Did You Know? - Blog

Did you know about Open Home Manager?

The team at iProperty knows how time consuming it can be adding all your Open Homes, week in and week out. Well now your life has just become even easier with the Bulk Open Home Manager. This awesome feature will allow you to create multiple open home times for multiple properties, all in one page.

To use this amazing feature, go to the Real Estate tab on iDashboard and click Open Home Manager down the left hand menu. From this one page you will be able to create all the Open Homes you need, easily selecting each property, time and the employee conducting the Open Home.

No longer will you have to go into each property and load the Open Home times, do it all from one central location – a HUGE time saver!

Ready to try it out? Just login to iDashboard and see how simple it is.

New Feature Sticker for iDashboard Products

New Property Reports

New Feature Sticker for iDashboard ProductsThe team at iProperty are proud to announce the addition of New Property Reports in iDashboard.

We understand how important it is to track and monitor the likes of Advertising Expenditure, Listing Expiries & Appraised, Listed & Withdrawn properties. Along with the previously available reports the New Property Reports allow you to generate even more accurate reports based on the information entered into iDashboard.

We now have the following reports available from the Office Reports – Property Reports section in iDashboard:

Advertising Spends

This report shows you active properties and the total amount of expenses per payee.

Listings Expiry Report

This report shows you properties that have an authority expiry date within the date search period.

Listings Summary Report

This report shows you a summary of any property listed during a particular timeframe. For example, find out what properties were listed in a given month or quarter.

Lost & Rejected Appraisals Report

This report shows you appraisals that were marked as Lost or Rejected. Lost means you lost the listing to a competitor. Rejected means the Vendor simply decided not to sell.

Property Status Summary Report

This report shows you properties based on their status during a chosen date range. For example you can find out which properties were settled in a particular period, such as a month or quarter.

VPA Outstanding

This report shows you active properties that have an outstanding Vendor Expense amount.

 

Vector of a lightbulb

15 Ideas to Drive More Traffic to Your Website

Vector of a lightbulbEvery webinar, seminar, or marketing guru will tell you how important your website is. There’s no doubt it’s one of the most important aspects of your business, but driving traffic to your site is equally as important.

It’s critical for you to get your audience in the habit of coming to your website as opposed to your social media platforms for your content. Sure, social media is key to driving traffic to your website, but social media should be a vehicle you use to build up your website and your email list.

So, along with social media, what other ways can you drive traffic to your website? We’ve complied some real estate marketing ideas to help you build a holistic plan for driving traffic to your site.

  1. Blogging

Blogging is a number one strategy for driving more traffic to your site. It’s a crucial real estate marketing idea and one strategy you should put into action. The more blog posts or articles you produce, the more chances you’ll rank in the search engines.

The key to blogging successfully is to have a plan. Identify the keyword you want to rank for, and create a series of posts using that targeted keyword. Blogging really is one of the best ways to promote your business. 

  1. Social Media 

A social media marketing strategy is crucial for driving traffic to your website. A common mistake many people make is sharing links and blog posts that drive traffic to other people’s websites. While that is important and something you should do, it’s also important to share your recent blog posts, too.

  1. Video Marketing 

Video marketing or vlogging is becoming more and more popular. When you give your audience different ways to consume your content, you’re able to reach clients who might not be a fan of reading, but will happily watch a short video. This is also a great way to market to new clients. Consider creating a custom video for them to show you’re willing to go the extra mile and will employ cutting edge marketing strategies.

  1. Paid Advertising 

When the word “paid” is mentioned, many shy away. One thing that might be a no brainer, however, is to spend a budgeted amount per customer on either Google PPC ads or Facebook ads. Facebook ads allow you to target your audience very specifically—zip code, interests, ages, etc. You can even use this to promote your blog posts, especially if you’ve blogged about a recent home for sale. 

  1. Custom Property Landing Pages 

Create a custom real estate landing page for your property, and promote your listing on social media. Be sure to use high resolution photos and a stunning description. Instead of driving traffic to other real estate for sale sites, drive buyers to yours. They might decide they don’t like the property, but they might find another one of yours on your site that they’d like to view. 

  1. Event Marketing 

Event marketing may seem dead, but it adds a personal touch and is a great way to build rapport. Host a weekly coffee and bagels event for other real estate agents and share your custom property landing pages. They will in turn share your links with their clients, and you’ll also see additional properties your clients might be interested in. Event marketing may be old school, but it is still a great networking activity.

  1. Car Advertising 

Sure, your kids or spouse might be a little embarrassed to ride in the mobile custom billboard promoting your business, but it’s great for brand awareness. Everywhere you drive, people will connect you with real estate. Your name will likely be the first that comes up among friends and family members when someone mentions he or she is looking for a real estate agent. 

  1. Use Your Email Signature 

How many emails do you send a day? You likely send a lot. Your email signature is the perfect real estate marketing idea. Make sure your email signature has a link to your website; you can even have a designer create banner ads that you can switch out for an even greater impact. 

  1. Email Marketing

Build your email list and create a marketing newsletter. Make sure to add value to your readers, so include links to local businesses, events, and coupons—find creative ways to give your readers more. This is a great way to stay on past clients’ radars for the next time they’re ready to buy or know someone who is. Send links to trendy home design ideas or pictures along with your new property listings, so new buyers also see the value add. 

  1. Network Marketing 

Build relationships with local business owners and find out if they’re willing to create a joint marketing agreement. Allow them to advertise in your newsletter if they let you leave your business cards at their front desk.

  1. Open Houses

This may seem like a given, because home owners expect you to have an open house. If you’re using social media, email marketing, and blogging, you can promote your open house far better than the average agent who isn’t using all of these techniques. Have a flyer available with the properties custom landing page and information about your informative and useful blog.

  1. Webinars 

Use Google Hangouts or other webinar software to host a webinar at your open house for out of state buyers that might not be able to show up. You can also host a free webinar with informative tips and educational information to draw in first time home buyers. Promote your webinars on Facebook and social media, and you’ll have an even better turn out.

  1. Search Engine Optimisation 

Search engine optimisation can be highly technical so you might need to hire help for this one. Make sure each page of your website has a purpose and a plan, so you can reach your audience. Your blog will help, but it’s vital to identify keywords for each page, too.

  1. Podcasting 

It might seem like we’re being inundated with podcasts, but they’re still a great networking and marketing activity. Create a community podcast to promote events and businesses in your local community; it’s a great way to become a community expert.

  1. Community Service

Serve your community. Relationship building is a natural byproduct of serving. You never know who is buying or selling a house, and people are more likely to use a real estate agent whom they know and trust.

Vector of an inbox tray

5 Ways to Say Goodbye to Email Clutter and Get Your Inbox Back

Vector of an inbox trayIt seems long forgotten, but there was a day when we were excited to see an email in our inbox. When email first made its way into mainstream business, we jumped at the you’ve-got-mail ding. Fast forward to today, and the constant pinging of email creates more stress than excitement.

If you’re like many people and feel overwhelmed by your inbox, we have some tips on how to manage email efficiently and take back control of your inbox.

  1. Establish a Two Minute Rule

Most of the stress surrounding email is the uncertainty around how long it’s going to take to respond. Too many people spend too much time responding. Nearly every email can be replied to within two minutes by keeping your response short and concise.

When you’re replying to emails, set a timer and adhere to it strictly. If you allow two minutes to reply to every email, you can respond to 5 emails in 10 minutes.

  1. Establish a Twice a Day Rule 

If your emails are burning you out, you may be checking your inbox too often. Many people check their inbox every 20 minutes, which is a huge waste of a time. A psychiatrist at King’s College London University found that when you’re in the middle of a task and check your email, your IQ drops 10 points, which is more than it drops when smoking marijuana.

Don’t open your inbox unless you’re planning on sending or replying to emails. Set a time in the morning and afternoon to check your email, and only check it at those times.

  1. Unsubscribe

One of the reasons many of us have a ton of spam is because it’s time consuming to individually unsubscribe to emails we signed up for years ago. Therefore, we put off the task of doing it.

There are a number of programs out there that let you unsubscribe in bulk. Bite the bullet and find one that works for you or set a timer and commit to spending 10 minutes a day unsubscribing to email until you’re inbox is manageable.

  1. Establish a Deal or Delete Rule

If you feel like you have to respond to every email, this rule is for you. You don’t have to reply to every email.

Establish a ‘deal or delete’ rule. When you open up an email, make yourself either deal with it or delete it. Those are your only two options. It’s likely that you’ll find yourself deleting many more emails than you ever thought you would.

  1. Establish a Deal With it Now Rule

If you get a TON of email, and your inbox is bursting at the seams by the end of the week—or the end of the day—this is your rule. Set a rule that says if you open up your inbox, you have to get it to zero every single time. If you don’t have enough minutes to spare to do that, don’t open your inbox.

This will keep you from wasting 10-20 minutes every hour browsing your inbox instead of dealing with your messages.

New Website Sticker for iProperty Products

New Wyndham Real Estate Brand & Website

New Website Sticker for iProperty ProductsWyndham Real Estate came to iProperty looking for new branding & a great looking website. Wyndham Real Estate took advantage of our fantastic Special Offer Package for New Companies or Established Companies looking to update or refresh their branding.

iProperty worked directly with Wyndham Real Estate to create a new brand for their company, first of all by having a face to face discussion on their priorities and vision for the brand update. iProperty then had our designers come up with a bundle of different brand concepts, based on Wyndham Real Estate’s original feedback. Once a concept was chosen and further feedback was provided, our designers made some final tweaks to arrive at a design that the customer was delighted with.

Once the brand concept was locked in, our team set to creating the new website and Wyndham Real Estate’s new marketing material as per iProperties Special Offer Package which offers the following:

  • Your Domain Name (.com.au)
  • A Responsive Website Design
  • Logo Design
  • Window Card Template
  • Handout Brochure Template
  • Property Handout Report Template
  • Email Alert Template
  • Business Card Design
  • Letterhead Design
  • 6 x 4 Signboard Design
  • e-Stationary (Email Signatures)

The new Wyndham Real Estate website is completely responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any property any time.

The new interactive home page contains a great list of ‘must-have’ features, this includes:

  • Property Search Panel
  • Latest Listings Property Gallery
  • Social Media and Contact Links
  • Latest Listing Grid List
  • Interactive Market Appraisal and Maintenance Request Forms
  • Latest Sold Properties
  • Latest News and Updates

If you are looking for a new website and branding, take advantage of our special package and contact iProperty today.

WyndhamWyndham2 Wyndham3

Did You Know? - Blog

Did you know about Action Plans?

Did You Know? - BlogAction Plans, sometimes known as trails, are effectively automated to-do lists that are triggered by events in your office. Action plans help you stay on top of day-to-day tasks and maintain a unified work effort amongst your team – ensuring no tasks or to-dos are forgotten along the way.

Integrated as a service in iDashboard, Action Plans can be setup every time a new listing or prospect comes into the picture and provide an automated check list complete with reminders. You can set up Action Plans for every single step of the real estate sales cycle – set up unlimited, customised action plans for customers or properties, customise trigger what triggers them and more.

In iDashboard, your action plans are completely customisable to suit your personal needs.

If you require assistance in setting up or using Action Plans within iDashboard check out our help articles:

Adding an Action Plan

Triggering An Action Plan On A Contact

Triggering An Action Plan On A Property

Solar Panels in the sun

How Google’s Project Sun Roof Might Revolutionise the Solar Panel Industry

Solar Panels in the sunWe go to Google for all of our questions, and it appears to have all of the answers. With Google’s new Project Sunroof, the search engine giant now can answer the question: What’s my roof’s potential for solar power?

Project Sunroof calculates how much sunlight hits your roof using the same high-resolution aerial mapping as Google Earth.

Many factors are taken into account when determining the level of sunlight, including: shade from nearby buildings or trees, weather patterns, and sun positions during the year. It combines this information with the typical electricity bill for a household and determines how much money you could save by using solar panels.

Carl Elkin, the lead engineer for Project Sunroof, says homeowners will see how easily they can save thousands of dollars each year. A volunteer with Solarize Massachusetts and a solar homeowner, he is surprised at how many people view solar panels as too expensive or believe their roof doesn’t receive enough sunlight to make it viable. He feels many are missing out on the opportunity to save money and make a greener lifestyle choice.

New research from Origin Energy and realestate.com.au found that 85% of Australians believe solar rooftop panels increase a property’s value. We can definitely see how energy efficient homes appeal to home buyers who are able to save money in the long run and why sellers might invest in energy efficient upgrades, such as solar panels.

Project Sunroof is a beta project and in the early stages of development. It’s currently only available in U.S. Cities, including: Fresno, California, the San Francisco Bay Area (also in California), and Boston, Massachusetts.

Aerial mapping is already used by homeowners who research solar energy, however, this technology goes one step further. It also helps them work out what panels to put on their roof. Despite this technology, homeowners will still have to assess if the savings truly are beneficial and install the panels.

Google’s new project may one day be a competitor for Australian-created Live Solar Potential Tool. Like Project Sunroof, this technology also estimates electricity generated from solar panels on rooftops. This tool factors in the solar panels position and tilt to calculate the monthly average sunlight and average annual solar radiation.

It’s hard to determine when a wider spread roll out of Project Sunroof will happen, but one can almost be certain that if Google thinks this project is worthwhile, solar energy may very well be the way of the future.

Image of young people around a table using mobile devices

Data Reveals More and More Australians Turn to Mobile

Image of young people around a table using mobile devicesMobile for Voice, Messaging, and Internet Access

Australia’s communication landscape is vastly shifting and mobile phones and mobile internet devices are an increasingly important part of it. We’ve all known that the shift to mobile is happening, but to what extent have mobiles replaced fixed-line telephone and internet? How are Australian’s age, location, and living circumstances shaping it? Have a look at researchacma data for some answers to those questions.

Twelve percent of adult Australian’s had neither a fixed-line phone nor fixed-line internet in their homes, as of December 2014. Instead, they are using mobile devices for internet access, messaging, and voice. This is a small, but growing group of adults who are moving to exclusively mobile communication.

Nearly twenty-nine percent of adult Australians had a mobile-only phone and no fixed-telephone line at home. This number has increased from 2.2 million at December 2010 to 5.2 million at December 2014.

Twenty-one percent of adult Australians used a mobile-only internet connection and did not have a fixed internet connection in the home at December 2014. They rely on a mobile phone, tablet, or mobile broadband connection to access the internet.

Increased Functionality of Mobile

Mobile phones have increased in functionality and continue to do so, which makes them a reliable replacement for fixed connections in peoples’ homes. Reduced costs and increased access to Wi-Fi networks have also contributed to the shift to mobile that we’re seeing.

Exclusively Mobile

Twelve percent of the adult population or 2.1million adult Australians were exclusively mobile at December 2014. These individuals have no fixed communication connection and use mobile for voice communications, internet access, and messaging. This number has increased by 10 percent since December 2013.

There are a number of contributing factors that impact whether an individual will be exclusively mobile. As of December 2014, these included:

  • Age—22 percent of people aged 25-34 were exclusively mobile; and 16 percent of 18-24 year olds were exclusively mobile.
  • Living Arrangements—18 percent of people who live alone (11 percent of adult Australians) were exclusively mobile. Of those who live in a share house or who board, 15 percent were mobile-only.
  • Location—Australians who don’t live in the major cities were more likely to use only mobile. 10 percent of people who live in capital cities were exclusively mobile while 15 percent of people from regional areas were exclusively mobile.
What Exclusively Mobile Users Do Online

Exclusively mobile users do the same things online that non-exclusive users do. Research revealed that most people do the following activities online:

  • Communications Activities (82% exclusively mobile, 85% general internet users)
  • Internet Banking (76% exclusively mobile, 76% general internet users)
  • Research and Information(78% exclusively mobile, 79% general internet users)
  • Entertainment Activities (67% exclusively mobile, 68% general internet users)
  • Buying or Selling (57% exclusively mobile, 61% general internet users)
  • Browsing and Surfing(59% exclusively mobile, 65% general internet users)
  • Social Networking (57% exclusively mobile, 55% general internet users)

As evidenced by Facebook’s 399 million users who log in on mobile, social media activities via mobile is increasing in popularity.

Mobile-Only Phone Users

5.2 million adult Australians or 29% used a mobile phone and didn’t have a fixed-line telephone in their home. From December 2010 to December  2014, mobile-only phone users grew from 13% to 29%.

As of December 2014, mobile-only phone users looked like this:

  • Age—54 percent of people aged 25-34 and 46 percent of 18-24 year olds were mobile-only phone users.
  • Living Arrangements—37 percent of people who live alone were mobile-only phone users. Of those who live in a share house, 54 percent were mobile-only phone users; of those who board, 41 percent were mobile-only phone users.
  • Location—28 percent who lived in capital cities and 30 percent who lived in regional areas were mobile-only phone users.

Ninety-five percent of people in homeless situations had a mobile phone, according to a recent project which was conducted by the University of Sydney on behalf of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. Seventy-seven percent of this group also reported having a smartphone. Smartphones allow them access to voice services and internet.

How Do Mobile-Only and Fixed-Line Phone Users Differ?

There are quite a bit of demographic differences between mobile-only phone users and fixed-line phone users. Seventy percent of adult Australians still maintained a fixed-line phone in their home, at December 2014.

Users of mobile-only phones are more likely to be:

  • 25-34 years old(37 percent mobile-only compared to 13 percent fixed-line telephone users).
  • Renting a home(56 percent mobile-only compared to 21 percent fixed-line telephone users).
  • From a young couple household(16 percent compared to 5 percent) or a young single household(22 percent compared to 4 percent).
Mobile-Only Internet Users

It’s interesting to note that a large portion of adult Australians do not have a fixed-line internet connection. They either use their mobile devices or a broadband connection. 3.9 million adult Australians(21 percent) used mobile-only internet.

Again, the likelihood of a person being a mobile-only internet user is influenced by these demographics:

  • Age—28 percent of people aged 25-34 were mobile-only internet users. Individuals 65 and over were less likely to be mobile-only internet users.
  • Living Arrangements—27 percent of people who live alone were mobile-only internet users and of those who board, 52 percent were mobile-only internet users.
  • Location—19 percent who lived in capital cities and 26 percent who lived in regional areas were mobile-only internet users.
Where Do Mobile-Only Internet Users Use the Internet?

Seventy-three percent (the majority) of mobile-only internet users use the internet at home. As you would imagine, this figure is lower than fixed-line internet users—97 percent of those individuals use the internet at home.

The benefit of mobile internet is that it can be accessed anywhere, which is why we’re seeing the following statistics as well: 49 percent of mobile-only internet users accessed the internet at work, 22 percent at a friend’s house, and 20 percent via a hotspot.

We’re seeing a trend in mobile usage, whether it be mobile-only phone usage, mobile-only internet usage, or exclusively mobile usage. With mobile usage on the rise, we can expect more and more Australians to continue to shift to mobile and for the communications landscape to continue to change.

New Update Sticker for iDashboard Products

Property Web Views Upgrade

New Update Sticker for iDashboard Products

Google recently made changes to the way applications like iDashboard need to authorise with Google Analytics causing a period of time where we were unable to collect property statistics.

This change required us to make amendments to how the system collects this analytics information for Property Web Views.

Along with this change to how we fetch this data from Google, we have also made an interface upgrade, providing you with more information than ever before.

Property Web Views in iDashboard now has an new upgraded chart, which shows the Property Views (aka Hits) along with the Office Median Views and Office Average (aka Mean) Views, which can easily be disabled for each property by simply clicking on the line graph title down the bottom of the graph/chart.

You can obtain more detailed per day information by simply hovering over the date you wish to investigate further.

Median = The Median is the number found at the exact middle of the set of values. This is a more accurate representation of  the central tendency value as it is using the middle value.

Average = The Average (or Mean) is calculated adding up all the values and dividing that score by the number of values. The problem with this method is that if you have a value that is unusually high or low, it skews the Average as it is largely influenced by outliner values.

With the activation of the new Google Analytics in iDashboard we have also retrospectively collected your stats for the last couple of months to ensure everything is now up-to-date.

Chart of web views from iDashboard