The purpose of ERP systems is to combine internal and external management data that reach throughout an entire business or corporation by using unique and sophisticated software applications specifically designed for realtors. Facilitating such information keeps all business roles organized and information readily available to everyone within the company from Senior Administrators all the way up to the acting President.

One of today’s industry leaders in Enterprise Resource Planning systems and business systems software is Syntax. Since 1972, Syntax has partnered with world-renowned technology leaders to offer refined operating software that encompasses cloud computing, ERP, and JD Edwards managed services. Since 1997, the primary focus of Syntax, as well as the partner company Oracle, has been on developing EnterpriseOne Real Estate Management.

This integrated application suite is a comprehensive resource planning software package that is designed to integrate every piece of information about your properties while documenting the financial details of each specific real estate transaction. Through EnterpriseOne Real Estate Management, real estate office managers and property owners will be able to make better decisions regarding property investments, share and organize all of the documents relating to a real estate transaction, and access information about various customers, vendors, landlords, and company employees all in one place.

JD Edwards managed services, specifically EnterpriseOne, presents clients with more database, operating systems, and hardware alternatives than the competition, which allows your company to fully meet your business goals and demands. In addition, EnterpriseOne is the very first EPR solution to be compatible on your Apple iPad. So whether it’s financial management, project management, order management, mobile solutions, manufacturing management, or something as simple as reporting on business trends, let Syntax, Oracle, and JD Edwards managed services operate your business through customized, state-of-the-art software that will surely take your company to the next level.

While making sure your real estate office runs smoothly and efficiently, also making sure your team of real estate professionals are working diligently to follow up with clients and close deals is of course a top priority. If you run your own real estate brokerage, there’s nothing more frustrating than employing agents that don’t take the necessary steps towards being a successful Realtor.

As you likely know, acquiring leads from your real estate website, networking, or various other forms of marketing tactics takes a lot of time and even more money. And when you’re not getting a return on this sort of effort, it’s ultimately your loss and money out of your pocket. So what’s the best way to assess your in-house agents, you ask? Well, if you’re not familiar with the performance evaluation software offered by Halogen, it might be time to investigate how it has the potential to increase your bottom line.

With Halogen eAppraisal™, office managers are able to streamline the complete employee evaluation process in an easy and effective approach. Easily track employee progress and performance, set and align employee goals, and get the feedback you need to get your real estate office running the way it should be. Employee performance reports are not only a good indicator of how well your staff is operating, but it’s also a cost-effective way to gauge whether or not you have the right people in place to set your company up for success.

Halogen’s performance evaluation software is cutting-edge and is currently used by nearly 2,000 customers. It’s easy to use, secure and reliable, and 100% risk-free. Along with eAppraisal, Halogen also offers software products that include e360 Multirater, eLearning Manager, eSuccession, eCompensation, Job Description Builder, Big Picture Talent Management, and eRecruitment. To learn more about Halogen employee performance software, visit HalogenSoftware.com today!

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working as a Market Research Associate and writing published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence in Chicago, Joe now works as a Web Marketing/SEO Specialist and is a managing partner at Real Estate Web Creation, LLC.

Grafetee in Chicago – these pins came from Chicago’s best businesses

Some time back, I covered the digital landscape for real estate brokers in Chicago. One very wired agency there, John Baird’s Baird & Warner, stood out among Chicagoland agencies – in a way prompting this tech report. To bring this “digital home tour” concept home, I have been consulting with Finland tech developer Juha Huttunen for some years, so when he presented a “use case” for real estate from his Grafetee app – the concept prompted this article.

What you’ll see below puts the best of Chicago real estate, the best in aggregated realty content from Trulia, and the potential for worldwide property “discovery” in the person of Grafetee’s CEO – headed to sunny Chicago. (image above of final Grafetee marks)

For agents and buyers out there, it is not neccesary for you to understand the technical side of the Grafetee bookmarking app. Geo-location applications such as this are not actually uncommon now, Apple and Android, even Microsft, have made them commonplace. What Grafetee has done that is different however, is reverse engineer (a bit) what is known as Open Graph protocol, more simply that thing that allows you to sign into web services etc. using your Facebook identity, and a lot more.

