RealEstatePenguin

Too easy too sexy underground blogging platform – 'Jux'

2011-12-15T22:39:00.000-08:00

A new blogging platform was introduced to public last fall, this is a trendy and easy to use online blogging tool for free! The Jux.com which also called as “the sexiest underground blogging platform online” is now being widely used by small businesses to promote their products and services which ranging from Realtor who created a blog about real estate in ski community, a professional which listed the top ten reasons why she should be hired to a creative side blog regarding the holidays. It is offered totally for free to all people who wants to bring their business online. Jux.com gives every user a full screen blog posts out of your pictures together with a customizable font options.

Below is one great blog in Jux by a real estate professional named Ann Arbor. In her blog, Ann Arbor showcase what their city makes great. She features some of the the nicest place to go with when you visited the city and what the city can offer you when you have decided to stay there.

Here are some of the photos posted in Ann Arbor's blog:

Social Media Trends Nowadays

2011-11-25T19:58:00.001-08:00

The Social Practice, a fully integrated British social mediaagency has created a list of the ten social media trends nowadays. Below youcan see the agency’s presentation which shows what the latest trends in theworld of social media. Most of the trends they listed were not really currentas it is and some of them are laughable. However, I would like to share it withyou because it is also current on digital media trends and emphasizes data.

From destination social to dispersed social: 10 trends in social media

View more presentations from The Social Practice

It is significant to know the current trends if you are abusiness practitioner, whether you are a small or a big business owner. In realestate, data is always important to us and knowing the latest housing markettrends of the area give us an advantage and are able us to create an effectiveplans and strategies for our business.

Want to know the great Android and iPhone apps in searching for foreclosures?

2011-11-18T00:29:00.001-08:00

Foreclosureis one devastating event in the life of families and individuals in most statesin the country and even in the world. However, it opens a great opportunity forfirst time home buyers to find a home way below its market value and newinvestment opportunities for real estate investors. So if you are either thetwo, here are some of the useful applications for your Android and Iphone insearching for distressed property listings.

ForeclosureSearch – This is a foreclosure search application that provides realtors andlenders a list of foreclosure properties from major banks across the country andproperties that are owned by the government that specifically works on Iphonealone. This is offered for free by a private company, USHUD.com, which is notaffiliated with HUD the government housing agency.

ForeclosureGenie – This application is ideal for investors who are in buy and sell rentalproperties and foreclosures. What’s good about this applications is it not onlyhelp you find the right property for you, but can give you calculations of howmuch money you can gain and how long it will take back your capital from it. Thisis a paid app that will cost you $1.99 per download.

ForeclosureOrganizer – You can start using this app which has magnificent features bypaying a download fee of $6. This is an app obviously designed to meet theneeds of real estate professionals and investors in searching and makingforeclosure transactions. It has equipped with features like tracked favoriteforeclosed properties, manage lien searches, tracking property significantinformation and email information to your analysis team.

CompleteForeclosures – This is a new app that runs on both Iphone and Android, for free!Using this app will give users a chance to see all the latest and not-so-recentlyand are still available foreclosures in the market. The list is automatically sortedfrom the most recent first. Despite of being new, Complete Foreclosures stillmanaged to be voted on the top ten business apps featured in Forbes and BusinessWeek.

Retain and attract more visitors using Rumble Talk

2011-11-14T23:02:00.001-08:00

Many businesses especially in the field of real estate islooking for something to make their website interesting and unique and one applicationthat can provides solution to all their problems regarding their website is theRumble Talk.

Rumble Talk is a great add-on to your real estate website ina form of a customizable widget that allows each user to chat live whilebrowsing and reading information they needed in your website. It also allowsyou to create a live community that is free to be access by anyone who willvisit your website. Interesting features of Rumble Talk includes a personalizedchat design for your needs, a “share” widget that encourage users to share yourwebsite and their conversation on their accounts in various social networkingsites like Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.

Why you need to consider including this in your website?

