Ubertor Real Estate Blog

Now within your Ubertor website you can add video to your listings and have it syndicated to YouTube.com and Vimeo.com. Not only does it go to these powerful video websites to help expose your listing but it updates the E-Flyer that is automatically built into each of your listings.

Now when you add your E-Flyer to Craigslist.org it will show your photos, property description as well as any videos that you have added. Here is an example of a rental listing in the Ubertor system that is using video and the E-Flyer.
(here is the same example on Craigslist.org)

For Rent: Vancouver 1 Bedroom 1 Bedroom 388 Drake Street Vancouver V6B 6A8 »map »more details Bedrooms:  1 Bathrooms (full):  1 Price:  $1,095 per month Availability:  2008-06-02 Interior SQ. FT.:  1260 Garage:  none Queen Size Bed is plush and brand new! Bedroom is fully furnished with linens, pillows and comforters. 11 Foot Celings and tall windows ensure you have lots of natural light. Large contemporary desk for work/study. Big closet and dresser drawers for easy organization of your clothing. Bookshelf abuts desk for easy reach to all your books. Videos 388 Drake Street, Yaletown, Vancouver : Governors Towers One Bedroom for Rent 388 Drake Street, Yaletown, Vancouver : Governors Towers Private Courtyard Gardens 388 Drake Street, Yaletown, Vancouver : Governors Towers Fitness Center 388 Drake Street, Yaletown, Vancouver : Governors Towers Swimming Pool Description Grand One Bedroom for rent in a spacious designer 2 Bedroom Yaletown Condo. Don't get trapped in a miniature shared condo! This is spacious 2 bedroom Yaletown Condo. When comparing look at total square footage not bedrooms. You'll find most 2 bedrooms are under 900 SQ/FT. This one is 1260 SQ/FT with super tall 11 foot ceilings! You will feel a sense of space and freedom here. 388 Drake Street is at the corner of Pacific and Drake in the true Yaletown. Your can enjoy an un-obstructed view of calm waters of the False Creek Ocean fed water. Watch rowers and boats sail by or people watch the strollers, bikers and bladers of the Sea Wall. David Lam park is the huge park and playing field that protect this view corridor. One block in either direction you will find groceries at Urban Fare Gourmet Market or Choices Organic Grocers. There is also a Costco within walking distance. Being in Yaletown you are in the epicenter of some of the Vancouver's choice restaurants, lounges and bars. This rental is for a private bedroom in a 2 bedroom shared downtown Vancouver water front condo. I live in the other bedroom. I am looking for a single roommate. Sorry, no couples. The entire condo was completely gutted and built up with top of the line materials, appliances and designed with a comfortable theme. Inside you will find stainless steel appliances a 6X14 Foot Granite Kitchen Island with a party sink. The kitchen is fully equipped with everything you need for cooking and eating. The fridge is extra large, stainless steel and had french doors for east. Your half is larger than most condo's full size fridge. All the furniture was carefully chosen for its functional and aesthetic features. The antique dining table is made from 300 year old reclaimed wood. Juxtaposed to the table you will find super comfortable modern Herman Miller Aeron Chairs. I do work from home; so during the day I will occupy the table and desk with my assistant. We do computer work; so are relatively quiet. We are packed up with table cleared by 5pm; Monday to Friday. Dark hardwood floors throughout all the rooms. There is a super comfy sofa with a 42 Hi-Def LCD and a Apple Mini that powers it. Sound is 5.1 THX. I live and work in the condo and are seeking a mature neighborly roommate who wants a quiet, peaceful home to live, chill and study. You should have full-time work or school. No couch potatoes please. Should be clean and tidy as I keep the place immaculate. * No Smoking. * No Pets. * No Parties. * No Drugs. !!!-Rent Reduction during Building Window Refurbishment of $25/week-!!! Summer Only Rate is $1150/per month; 3 Month Minimum. ($1050/refurb/month) or One Year lease available @ $945/month. ($845/refurb/month). Interested? Please fill out the application form: http://www.whistlerdeluxerentals.com/ApplicationForm.ubr Rental Details Features Included in Rent: - High-Speed Novus 30MB Fiber Optic Link. Private WI-FI Network. - Cable TV. - Electricity. (Please be reasonable and turn off items not in use) - Toilet Paper. - In-suite Front Load Washer and Condensation Dryer. - Laundry Detergent. - Heat. Amenities - 24/7 Concierge and Security. - Swimming Pool for laps (dedicated lanes) and enjoyment. - 8 Person Multi-Jetted in ground Hot Tub. - Cedar Wood Sauna for 9 people. - Private Gym with; Bosu Balls, free weights, bench and a universal gym. - Get your Cardio on with the new Treadmill, Elliptical, StairMaster, Concept Rower or Bike. - Party/Meeting Room on the second floor to hold private engagements. - Have a picnic or read in the grass of your gated Courtyard Garden Park for private use. Whistler Cay Suites for Rent Email:  info@whistlerdeluxerentals.com Michael Stephenson