All you’ll really need to do is; download the app, go on your PC and drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, and start adding stuff via Grafetee on any smart phone or table using iOS or Android. Grafetee even plots a course for you to navigate while in Chicago.

Saving a hotel via Expedia w/Grafetee bookmarklet

As you can see by the screen above Juha has used Grafetee to “pin” a hotel choice from Expedia, what Grafetee does, quite simply, is allows users (be they agents or buyers) to create iteneraries, guides, rich plans for visiting specific places by using their PC, smart device, and the online services they need to complete the itenerary. In the case provided, a trip to sunny Chicago to find a house to buy. This first instance starts this world traversing home buying experience with a place to stay.

The Grafetee action below grabs a home from the great people at Baird & Warner, as you can clearly denote.

Selecting a home to view via Baird & Warner

Juha is, as I type this, sitting at his PC in Helsinki, visiting via the WWW – he used the :

• Expedia – to find a hotel and book in Chicago
• Hotels.com – finding just the right hotel
• Trulia – to find some house choices to add to his app map
• Zagat – to schedule lunch
• TripAdvisor – for some entertainment
• Zillow – for still more choices (and to illustrate Grafetee capability)
• Baird & Warner – to use one of Chicago’s premier brokerages
• Jameson Southby’s – for more diversity in luxury properties

Grafetee grabs a Jameson Southby’s listing

As you can gather from the list (and the Grafetee/Jameson image above), what Grafetee’s CEO is doing is showing a very simple, yet extremely useful template for how anyone traveling to Chicago for a “move discovery” can greatly simplify their trip, even enrich the whole experience. And for Zillow and the other businesses mentioned? The value of this kind of tool is extraordinary – giving potential customers the very best in mobile technology – FOR FREE!

Grafetee also allows business/website owners to place the Grafetee app onto the company website. This aspect not only puts local businesses like Jameson Southby’s in the mobile matrix of “pins” on Grafetee, but ensures a much closer relationship with buyers or users who “engage” said companies too. In fact, this is one way in which Grafetee might monetize later on, but that’s another story. What’s important to understand for site owners is that Grafetee is a phone or Skype call, even a click away from adding their own geo-location app for business. Simple.

Grafetee grabs any Trulia listing

Huttunen’s iOS and Android OS gadget is a far more powerful tool for users and business than the casual passerby might think. As you can see in the “pinning” exercise Juha has done, finding a house in Chicago does not necessarily involve driving out $500 worth of gas, listening to 2 hours of boring agent drivel, or painstakingly showing that same house off for the 50th time either. Whatever else Grafetee can do to simplify a house hunt, anyone who ever looked for homes knows – the first expedition is almost always done alone.

Time for lunch with Zagat and Henri

Now it’s time for lunch with Zagat, and then on to Zillow (in gallery), more homes via virtually any website listing them in the world, and as you can see in the last frame, some entertainment to use the time you saved for Chicagoland fun.

The reader also needs to understand here. While showing the utility of such innovations can be difficult even in images, and even harder with text, using an iPhone or Android smart device loaded with your preferences, is drop dead simple. I’ll provide you with a set of images that show off what Juha ended up with on his iPad (image top), then you can decide if Grafetee can make your life easier. As for me, I already know the answer.

I suggest you check out Grafetee on Facebook too, for a look at these very cool Finland developers.

Discolsure: One of the author’s companies, Pamil Visions PR, consults for Grafetee.

HomeZada

You know you need to do it. Maybe you’ve even started one, but you got sidetracked, or you spilled coffee on it and need to do it all over again…whatever your reasons for not having an inventory of your home’s contents, that reason has now been eliminated. Permanently!

HomeZada is an online home organization and management tool that will help you tie up all of the loose ends of your “home” life. Key areas that HomeZada will help you organize include creating an online inventory of your “stuff”, establishing a list of the home maintenance tasks that need to be accomplished and managing home improvement projects both current and future.

