Realty World Northern California & Nevada

That time of year is upon us and it feels as if the holidays are racing towards us faster than ever. Thanksgiving is here and then it’s Black Friday shopping madness which leads to continued waves of shoppers, and all seem to be a bit more pushy each year. Technology can be a wonderful thing and drastically ease this process. For some, technology eases the process of browsing and purchasing gifts. For others, technology wrapped up with a bow is what brings a smile to their face. And for others of us (i.e. Me!), technology involved in every step of the process is the only way that we survive.

Many of you may be familiar with Shutterfly.com for their online print, editing, enhancing, and sharing services. Their products range from cards and stationary, photo books, and calendars, to miscellaneous gifts like mugs, mouse pads, magnets, coasters, etc. I always enjoy playing with the image editing and enhancing online software. It’s easy to use with their slew of products. For more information check them out at http://www.shutterfly.com. Their holiday cards are a quick and easy way to get great looking cards.

One thing that has found its way into many homes these days are digital photo frames. And why not? They bring new life to your memories adding style to the sharing of photos and memories. The pricing on photo frames have been coming down over the past year and I have seen a leaked Black Friday ad for an 8” digital photo frame for $29 at Walmart. Some digital photo frames offer various features such as image and video formats, multiple memory card formats, slideshow modes and built in speakers.

Some people are asking me whether I think the standard-definition DVD is good enough. If you are sitting on the couch staring at your HDTV watching a movie on a Saturday night with your DVD player – I am sorry to say but you are missing out! I admit that when Blu-ray was released and the price tag on that was around $500+ I figured I’d hang out and wait it out. Well, the wait is now over for the price on Blu-Ray players to reach sub $100. A Black Friday Walmart ad has been leaked for a Blu-ray player at $78. However, I must warn that less expensive players are prone to slower load times and lack certain features. The basics behind Blu-Ray is that there are three profiles available: 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 profiles. Profile 1.0 is the basic profile which allows basic playback of Blue-ray movies. Profile 1.0 players are no longer being made but are still being sold today. Profile 1.1 (also known as BonusView or Final Standard Profile) enables advanced features like picture-in-picture video commentary. Profile 2.0 (also known as BD-Live) requires that the player have Internet access which allows for content to be downloaded (i.e. Downloading of movie trailers).

I hope this glimpse of technology in the holidays helps ease the shopping frenzy and allows you to spend more time with family and friends.

Recently I’ve been asked for my two cents on the matter of selecting a new notebook computer. I am partial to two laptops – Dell for PCs and MacBook Pros from Apple. I don’t tend to care for other manufacturers for a variety of reasons.

Right off the bat you may decide to go with one or the other simply because of the operating system choice of Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. One advantage with the Mac OS X is that you have the capability of installing Windows on the Mac using VMWare or Parallels. This requires a bit more of technical knowledge in being able to setup but it enables you to run your Windows applications on a Mac. Another main difference between the two of them is their price. Often times, Dell will offer notebooks starting at $499. The starting price point for a Macbook is $999. One can make the argument that the two prices are not comparing apples to apples (no pun intended). Pound for pound, I feel that the Macbook Pro is a better machine (hardware and software).

Dell offers a phenomenal warranty program with next (business) day and onsite repair for hardware issues with your computer. Apple does not offer that, but instead requires that you bring your laptop to an Apple store. Any issues found may be resolved at the Apple store while other repairs could take several weeks to resolve.

• In selecting the specific model I would recommend thinking seriously about which what types of things are most important to you. Some things to consider are:
• Size of screen
• Screen resolution
• Weight
• Ports (DVI / USB / Firewire, etc.)
• CPU speed
• Memory capacity
• Misc. Items (Onboard WWAN / Bluetooth, etc.)

For the Apple products, it is relatively easy to select your choice. You are fairly limited with choices between two models (Macbook and Macbook Pro) both of which come with many items such as wireless, ports, etc. as standard items while they may be considered “add-ons” by other computer makers. The Apple stores are a great place to see and hold the models first hand. The Apple store staff is usually very helpful and knowledgeable. The Dell site offers roughly a dozen models, all of which allow for customizations.

I hope this helps in your notebook search!

Erin, Hilda, Aaron... the Erin/Aaron sandwich!

Yesterday I attended my second real estate barcamp event – this one at ReBarCamp Silicon Valley (#rebcsv for you Twitter fans) before this week’s CAR Conference in San Jose. Admittedly, the first was during my second week of work in real estate at the annual Inman Conference and I spent most of my time in that initial experience with my mouth agape and senses reeling.

