Articles

Cloud CMA Resets UI to Drive Usability and Growth
WAV Group has known the founders of W+R Studios long before they broke away from eNeighborhoods and founded the company. The partners have invested their lives and careers in developing real estate software that makes a difference. Cloud CMA was their first product—mobile friendly, easy to use, beautiful CMA reports. They launched at a time when building a CMA on your phone or tablet was impossible. They took a mobile-first approach and were able to drive market adoption with impressive speed. Funny anecdote: One of the best products from their days at eNeighborhoods was Wyldfyre CMA, the market leader in allowing agents to build CMAs with data across multiple MLS markets. Cloud CMA has spread like wildfire for sure. My favorite feature of Cloud CMA is the ability to send an email to Cloud CMA with a property address in the subject line, and get your CMA emailed back to you in less than a minute. No login required. I also like the feature that allows you to automate the process of sending a CMA to past clients every month. Since W+R Studios launched Cloud CMA, the company continued to listen to the market and launch additional apps for real estate that carries the company's mantra – mobile first, easy to use, and fast. Their additional products are Cloud Streams and Cloud Attract. Cloud Streams is a listing alert system that notifies clients when new or updated listings match their home search. Cloud Attract is a marketing tool for lead generation that delivers an instant CMA to consumers that's beautifully branded to the broker and agent. Old User Interface The old user interface was intuitive and easy to use. The primary navigation tabs across the top give agents quick access to the key features of CMA applications – CMA, Buyer Tour, Property, and Flyer. Recent activity allows the agent to scroll though their past reports and quickly access it. Notice all of the colors – black, different shades of green, orange, shades of grey. Visually, even though this layout was clean by comparison to many competitors, there was a lot going on. New Design As you can see from the new design, the functionality is the same. They dropped the "Cloud CMA" product name. They eliminated the tabs, but the functionality is in the same place. They made the UI of the reports tiled and allow the agent to take action like view PDF, play slideshow, or share the report quickly. Noticed that they changed the name "Recent Activity" to "Recent Reports," because that is what they were displaying – reports, not activities. I am not a big fan of the Scale icon because it is repetitive. If it showed the report cover, then it makes sense. This tile system is often called Kanban and can leverage photos to drive user recognition fast if executed correctly in design. It is all very nice stuff. Support and Cross Sell We all know that agents typically only use about 20 percent of the features of software. The way to drive deeper adoption of features is to constantly educate the agents inside the product. Cloud CMA does this with the two articles that you see herein – the Facebook article and the photography website article. To the right of those articles is in-product marketing that supports their other products – Cloud Stream and Cloud Attract. I presume that agents who subscribe to these services will see a single sign-on link that will launch them right from within Cloud CMA. Of course, another important feature is connecting with the customers. Here you see a note from Frances with an offer. But it can also be leveraged for support. There are many choices for CMA tools in real estate. The one that you choose will depend on the individual needs that you have as an agent, or for your brokerage. We strongly urge clients to take a fresh look at competitive CMA vendors every few years to make sure that the tool you are using now has the best set of features for the best price with the best support.

MORE >

4 Lead Generating Scripts for Listing Agents
Southern California based Realtor April Kass had to get "comfortable being uncomfortable" when it came to door knocking and asking homeowners certain questions. She pushed through her discomfort, however, and signed 16 listings and closed 9 escrows in her first year in real estate. Part of her secret to winning so many listings is how she approaches those in-person conversations with homeowners. Kass likes to door knock around properties she's just listed or just sold because that gives her a very specific reason to talk to homeowners in an area without coming across as too pushy. During a webinar last week, Kass shared the basic scripts she uses for drumming up seller leads via open houses and door knocking. We were flooded with requests from agents who wanted a text version of her scripts. Well, ladies and gentlemen, ask and ye shall receive. Here are four scripts April uses to generate seller leads in person. Door Knocking Before an Open House This easy script takes only a minute or two. Kass finishes it by offering a CMA to neighbors who may be thinking of selling soon. She also says it's a great tool for trying to break into a new neighborhood. "It just starts putting your face out there so you become that local market expert." Hi, I'm April Kass with the Dave Wright Real Estate Team. You know, we just listed a house down the street at 333 Main St. We're having an open house this weekend, so I'm just knocking the neighbors to invite you to our open house and find out who you know who might want to move in to your neighborhood. Who do you know from work, from school, etc.? [Homeowner answers.] Great! You know, a lot of times in this market we've got multiple buyers coming in, and this isn't going to be the right house for everybody. Who do you know around here that's looking to sell their house? Have you ever thought about selling or have any of your neighbors mentioned it?

MORE >

RPR's New iPad App: What It Can Do for REALTORS®
It's been almost a year since Realtors Property Resource® launched its smartphone app, RPR Mobile™. This month, the company released a version of RPR that's optimized for iPad and Android tablets. With this latest iteration, REALTORS® can now access RPR® on all of their iOS and Android devices. Bill Lublin, CEO of Century 21 Advantage Gold in southeastern Pennsylvania, was among the first to test out the new tablet-optimized app. "The RPR Mobile iPad app and Android tablet app is really nice because it allows you to be collaborative at the scene," he says. "[It] brings you and the consumers into a sort of a conference huddle type of mode where you're discovering information together, you're helping them understand the information that they're looking at. And that's building trust, building mutual experience, and making the entire process smoother for everyone that's involved." For more on Bill's experience with RPR Mobile, see the video below: Bill isn't the only REALTOR® to sing the praises of RPR's mobile solution. "RPR came to life when the app was released," top agent Dale Chumbley told us in an interview earlier this year. The app is a potent resource on the go because it weds smartphone capabilities to all of RPR's analytical, search, and report generating features. For example: Text: Users can generate reports on the fly and instantly text or email them to clients and prospects. Call: Every property listing on RPR Mobile has a click-to-call button. Just click this button to contact the agent and schedule a showing—all without having to search for or dial a phone number. GPS: RPR Mobile taps into your phone's geo-locational capabilities to let you search the homes around you to view a property's details and estimated value. This is especially helpful when trying to understand property values in a neighborhood. Camera: Let's be honest—a lot of MLS photos are just plain terrible. Fortunately, you can add your own photos to any RPR report. Use your phone's camera to snap better images of a property and add them to a report directly from RPR Mobile. You can use this feature to prepare reports for homes that are not yet on the MLS, too!

MORE >