This fantastic cloud based resource was created out of personal need. The developers desired to create a program which was in the cloud, was centrally located with seriously protected servers, and which allowed access 24/7 to everything about your home. HomeZada meets that criteria in spades.

In A Time of Disaster

Fire, burglary, flood – whatever may befall you as a homeowner, having all of your information at your fingertips, which you can quickly and easily provide to your insurance agent, emergency personnel or others offers a strong sense of security, giving you one less thing to worry about.

In A Time of Transition

Leveraging your home inventory, both those assets which will stay with the house if you ever sell, and those which require maintenance, is a smart way to handle your finances. For example, providing your realtor with a detailed list of what home maintenance has been done to the home during your time of ownership is a great selling point that he or she can leverage with buyers.

Home Improvement

As a homeowner, especially during these rough financial times, beginning (and completing) a home improvement project is a smart way to add value to your home, but it can be a bit dicey. Often, projects will run way over budget and/or over time – adding even more stress to your already stressful life.

Keeping track of your income and budgets on a home improvement project can be time consuming, and when snags come up along the way it can be easy to get frustrated as you lose sight of the bigger picture.

HomeZada can help. Thinking of a kitchen remodel? HomeZada’s powerful tool for home improvement projects can help you understand exactly what you need to do in terms of budgeting and process. In fact, residential and re-modeling contractors love the fact that HomeZada helps them discuss projects with their clients as it introduces all of the components needed in a kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, etc.

With HomeZada you will get an idea of what the costs will be before pounding the first nail. You can even do some comparison shopping online right from the program and create a wish list of what you want for your home.

Home Organization

No, it can’t do your chores for you, but HomeZada can help you get them done. You can assign different family members tasks which they can access via their computer or their smartphones, making it easy to keep everyone on track.

You can enter all of the information you have scattered across the house – home inventory, contact information for service providers, maintenance tasks, etc and put them in HomeZada, where you and everyone you designate will have access to them. You can even upload pictures of your inventory items, which could potentially speed up an insurance claim!

One of the key elements that highlights HomeZada’s effectiveness is the news and alerts. Depending upon your needs, it’s possible to send yourself reminders of tasks that need to be accomplished. When you receive a notice you can choose to mark it completed, re-assign it or delete it – giving you the ultimate in flexibility and ease of use.

The system allows you to alert yourself when you see fit, and then it will remind you until you take action on the task. Whether that action is to tell the system you’ve accomplished it, you’ll do it later, or you changed your mind, you don’t want to do it. You can log the date it was completed, and it will manage the data associated with that task in terms of who actually did the work – if you outsourced the task and it cost you something, you can track your true home maintenance costs.

Another example of an alert would be a reminder that you didn’t attach a photo to an inventory item. The system will alert you and say that you need a photo (if you choose to want it). The notice will show up on your news page, helping you stay on top of all that you need to do.

One of the most exciting results you’ll see when you enter all of this information – your inventory, maintenance, and home improvement projects – is smart data. So, for example if you’ve chosen to enter dollar amounts for your inventory, you’ll clearly understand what you’ve really spent and the value of your property and the contents in it, which will help you to ensure that you’re properly insured.

As a busy homeowner, HomeZada offers an easy way to stay on top of your home organization and maintenance tasks. Its ease of use and serious smart data will change the way you look at your home. Why not take it for a spin today? Did I mention it was free? Yeah, good reason to act now!

Zillow Rentals Android™ App

Although Zillow has released nine mobile apps before Zillow® Rentals, the struggling housing market continues to boost rentals in nearly every major market, ultimately sparking the need for a new and innovative way for renters to find the perfect new apartment.

According to the Zillow blog, the features of the new Zillow Rentals app allow users to access Rent Zestimates®, a resource that estimates rent prices on more than 100 million U.S. homes and apartment units, as well as take advantage of the following options:

1)      Organize your favorite rental listings in a side-by-side presentation, allowing for easy comparing and contrasting of potential apartment options.