I’m a barcamp veteran in the technology industry, but there are some vast differences from the barcamps I’d attended featuring deep dives into widgets, application builds and cloud computing and the world of real estate.

Here are a few similarities and differences I noticed:

Difference: Formal v. casual wear. You guys came dressed up in suits, shiny shoes and wielding business cards. In tech barcamps the attire is jeans or shorts, t-shirts, sweatshirts and you can’t get someone to look up from their smartphone long enough to give you a business card.

Who wins? Tech. Realtors have to come in comfortable clothes (it’s only other agents, no worries!) because often times the sessions are outdoors, on benches, folding chairs, etc. You won’t pay attention as well if you’re sweating bullets in that suit!

Similarity: Everyone is on a cell phone/laptop. At tech and real estate barcamps alike, I look at people through the lens of their camera phone as they snap pictures for blogs or Twitter, or I stare at the back of their laptop, netbook, etc. as they feverishly look up the new technologies mentioned, add me as a friend on Facebook or follow me on Twitter (and catch up on a few emails of course).

Difference: Humility. In tech, we can’t admit we don’t know about tech very easily, so you’ll see a lot of us thoughtfully nod and then jot down notes furiously on acronyms or websites to look up when we steal a few moments away from the myriad of prying eyes (we’re a paranoid bunch) but you won’t see us ask a lot of “basic” questions. At real estate barcamps it is refreshing to see people question the basics and slow the pace down to make sure they aren’t left behind!

Who wins? Real estate. Knowing that asking questions without being afraid of what your colleagues will think serves Realtors well, as it ensures the entire group gets a good education.

Similarity: We all like the “bar” part of barcamp. It is a universal truth that most of us look forward to the part of the day where we open up some wine, have a beer, or in our case yesterday – a handle of Johnnie Walker, and kick back and talk about what’s up in our industry. At the end of the day, barcamps are not just a place for education, but also a great place to connect with those in the industry who are passionate about integrating new media and methodologies into our lives.

I highly recommend checking out barcamps if you have the opportunity – come to learn, share information, ask questions and meet people… because the best way to make the most of social media is to actually be social.

Erin Robbins
Social Media & Marketing Director
erin.robbins@rwnc.net

Bing is Microsoft’s new search (decision) engine and launched June 1st with the focus on assisting in decisions of travel, shopping, health, local amenities, video, and images. The landing page graphics are following the Microsoftesque feel with its use of enigmatic imagery.

Once a search is entered, Bing offers a variety of options at the top for web, images, video, shopping, and maps as well as search options to the left which are relevant to the search and include your search history. Hovering over the search results and videos provides a preview of the page and video while hovering over images provides image dimensions in a very convenient manner.

So far so good. I have found Bing’s search results relevant and useful, although is it enough to sway users from Google?

Tei Baishiki
Chief Technology Officer
tei.baishiki@rwnc.net

I recently had the opportunity to spend a day with the “chiefs” of several large real estate companies in a well appointed and quiet conference room. Before the day began, we had the pleasure of having dinner together the evening before, enjoying some of California’s finest Cabernet, loosening up for an open exchange of ideas, need, wants, threats… you get the idea.

Since the topic of the meeting was centered on new services for real estate brokerage operations, a litany of needs soon began to flow quickly as the session progressed.  Technology seemed to be the dominate centerpiece. During the meeting, I found myself having to bite my tongue as I listened to what so many wanted in their tech tool box.

I was so excited to learn that we have, and continue to enhance, our technology based tools that accomplish the goals our competition is seeking, and some are not sure what is over the horizon at all. By lunch (with little reading between the lines), I became more confident about our franchisees’ positioning for success in this new market and information, and consumer driven age.  Our technology investment directly supports the real estate business enterprise model of this time.

Don’t read this the wrong way either; these companies are very well established and run by broker/owners that have years of experience and several of them have invested millions into their operations and they work smart. Seemed like all had heavy brick and mortar expenses and technology that resembled patchwork at best, or off-the-shelf basic online tools that run as separate applications, and a few that might integrate with high levels of technical know-how.

The bottom line here is that our integrated systems for brokers and associates provide outstanding efficiencies in terms of operational, marketing and advertising procedures at less cost while simultaneously creating an increased amount of new listings and sales through a growing amount of online channels and consumer oriented propositions.

Lunch was served in the conference room and we continued to talk and enjoy a good spread. I sat and thought to myself about the true value of our programs and our franchisees’ success. Now more than any other, I knew that if they use our systems to compete they wouldn’t be eaten for lunch.  I’m not sure the others felt that way.

Scott LeForce
President
Scott.LeForce@rwnc.net