Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

How to travel like a Vendor

With CMLS coming up next week at NAR just around the corner I thought I would share some travel tips. Just click on the images to see them better. Here goes…

So I hate to check any luggage. Especially with connections, you are just asking for trouble. I was reading this blog (onebag.com) It’s all about how to travel light. Anyway this company (RED OXX) worked with the blogger to create the ultimate carry on bag, they call it the AIR BOSS. One of the “onebag” concepts is no wheels. The mechanism for the wheels in rolling bags take up too much space. At first that was a deal breaker for me but the site convinced that you aren’t really carry the bag that much anyway. I got the bag and it’s great. I have no problem going on week long trips with this sucker, the design is simple and the quality of the bag is top notch, I love it. Problem was that I noticed that I was carrying the bag a lot longer than I wanted to, I missed wheels. But I didn’t want to sacrifice the bag. I needed another solution.

The best of both worlds

I typically ride me bike to work, so I use a backpack. When I travel I use the same backpack to carry by MacBook and other gear. Some of our sales guys use a rolling wheel case. I thought this might be the perfect solution for when I travel. I bought a Wenger Swissgear wheeled case from Amazon. The case was wide enough for all my gear and as an added bonus just fit my AIR BOSS bag on top. So now I could keep my AIR BOSS bag, have wheels and still not check any baggage.

Shoes and belt

When doing trade shows you really stand a lot so comfortable shoes are key. Rubber soles are a must. Normally I rock my Allen Edmonds but these are not for booth duty. So about 8 years ago, on a recommendation, I bought a pair of Mephisto shoes. They were a bit pricey but are awesome! Another tip, buy a reversible belt. You’re welcome.

Gear
You never know when you are going to need that extra power. So I like the integrated extention cord/ multi-outlet strip. They carry these at any hardware store. I also use at Fivespot for wireless internet, since I usually have multiple devices (MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, etc). One thing I recently got for my iPad and love is the Book Book by Twelve South. I’m still using my original iPad so I don’t have a smartcover, but even if I upgrade I think I’ll still keep the Book Book.

Last but not least is headsets. I have the QuietComfort 15 (Noise Canceling). I prefer “over the ear”, rather than “on ear” to baffle out as much noise as I can. I also spent a few extra bucks and bought the “OE headphones mobile communications kit” which basically adds a microphone so you can use your phone/Skype with them. This makes them perfect for conference calls.

Hope you enjoyed this and travel safe!

CAR EXPO 2011 Recap

We exhibited at the CAR EXPO show last week at the San Jose Convention Center. The show kicked off at 5PM on Tuesday night and went till 8PM, show hours were 9AM to 5PM on Wednesday and 9AM to 4PM on Thursday. Not a lot of Vendors will share with you any real numbers in regard to sales at trade shows but I thought I would this time.

Our Booth

I had us listed as “Cloud CMA by W&R Studios“. This was an naming convention I stole from FBS. I’m just worried about the day we launch another product that may or may not have the “Cloud” moniker so I think its important to get both names out there now. We had 3 people total, myself and two others. To be fair I wasn’t always at the booth. Our booth location wasn’t the best but I was able to get a 10 X 10 close to the MLSListings booth, which will make sense a little later in this post.

Over all the traffic was slow. I almost hate saying that since every Vendor references this mythological year when they were off the hook busy with booth traffic. And the Scarf King was super busy! : ) The times we did receive a quick bump was usually when a speaker had referenced us at one of the breakout sessions.

Personally I don’t really care for CAR’s Tuesday evening “kickoff”. It just increases our costs (hotel, food, rental car) We did have a few sign ups (about 10) during this time, but I really think we could have done without it, or maybe it should have lasted just two hours, instead of three.

Last Year Vs. This Year.

Last year the event was held in Anaheim (our backyard), and we did about 70 signups. Half of them yearly (about $199.95) and the other half monthly ($24.95), our “show special” pricing. We had to turn a lot of people away since we were not compatible with Sandicor at the time and some of the Northern California MLS providers.

This year we did a big push in California and the only major MLS provider we were not compatible with was BAREIS. We are going to be launching BAREIS soon, but the timing for this year’s CAR EXPO didn’t work out.

We did about 40 sign-ups total for the show, half of them Yearly. Same pricing as last year. I had set our goal at 100, so I was disappointed. The main factor (besides traffic) was that we are launching a site license with Contra Costa, Bay East and EBRD next month. So we had to turn away a ton of people from those areas who were going to get Cloud CMA free as part of their MLS membership. Also a factor was that we just recently launched the local MLS, MLSListings, so our name recognition was really that strong.

