Real Estate Software Made to Work on Mac’s
Great news, there is now a real estate software solution that will work on Mac.
Continue Reading Add comment September 29, 2008
New Site, New Look!
Markler has recently made some serious upgrades and updates to its website. Not to mention a new domain name. The new site offers much improved user interface with a big bonus, VIDEO demos.
Check out the new site released by Markler at www.marklerSystems.com.
Add comment September 24, 2008
Real Estate Agents Become Easy Targets For Spam, Why?
I hear it on a fairly regular basis. “Why do I get So Much Spam!?”. Well, the long of the short is because real estate professionals put their email addresses everywhere. Agents want to be the one a potential buyer or seller contacts first, and these days an email address is as important as a phone number.
This very fact is in my studied opinion why real estate agents end up being hot targets for spam. Within this posting I will outline some useful tips to help cut spam and better manage your email account.
1) If you have an email account that gets tons of spam, convert it to a spam collecting account. You will never get spam to stop going to that account and it will always increase. It’s a lost cause. You should keep the account however and check it for emails that are important especially as you transition to a new account.
2) Get a new business email address, better yet get two. Use one account for customers and client correspondence and the other as a general business communications account. If you give your customers one account, not only can you better manage the emails, only they will have them. The limited people that have the address means it is less likely you will end up on spam list.
3) Request your email remain private. Some customers become friends, and friends love to forward junk to everyone they know, effectively distributing your email address to countless people you don’t know.
4) DO NOT post your email address on your website! There are software robots that crawl the internet with one goal, mining email addresses to spam. A better solution is to have your webmaster create a contact me form that users can fill out that will generate an email to you. This hides the address from the outside world and you can still get emails from potential customers. Also, do not allow your local real estate board post your email address on their website. Rule of thumb – Email Addy on Website Bad.
5) Use your old account (the junk account from tip 1) when registering for anything online. DO NOT use your business or personal email address. As tempting as it is, the goal is to prevent spam. When you buy something online, register for a newsletter, request information or sign up for something, use your junk account. Then check it for the email your expecting and forward it to your Fort Knox account. It’s a pain in the rear, but you won’t have to deal with spam. I can assure you the minute you submit your email address somewhere it is stored to send you stuff in the future. If you happen to get something you don’t want, be sure unsubscribe to it.6) Spam filters have pro’s and cons to them. Most will let emails through but places them in a spam folder that you later have to sift through. I prefer to just set up message rules (which can me done in most clients such as Outlook, Eudora, Apple Mail) for common spam words such as viagra……..you get the point.
If you can managed to do these 6 simple things, you will easily keep the spam at bay.
Add comment November 15, 2007
Markler in the Press
Obviously when you get some press it is very exciting! I have included below a copy of a recent article published by the Knoxville Business Journal.
Software creator brings order to real estate office
Terrance Luckett lost two jobs as a result of mergers and downsizing in the economic downturn following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“If it weren’t for Sept. 11, I wouldn’t be sitting here,” he said. “It got me out of a stagnant life and gave me control over my future.”
He also is at the controls of Markler, a rapidly expanding software company serving the real estate industry with software that endorsed by several Sevier County Realtors, who are using the software and investing in the company.
“It is just what I was looking for,” said Justin Broadway, principal broker of Century 21 Four Seasons in Gatlinburg, which was the first office to use the software.
For Broadway, the software solved one of the major frustrations of his business: dealing with several separate and incompatible software systems.
“I was looking for a document management system that stores documents online. I also wanted a transaction manager that could manage transactions, and also a listing manager. I couldn’t find anything that did all of that. The programs were all separate and none of these programs will talk to each other,” he said.
He and other Century 21 Four Seasons representatives were in on the ground floor of the development and are among investors. Sevier Realtor Marty Loveday also was instrumental in pushing for investors to fund expansion of the program, Luckett said.
The system is now in 22 offices, most in Sevier County, but also in California and in Arizona. The first Markler program came out in early 2005. Version 3 is currently being released.
The Markler software program is marketed as a fully integrated systems for real estate transactions.
Luckett said, “It’s an office management system that manages contacts, leads, listings, closings, and it’s a file server that allows contact materials to be sent by e-mail instead of having to be faxed, and it’s also a document storage system.”
