Ubertor Real Estate Blog

Get expert advice from an Ubertor specialist on how to use the basics of the system. This is a great start for all new Ubertor users eager to learn how to begin maximizing their website for the most return. This is a live guided tour of Ubertor’s control panel – so if you’re on the fences about Ubertor’s software, click in and join the tour. See how easy it is to get a website up and running.

Join in 2 easy steps (Live Tour is FREE):

1. Register for the Live Tour on April 14th @ 2:00 PM PST.

Simply click on this LINK at the time of the LIVE TOUR and JOIN!

2.  Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended.

The live tour will go over the following topics:

1. Logging into your control panel (1 minute)

2. The Dashboard – Overview of cool tools to get your site running (9 minutes)

* Google Maps – Map your listings with 3 different views
* Google XML SiteMaps – Get found on Google faster than others
* Feedburner – Get your blog going with Feedburner
* Google Analytics – Start tracking the number of people coming to your site
* Favicon – Change your favorites icon

3. Crafting your own page (15 minutes)

* Adding content
* Adding photos
* Adding videos

4. Power marketing your listings (15 minutes)

* Display your photos
* Adding files, like floor plans and strata docs to your listings
* Mapping your listing on Google
* Giving your listing its own domain (URL)
* Adding music to your listing
* Have an open house? Advertise the listing as an open house
* Virtual Tours
* Get your listing on Craigslist – and looking good!
* Adding your own filmed video to the listing

5. Unveil the power of CSS and how it can help you mastercraft your website (5 minutes)

6. What is Twitter? How to use it with your website (5 minutes)

7. Q & A (10 minutes)

**1 LUCKY attendee will win $57.00, just for taking the tour!**

For a while now you have been able to create custom badges for your listings. (The badge is the banner with text in it that goes across the listing photos – like “Open House” or “Waterfront”. Today we added the ability to for you to choose the colours of the badge and text quickly and easily right from within your control panel. Before you had to navigate to other sites to choose the hex colour, now you can simply choose the colours right within your control panel. It is a simple enhancement but an important one to make using this feature that much easier. So go ahead, log into your control panel and start marking some custom badges… some suggestions: “Beachfront”, “Walk To Robson”, “Pool”, etc.

Released moments ago into the Ubertor Realtor website platform is a new feature that allows you to control the automatic tweets that your website can send out through Twitter when you add a listing or an open house. You can turn this feature on or off as well as customize the text within the templates. To find this new functionality, log into your control panel, click on the “Marketing” tab, then “Twitter”. Enjoy!

Here is what it looks like:

Ubertor Culture‘s first blog post! I (Bryan Garcia) am super pumped and excited that we’re finally up and running. The Ubertor Culture blog posts will revolve around the Client Service Team. I will give you an inside look at how we operate, what we do, and how we grow as a team.

Allow me to introduce you to Ubertor’s Client Service Team. These are the people behind the scenes that handle Ubertor’s customer service. If you’ve engaged our Live Help, you’ll probably be quite familiar with one or more of our team members. Engage us, and see which specialist you get.

We’re not your traditional team that is always together in the same room and working at the same time. You’ll quickly realize that our team is quite diverse and span across the globe. And yes, we are a team of 6.

Introducing…

Team Leader: Bryan Garcia (Uber Bryan)
Location: Vancouver, B.C. (and sometimes Manila, Philippines)
Likes: The Vancouver Canucks (Playoffs are here!), Social Media, Dogs, Kaizen, Competition
An Uber since: January 2007

Client Service Specialist: Cristian Marine (Uber Cristian)
Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Likes: Android Tablets, Smartphones in general, Movies, Blogging
An Uber since: April 2007

Client Service Specialist: Marie “Tin” Sanchez (Uber Tin)
Location: Manila, Philippines
Interests: Blogging, Surfing social media and tech websites, GLEE
An Uber since: August 2009

Client Service Specialist: Christine Beltran (Uber Christine)
Location: Vancouver, BC
Interests: Ancient History, Space, Technology, Shopping, Movies, Dining out, Cartoons
An Uber since: December 2010