Easy Virtual Flyers by Ubertor. Build your own in 3 minutes!

Here is a video that Rodney from Reachd.com put together to show you how to use the EFlyer tab within every one of your listings in your Ubertor website.

Post a Listing to Craigslist from Uber Jump Start on Vimeo.

Within the Ubertor realtor website software you can click on the “EFlyer” tab to instantly create a virtual flyer of any of your listings. The “EFlyer” tab is found within every listing and was created so that you can quickly and easily get your listings into Craigslist. Below is an example of a virtual flyer from a Vancouver real estate agents listings. Check it out, log into your website and add your listings to Craigslist using the EFlyer tab in your listings. If you don’t have an Ubertor website, then create one here and play with the feature. Remember, your first 30 days are free.
–

New Listing: Vancouver 3 Bedroom House 2769 W 49th Avenue Vancouver V6N 3S5 »map »more details Bedrooms:  3 Bathrooms (full):  2 Price:  $1,598,000 Year Built:  1924 Yearly Tax:  $5444.21/2007 Interior SQ. FT.:  3121 Frontage:  75 Depth:  189 Garage:  2 cars Description Giant 75×189 lot in prime Kerrisdale neighbourhood. Close to Kerrisdale shopping, UBC, Southlands. Property comes with 3 bedroom + den Character home on two levels (see floor plan online) with 3100+ sq.ft. Great restoration/expansion project or build your dream home. View photos at www.kerrisdalehouses.com and call for showing schedule. Marty Pospischil Phone:  604-263-1000 Fax:  604-263-6699 Email:  marty@martyhomes.com Dexter Associates Realty 2094 West 43rd Avenue Vancouver/BC V6M 2C9

Easy Virtual Flyers by Ubertor. Build your own in 3 minutes!

“Online classifieds and community site craigslist.org is a cash cow that generated an estimated $55 million last year in revenue and is on track to take in $81 million in revenue this year”, according to Inman News. (via Classified Intelligence)

Ok, these questions come up all the time…
What is craigslist.org? Who is this guy? How does he make money if the whole site is free?

This might help…

Since Craig Newmark founded the site in 1995 simply to “help out, in a very small way” he has resisted an onslaught of advertising offers, multi-million-dollar buy outs and even the courtship of national TV shows and Hollywood studios. Now for the first time, for a single, random twenty-four hour period, he has opened up the list to an underground film crew to go behind the scenes and come face to face with some of the posters on the world’s biggest “digital commons”. Here is the trailer for the movie:

More details here - www.24hoursoncraigslist.com

Did you know.. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.org met with the Ubertor founders?

My business partner and I took a quick day trip down to San Francisco for a few meetings today. We left from Vancouver early this morning and returned on the evening flight out of San Francisco. We had a few meetings scheduled throughout the day and had the opportunity to meet with a couple of real estate moguls.

