Florida REALTORS®’ District 8 (this includes Tallahassee), you have a great opportunity coming your way! But, signing up is the key—seats are selling fast; you can buy your tickets online or by calling the TBR office, (850) 224-7713. If you’re a District 8 REALTOR® but not a member of the Tallahassee Board of REALTORS®, call us directly to register at the member rate. Again, seating is limited—this event is also open to the public—so you will want to sign up right away.

The CATRS Technology Forum starts at 11:30 a.m. on May 30, with a boxed lunch followed by an afternoon of fun, cutting-edge technology information, and even opportunities to win some really cool tech prizes and the chance to meet your Florida REALTORS® leadership as well as those wishing to serve as future state association leaders. All in all, it is going to be a great day followed by a social at 5:30.

The future of our associations depends on its members. As a member of the local, state, and National Associations of REALTORS®, your interest and participation is invaluable. Leadership wants to know the membership, and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to meet and listen to our state leadership team. This is especially true if you are not currently attending the state association meetings or are not involved at the state level. The candidates for Florida REALTORS®’ 2014 leadership team will speak for five minutes each beginning at noon; they’re traveling a long way to see and meet you, so let’s show them a warm District 8 welcome!

The afternoon will be filled with many technology tips and tricks. Our own Paul Galloway, TBR’s Manager of Association Technology, will be heading up the afternoon tech forum with a team he has assembled to bring you all the latest and best technology information available. This will be a sellout. Paul and his team of “techies” have arranged a dynamite program, and you’re going to kick yourself if you miss it! NOT to mention the many opportunities you’ll have to win some great prizes (including a Windows 8 laptop).

While this isn’t designed to be a Q&A session, bring your questions (and even solutions)—if time permits, Paul and his team will help you out. Do take advantage of the opportunity to compare various products at the event’s Vendor Alley, and ask the representatives on hand your questions about their products or technology solutions.

Don’t ignore my advice that time is of the essence—sign up now! Help me make this one of the most successful District 8 meetings Tallahassee has hosted in a while!

Lucretia Thomas
District 8 Vice President
Thomas Acquisition & Property Specialists

Being a REALTOR® is very complicated…and ever-changing. Education and training is often put at the bottom of the To Do list, but with constant changes in our field, you might want to consider putting it back at the top. Take the time to learn and it will breathe new life into your role as a REALTOR® and could even make you more money.

Easy way to start? Get online and check out the classes TBR offers, go to the Tuesday Marketing meetings, attend a conference, buy a real estate book, or simply visit the NAR or Florida REALTORS® websites. If you spend 30 minutes on Facebook a day, commit to spending just 30 minutes a week on the newest ideas in real estate. Maybe you need some help with technology?  Call the TBR helpdesk at (850) 224-7713—it’s not just for MLS questions. Instead of a work lunch, take a TBR course together; you will have fun, learn, and get ideas that can make you money instead of costing you money. Take action to improve your value!  Wake up and commit to learning; you and your customers will be glad you did.

At a glance:

• TBR Tech Support Helpdesk, (850) 224-7713
• Florida REALTORS® Technology Helpline, (407) 587-1450
• Marketing meetings 9 a.m. Tuesdays at the TBR office
• Classes at TBR
• FR video learning: http://www.floridarealtors.org/MediaLibrary/index.cfm
• NAR library: http://www.realtor.org/library

Danielle Galvin
1^st Choice Real Estate Service
Member, Professional Development Committee

Most REALTORS® have a website of some description. The question to ask your web provider: “Is my site optimized for real estate, for generation of buyer and/or seller leads, and for mobile use?”

Too many REALTORS® have websites that are merely a page on the Internet with their picture, contact information, and a link to their broker’s site. While your broker may offer you a site like that for “free,” is this site bringing you business? That is the question.

Often I’m asked where to find the answers to these questions. I would offer you the following tips:

1. Ask your broker, or your provider if you have a lead capture system in your website.
2. If you have a free broker site, ask your broker where your leads go and how they track them, and to whom are they being distributed ?
3. Ask your website provider if your site is optimized for results and to show you the analytics results to your site (that may make a few of them shudder!).

If your phone is not ringing, if you are not getting emails with leads coming straight from your website, chances are you do not have an effective website. Learning what is an effective website takes research, including interviews with competent website developers with a specialty in real estate websites. Often it takes visiting these providers at trade shows, hours of consultations, and checking their client references. Most website designers do not understand IDX feeds and why those are important to REALTORS®, much less how to optimize those for the results you need for your business. If you are going to do something right, educate yourself before you throw money and time into a product or service provider. Attend technology conferences and learn about effective websites and content.