2)      Create a polygon search of the neighborhood boundaries you’re interested in renting, ultimately narrowing your apartment search by geography.

3)      Use your Android’s voice activation to easily search apartments in a touch-free manner.

4)      Contact landlords and property owners by phone and email right away. In addition, Zillow Rentals will also automatically classify your top apartment choices in a list of favorites and “time-stamp” each landlord you’ve already contacted.

5)      Receive an instant notification on when new rentals fitting your search criteria come onto the market, all without the need to login or sign-up.

There’s no doubt the rental market all over the United States has been as hot as ever. Many would-be first-time home buyers are waiting longer to purchase a home for a variety of reasons, and along with lenders continuing to heighten the approval process, the need to find a home or apartment is undoubtedly much more urgent than before. The goal of Zillow’s 10^th mobile app is to ultimately make an often overwhelming and time-sensitive process into an easier, more enjoyable apartment search.

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and possesses a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working in the market research sector and authoring published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, Joe now works as a Web Marketing Specialist and co-owns Real Estate Web Creation with his partner, Ted Guarnero, a 25+ year real estate veteran.

Get the most out of your real estate blog © HaywireMedia - Fotolia.com

However, if your real estate blog’s main purpose is to report local market news and post quick blurbs about you personally, there’s probably a good chance your WordPress site doesn’t include an IDX solution or extensive property search options. If this is the case, there are still quite a few nifty plugins that will build up your real estate blog and convey a lot of useful information to your readers, all without needing an IDX.

Let’s take a quick look at just a few of my favorite FREE real estate plugins available on WordPress:

1)      Simple Real Estate Pack - As perhaps the most complete real estate WordPress plugin, the Simple Real Estate Pack includes a variety of real estate tools that range from mortgage calculator and closing cost estimator widgets to the ability to post Trulia and ALTOS statistical charts, as well as other important local information that includes school districts, Google Maps, and current rental and for sale median rates.

The most complete real estate plugin there is

2)      Local Market Explorer - Originally released by Zillow, the Local Market Explorer plugin allows real estate bloggers to post various charts and information from Education.com, yelp, Walk Score, flickr, and of course Zillow. Suppose you want to create a detailed page about a certain neighborhood or community. Well, there’s no question, the Local Market Explorer plugin is the perfect tool use to get it started!

3)      Trulia Plugin - This plugin easily allows bloggers to embed a Trulia map widget on their sidebar or even add Trulia maps with property listings in your page content. In addition, users can also configure the data charts and maps with different color-schemes and various layouts to incorporate the data you choose to share on your site!

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and possesses a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working in the market research sector and authoring published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, Joe now works as a Web Marketing Specialist and co-owns Real Estate Web Creation with his partner, Ted Guarnero, a 25+ year real estate veteran.

Homespotter has the potential to change the way we search for homes for good. Courtesy of sethmeranda @ Flickr

MobileRealtyApps recently released their HomeSpotter application for iPhones and iPads, which allows users to point their device at a street, or even individual buildings and homes and receive relevant, up to date data about properties in the area which are up for sale.

HomeSpotter uses technology known as “augmented reality” (“an artificial environment created through the combination of real-world and computer-generated data”) to deliver this information, which includes data on all of the homes for sale at the location you’re standing at, as well as nearby homes – something that will help brokers find comparable homes much more quickly.

Right now this device is only available for the iPhone and iPad, however it will soon become available on Android phones as well.

Curious? Check out the video to see just how much you need want this app!

Perhaps you’ve even gone so far as to digitize it and store it on your computer. Good for you! But what if you need access to that data, and your computer is tucked away in that drawer too – and you’re not?

New cloud-based software for investors, REM Hub™ © freshidea - Fotolia.com

Investors – take note. REM Hub™ offers an exciting, cloud based program which makes it possible to have all of the information you need on each of your properties – financial, contact, and miscellaneous property information at your fingertips – no matter where you might be!

Program features include:

• Reports – Run reports such as profit and loss, pipeline, contributions, income and expense and more, and view them in either PDF format or as Excel spreadsheets.