I had the opportunity to have lunch with Pat Kitano of www.TransparentRE.com. He and I met up at Zuni Cafe in downtown San Francisco. Zuni is a hot San Francisco cafe overlooking Market Street. It was great to finally put a face to the guy on the other end of www.transparentre.com. Pat and I have emailed back and forth for a while now and I have enjoyed reading his blog. Pat runs free blogging seminars on “why blogging is the next generation real estate marketing tool for the Realtor’s online presence. With very pragmatic steps Realtors can create a successful, marketing-oriented, lead generating blog.” Anyone interested in reading a great real estate blog take a look at www.TransparentRE.com. (pictured on the right: myself, Pat Kitano)

Later that afternoon Mike and I had the opportunity of touring the Craigslist.org offices with a tour from Craig Newmark himself. Craig and I have emailed back and forth for a while but have never had the opportunity to meet in person. Craig was great to make some time for us in his busy schedule to show us around the Craigslist operation, meet some of his team and learn more about the inner workings on Craigslist. I did ask about their policy of adding more cities as I constantly get asked from Realtors about why Whistler is not included. I mentioned it to him and he said that it is up to Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of Craigslist.org, and when he wants to add more cities. He did suggest that the cities that get more attention are the ones that are discussed in the Craigslist.org forums. (pictured on the left: myself, Craig Newmark and Mike Stephenson)

It was interesting to see the Craigslist.org operation. They run out of a house that has been converted into offices in downtown San Francisco. The house for the most part looks like a house. The programmers are downstairs, the customer service team in the kitchen, Craig and Jim Buckmaster are in what could have been a bedroom and there were a few other staff members in rooms at the front of the home. (pictured on the right: Craigslist.org Offices)

All in all an excellent day.

The first important point to understand is that having a website requires work! Many real estate agents think that you can just launch a website and it will work its “magic” and bring in the business. This is not how the internet works. Having a website is just like having a storefront. It takes work to make it work. (there are ways to get the work done without you doing it… see below)

Think of your favourite website… look at it today and then think, would this still be your favourite website in 6 months if it was exactly the same?

Lets say your favourite website is the clothing company Banana Republic. If you look at their website today (screen shot here) you will see their Christmas specials and some widgets that are pushing certain products and promotions. How would you feel if you went there in July and the site was still pushing their Christmas sale.

Or how about WhistlerBlackcomb.com? What if you went to their website and you saw the snow report from 2005… or if you came across their big new announcement is a new lift that was launched 8 months ago. Would you keep going to their website? or would you find your Whistler news somewhere else?

Make your website relevant! Make your website matter!

Here are 5 tasks you can do in 2007 to help your website gain the exposure and return visitors that it deserves:

1. Seriously.. Get Blogging
INMAN News named blogging as one of the top real estate stories of 2006. They reported that the “Real estate blogoshere comes to life. Real estate blogs really took off this year, with more solo agents getting into the mix and more blogging on collaborative sites.” Zillow’s CFO & VP of Marketing Spencer Rascoff says that one of the top online real estate stories for 2006 was that blogs went mainstream.

2. Expose your Listing in a new way
Get the massive exposure that your listings deserve. Flyers, Open Houses, local Newspapers are all good ways to attract attention to your listings but services like craigslist.org, zillow.com, oodle.com, edgeio.com, base.google.com, hotpads.com and trulia.com are all excellent ways to gain massive exposure to your listings. Adding your listing to these sites should be standard practice when advertising your new listing.

3. Expose yourself to new ideas
2006 will be remembered in online real estate as the year that more information than ever became accessible to consumers, for free. The creation of Zillow.com, Redfin.com, and Trulia.com are a few among a rapidly growing group of companies that are pushing the envelope. Are you up to speed with what is going on? Do you know what a blog is? how about RSS? craigslist? Make 2007 the year of learning new things. Plan to attend a conference that you have never attended before. There are lots out there. Here are a few places to start looking www.realestateconnect.com or www.realtor.org.

