Tim does a great job with him welcome video on his home page. Take a moment to check it out. Think about adding a video like this. It is quick and easy to do and warms up your website quite a bit.
The MLS.ca has been rebuilt and moved to Realtor.ca. Actually, if you look at both domains you can still see the old site at MLS.ca.
I did not get to far into it, but I did click on British Columbia on the map… the first thing I see - “more than 500 results, please refine your search”. Not the most user friendly message. It gives you an error message right off the bat. Makes you feel like you clicked the wrong button. It actually took me quite a few tries to actually see some properties. Once I did get to see the properties, the site did not really like my browser (Firefox) and everything pops a new window, which of course Firefox blocks. Even the “more pictures” function pops a new window. On a positive note, they are using a more functional mapping system then before. I would have preferred Google Maps, but Microsoft Virtual Earth does the job. They did make the site wider which I like… most people’s monitors can handle wider websites these days. But, like anyone that builds websites and software, things change and can improve over time. It will be interesting to see where they take this.
So, what do you think of the new website? Let me know in the comments.
I found a couple comments from some consumers on the internet; not too positive:
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“How is it that they have made realtor.ca HARDER to navigate than the mls.ca trainwreck. One of my most common searches is for homes in Kitsilano within a certain price range. As far as I can tell, the Realtor.ca site shows me the Microsoft Live Earth Map but offers no obvious way to navigate to individual neighbourhoods. The Live Earth interface doesn’t even have a zoom option — double-clicking on the map seems to be the only way to zoom in.
And please, why on earth are they using Microsoft Live Earth? Because it’s slower and worse than Google Maps?
Realtors only exist to navigate through bureaucracy and red tape that they have (a) created or (b) worked hard to encourage. I’m not sure I can think of a profession that has lower barriers to entry and adds so little value.” - found here
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“Wow. While the new site is slightly prettier than mls.ca, it provides no real improvement in functionality. Searching for something simple like detached house in Vancouver results in the “more than 500 results, please refine your search” error. Fine, I add the criteria that the house have 3 or more bedrooms and 2 or more bathrooms - and get no results.
Seriously. Something’s broken here.
Plus, it’s kind of ridiculous that you can only refine your location search parameters by city or street. One is too broad, the other too narrow.
To the developers at Realtor.ca, here’s what I want: I want to be able to stick a pin in the map, a draw a search radius in order to filter results.” - found here
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What do the Realtor’s out there think? Let me know in the comments.
I was chatting with Mike Blaney the other night at the Real Estate Technology Meetup and he mentioned that he searched for “Ambleside Open Houses” in Google and found that ALL 10 RESULTS were Ubertor websites. I thought that was interesting, so when I got back to my computer I checked it out and found that he was correct. All 10 results are Ubertor clients. I’m obviously quite biased about our software and have been harping on how well our system does within the search engines but it is great to see that others are noticing.
I decided to do some other searches… here is what I found:
- I Googled “Kerrisdale Open Houses” and we have 8 of the 10 results
- I Googled “Kitsilano Open Houses” and we have 9 of the 10 results
- I Googled “Coal Harbour Open Houses” and we have 9 of the 10 results
Not bad. Interested in learning more about our system? Signup for an Ubertor website (it takes 2 minutes) and within 24 hours our welcome team will call you and run you through the system. Plus you get the first 30 days free!
Here are the images from the above searches.
Joel over at FoREM covers Moo. He says “Using Moo’s “PrintFinity” technology, you could be printing business cards for a new listing that has a different picture on every card with the property information on the back. Imagine blowing your seller’s mind when you show up with a box of these for them to pass out.”
Check out Joel’s post for complete details
Another outstanding Real Estate Technology Meetup tonight!
We had the luxury of having Scott Humphrey from the Anthony Robbins Company come in from San Diego to speak to the group. We decided to combine the Real Estate Technology Meetup and the Young Professionals Meetup together for this special occasion. It was an outstanding talk and the feedback was excellent. (Scott did provide a special deal for when Anthony Robbins comes to town - to take advantage, call Scott at 858-740-4658)
Did you miss the meetup?