• Accounts – Keep track of all financial data, organized in an easy to understand format that shows what your real ROI is.

• Contacts – Forgot your property manager’s phone number? Centralizing all of your contact information on REM Hub™ keeps you on top of your investments.

Depending upon the package that you purchase, you will be able to track an unlimited number of properties, manage multiple accounts, and even send out mass emails.

As of the time of this writing, the fees for this service range from $9 to $59 per month, however individuals who have only one investment property can take advantage of a free account which offers access to only the expenses and contact portions of the program.

If you don’t see a report that suits your needs, you can inquire and REM Hub™ will configure one or more reports for you, even adding your company logo if you desire. Also, if you want to enter more information than the system captures, it’s also possible to have REM Hub™ design forms specifically for your business.

Another helpful feature – REM Hub™ offers data entry services which should be especially appealing to those investors who would rather someone else enter all of their property information into the system, making the entire process pretty painless, I’d say.

Leap ahead of the competition with the Jaguar listing management system © TebNad - Fotolia.com

Jaguar requires no downloads as it uses the latest in cloud technologies to deliver listing and closing data which is collected from numerous third parties in a highly interactive and easily accessible format. No longer will realtors be required to search multiple locations for the information they need – Jaguar can be customized to suit each individual’s tastes and requirements.

Available features include:

• User friendly interface that requires no training
• Compatibility with any system – Windows, Macs and Linux
• Apps for handhelds – iPads, iPhones, Androids, BlackBerry and others
• Ability for consumers to converse with agents
• Marketing reports (including CMAs)
• RETS feed to national websites
• Listing brochures
• Integrated open rentals

In today’s tough market, having a program which allows realtors to access data quickly and easily, thereby improving their productivity and responsiveness to their clients is worth its weight in gold. Fortunately for RealPlus members, this technology comes at no additional cost.

Eric Gordon, managing director of RealPlus said, “We are thrilled to make this program available to real estate firms across New York City. Jaguar is the most advanced program of its kind and offers many features and capabilities that will significantly improve the way brokers work with each other, their buyers, sellers and renters.”

“Jaguar was built and tested to run on PCs, Macs, and all popular browsers, including IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and will offer real estate professionals a newfound ability to access information whenever they want it.” continued Gordon, “Jaguar provides greater control so that agents and firms can manage listings to best suit their needs and those of their clients,”

SocialKandy property search, in conjunction with Cervera Real Estate

Known as the “Social Property Search”, this search engine provides detailed searches of listings, according to number of bedrooms, price range, square footage, etc.  It’s also possible to search for listings by MLS. The social aspect of this app is applied when the user selects up to three properties and then asks her friends and family to vote on their favorite, inviting a discussion about their opinions, and helping the buyer with her search for the perfect home.

Veronica Cervera Goeseke, CEO of Cervera Real Estate stated:

“Whether it’s for your mansion facing the ocean or your first loft in the city, you’re going to want to share the properties you’re considering as you make the decision to purchase. Now you can select your favorite properties and talk about the options without ever leaving Facebook.”

Pablo Ceron, co-founder and managing partner of SocialKandy – the company responsible for creating this amazing bit of technology – is excited about the release of this app:

“We are excited to see how Cervera, a dominant leader in the real estate industry, has embraced social media as an integral part of their marketing efforts and we look forward to witnessing their ongoing success.”

Not only will this software aid the home buyer in their search, it will help companies such as Cervera to serve their target market better through the data and analysis collected from the site.

This software is not exclusive – any agent, broker or developer can grab this app for their own Facebook page. Cervera saw a dramatic increase in their page’s traffic after installing the app, (in less than 1 month) and with prices ranging from $19.99 to $49.99 per month at the time of this writing, including a 14 day free trial, it’s not going to break the bank to give it a try.

Cervera Goeseke added:

“Miami is the place to be with your friends, and Facebook is the place to be with your friends and family online. Our page makes it so – as you plan from anywhere in the world to buy your piece of South Florida, you can use social media to find the perfect home.”