One good reason why you should give a try using this widgetis that is it completely free. It can give your real estate website an amazingtransformation that will encourage your users to stay on your site for longerhours and become engaged in the experience. Feel free to put it anywhere inyour site you want and make it perfectly fit in blog or website by adjustingits size.

How can you start using it in your website?

You can enjoy the full functionality of this application injust three simple steps that takes you around 60 seconds to complete the whole processin adding this Rumble Talk in your website. First, you need to visit their officialwebsite to sign up. Once you have done that, you are now allowed to get thefree embed code in which you havethree basic options such as a website embed code, a sharable URL and floatingembed code. After you pick the most appropriate option for your website, thelast step is to embed the HTML code into the back-end of your website

Realtors Property Resource launches its newest version with updates and analytics

2011-11-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Over 50 other product updates and analytics for investors were included in the recently launch RPR version 1.10. This version offer new users an easier and clearer path in setting up new account, and existing users can fully enjoy some new enhancements and exciting features like analytic tool that can be use for evaluating the property on behalf of their real estate investor clients.

On the above video, Director of Social Media and Realtors Property Resource (RPR), Reggie Nicolay demonstrates the newest features added and enhancements made on this Realtors resource website. It shows how these features works and the convenience it brings to the users.

For those real estate professionals who are not yet familiar with Realtors Property Resource, this was created with a goal to build a national database of robust, property centric information covering every parcel of property in the country.

Google+ launches its newest feature called "Ripples"

2011-10-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

Google social network the G+ has recently introduced its latest added feature called "Ripples". This will show users how their status updates are shared, how they spread and the statistics of every user activities they have in their account like how many users share their post in an hour. You can watch the video above to understand how this new Google+ feature works and how it can help users better understand how each post spread and shared.

As what you have seen in the video, the ripple can be found in the top right of any update and on the drop down menu, choose “View Ripples,” which enable you to see the pace of sharing of your post through two chart options, the top users who contributed a lot in sharing your post and post sharing path.

The only downside in launching this feature is the G+ steams being polluted with hundreds of “let see how far this Ripple can go!”updates. Aside from that, this is indeed a useful tool that helps users monitor their own activity and expected to be later as one of the most popular features of Google+.

See more real estate news!

Way to track people who remove you from their circles

2011-10-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

Business people using social networks for business marketingbelieve that every lost connection is a lost business opportunity for them.That’s why some find it important to know if who “unfriend” (Facebook way toremove friends) and “remove from circles” (Google way to remove friends).Others say that tracking those who disconnected you is just a waste of time anduseless at all.

Kynetx recently introduced a browser extension that enablesusers to know those who have removed them from their Google+ Circles; it isfree and works in almost all browsers, including Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox.This is simple to install extension that shows pop-up notification if someonehas removed you from plus circles.

Why some are hesitant to install this application?

Some of the users are hesitant to use the GoogleMinus due tothe questionable permissions required in installing this application. As shownbelow you can see information required in order to download this.

In an article written by Nicholas Greene, he said ““Um…yeah, warning bells are screaming in my head right now. Why the blue bloodyhell would an extension that simply accesses the javascript of Google + need toknow all of that? And how is pretty much all your personal data on Chrome not‘personally identifiable information’?”

Because of the privacy settings issue, some users chose notto add this extension, but others believe that they can keep as many contactsas possible through this GoogleMinus extension.

View more social media, tech and real estate related news.

MRIS acquire Moby Application to Strengthen Realtor Security

2011-09-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

It was disclosed in the first annual Realtor Safety report that number of violence cases against real estate professionals is on the rise especially this month. In response to that problem, the National Association of Realtor held a convention in celebration of Realtor Safety Month to take a closer look at their preemptive measures in an effort to protect every Realtor from bad elements in the society.

To improve Realtor safety, the Mid-Atlantic real estate Multiple Listing Service (MIRS) has lately announced their partnership with Moby, a personal safety application designed to keep you safe on the job. It has location-based technology feature that send an alert to your chosen contacts, along with a map of your location and securely send up-to-date location to your loved ones. The difference of Moby from other security apps out there in the market is it actually directly connected to the national security monitoring center.

