Genius
Join me tomorrow for “Coffee Chat” with RE Technology
Greg Robertson will be joining us tomorrow during RE Technology’s Daily Coffee Chat to show you the New Cloud CMA Live. This feature is 6 months in the making and their timing could not be any better. Their main goal was to give you a new way to present.
We have talked a lot about Virtual Open Houses and virtual showings, but this takes it to another level with its integration of Zoom, Skype and Google Hangouts. The best thing about this new feature is it is free to all existing Cloud CMA Subscribers.
Register here to get a front row seat:
https://lnkd.in/g68id3c
The fun starts at 9AM PT tomorrow.
Home values and street names
Speaking of Zillow, Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries recently did an OP-CHART in the New York Times today.
The Secrets of Street Names and Home Values
“We learned three things about the relationship between home values and street names: First, names are better than numbers. Second, lanes are better than streets. Third, unusual names are better than common ones.”
Gotta say this is pretty cool stuff! Make sure you check it out and see what your street name tells you about the price of your house.
The Plunge
“If you look at the careers of great entrepreneurs and you look at the moment they took their plunge, the plunge is rarely a great financial or material risk, it’s a social risk. At the moment they started their new businesses, everyone around them said ‘you’re an idiot’.”
– Malclom Gladwell
via rusty
Is the “freemium” model dead?
“Freemium has run its course”, Rags Srinivasan writing for GigaOM
“A small percentage of a very large number is indeed a large number, but can your startup stay solvent while you wait for the conversion to kick in? Freemium only offers the hope that non-paying users will fall in love with your product and start paying for it. Shooting an unlimited number of free bullets and hoping some will hit the target is a shotgun approach to monetization. It’s time to take a deliberate and targeted approach. Or as Vanek told me in our conversation, “it is time to retire the shotgun.”
Good post on the origin of the freemium model and argument why it has been fallen out of favor with some developers. Don’t skip the comments either.
Mark Scheel is back and will be live reporting from the Google IO conference next week!
one of the largest, if not THE LARGEST MLS IDX data aggregation systems in the industry. He now runs a software consultancy firm in Denver called Digital Construction.
I happy to have Mark contribute and hope to continue the trend with more contributors in the future.
Take it away Mark!
Agent Reboot hits the OC
I’m in Washington DC for NAR Midyear meetings and “raising professional standards” is a topic that keeps coming up. One of the ways that can help is education. Inman News has been putting their “Agent Reboot” roadshow for the past few years and it keeps getting better and better. The event is always highly rated by agents. I was speaking to Katie Lance, Social Media Director and Contributing Editor at Inman News, she says this year’s event is focusing on strategy, more live demos and less slide decks.
Next week the Agent Reboot roadshow stops in my home town of Orange County. Click on the link below for more details:
Agent Reboot – Orange County
Wed. May 23rd
8am to 3:30 pm (continental breakfast included)
$49 when they register online, $99 day of the event
The Orange County Association of REALTORS is the exclusive sponsor of the Orange County event.
If you’re an MLS or Associaiton and you are looking for ways to help your agents step up their game through education, check out the city list below and find out when Agent Reboot will be stopping by your home town.
CMLS Brings It!
There are two upcoming events that if you haven’t already heard about you should definitely check out:
October 31st, 2011
CMLS Brings It – The Impact of the Proposed IDX Rule Changes
Online Meeting regarding the NAR PAG Report on IDX from all angles and share your thoughts with your peers. Hosted by CMLS and featuring Bob Bemis, ARMLS; Matt Cohen, Clareity Consulting; Jim Harrison, MLS Listings; John Rees, Esq.; Greg Manship, Intermountain MLS; Cathy Holefelder, Heartland MLS and other invited guests, this WebEx will lay out the possible rule changes and the impact on MLSs.
November 9th, 2011
CMLS Brings It to the Table- Branding the MLS
CMLS is bringing another timely topic to the Table at NAR’s Annual Conference- Join us as we explore the Challenges and Opportunities for the MLS industry as regards Branding the MLS Data to reflect Value and Accuracy in the marketplace.
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!
Meeting, conference call, or keynote? There’s an app for that!
“Buzzword Bingo HD is a free iPad game that mocks those who believe authentic interactions start with empty words.”