If you are concerned about costs, it is important to consider the following:

1. How much time do I have to devote to building content and managing my own website?
2. How much would I be willing to pay to build a website that generates leads and is productive enough to support itself and help me build my business?
3. How much am I willing to budget into my business to allow someone else to manage my website?
4. What is included in building a website and what is critical for it to be productive?

Like everything else in any marketing business, a learning curve is to be expected. You will only be as successful and as knowledgeable as your efforts in educating yourself about technologies like websites and applications that can be used to your success.

One last tip: is your website optimized for mobile viewing? Test it here.

Debbie Kirkland
Armor Realty of Tallahassee

In 2013, I will face-down my social media hurdles and challenges! I don’t feel like I am afraid of social media. Here’s a list that just scratches the surface of what’s out there: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, Skype, Go-To-Meeting, YouTube, QR Code generators (such as http://www.qrstuff.com), and apps! I may need to find the time to learn more about social media, and change my thinking so I’m looking at it in the “right” way.

The real estate profession is evolving as an even more interactive social experience because of social media. We know that customers research and drive by our listings using their smartphones and tablets as navigation guides and QR Code readers. With cloud transactional tools, like Form Simplicity with e-signing capacity, coupled with the very good quality picture-taking capabilities of smartphones and tablets, REALTORS^® can now operate 100% from the field deep into a transaction—from listing, to marketing, to forming a binding contract! We are brought back down to earth, though, getting the inspections done and closing at the title company or attorney’s office. Social media empowers a REALTOR^® to be where you are and still connect, prospect, or market one-on-one with someone where they are, or to the world, just by accessing a “channel” or an app in cyberspace.

Let’s face the “fact” that the world is irretrievably transformed from the analog realm to the digital. Either we must hire social media talent or join in. A bit of both is most likely the best approach. This approach seems the soundest, because there is a different thinking process to social media. For example, recently I was looking for a meeting place that I did not know the address to and so I asked a young man if he knew where it was. He said, “No, but give me a second.” Then he typed the name of the place into his smartphone and told me the address and showed me a map of how best to get there from where we were. Here’s what I am saying about the social-media thinking process: I had a newer smartphone than he had, but it didn’t occur to me to solve my dilemma so efficiently! Come to think of it, it’s a wonder that I did not first try calling 4-1-1 for help.

Other than consulting their phones, my thought is that our more social media-savvy colleagues and neighbors might have sent out an SOS (oops, that’s an analog reference, I should say, a “shout-out”) on Foursquare or Facebook or Twitter or something else available. This is more precisely my 2013 challenge: How will I think and act more digitally going forward?

Should we ask the Professional Development Committee to work with Board staff to deliver more classes to help us with what seems to be a pervasive social media challenge? This is a timely alert. It is not overkill, in my view. I want to stay in business, and be competitive in the social media era. Don’t you?

Wanda Carter

Keller Williams Town & Country Realty

We have had success with the following steps if your BlackBerry Curve 9330 displays “No Network Coverage”:

• Find the Options application (sometimes represented by a tool/wrench icon) on your phone’s main page.
• In the “Search” field, type Host Routing Table.
• Find Host Routing Table— when you click it, hit your BlackBerry key (the key with the cluster of dots on it) and click Register Now, then hit OK.
• Go back to the “Search” field and start typing Application.
• Next, scroll down and select “Application Management.”
• Again, in the “Search” field type eKEY— highlight it and push your BlackBerry key, then scroll down and select Edit Permissions.
• Make sure that all the icons display Allow.
• You can change Custom to Allow by highlighting Custom, pushing Enter, and scrolling up to select Allow. Save this change by hitting your return button.
• Finally, you will need to take your battery out for a few seconds and then put it back in.
• Go to your eKEY and it should start updating; you may have to click on Obtain Key first, then select Wireless.

If you’re having other technical  issues with your device, contact your cell phone provider or the manufacturer. If you’re having other eKEY issues, contact us at 224-7713, or Supra at 1-877-699-6787.

Becca

You are at a client’s house and you go to Obtain a KEY (located in your eKEY application), but your phone seems to be stuck showing the message “communicating with the lockbox.” It really doesn’t seem to be doing anything but making an annoying beeping sound.

This is a common problem that the iPhone has—failure to recognize the Supra Adapter. If you follow these instructions, your iPhone eKEY will be up and running once more:

• Step 1: End the program by pushing your iPhone center button.
• Step 2: Push and hold down (3 seconds) the power button, which is located on the top right-hand corner of your iPhone. Release your finger and slide to power off.
• Step 3: Take the battery out of your iPhone for at least 10 seconds, then put the battery back in and power your phone back on.
• Step 4: Go to your eKEY application and try to use your key again . . . this time it should work perfectly.

