As part of our continued commitment to new and existing customers, Resource Techniques release new enhancements to our web products for Real Estate Agent clients. Existing clients will automatically benefit from the new technical enhancements and will be in place from the 3rd April. These enhancements are part of our ongoing development strategy.
On Friday 3rd April 2009 our web site technology will be upgraded to our latest version that will include the following features:
1. Google Street View
Google Street View stitches together photographic images of public roads and major landmarks in British cities to create a three-dimensional map that web users can click on to explore.
The 3D images have been captured over the last year by special patrol cars with roof-mounted 360-degree cameras, which take pictures of every street and road in the city. The faces of people captured in photographs are automatically blurred so that they cannot be identified, while car number plates are also rendered illegible.
So far 25 British cities, including Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea, York have been recorded by the camera cars. Google said it would roll out the technology to other UK cities in the coming months and so it is not currently available across the whole of Britain.
The British weather had thwarted some attempts to map cities. The camera cars need dry, sunny days in order to capture footage, and relatively clear roads in order to take photos at the appropriate intervals. As such, there are some gaps in the maps. Notably, Buckingham Palace, is not yet available in Street View.
When you are on a property on your website, if it has an icon 'Street View' next to the Google Map icon, to the right of the images, that will tell you if Google Street view has covered that postal area. As and when Google Street View cover and release more areas, they will automatically become available on your site or that property . Whilst Resource Techniques have worked quickly to get this latest tool on your site, it is new to Google and so we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of Google Street view.
2. My Saved Property' user area
This allows users to save properties they are interested in to their own log in area for quick access at any time.
It is accessed by a managed area that allows the user to log in, manage(add, edit and delete) their email alerts and save any properties they are particularly interested in.
Wednesday 22 April 2009
House Prices Rise For First Time Since 2007
According to a report by the Nationwide property prices rose for the first time in 16 months in March.
The Nationwide report claims that the cost of a home in the UK increased by 0.9% during March, pushing average values back up above £150,000 to £150,946.
This increase saw the annual rate of house price decline from a record 17.6% in February to 15.7% in March.
According to Sky News, Nationwide's chief economist said "The Bank of England has already taken strong measures to ease the tensions in economic and financial markets by cutting rates and commencing quantitative easing."
The Nationwide report claims that the cost of a home in the UK increased by 0.9% during March, pushing average values back up above £150,000 to £150,946.
This increase saw the annual rate of house price decline from a record 17.6% in February to 15.7% in March.
According to Sky News, Nationwide's chief economist said "The Bank of England has already taken strong measures to ease the tensions in economic and financial markets by cutting rates and commencing quantitative easing."
'Linked In' - Social Networking for Business - Top tips for growing your network
Whilst there's much hype surrounding the social networking boom, main stream media focus is inevitably on personal social networking normally associated with the likes of 'Facebook', 'MySpace', 'bebo' etc, etc... There is however, an equally booming interest for social networking within the business community, 'Linked in' being one of the fastest growing business networking communities, and for the unenlightened, don't under estimate its influence and huge potential...
According to Nielsen Online, in June of last year the 'Facebook' site's traffic grew to 29.2M (that's Million) unique visitors, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, LinkedIn's site traffic grew more than 20 percent month-on-month to 9.5M unique visits. Year-on-year, that represents 77% growth for 'Facebook', and 187% for LinkedIn and the trend continues.
Many businesses have, and continue to ignore 'Social Networking', believing that it's something their children do, and whilst this certainly has been the case, growth within the business community with the benefits it brings is a compelling argument, there is now a huge weight of evidence in support of the ever increasing phenomenon of 'Social Networking'. Businesses, ignore it at your peril.
Those already persuaded will be only too aware that the signing up process is just the beginning of the mine field... But help is at hand.
Here are our top 5 tips for making social networking work for you:
1). Build your profile: Include as much information about yourself as possible, include previous job posts, education, information about your current business interests and don’t forget to add your company and business web sites. This will help people find you and help your network grow.
Top tip - Make sure your profile is set as display 'Public' - your profile is then available to everyone.
2). Build your Connections: Go through your address book and search 'Linked in' by name and company, invite as many positive friends, relatives, co workers ex colleagues and as many potential business contacts as you can find, then see who they're connected too and link to those you know. The whole point is to build a network - don't be afraid to ask for an invite to connect!
Top tip - Try to add someone new each week.
3). Ask for Recommendations: There's no better way of growing your business than from personal recommendation, so once you're connected, ask previous employers, colleagues, clients new and old, and reciprocate the favour, those people that you have had good service from, recommend them.
Top tip - Add your 'Linked in' URL to your email signature
4). Join Groups: Within reason join as many as possible, make sure that they are relevant to your interests, industry, and background. LinkedIn lets you join 50 groups. If the group has little discussion, dump it and find a new one." Discussion boards within groups are a great tool for learning and for generating key contacts through 'Linked In'.
Top Tip - Participate in group discussions and add something of value
5. Update your profile daily: You can change your status text, upload a new photo, add a contact, change your work experience, etc. Perhaps even add to the 'What are you working on now' section, any investment or developer type property, with links back to your own web site. When you update your profile, you show up on the home page updates of every one of your LinkedIn connections.