4. Track Everything
Take the time to track what you do so that you can replicate what works and stop doing what is not working. Here are a few ideas to help you get tracking your results:
a. Ensure that you are using Google Analytics to track the stats of your website
b. Use multiple email addresses to track what is working.
- On your open house flyers use steve@yourdomain.com
- On your busines cards use sjagger@yourdomain.com
- On your just listed flyers use justlisted@yourdomain.com
You get the idea. Doing this will allow you to track which inbound emails are coming from which marketing effort.
c. Multiple domain names is a great way to track (yourdomain.com, yourdomain.ca, yourdomain.info)
d. Your Open Houses can even be tracked… ask everyone how they heard of the open house. Even tell them that your testing to see which of your marketing is pulling its weight. Run a survey to track the results. Do this for all of your open houses. I bet the results will surprise you.

5. Learn the complete capabilities of your website.
Even if your website is not an Ubertor website (it should be) you should take the time to learn the complete capabilities of what your website can do for you and what technologies are available to help take you to the next level. Take some time to learn about Feedburner, RSS, Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, WordTracker, Blogs, PageRank, Link Baiting, etc.

With all of these new tasks you will need to Systematize your business. A good book to read about systematizing your business is Michael Gerbers E-Myth. His book talks about small business owners and the need to operate like a franchise. Definitely worth a read.

Need help with any or all of these tasks… Ubertor Support can help with some, Ubertor Training is another option, RET Meetups will bring you together with like minded agents, services like realtysupport.ca can do the work for you, or even a real estate coach might be the answer.

Keep in mind the California Association of REALTORS® survey found that “The typical buyer is now an Internet buyer“

Any questions… feel free to contact me directly.

Craig Newmark and his team have added 135 more cities to Craigslist.org making the total cities in the Craigslist empire 450.

Our software is quite flexible and Nathan Justus in Seattle is showing what it can do. Take a peek at his site and you will see how he is using other technologies (rockyou.com, myspace.com, and bolt.com) to customize his site further and drive traffic. Also, I see that he has posted on his blog, his reasons for picking Ubertor as his website provider. Here is what he had to say:

I started out looking for website companies that were specially tailored to real estate agents. I came across a few that seemed to have a quality product and had all the latest technology integrated. What I was finding though was the cost was still quite high just to get started. I’m talking $700 dollars just to get started and then we still had the monthly costs, a contract etc. This was discouraging me because my marketing budget is limited. I started to go to template sites and explore the flash sites and found some really cool templates and cool flash animation and the prices aren’t too bad. The problem with these templates is they aren’t designed for real estate agents which means no built in system that manages your listings and sales. Having a system in place that has the latest technology and top notch support and a pretty darn attractive product, is hard to beat.

I came across the company called Ubertor which just happened to be moving into the Seattle market at the time I was looking for something to start my web presence. I was fortunate enough to see a sales presentation in my office at Skyline in Everett, and I was very impressed. One of the co-founder’s Steve Jagger was pitching the product that day and sold me. Ubertor offers a product that is just as good if not better than all the other companies I called. They have a better hold on technology that works and understand and take the time to explain what is truly of value to search engines, Mainly Google. The company is highly integrated with Google and Craigslist which most other’s aren’t, the blogging feature built into the website is spectacular partly automated when changes to listings are made. The product Ubertor is user friendly and completely unique and far from cookie cutter. No contract and having a quality product and unparalleled support makes Ubertor my choice for websites for Seattle Real Estate Agents.

Why Ubertor? Why not! Just look at my site www.soldbyjustus.com

I did a few in-office training sessions today for some of our real estate agents in West Vancouver. I was in the Royal Lepage Northshore office in the morning doing a training session that turned into a bit of a discussion of the latest trends in online real estate. We talked about Zillow, Trulia, HouseValues, GoogleRealEstate as well as a few others. It was a great session.

After that, I went across the street to Prudential Sussex West Vancouver to meet with a bunch of our agents there as well. Zillow is defiantly an interesting topic. Not many Realtors in Canada have heard about it, but when I mention it they are eager to learn more.

We have a bunch of in-office training sessions setup in addition to our regular training sessions. The in-office sessions are being done by me and if you or your office are interested, please email me so that we can chat further about the schedule.

Keep in mind, when I say training, that includes training on our software but also, training agents on the power of blogging, utilizing craigslist.org, new technologies like the ones mentioned above (Zillow, etc), Google Analytics, VOW’s, YouTube.com plus much more.