No problem, we invited Miss604.com to come down and live blog the event. You can read her complete recap of the session here.
Raul of Hummingbird604.com came out too and provided his feedback of the event. You can read his summary here as well as see the pictures here took of the event on Flickr (including the one posted here).
Rodney from Reachd.com covered the event as well. You can check his thoughts out here.
Site of the Week - Sandiegocastles.com from Bryan on Vimeo.
Sandiegocastles.com, owned and operated by Kris and Steve Berg, specializes in properties in the San Diego area in California. With a Google Rank of 4/10 and an Alexa Rank of 2,081,567 (What is Alexa Rank?) , Sandiegocastles.com provides detailed information on San Diego communities, and the type of properties for sale in any given area. With the use of an IDX Listings Search with their Ubertor website, Kris and Steve are able to show their visitors and clients, where a property is for sale, and all the details surrounding that specific property.
Unique, informative, and freshly designed describes sandiegocastles.com, this week’s Site of the Week.
If your interested in learning more about sales then Vancouver based sales guru Shane Gibson’s relaunched sales blog is a good place to start. Take a moment and check it out.
Are you on Twitter? I am; you can follow me here.
If your not on Twitter but are interested in learning more, check out this video about Twitter in plain English.
Want to learn more about Twitter? Facebook? and LinkedIn? Check out this training in Vancouver.
The other day a Realtor came up to me at an event that I was at and said that he enjoyed reading my blog and was curious what blogs I read. So I gave him a few examples but said that I would post my top 17 here on my blog. So, here is the list of the top 17 blogs that I read consistently (in no particular order):
1. Seth Godin (picture with Seth)
2. TechCrunch.com (picture with Michael Arrington)
3. TechVibesBlog.com
4. Matt Cutts
5. GeekEstateBlog.com
6. SpringWise.com
7. Gary Vaynerchuk (picture with Gary Vaynerchuk)
8. FutureofRealEstateMarketing.com (picture with Joel Burslem)
9. MyTechOpinion.com (picture with Reggie and NikNik)
10. Ian Watt (picture with Ian Watt)
11. Dustin Luther
12. Miss604.com
13. Provident Security
14. SellsiusRealEstate.com (picture with Rudy and Joe)
15. BloodHoundBlog.com
16. 4HourWorkWeek.com
17. Inman
Is your blog not on the list? Add it to the comments so I can check it out.
On Monday, July 7th at 6:00pm we have the monthly Real Estate Technology Meetup at Ceilis Irish Pub in downtown Vancouver. We have a special speaker coming in to speak to our group. Please RSVP here and remember it is FREE to attend.
Presentation: Scott Humphrey, Peak Performance Specialist
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Scott Humphrey from Peak Performance will be at Ceilis Irish Pub to speak about mindset, focus and productivity. This interactive 50 minute empowering session is designed to provide you with strategies that you can use immediately to measurably enhance your professional and personal lives. At the end of the session Scott will also take a moment to introduce you to the upcoming Tony Robbins’ Unleash the Power Within weekend.Scott advises and cosults with Fortune 500 companies, executives, manager and sales professionals in the area of peak performance, leadership and sales.
Benefits:
- Closing the gap between where you are and where you want to be
- Breaking old patterns and creating empowering patterns of beliefs
- Keeping a positive attitude and staying mentally tough
- Making sure that we not only know what to do, but that we DO what we KNOW
- Conquering the fear of rejection or failure when it comes to prospecting
- Turning complacency into consistent action
- Presenting with confidence EVERY TIMEWho should attend: Those who desire to learn cutting edge tools that will help them overcome challenges and rapidly achieve their personal and professional goals.
Plus, Rebecca from Miss604.com is the media sponsor and she will be live blogging the event for all that can’t make it.
Who comes to the Meetup? Watch this video: