technology – Page 3 – Help-U-Sell® Connect

Help-U-Sell in October

The theme for this year's Success Summit is Making Connections.

We have an exciting and busy October planned! We look forward to seeing you at one or both of our big events.

* The California Realtor Expo will be held October 8-10 in Long Beach. We will be exhibiting, and our booth number is 217. Please stop by if you will be there. CAR members can attend some sessions and the expo for free. Just register online to get access.

* Our annual Success Summit will be better and bigger than ever this October 22-24 in Las Vegas. With a theme of Making Connections, the event will have four general sessions and four blocks of breakout sessions that are separated into Coaching/Training, Marketing, and Technology tracks. Attendees can choose to concentrate on one track or mix and match. Many of the breakout sessions will have hands-on portions so that everyone can leave the Summit having accomplished tasks such as setting up a drip email campaign and creating a marketing plan for next year.

In addition to staff, John Powell and Jack Bailey will be presenting, and there will be a panel discussion along with opportunities to network with fellow franchisees. Our representative from Excel Printing & Mailing will present new marketing materials and hear the results of our brainstorming session we’ll have during the Summit. We have a few surprises up our sleeves, too!

Almost 60 Help-U-Sell family members are already planning to attend. If you are a franchisee or an agent in a Help-U-Sell office and want to join us in Las Vegas, please register today and make your hotel and transportation arrangements.

Use the hashtag #SuccessSummit13 on Twitter to follow and get involved in the Summit, even if you’re not with us.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Develops Real-Time Market Statistics Tool

Help-U-Sell Real Estate has launched a new tool that provides home buyers and sellers real-time information about their local real estate markets.

Called Market Sketch, the tool uses local Multiple Listing Service data to display statistics such as median list prices, average square footage, days on market, and total inventory for the selected city. Users can also choose to view statistics by property type, including land, multifamily and single-family. Once enough data have been collected, users will be able to customize the time frame. Charts compare the number of properties sold per month and the median price per square foot, among other facts.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate's new Market Sketch statistics tool — Help-U-Sell Real Estate's new Market Sketch tool displays real-time local real estate information, including days on market and total inventory.

In addition to graphs and charts, written sections explain the status of the local real estate market. Brokers can personalize certain elements, and the office’s contact information is included.

Brokers will be able to send the information to their buyers and sellers via a direct link, and users can register to receive their local Market Sketch via a monthly email. If the broker wishes to use Market Sketch as a lead-generation registration tool, he or she can opt to require registration before a user can view the most recent statistics.

The broker’s current listings are displayed in the right-hand column to encourage users to browse properties for sale. Dynamic interest rate charts, and daily mortgage and interest rate news show up below the current listings.

See an example of Market Sketch on Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties’ site.

Success Summit Update

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Success Summit — The third annual Help-U-Sell Success Summit will cover marketing, technology and coaching topics as selected by our brokers.

As many of you know, our third annual Success Summit will take place from October 22-24 in Las Vegas. Read more about it, including how to book your hotel rooms, in an earlier Connect post.

Who’s Coming

So far, we have about 30 registered attendees from coast to coast: Virginia and North Carolina to Arizona and California. If you have not yet registered, please do so at seminars.helpusell.com.

What’s on the Agenda

The survey results are in! Thank you all for responding to the Summit Survey. In the coming weeks, we will flesh out the agenda. Based on your input, topics will include:

* brainstorming new marketing materials
* creating your marketing plan and analysis
* optimizing your Facebook business page
* generating web leads
* creating drip email campaigns
* taking your business to the next level
* troubleshooting your office

Many of you told us that learning from your fellow Help-U-Sell brokers was highly important, so we will also set aside time for fluid, purposeful networking conversations.

We have other surprises up our sleeves that you won’t want to miss. See you in Vegas!

OMS Upgrades – New Leads Management Tool

Several of our franchisees requested the ability to export leads and contacts from the Office Management System. We have just added this functionality to the back-end, in the Reports section.

To access these exports, click on Reports under the Sales tab.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Contact and Lead Management Tools — To access contact and lead export tools, click on Reports on the Sales menu in OMS.

Once you’ve selected either Contact or Lead export, you can choose a specific category to export. In this example, Sellers have been chosen from the Contact category.

Help-U-Sell Contact Export Menu — Choose a specific contact type (or choose all) to export from the OMS.

There are six options for exporting the generated list of contacts or leads, including Acrobat (PDF), Excel 97-2003 and CSV, which will likely be the most useful.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Contact and Lead Export Tool — You can export your contacts and leads in six different formats, including CSV and PDF.

If you have any questions about the new functionality or would like to request additional export or report categories, contact us at support[at]helpusell[dot]com.

Spring Training for Real Estate

It’s that time of year when Major League Baseball comes out of hibernation and spring training begins. You don’t have to have a multimillion dollar contract to take part in your own version of spring training. Invaluable educational opportunities can be had for free or little cost.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate's weekly sales and marketing training — Help-U-Sell Real Estate offers its franchisees a weekly sales and marketing webinar.

Here are a few opportunities to improve your pitch, practice your swing and better your chances for a home run:

* Participate in the weekly Help-U-Sell meetings: Tech Time Tuesday and Wednesday’s Power Hour. Both are from noon to 1 p.m. ET. Help-U-Sell brokers and agents, email us to register for these free online training sessions.

* Attend one of Inman News’ Agent Reboot events. These one-day sessions are fast-paced, fact-packed and feature top real estate marketing and technology experts. The cost is just $49. Remaining locations for 2013 include Orange County (Calif.), Boston, Dallas, and Fort Lauderdale.

* Register for Zillow Academy webinars. The academy offers at least one webinar every weekday on topics ranging from Zillow-specific tutorials to blogging techniques and time-management tips.

* Take advantage of National Association of REALTORS free or low-cost educational opportunities.

You can also find free webinars through Inman News and other online entities. If you have any courses to recommend, please tell us about them in the comments.