Client Service Specialist: Alfonso “Fonzy” Tan (Uber Fonzy)
Location: Manila, Philippines
Interests: Videogames, Animations, Music, Reading blogs, Discussions, Forums
An Uber since: February 2011

Client Service Specialist: Carl Francisco (Uber Carl)
Location: Manila, Philippines
Interests: Dogs, Books (especially those written by Dan Brown), Cooking, Social Media surfing
An Uber since: February 2011

Are you curious about the Ubertor system? or you are a client and want to understand more of the features available? Today at 11:30am PST, I (Steve Jagger) will be giving a guided tour of the Ubertor system through a free webinar. I will go over some of the functionality of the system, some example websites and answer questions. If you want to attend, drop me an email – steve @ ubertor dot com – and I will send you the webinar details. Hope to see you later this morning.

On the dashboard of your Ubertor website you will notice on the right hand side, a section called “Jumpstart”. This feature is there to help you get your website up and running. It is a checklist that explains the key features that you should be using on your Ubertor website. It explains what to do and if you have completed them or not. Next time your in your control panel, check it out. If you have questions, feel free to contact our live help team. (Note: Live Help hours are expanding, have you noticed the increased coverage?)

I received an email today from the producer of a new show on HGTV. She is looking for couples or families that are currently in the market and are faced with the dilemma of living in the city with all the amenities and no commute time versus moving to the suburbs that allows for more space and nice neighborhoods on the same budget (or even less).

Here is what she sent me (and their email address):

Hi Steve,

I wanted to introduce myself to you as I am currently doing research for a new HGTV show that will be filming in Vancouver and across Canada this summer. I came across your blog and website and thought that our show may be of interest to you and your readers.

It’s a show about couples or families that are currently in the market and are faced with the dilemma of living in the city with all the amenities and no commute time Vs. moving to the burbs that allows for more space and nice neighborhoods on the same budget (or even less). I believe it is a dilemma that a lot of families and young couples are facing right now- hence why HGTV has commissioned the show!

We will be filming all across Canada- Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Currently we are casting and looking for these home buyers. The show is hosted by two hosts that each show three urban or three suburban properties. If the couple are already working with an agent, that’s no problem, as the hosts do not facilitate a deal, they just show them the property.

At the end of the show the couple will decide if they will take the Urban or Suburban property of their choice.

If you have readers that may be facing this challenge and be interested in participating in the show, please let me know. Or they can email me directly at: casting @ forcefour.com

I’ve attached a brochure with more info on the show.
Thanks,
Kate
–
Kate Green
Story Producer- Urban Suburban

Starting this week, we are adding a new author to the Ubertor blog. Bryan Garcia (some might know him as “Uber Bryan”), our Client Service Manager, will begin posting weekly to this blog about our company culture and customer service giving you access to behind the scenes here at Ubertor. You can follow along on this blog, through our Facebook page and or our Twitter feed. Watch for his first post this week.

The British Columbia Real Estate Association came out with “Social Media Guidelines for Realtors, Boards and Associations” the other day. It is a 2 sided page that explains how all 3 types of real estate professionals should use social media in their day to day business. Check out the pdf below:

Click here to download the document.

I just got off the phone with Gary Chambers, a Drumheller AB Realtor who is also the President of the Realtors Association of South Central Alberta but might be better known for his video blogs from his tractor.

Gary is just back from Ottawa where he attended the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) AGM. From Gary:

“This year’s discussion, debate and focus was on a proposed Data Distribution Facility designed to ensure that our data, trademarks and marketing options online are not only accurate, but members’ intellectually property is protected and displayed in a positive manner.

What Data Distribution means to Canada

I just wanted to take some time in this blog to discuss a topic that dominated this years Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) AGM and that topic is our newly approved motion for a national Data Distribution Facility. I am sure like many of the motions passed in these meetings our general membership has very little knowledge on this topic and how it will effect their daily trading in real estate. However this was a groundbreaking motion and the discussion leading up to the vote was to say the least was exhausting. Let me start by giving you some information about the proposed Data Distribution Facility and I will then follow up with what this means to us as practicing REALTORS®. “

Continued on Gary’s blog.