Real Estate professionals, want to know what clients really think about you? Want to hear what they really want or what they’re interested in?

You should check out Tweet Scan. Tweet Scan is a web application that allows you to type in any keyword you want, I did “Real Estate” and it shows you all the latest Twitters that contain the word real estate.

I’ve come accross some pretty neat marketing tricks from other Agents this way, give it a try.

By the way:  For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter.com, it is a web application that allows you to send out a short message to everyone updating them as to what you are doing, or whatever you want.  Think of it like a mini-blog.  People can subscribe to you and follow what you’re doing or “twittering” about. So far, Twitter is over 1 million users strong and growing every day.

If you have a need for a small table, but need it to expand to accommodate more people for party’s or what-not, check this one out. I never thought I would say it about a table, but this one is amazing!

Does anyone know where you could buy something like this?
Update: Interested in one? Go here… DB Fletcher Design (about $50,000)

RISMedia Ranks Top 700 Brokers in 20^th Annual Power Broker Report & Survey

PMZ Real Estate is proud to announce that it has been named to RISMedia’s 20^th Annual Power Broker Report & Survey. PMZ Real Estate ranked in the top 200 real estate brokerages nationwide in closed transaction sides in the Power Broker Report, which identifies and ranks America’s largest residential real estate brokerage companies by transaction sides and sales volume.

The results of this year’s Power Broker Survey reflect the market downturn felt from coast to coast. Longer listing times, more cautious buyers and the mortgage meltdown resulted in fewer total transactions—2,322,210 in 2007 compared to 2,754,618 in 2006. Meanwhile, price appreciation continued its decline, resulting in lower total sales volume—$749,201,552,294 in 2007 compared to $855,755,959,352 in 2006.

A new agreement between RE InfoLink, Central Valley MLS,  San Francisco Association of Realtors, Bay Area Real Estate Information Services Inc., and MetroList Services Inc., will now allow registered members of participating MLSs to access all the features of all the participating MLSs without having to pay a membership fee for each.

Each organization will keep a localized database of all of the participating MLSs data so that agents won’t have to login to each MLS separately to find what they want.

According to Inman news, MLS organizations in Southern California are working to follow suit, while the California Association of Realtors is looking to create a statewide MLS.

Matt Keenan, recruiter here at PMZ, showed me an interesting website called Jott.com that allows you to send emails with your voice.

How it works, You set up an account online, add your contacts, call an 800 number, speak the name of the person you want to “jott” a message to, and speak your message.  Your message will then be transcribed and delivered to that persons email.

It’s a cool service if you are on the road checking your email, but don’t want to type a long message into your Blackberry or iPhone.

The only downfall is that when the person receieves your email, it has Jott.com branding everywhere on it, so be wary and send the email to yourself and forward it without the extra branding when you get home.

A popular way to enhance your listing presentation is to offer single listing/property websites, i.e. www.1401ChurchStreet.com. These are especially helpful when you have unique property that fits a certain demographic, such as a horse ranch or llama farm.

If you have an outside company that is managing these websites for you, make sure they are optimizing the content for search engines.

Adding keywords that relate to the property type to the website will garner much more traffic than just passing out the web address.

For example, say you are selling a llama farm for your client in East Modesto, some keywords you may want to have your webmaster add might be:

1. llama farm for sale in modesto
2. llama farms for sale in stanislaus county
3. modesto llama farms
4. llama farm property in modesto

You’ll be sure to be at the top of the search engine results with a well optimized page and it only takes a few minutes to add the keywords. Just a tip from Real Estate Tech News!

Hey there!

Today we talk about the last two weeks news on PMZ Buzz:

• Zillow Mortgage Marketplace
• The impact of photos on an MLS listing
• Open house tips
• Saving on property taxes

Thanks for listening!

Today was the first day of Floyd Wickman training at PMZ University in Modesto. I stopped by to check out what was going on, shoot some pictures and take a little video.

PMZ agents were highly motivated keeping their trainer on his toes.

If you want to see what I saw, check out our MySpace or Facebook photo albums and videos.

Thanks to Jill Minerva for the tip!

Proposition 13, the voter initiative passed in 1978, allows property owners protection from skyrocketing property taxes.

If you are a parent selling or transferring title of your home to your child or a child doing the same to your parents, then your property can be excluded from reassessment under proposition 13.

This law applies not only to parents and children but also to parents and son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws so long as they’re not divorced.

However, in order to take advantage of these exemptions you must apply for them; they do not happen automatically.

Talk to a professional tax consultant if you feel you can take advantage of this exemption to save some money.

Thanks to Jon Zagaris for pointing this out.

The weather is getting even better! It’s supposed to hit 90° here in Modesto, CA.  What a perfect time for an open house.  Denise Lones at the Realty times offers some tips for handling an open house successfully, including:

• Researching the neighborhood so when potential buyers have questions about nearby school, supermarkets, shopping centers, you will be able to provide them with confident answers
• Advertising your open house online, through your email list, in the newspaper and with street and yard signs.
• Create a good rapport with potential clients whether they be buyers or sellers in the future that remembered your dynamic personality. Answer the door, don’t “hide in the kitchen.”

I think one of the best tips she offered (all of them are great) is giving your clients a list of homes that is around the same price range of the open house they are visiting. Include pictures, driving directions and a space for notes for each listing.