Real Estate Software & Technology Newsletter
This newsletter was emailed in march 2004
     
What’s Different about your Business ?
In real estate, it’s not enough to rely
on your nationwide brand anymore.
Everyone buys the same books and video’s
from the same conferences and tries
to follow them so where’s your point of
difference? You need to create an identity
for yourself that differentiates you
from your competition.
What are you known for and do you
specialise in anything?
Do you know exactly what your
competitors are doing compared to you?
Identify your strengths and your
competitor’s weakness, and then you can
magnify these strengths and establish to
the client why they should deal with you.
Welcome «FirstName» to the March issue
of the Ascendant Australia
Newsletter. The purpose of this regular
e-mail newsletter is to provide you with
timely, insightful information to real
estate agents and property professionals
with respect to IT changes and news, and
in particular, a client management
focus to assist your business.
It is not intended to be a total wrap up
of every leading real estate listing
system or of every property accounting
program with detailed reviews, but
more so IT tit bits gathered nationally
from our clients while training and
consulting and trying to filter the
parts most likely to provide benefit or interest.
We hope you enjoy the newsletter and any
feedback is always welcome.
Real Estate / Property IT Solutions &
Consulting
This newsletter is provided especially
for «Attention»
All in one Phone PDA’s
The last year has seen an
explosion in the combined
PDA Phone market with
more and more models
appearing. I have been
using the
o2 XDA phone
and Pocket PC PDA and
could not live without it
especially as it syncs my
ACT database into it.
Also the XDA ( retailing
around $1200 ) can be as
low as $29 pcm on some
phone plans and Optus
even discounts it!
There is now a new o2
XDA with a digital camera
even! Also check out the
new
Motorola pictured
below which looks set to
give the XDA a big
challenge!
Keeping your Client List up to Date
Some of you may be aware of
Plaxo
as a “free” means of automatically
keeping an Outlook Contact list up to
date. For those of you not aware, Plaxo
downloads software to your pc then
emails, on your behalf, all your contacts
asking them to verify and update your
entire contact details.
Unfortunately, this “free” service is
causing some debate regarding it’s
business model and what it is really
doing with all those email addresses it
gathers worldwide and stores in the USA.
It’s worth reading an article at
Zdnet which sheds some light on this. We
have mixed feelings on Plaxo as
every time someone uses Plaxo their
address book is sent to a server in the
USA and many unknowing people have been
emailed separately by Plaxo
since asking to use their service -
there is much debate worldwide on this
issue and the jury seems to be out
especially on the ethics or legality of
sending, to a third party company,
someone else’s email address and details
without their consent. I think Privacy
issues are fairly significant here.
Personally, I prefer the
Good Contacts system (works with ACT and
Outlook) as it provides a similar
service but the data never resides on their
server. Click below for more info.
What do you think about this issue and
what would you say to a Client about
sending their details to Plaxo?
Ascendant Australia Newsletter
More Details
Article in Zdnet
Good Contacts
Plaxo
  
Propel and ACT makes for a
formidable combination if
you want the world’s best
contact manager for real
estate. Propel2 has many
changes based on feedback
from users and unleashes
the power of ACT 6.0 !
One of our clients has been maintaining
a large email merge buyer list.
Recently a Vendor he didn't know walked
in and gave him a listing.
Why ? Because someone he didn't recall
who was on the buyer email list
recommended him to his friend as an
agent who kept his Buyers informed!
Security & Virus Issues
As Virus proliferation continues its
clear now the whole world has
everyone else’s email address books.
Each time a new Virus be it
MyDoom or any other pops up it targets
MS Outlook address books and
then sends everyone in that list an
email and often from a “faked” sender.
So if you get an email from Fred@hotmail
or anywhere else just realize
Fred may not have actually sent it—but
he may have been in the address
book of someone with an infected pc. So
what can you do to help stop
your pc from being infected?
Keep your Virus software up to date
Don’t open an email you are not
expecting or looks a bit odd
which is always the safest bet anyway.
If you need a free virus program try AVG
from Grisoft which works very
well. Also make sure you have a Firewall
to screen out other little nasty
bugs which can still slip through
regardless of the Virus program. Try the
popular free firewall Zone Alarm if you
don't have one already.
Why Create a buyer Email List ?
More Details
Zonealarm
AVG /
Grisoft
To remove your name from our mailing
list, please
click here
Questions or Feedback? E-mail me at
here
or call 0500 558 550
Gordon Falconer
AAPI Director Ascendant
Australia
Phone 0500 558 550 Mobile 0410 426
552
IT Consulting & Contact Management for
the Property Industry – Offices in Melbourne & Sydney
|