The software is capable on running on MacIntosh, Windows and Linux systems.
Luckett says the system has gained attention from local Apple Computer representatives because it may help provide an inroad for Apple’s Macintosh operating system into the real estate industry, which has previously been almost exclusively the realm of Microsoft’s Windows, the operating system used by the majority of Multiple Listing Service providers.
The system serves as a central interface for brokers, agents, buyers, sellers, lenders and title companies where use of a password can enable each component to access the information specific to their needs.
Brokers can keep up with all facets of their office administration, while agents can keep up with contacts, leads and transactions. Buyers and sellers can see the progress of their transactions and have access to the documents involved. Title companies can see when sales are assigned to them and get all the documents needed. Lenders can get information needed on transactions in which they are involved.
Broadway said the system has been particularly helpful to his company in leads management.
“The agents were doing it all with pen and paper and weren’t doing a particularly good job of follow-up,” he said. “It takes longer and longer for people to buy now, and you have to stay in touch. It (Markler) reminds you to follow up.
“We’ve stayed No. 1 in our marketplace in residential sales, even in a declining market. Follow-up helps a great deal. Agents don’t lose customers.”
Markler is also considered user-friendly.
“It’s very easy to use,” said Janet Valentine, a Realtor with Marty Loveday and Associates, which has offices in Sevierville and Seymour. “Agents are able to retrieve information easily and send things easily. All of the information is right in front of you.”
Luckett was able to use input from several area real estate professionals in developing the program, thus using the terms and jargon familiar to the industry, and heeding instructions to keep it simple, Broadway said.
The 30-year-old Luckett had segued into freelance Web page designing after jobs in digital imaging, as part of a Webmaster team, as a Web administrator and in online development in Atlanta. After losing the last job in a post 9/11 downsizing, he moved to Gatlinburg, where he had a Chalet Village Web-design job. From there, conversations with Broadway and others over their frustrations with available software programs led to the Markler software development.
The German-born son of a career Army man and a German mother, he named the company Markler, a derivative of a German term for a person who brokers.
Markler maintains the network and provides support. Luckett said he is committed to keeping support functions in the United States.
Lois Reagan Thomas is a freelance writer in Seymour.
Add comment October 18, 2007
Why Buy a Real Estate Tool in a Bad Market
I get it, the real estate market stinks right now. Yet, I continue to ask my team of professionals to accomplish the seemingly impossible… Convince the powers that be in real estate offices to spend money. That’s all everyone seems to hear – SPEND.
In this article I want to ’spend’ some time breaking down costs, quantify value and hopefully explain why cost driven decisions in a down market may be detrimental.
From a very young age we are taught to maximize our dollar! Spend as little as possible while getting the most out of every penny. I happen to like this way of thinking because 20 bucks at Burger King can feed the family but at Bonefish I would be hard pressed to even feed myself (lite menu items only). Obviously food is not the same as real estate but it drive home the point of how we are wired. If times are tough we eat at BK or at home when times are good we upscale to fancier places.
Now that I have you thinking about food lets talk saving money and time. We all love to eat and we all love to make money and we especially love to save it.
Your in Real Estate, the banks are hanging on to the purse like its the only air available to breath. Every Joe Schmo and Jane Doe got his and hers matching real estate licenses all while claiming to be ‘the’ experts in all things real estate. To top it all off, the well of buyers has dried up. Essentially the pie has been gobbled up and you’re left only with the crumbs. Getting hungry yet?
Then there are those firms and agents who may not be doing as well as they were say 2 years ago, nonetheless they are at the top of the heap. You sit back and scratch your head just like I did, I’m sure. With a little bit of investigating it became clear why. Tools! All the people in real estate that are still succeeding even excelling in this slumping real estate market are effectively using tools to squeeze out every last deal they can. There are many other factors that come into play, but the effective use of tools seems to be at the very heart of it next to sheer hard work.
So what tools am I talking about? Technology. If your not using it, especially now you are begging to fail. Sounds harsh I know but you are. Even if your goal is to be a solid contender in the market place with no desire of becoming number 1, it is virtually impossible to maintain. I’ll prove my point.
Imagine not having a cellphone?
