Tickets Now Available for ABoR’s Installation and Awards Gala Join ABoR for its annual Installation and Awards Gala from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11, at the Renaissance Austin Hotel. Tickets for this year’s event, themed “Celebrating You,” are now available. Individual tickets cost $40 per person and can be purchased online or by phone. This year’s event will celebrate the real estate community and provide those in attendance with the opportunity to network with local professionals and ABoR leadership. The incoming Board of Directors, as well as 2010 Chairman of the Board, John Horton of John Horton Realty, and the 2009 Industry Award winners will be honored at the event. Individuals attending the event will also have the opportunity to participate in a balloon drop with the chance to take
home some cash. Additionally, there are a select number of sponsorship opportunities available for the event, ranging from $300 to $6,000. Sponsorships are a great opportunity for businesses to gain valuable exposure and shine the spotlight on themselves for the evening. To purchase tickets online, visit www.abor.com/events/installation.cfm or to purchase by phone, call 454-7636, ext. 1603. For more information regarding the event, tickets and sponsorships, contact Hessie Brawley in ABoR’s Education Department at hbrawley@abor.com or by phone at 454-7636, ext. 1603.
Upcoming Events: OCTOBER 16 NAHREP Real Estate Olympics Zilker Park - Noon to 6 p.m.
OCTOBER 20 “Strike Against Hunger” Bowling tournament Showplace Lanes - 1 to 5 p.m. OCTOBER 21 CRS Quarterly Chapter Meeting Westwood Country Club - 11:30 a.m. OCTOBER 22 HBA Installation & Awards Renaissance Austin Hotel - 6 p.m.
OCTOBER 23 WCAoR Fall Fashion Show & Dinner 123 E. Old Settlers Blvd - 7 p.m. OCTOBER 29 WCR Chapter Program Meeting ABoR Auditorium - 11a.m.
—Associates In— PROGRESS OCTOBER 2009 • VOL. 14 • ISSUE 6
Enjoyable. Entertaining. It’s all About You.
Try out these free tools for lead generation, marketing By Linda McNabb CONTRIBUTING WRITER
REALTORS who want to dramatically improve their productivity, reach thousands of potential clients and create professional looking advertising materials can do so easily – and rarely spend a penny. Those who attended the Williamson County Association of REALTORS’ Tech Tune Up recently are among those doing so by using some of the Top 20 Free Products that REALTOR Jack Stapleton of Austin Suburban Properties revealed during one of the event’s many useful seminars. The products appeared to be so valuable to a wide spectrum of real estate professionals that REALTY LINE decided to share a sampling with those who unable to attend, perhaps because they were too busy working the old-fashioned way – like stuffing brochure boxes, checking various e-mail and social media accounts by logging into each one, listening to voice mails with their phone or buying postage for flyers that someone else could be sending for them. So prepare for a new way of working, and you just might have time to squeeze in one more listing appointment. Here goes: LOWE’S REALTOR BENEFITS HTTPS://WWW.LOWESREALTORBENEFITS.COM Lowe’s Realtor Benefits sends out free discount cards branded with your picture and information. “My clients love it and it is a great way to do a touch and get my name out,
give something for “free” and strike up a conversation to ask for a referral,” says David Burton of Austin Suburban Properties. “Simply upload your photo and enter all of your past clients. Lowes will pay for the postage, they pay for the card, they pay for everything.”
FREE TWITTER REAL ESTATE “HOW TO” EBOOK WWW.MYTECHOPINION.COM/TWITTER-FOR-REAL-ESTATE Wondering how to use all the social media you have been hearing about? Log on here to receive a free book on how to use twitter in Real Estate. DEMAND SPOT – FARM TWITTER FREE WWW.DEMANDSPOT.COM/ This is a free lead generation service to search for people who are looking for real estate on twitter. Stapleton says a recent search for such people in the 78664 zip code brought up 2,000 results. JOTT – FREE BLACKBERRY TRIAL APP HTTP://JOTT.COM/JOTT/JOTT-FOR-BLACKBERRY.HTML Beverly Henson of Sky Realty says she uses Jott for BlackBerry, which lets you reply to e-mails with your voice, eliminating the need for time-consuming and thumb-tiring typing.
POSTLETS: FREE LISTING SYNDICATION WWW.POSTLETS.COM/HOME.PHP Create your listing or open house and syndicate it to Craigslist, Facebook, FrontDoor, Google Base, HotPads, Presorted Standard Myspace, Oodle, Trulia, Twitter, Vast, U.S. Postage Zillow, and more. “I can’t express enough PAID Austin, Texas what a profound difference the site has Paid Permit #715 made in my marketing,” says Christy Gessler, of RE/MAX Capital City. “The P.O. Box 81366 best part about this site is the fact that so Austin, Texas 78708-1366 many of the hot websites for real estate information are included and you can hit them all at once (and update your listings all at once should you need to for a price reduction or new photos, for example). It is vital in our changing real estate market to reach the public where THEY are searching for properties.” Don’t forget: You can visit us online 24/7 at www.realtylineonline.com Nicole Boynton of Austin Suburban
Properties also testifies to its success. “I used it to post a lease listing at 4:30 one day and had it leased by 5:02,” she says.
YOU MAIL WWW.YOUMAIL.COM/HOME/INDEX.DO See voicemail on your phone, browser or e-mail, block unwanted voicemail and impress callers by greeting them by name. “I have used several of these tools but my newest favorite is this one,” says Barbara Wigginton, Williamson County Association of REALTORS president. “It’s a free visual voicemail with individualized greetings and voicemail to email— really cool and very powerful. It saves me lots of time.” 4 INFO WWW.4INFO.NET This service lets you create text messages with listing details, so a drive-by buyer can get listing details instantly. “It isn't that difficult to set up, and you can throw away that brochure box for something better,” Stapleton says. TEXAS A&M AUSTIN AND ROUND ROCK MARKETING REPORT HTTP://RECENTER.TAMU.EDU/MREPORTS/AUSTINRROCK.PDF The Real Estate Center publishes market news which is updated continuously throughout the year. Reba Saxon of Keller Williams Realty says this is the perfect document to give to outof-state buyers. XPENSER FOR EASY ACCOUNTING WWW.XPENSER.COM “Now, if you're super analytical, and you want huge detail in your accounting records, then stick with QuickBooks or Peachtree,” Stapleton says. “However, if you're into simplicity, and spending as little time as possible in getting expenses and income into an online and free solution, then Xpenser is worth a look. Entry is fast and easy, even using your cell phone.” YOUTUBE – VIDEO MARKETING WWW.YOUTUBE.COM As a real estate professional listing properties, you cannot afford to overlook the marketing exposure you can get with a video of your listing on YouTube. Boynton says she uses voiceovers on the virtual tours she posts to add a personal touch.
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