If you have any questions please, contact your Board office at (850) 224-7713.

Becca

For agents who have one of the many Droid phones—this article is just for you.

If you receive an error code #9BFF “unexpected error,” this is how you fix it:

• Step 1: Select your “settings” icon
• Step 2: Select – Application
• Step 3: Select – Manage Application
• Step 4: Select – eKEY
• Step 5: Press “Force Stop” while in eKEY
• Step 6: Clear Data, this is located on the same page  
• Step 7: Return to your home page and find your “eKEY” icon.
• Step 8: You will need to put in a new Authorization Code; you can call the Tallahassee Board of REALTORS® at 850-224-7713 or Supra at (877) 699-6787) to get an Authorization Code.

After completing these steps, you shouldn’t have this problem again—but, if this does happen again to your phone we will need to take the eKEY application off your phone and start over; you will need to come in to the Board office to have this procedure done.

** A good rule of thumb to remember, is if at any time your Droid is having difficulty communicating with your eKEY or fob (which is the little black device used for obtaining a key and releasing the shackle of a lockbox) then power your phone down and take the battery out for 10 seconds—then put your battery back in your phone and power it on again . . . this should take care of any issues.

If you have any questions, please call the Board Office at (850) 224-7713.

Becca

I hear the debate has been raging between our members on which device has the best app support. That depends on how you define “best apps.” Here is a list of what some of your criteria could be in determining which marketplace rules:

• # of free apps
• # of total apps available
• Amount of memory space the app will need on my device
• How fast does the app run?
• Does the app slow down my device?
• Does the app run all of the time, draining my device’s battery?
• Is the app a supported, verified app from Apple or Google? (keep this one in mind)
• Does the app require more security privileges to my device than necessary?

Ok, back to the debate. I have used both devices and here are my unbiased thoughts on each platform and its app marketplace:

Apple’s process for approving apps and allowing them into its app store is, in a word, difficult. Almost everything they do is proprietary, which makes it hard for developers to create apps at times. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Apple prides itself on knowing that when users go to its app store to download an app, the end user can be sure that the app has been thoroughly vetted and I mean thoroughly. It really puts the responsibility on developers and app creators to create feature rich, secure apps Apple’s customers base. Sure the process is not super-fast and that great app may take some time getting to the app store, but when it does you have a very nice app. However no app is totally secure, and even apps in the Apple app store have been compromised and caused issues for their owners.

Google, on the other hand, believes in an open architecture in which developers have access to the Android code and are encouraged to develop a plethora of apps. I mean really, if you can think of something you want on your phone, the Android marketplace probably has an app for it. While this method creates competition and innovation among developers it certainly has its drawbacks. Because it is so easy to get an app into the Android marketplace, apps for Android phones ARE far less secure and more vulnerable to security threats than iPhone apps.

Just the other day a massive amount of Android users (over 200,000) were hit with a Trojan virus that stole data and otherwise compromised the security of their devices. If you would like to check out the details of the story, it’s reported here at Android Police.com. More and more malicious apps are sneaking into the Android marketplace that are not verified and certainly would not be supported. To its credit, Google did have the rogue app pulled within 5 minutes, but look at the damage that was done.

So there you have it; does this post mean it’s a slam dunk for the iPhone? Not necessarily, as I mentioned, all smartphones are at risk for having their security compromised. It’s in your best interest to purchase security app software for your device. Check out our latest Technology Resource Guide for some suggestions.

In conclusion, the war is far from over, but this round or battle has been won by Apple.

Paul

There are many reasons why you might be having issues with using Form Simplicity. Perhaps the one most likely culprit as of late is your unintentional (or perhaps intentional) upgrade to “Adobe Reader X.” As of this writing, Forms Simplicity is not yet compatible with Adobe Reader X.

At present, Florida REALTORS® is in the process of attempting to correct for this deficiency and it is our understanding that a fix is eventually forthcoming. Until then, what’s a REALTOR® to do? Well, if you go to the Adobe website you will likely see the only option as “Upgrade to Adobe Reader X.” Well you probably DON’T want to do that since that is what got you in trouble in the first place ,so where do you go from here?

Florida REALTORS® currently recommends the following advice: The first thing you will want to do is remove Adobe Reader X. After that, simply Click Here and then determine if you want the full download version or just an upgrade.

Still confused or just need a little “hand-holding” along the way? No problem! Just Call the Tallahassee Board of REALTORS® Helpdesk at 850.224.7713 and we will be more than happy to assist you. If you are interested in why it is a good idea to keep your Adobe software updated, read this previous post on updates.

Technically Speaking,

Will