Let’s talk cost. If you are an agent your cellphone bill is easily over $150.00 a month. So, you spend roughly a minimum of $1,800 annually for cellphone service. The cost however is irrelevant for two simple reasons, a) you have to have it and b) it contributes to your income generating potential. Very simple concept.
Let’s talk saving money and buying tools. Let’s take Markler for example. There are a whole host of other products and I encourage you to look at them all. For the sake of ease, richness, form and service however, Markler is without a doubt the one you should seriously consider (Plug, Plug). It also incorporates the 4 commonality of all winning real estate pro’s.
But why?
In a down market or any market for that matter, there are 4 key things that make a real estate company and agents successful and others failures.
- 1st and foremost clear customer service priority
- Advanced lead management, tracking & follow up.
- Keeping customers with pending transactions in the loop
- Accessibility to vital information 24/7 from anywhere
If you understand these 4 simple principles and you don’t have a system in place that aids in performing these functions, this market will have your lunch. I want to point out that most systems for real estate do not hone in on these critical areas.
Back to the cellphone. It is a communication tool. Communication is the number one most important thing in the human experience. This is why everyone understands the value of having a cellphone. If you don’t communicate you will not be heard (cliche’ I know). You need a tool that goes above an beyond a cellphone into the world of automation.
Now lets go back to tools, ie technology, then we can all go eat. When you buy a system, that system should help make you more money. In a bad market you need tools and tools cost money but if you make the right buying choice that sticks to the four things that are common to all successful real estate pro’s (which I highlighted in this article) than you will have a better chance of surviving this crazy market. If not – Good luck to ya.
– Terrance Luckett
Add comment October 17, 2007
ASP Is Ideal For Real Estate
I think it would be safe to assume that a vast majority for professionals in the real estate world are confused if not overwhelmed by all the tech acronyms. We hear them all the time. Any company that provides services or products related to technology will list a whole host of ABC’s, IDUNO’s and HUH’s and we are all supposed to know what they stand for. Once we know what they stand for we find what they mean requires a tech geeks cipher just to decode the vagueness.
With that said, what in the world is ASP and what does it have to do with real estate. ASP stands for (With regard to this article) Application Service Provider. It is a company that provides computer based services over a network. Translation: Web Base Software; software you use on demand from any place you have (1) a web browser and (2) an internet connection.
Immediately the benefits of this kind of system or model should become obvious to you. You can be in London England sipping a hot cup of coffee at a posh little cafe with free WI-FI and a snazzy new Macbook Pro. [And] your office is in Napa California. The information available to you at the office is available to you in London. Not only is the information available, it’s real time, on demand and looks and functions exactly the same as if you were sitting at your desk.
Real Estate Professionals are on-the-go all the time. The nature of the business mandates mobility and ASP is the only software model that can fit the technology requirements of a high performance agent and real estate office.
My views on ASP’s is obviously biased towards Markler, but there are plenty of system out there that do many different things and fit different bills for different scenarios. Markler, for example, is a high performance real estate business management system with rich content control. This type of system may or may not be right for everyone in real estate (I personally happen to believe it does, but thats beside the point) but it does address many issues niche products don’t provide.
Yahoo Mail, and Gmail are good examples of niche products using an ASP model. It does one thing, manage email. The alternative would be using a mail client you install on your computer such as Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc. These both do the same thing, however the ASP (Yahoo Mail, Gmail) version is accessible from anywhere, with any computer that has an internet connection and web browser. While installed software will only work on your computer. There are email servers that enable better portability but for the sake of this conversation you will more than likely only be able to check your email from your computer where your mail client is installed.
In closing, I highly recommend anyone in the real estate industry take a serious look at using ASP type products. Buying installed software is old school. Don’t get me wrong there are many systems out there perfect for traditional software installation and there will always be a need for it. The real estate industry as a whole is ideal ASP type software.
Add comment October 1, 2007
Real Estate & Technology 101
I hear it all the time from our customers and industry speakers.
“GET A WEBSITE! “
Yet, most real estate professionals out there are not listening. The world has turned to the internet for their primary source of information. If you are not there to give them that information they want. someone else certainly will. It’s part of the new world order.