MIRS is not the only one who offer Moby app to its member, the Iowa Association of Realtors has offered this security app following the still unsolved murder of its member Ashley Oakland. The largest broker owed MLS in Michigan the MiRealSource has also suggested this app to its thousands of members to provide additional safety as well as Keller William, Women in Default Services, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Alliance Program and many more.

Google+ threat Facebook by opening its registration in public

2011-09-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

The rivalry between Facebook and Google+ is getting hotter! On Tuesday, Google social network announced that they will open its registration to public. The global search leader launched its own version of social network on June of this year with user exclusivity, allowing users to register only through friend’s invitation. But despite of exclusivity Google+ managed to put up good numbers in terms of monthly users of over 25 million vs. Facebook 750 million active monthly users.

This move is a serious threat on the part of Facebook as Google Inc., search engine has more than 1 billion monthly visitors and with Google+ registration is now open to the public, a chance that these visitors might also sign-up and become users of plus. If that happens, a billion monthly users could be enough to overtake the current social network leader Facebook.

Some notable features of Google+, according to Tech experts; includes the “video hangout” which allows 10 users to video chat simultaneously or even make it open in the public. With Google+ you are free to share photos, videos, comments and articles with circle of your friends. You can also search whatever topic you want, such as real estate, sports, entertainment etc. and will give you results of relevant users, post and topic within Google+.

Anti-virus companies step up to help consumers protect their mobile devices

2011-09-20T02:19:00.000-07:00

In response to the growing threat from viruses, malware and hackers targeting mobile devices, tech firms including Trend Micro, Symantec, McAfee and others are stepping up to market their mobile security services to businesses and consumers.

Anti-virus firms offers all in one security and back up services that costs about $30 per year. This will give subscribers an anti-virus protection, tracking system that will locate a stolen unit and back up data. With additional features that include auto lock to a missing mobile device, safe browsing and parental monitoring.

Google Android smartphones and touch tablets are the main focused of most newly built mobile security services, defending users from malicious software that hackers designed to steal data and take full control of the system. But lately it was reported by some tech firms that number of attacks on Android devices has increased a lot. Threats rose 76% from April through June on Android devices compared to the first quarter of this year, according to McAfee.

In the survey conducted by Symantec shows that only 16% installed the most up-do-date security on their mobile phones (based on 12,704 respondents in 24 nations) and respondents’ victim of cyber-crimes using mobile devices hit at 10%.

Google makes it easier for the users to back up files

2011-09-13T02:45:00.000-07:00

If you are an avid user of Google products, such as Google+, Picasa (soon to e called Google pictures), Google Buzz and Google voice, you are now allowed to gather all the data that has been acquired from these products using the new Google service called Google Take Out. This service was launched on June of this year that lets you back up all important data and downloads an archive from your album in Picasa, Google+ and Buzz contacts and your profile and more.

In your Google Takeout dashboard you can see all the archives and can manage if what kind of settings you want your data to be download. You can download it in bulk or can select a particular service you wish to back up. If you are a Realtor you might want to back up data, including phone numbers and voice mail transcripts from your Google voice account.

After choosing services and files to download for backup, it will then show how large it is and will automatically compressed into a ZIP file that is ready to download.

Here is the sample video of how Google Take Out works.

Sony Tablet to Compete with IPad

2011-09-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

Sony expects to launch its own version of tablet this coming fall and proudly says that will not focus on quantity, rather they will strongly focus on quality. IPad tablet is still the major force in the market but Sony believes that they can grab a huge market shares from them once they launch and start distributing their newest tablets, the Sony S Tablet and Sony P Tablet.

The Sony has already proven that they can compete in smartphone arena when they introduce the Xperia PLAY for gamers in the market and did an excellent job. The company is hoping that their tablets will bring the same success with Xperia.