Top Tip - NEVER select "I don't know" when you get an invite to connect. Instead, if you really don't want to connect with that person, select "Archive." When you click "I don't know", you're putting a red flag on that account. At the same time, when you invite someone else to connect, make sure that you tell them to select "Archive" if they don't wish to connect. You don't want red flags on your account either.
For help and advice on making the most social networking, email - troy@restech.co.uk
According to Nielsen Online, in June of last year the 'Facebook' site's traffic grew to 29.2M (that's Million) unique visitors, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, LinkedIn's site traffic grew more than 20 percent month-on-month to 9.5M unique visits. Year-on-year, that represents 77% growth for 'Facebook', and 187% for LinkedIn and the trend continues.
Many businesses have, and continue to ignore 'Social Networking', believing that it's something their children do, and whilst this certainly has been the case, growth within the business community with the benefits it brings is a compelling argument, there is now a huge weight of evidence in support of the ever increasing phenomenon of 'Social Networking'. Businesses, ignore it at your peril.
Those already persuaded will be only too aware that the signing up process is just the beginning of the mine field... But help is at hand.
Here are our top 5 tips for making social networking work for you:
1). Build your profile: Include as much information about yourself as possible, include previous job posts, education, information about your current business interests and don’t forget to add your company and business web sites. This will help people find you and help your network grow.
Top tip - Make sure your profile is set as display 'Public' - your profile is then available to everyone.
2). Build your Connections: Go through your address book and search 'Linked in' by name and company, invite as many positive friends, relatives, co workers ex colleagues and as many potential business contacts as you can find, then see who they're connected too and link to those you know. The whole point is to build a network - don't be afraid to ask for an invite to connect!
Top tip - Try to add someone new each week.
3). Ask for Recommendations: There's no better way of growing your business than from personal recommendation, so once you're connected, ask previous employers, colleagues, clients new and old, and reciprocate the favour, those people that you have had good service from, recommend them.
Top tip - Add your 'Linked in' URL to your email signature
4). Join Groups: Within reason join as many as possible, make sure that they are relevant to your interests, industry, and background. LinkedIn lets you join 50 groups. If the group has little discussion, dump it and find a new one." Discussion boards within groups are a great tool for learning and for generating key contacts through 'Linked In'.
Top Tip - Participate in group discussions and add something of value
5. Update your profile daily: You can change your status text, upload a new photo, add a contact, change your work experience, etc. Perhaps even add to the 'What are you working on now' section, any investment or developer type property, with links back to your own web site. When you update your profile, you show up on the home page updates of every one of your LinkedIn connections.
Top Tip - NEVER select "I don't know" when you get an invite to connect. Instead, if you really don't want to connect with that person, select "Archive." When you click "I don't know", you're putting a red flag on that account. At the same time, when you invite someone else to connect, make sure that you tell them to select "Archive" if they don't wish to connect. You don't want red flags on your account either.
For help and advice on making the most social networking, email - troy@restech.co.uk
Property on eBay
Singapore's largest property portal, propertyguru.com.sg, has announced a partnership with eBay, which sees the launch of a new property search service on eBay's Singapore website, ebay.propertyguru.com.sg
The new eBay Singapore real estate service offers consumers the ability to find and review available apartments/condo, landed house and commercial property for rent and sale in Singapore and overseas - with photos, videos and maps. It also gives users access to free expert mortgage advice from accredited independent mortgage consultants, as well as enabling them to find real estate agents by property speciality and read property and investment research, guides, articles and news.
In a press release from propertyguru.com.sg about the partnership, Allis Ghim, Director at eBay said:
"This is great news for the Singapore real estate community. Our partnership with PropertyGuru enables us to offer our users the best experience by partnering with the experts in online real estate, and offer a new content-rich real estate service. This represents a great stride in eBay's strategy to provide the best experience to our users".
eBay Singapore teaming up with propertyguru.com.sg is not the only news from eBay about property listings of late.
In the UK, with nearly 20 million unique visitors each month, ebay.co.uk is UK's the fourth largest website, it also lists residential property, currently with more than 180,000 listings from the UK and overseas are included in ebay.co.uk’s residential property category. Properties can be listed in the auction and "buy it now" categories, or as a "classified ad only", which cannot be bid on.
Worldwide, eBay has over 86 million users. So, what is the online auctions giant doing globally with property listings, and how does propertyguru.com.sg's partnership with eBay as well as the new listings on ebay.co.uk compare to those on the equally popular eBay domains in other countries?
The Australian domain ebay.com.au and its US counterpart ebay.com also list properties in their real estate sections. Sellers can list properties for auction, as "buy it now" items or as classified ads.
At the moment, ebay.com.au has far fewer private real estate listings than ebay.co.uk, with only 113 items in its real estate category. ebay.com has attracted a few more sellers, with 2993 items in its real estate section.
Along with private property listings, ebay.com.au also has a content distribution partnership with domain.com.au, Australia's number two property portal. These listings are included in the ebay.domain.com.au site, which is linked to from the ebay.com.au front page.
ebay.co.uk charges GBP£35 per real estate listing, as compared to a fee of AUD$49.95 on ebay.com.au. ebay.com offers various types of listings for prices ranging from USD$35 to USD$300.
Ireland's eBay domain, ebay.ie, recently created a partnership with Ireland's top property portal, daft.ie. ebay.daft.ie is linked to from the ebay.ie front page.
French eBay domain ebay.fr has 12 million registered users and also links to a dedicated "no bids" classifieds listing real estate search page (with 14 day free trials for advertisers). eBay immo, as it's called, launched last October and is modelled on the successful Italian eBay real estate website: eBay case. And over 132,000 properties listings are also available via a categories search on the German ebay.de.
This is just a small sample of what is happening in the 39 markets eBay operates in, and partnering with portals is just one way eBay is moving in on property listings.
The new eBay Singapore real estate service offers consumers the ability to find and review available apartments/condo, landed house and commercial property for rent and sale in Singapore and overseas - with photos, videos and maps. It also gives users access to free expert mortgage advice from accredited independent mortgage consultants, as well as enabling them to find real estate agents by property speciality and read property and investment research, guides, articles and news.
In a press release from propertyguru.com.sg about the partnership, Allis Ghim, Director at eBay said:
"This is great news for the Singapore real estate community. Our partnership with PropertyGuru enables us to offer our users the best experience by partnering with the experts in online real estate, and offer a new content-rich real estate service. This represents a great stride in eBay's strategy to provide the best experience to our users".
eBay Singapore teaming up with propertyguru.com.sg is not the only news from eBay about property listings of late.
In the UK, with nearly 20 million unique visitors each month, ebay.co.uk is UK's the fourth largest website, it also lists residential property, currently with more than 180,000 listings from the UK and overseas are included in ebay.co.uk’s residential property category. Properties can be listed in the auction and "buy it now" categories, or as a "classified ad only", which cannot be bid on.
Worldwide, eBay has over 86 million users. So, what is the online auctions giant doing globally with property listings, and how does propertyguru.com.sg's partnership with eBay as well as the new listings on ebay.co.uk compare to those on the equally popular eBay domains in other countries?
The Australian domain ebay.com.au and its US counterpart ebay.com also list properties in their real estate sections. Sellers can list properties for auction, as "buy it now" items or as classified ads.
At the moment, ebay.com.au has far fewer private real estate listings than ebay.co.uk, with only 113 items in its real estate category. ebay.com has attracted a few more sellers, with 2993 items in its real estate section.
Along with private property listings, ebay.com.au also has a content distribution partnership with domain.com.au, Australia's number two property portal. These listings are included in the ebay.domain.com.au site, which is linked to from the ebay.com.au front page.
ebay.co.uk charges GBP£35 per real estate listing, as compared to a fee of AUD$49.95 on ebay.com.au. ebay.com offers various types of listings for prices ranging from USD$35 to USD$300.
Ireland's eBay domain, ebay.ie, recently created a partnership with Ireland's top property portal, daft.ie. ebay.daft.ie is linked to from the ebay.ie front page.
French eBay domain ebay.fr has 12 million registered users and also links to a dedicated "no bids" classifieds listing real estate search page (with 14 day free trials for advertisers). eBay immo, as it's called, launched last October and is modelled on the successful Italian eBay real estate website: eBay case. And over 132,000 properties listings are also available via a categories search on the German ebay.de.
This is just a small sample of what is happening in the 39 markets eBay operates in, and partnering with portals is just one way eBay is moving in on property listings.
Twitter out ranks UK property Portals
As Twitters popularity continues at pace, its impact on the UK's property market has seen huge growth in 2009, technically in tune estate agents, large and small, are Twittering in a big way, now even the portals are joining in the fun.
For serious Twitter fans it will come as no surprise that last month, for the first time, the site has entered the much coveted UK's top 100 most visited websites, according web analyst Hitwise, Twtter entered the top 100 at position 91
Social media is now an integral part of online marketing for estate agents and although it might have taken some a while to realise it, no one wants to be left behind.
For serious Twitter fans it will come as no surprise that last month, for the first time, the site has entered the much coveted UK's top 100 most visited websites, according web analyst Hitwise, Twtter entered the top 100 at position 91
Social media is now an integral part of online marketing for estate agents and although it might have taken some a while to realise it, no one wants to be left behind.
The Times Money blog compiled a list of the 'Top 20
British property profiles on Twitter' and gave two spots to
globrix.com for @Globrix and their clever @PropertyPorn
identity, which twitters fabulously expensive and luxurious eye
candy from globrix.com for the property obsessed.
Twitter profiles from other portals which made the Times list
include: @zoopla, @nestoria, @findaproperty and @primelocation.:
Off the list there are plenty more, including UK market leader
@rightmove with over 200 followers and @enormo_uk with
almost 400 followers. Loads of agents are also getting themselves
onto Twitter.
Perhaps more important than who is twittering, is the question
of how Twitter can be beneficial to your business, check out my
blog post on Twittering for more
information.
For the low down on all things technical relating to the UK
property industry follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/RTechniques
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