I always tell real estate people:
“The internet is the greatest encyclopedia, library, radio station, tv station, journal, mall and news channel ever created, and it’s all in the same place, that little screen sitting on your desk.”
It’s really just that simple, the world now goes to the internet for just about anything that comes to mind, especially Real Estate.
An ever increasing stampede of interested buyer are going to the internet to see what and who is out there well before they even think about picking up the phone. When you think about it, this actually makes sense and ends up being far more efficient (Not all the time, but in many cases.) If a buyer is sitting in Tucson, Arizona and he/she wants to buy a spectacular mountain cabin Gatlinburg, Tennessee, do you honestly believe that person will call before looking online? Even if they did call, where would they have found your information?
Not only can they find a real estate professional that knows the market but will also have a good idea of what they are interested in before calling an agent or office. Which leads me to the whole point of it all…
A professionally developed, good looking and informative website is key. I hate to say it but most real estate pro’s out there take one step forward by making a website but then really skimp on every aspect of the site. Your website is your image, how do you want people to perceive you? As cheap or classy, as an amateur or an expert. One glance at a site and you can instatly tell if there was real thought and effort put into or not.
I have pulled some examples of bad websites from a site called “Web Pages That Suck”. I actually came across their book several years ago.
http://www.longscycle.com
http://www.freemap.com
Now lets looks at some good sites
http://www.eriksbikeshop.com
http://www.maps.com
It is very easy to tell the difference, don’t you think. If you had to pick one over the other, who would you rather go to?
To wrap things up here are some very simple rules and tips for getting a website:
- Get a website, get a website, get a website!
- Use an easy to remember domain name like MountainBuys.com or GatlinburgExperts.com. Don’t use address’ like i-sell-realty-4-u.com and buyfantasticmountainproperties.com. hyphens are not wise to use in a domain and the longer the domain name the more likely a user will type it wrong.
- Do not rely on search engines to drive traffic. Print your web address on everything! It is just as important as your phone number. Everything you have printed must have your web address prominently displayed. If you don’t do this, you have effectively lost another opportunity to show a potential buyer your abilities.
- Do not be cheap. A good website for an agent can run anywhere from $500 – $1,500 dollars depending on option, IDX, local fee’s etc. Do not pay more than $2,500 unless it’s custom with programming etc.
- Ask for examples of a designers work, if your not happy they can represent you well, find someone else.
- Smaller outfits that have been in business for several years and specialize in real estate will usually do a better job for you and have better customer service than large national conglomerates. The small guys needs your business more than the mega web providers
- Site navigation should be simple, obvious, easy and short. If your navigation bar has more than 15-20 option it’s too complex and will take users to long to figure out where to go. Consolidate into categories and then subcategorizing. Example:
- Condo Buyers
- First Time Home Buyers
- Second Home Buyers
- Investment Buyers
Should be scaled down to one option – BUYERS then broken into the various buying classifications.
- Flash is fantastic and when done well can be incredible. If your going to use it, do it in moderation or to add some flare. Do note make a whole flash site. They tend to load slower than a traditional site and search engines can index their contents.
- If it is available request IDX service. IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. This method will enable you to add MLS listings to your site.
- Once your up and running, keep your site up to day especially your portraits.
On a final note, I’ll add a plug for my company Markler: We do websites if you need one.
Cheers!
Add comment September 28, 2007
Real Estate Professionals and Technology?
Real Estate and Technology (you would think) go hand in hand. Especially with an ever increasing demand for instant information 24/7. Yet, despite the rapid acceptance and implementation of technology in all other industries, I have found the vast majority of American Real Estate professionals are using only the bare minimums. Telephone, Email, Fax and internet to search local MLS (Multiple Listing Service).
These technologies are the basics of any business, however a well developed implementation of these technologies into a comprehensive work flow is virtually nonexistent in a majority of real estate firms.
Sure almost everyone uses computers; but do they use them well and to their full potential? For example email. Everyone uses it, most only as a basic answer reply delivery system; But what about wanted automated notifications of important or relevant information?…
I will explore these and other topics related to real estate and technology within this blog and how they tie into various products and services. From tips and advice, I hope to shed some light and answer questions that many real estate professionals may have. Whether it be which phones are best to what the hot topic in real estate is to what should I have on my website.
Add comment September 27, 2007