Sony S Tablet Specs and Features

Price: $599
Processor: Tegra 2
Memory: 16GB/32GB

Like in their television the Sony S Tablet has included with Bravia Technologies and Tru Black display. This can also connected with the Bravia Televisions and Playstation 3.

Sony P Tablet Specs and Features

Price: $499
Processor: Tegra 2
Memory: 16GB/32GB

The only difference is the design of Sony P Tablet, offering a dual screen with five inch display.

Virtual Technology: A Useful Tool in Today’s Distressed Market

2011-08-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Using the web is the most effective way for the Realtors to showcase their listings online. This is where majority of home buyers looking for available listings, peruse them before decided to visit the actual property. Now here comes the virtual staging, an extremely useful tool in today’s struggling housing market.

The Virtual Property Design (VPD)

This is a new virtual staging technology developed Edobavirtual.com to help Realtors in marketing their listings. This software has lifted the virtual staging to the next level where it can show remodels or help home buyers imagine if what the home will look like with different façade and allows them to take a serious look or a second look on the property.

How effective is this tool in marketing listings?

This simple unique staging tool will help agents to the most in selling short sales and foreclosures. In the current state, describing the potential of the listing verbally is less than appealing, but with the help of VPN can actually show some options that can motivate and change potential home buyers mind. Not so looking good property can be transformed into an amazing one with virtual staging technology help.

“We’ve developed a new technology that actually improves the positives, while eliminating the cons: Virtual Property Design (VPD), a specialized virtual technology that creates amazingly realistic photos of a property showing different design and architectural concepts in place.” Edobavirtual.com Principal Designer Gary Robertson said.

Block and Ignore Features Added in Google+

2011-08-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest video I found in YouTube.com earlier this day explaining the new added Google plus ignore and block features. These were not included in the original launched of Google own version of social network and for me a great move on their part to prevent other users from clogging your stream with non-sense updates, like MLS listing post in every minute.

The Ignore Feature

On the right side of Google plus you can see a drop down menu where you can see three choices, report abuse; mute the post; and block the user. If you choose to ignore the user it will automatically remove his/her entire post from your incoming stream and will no longer appear in your circles page.

The Block Feature

Ignoring users will still allow them to see your activity while blocking will not only remove user's post and remove them from your circles page but permanently disallow them from viewing your updates.

It is now easy to share pages we like with the new Google +1 button updates

2011-08-24T19:45:00.001-07:00

For Google+1 enable to compete with Facebook, Google Inc., has launched its newest +1 button updates that allow users to share pages, news, articles and videos found in Google searches to its social network Google +1.

The consumers can now click the button found in the right side of Google search results pages and can share content to the circle of his friends he selected to share with. Moreover, the consumers are now allowed to add a comment in every story and site they want to share. The updates also reveal who the users within your network have already clicked the +1 button in any site or story. According to Google the button appears in more than 1million sites.

AOL launched its new homes for sale search platform

2011-08-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

AOL Inc., a premier global media company serving millions of users worldwide has officially launched its real estate home search platform that will provide people in the industry with new search experience that includes a search engine delivering foreclosures, short sales, new homes for sale, off market and recently sold homes. Move Inc., an online real estate leader is the exclusive partner of AOL to power its homes for sale search. This will give users an easy way to search all the available homes for sale in their respective area and can narrow down their searches through AOL real estate tool. Additional features includes mapping experience and expanded school and neighborhood content.

AOL real estate offers real estate professionals with exclusive marketing program to reach millions of users featuring Showcase Listing Enhancement treatment. This special program includes full motion videos, up to 25 photos, banners and open house alerts and expanded information of the property.

“Move’s mission is to connect consumers with real estate professionals so they can be successful together in purchasing homes. This is an important milestone for both AOL and Move that can significantly advance our ability to exceed expectations buyers, sellers and real estate professionals have towards us as category leaders.” Chief Executive Officer, Steve Berkowitz.