But these are just excuses, and as I tell my sales guys: “Excuses are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink.”

Selling

The guys tried a few different things this time, like demoing on their iPads, which I believe worked out well (although I’m still concerned some agents might be intimidated). I was more comfortable with using the actual printed report samples we had. When demoing on their notebooks (MacBook Airs) they would use a slide show instead of going live on to the web. Although we did have a wireless internet connection thru a Verizon MiFi device we brought along in case a customer had a specific feature they wanted to see. Also, we had a pretty high closing rate of people who came by the booth, so that also tells me traffic was a factor in our poor results.

Since we were new in the area we focused upon finding contacts in the area for coming back for a second trip and doing demos in larger offices. So all was not lost, but disappointing.

Bottom Line

We haven’t had any great success with trade shows this year and I’ve really scaled back our participation. The CAR EXPO will be in Anaheim next year, which means I will probably attend again. If the show were in another area where I would have to travel I would probably scale back and not go myself (which would save a ton of money on alcohol alone). I will give the convention staff at CAR credit, they have a great team and do treat the exhibitors with respect and are open to suggestions. And fresh coffee and doughnuts at the Exhibitor Lounge do go a long way. : )

The future of “Just Listed” postcards?

Interesting little app, Postcard on the run, that lets you generate postcards with your own photos, right from your smartphone. It then delivers them the old fashion way.
Couple this is a direct mail printing/list/mailing house and you got yourself a quick and easy Just Listed postcard service.

Via Mashable

Curt

He stands over 6 and a half feet tall, he once rode his motorcycle (a Harley-Davidson) from Washington state all the way a Houston, Texas; and back! ( A trip covering over 5,000 miles), this year, he quipped, “I flew”. He lives mostly off the grid, doesn’t own a television, is the current VP of Business Development at MOVE, has a Cary Grant type of accent to his voice (meaning I can’t figure out what country the accent comes from, if any), his name is Curt Beardsley and is in my estimation one of the best minds and speakers in real estate today.

I met Curt in Kirkland Washington back in 1996. Back then I was trying to launch our product, “Lightning“, in the market in Western Washington. I met with a few brokers showing the latest innovation with Lightning. Moore Data had just introduced photos to its MLS software Compass. My business partner Dan Woolley had, for lack a better word, hacked the system so that Lightning could also display photos from the Compass MLS system. A huge feat that raised a lot of eyebrows. I still remember people looking under our table at trade shows thinking we had another computer running Viewpoint (Moore Data’s proprietary MLS access software). One of the brokers suggested I meet with a couple guys that were doing some innovative stuff, on this new thing called “the Internet”. The broker made the introduction and the next day I went to meet them.

At that time Curt was the co-founder of a company called True North Technology. When I arrived they had a small office with a single “partner’s desk”. Or maybe it was just two desks facing together. His partner was Kevin Knoepp. I showed them Lightning and our ability to display Compass photos. I could tell both of them were impressed. Dan’s hack had brought me some street cred. (Although later he confessed that at our first meeting he never heard anyone curse as much as I did.) We were a small company in real estate technology (IRIS) and so were they. What I didn’t know at the time was that Curt and Kevin were working on what would be the first web-based MLS system.

We became friends, kept in touch, hung out together at real estate conferences, traded stories and tried to grow our respective companies. True North began getting some traction, and starting launching their new MLS system with MLS providers around the country. Not long after that they were acquired by another upstart in the MLS game, GTE. GTE had a MLS software called System 4, led by Errol Samuelson. Serendipity.

Errol is no slouch when it comes to speaking and bringing big ideas to this space. If you are lucky you’ll get to see both of them speak. Any panel in which Curt or Errol are participating leave the other panelists looking like the amateur hour. Curt is a perfect fit for the cerebral Errol and the real estate industry is better for their partnership together.

Curt brings more an academic vibe to his talks. His vibe is one of a well liked professor. If the TED conference wanted someone to talk about real estate I would send Curt. His mix of data and a passion about the idea of a “Home” is very inspiring. This is striking compared to others in the space. An article I read last week in the New York Times quoted Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia; “There was a time when owning a home was a symbol of you had made it. Now it’s O.K. not to own” and continued “I’m in no rush at all to buy”. Pete doesn’t get it. Curt does.

If you have been in this business a long time you can get jaded. To actually listen to someone who inspires you is a tall order. Curt’s mix of idealism and creative energy is beautiful thing to watch and fills that tall order in more ways than one.

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