Web – Page 5 – Help-U-Sell® Connect

Help-U-Sell Successes in 2011

For us at Help-U-Sell Real Estate, 2011 was a fantastic year! We have a lot to celebrate and much to look forward to in 2012.

Our technology rivals that of any of our competitors. We have developed a full slate of tools for our franchisees and their clients, including a new leads management module for our Office Management System, a branded virtual tour service, a QR code generator and back-end systems for buyers and sellers to access listings data and documents. Next month, we proudly debut our mobile web application, which has already received national media coverage.

Help-U-Sell’s look and feel has changed to mirror the new technology we’ve created. A modern, sleek design has been incorporated into everything from banners to business cards. We’ll unveil more collateral boasting this new look in the next few weeks.

Banners for Help-U-Sell brokers — New banners reflect Help-U-Sell Real Estate's new design direction.

The new look also appeared at three conventions we attended this year. We had busy and impressive booths at the California Association of REALTORS, National Association of REALTORS and Triple Play conventions this fall. Our franchisees have spread the word about Help-U-Sell this year by working hard in their own markets and by attending conventions and being ambassadors at our booths.

We couldn’t have been more pleased to see so many Help-U-Sell family members at our Success Summit in Anaheim, Calif. We learned a lot from each other and from our guest speakers, among them finance expert Patricia Boyd and Zillow’s Nick Taylor. We’re looking forward to next year’s summit already. In the meantime, our weekly teleconferences, Tech Time Tuesday and Wonderful Wednesday, will continue to connect us and allow us to share knowledge with each other.

In the next month or so, we’ll also premier the new online coaching program, ProCoach-U. It will use online learning modules combined with one-on-one coaching for new franchisees. You can get a sneak peek on our YouTube channel.

We are proud of our accomplishments in 2011 but even more excited to move forward and keep growing in 2012!

We want to hear your proudest achievement of this year and your goals for next year. Share them with us in the comments!

Help-U-Sell App Featured on Technology News Site

Help-U-Sell’s new web-based mobile application, set to launch next month, has been featured on technology news site AGBeat. The article previews the app’s functionality and showcases several screenshots.

Read the entire article on AGBeat and let us know what you think (and please comment on the AGBeat article if you like what you see!). You can also look at the overview we published on Connect for more screenshots.

Stay tuned for next month’s app debut!

New Broker Website Design

To coincide with and complement the new Help-U-Sell Real Estate branding, we are updating the broker websites. Here is a sneak preview of the design in progress. The area below the featured properties will contain videos and other content that you will control.

Help-U-Sell Broker Sites Design Option — The Help-U-Sell Real Estate Broker Website redesign is in development.

We want to hear your opinions on the design. Please contact us directly or comment on this post to let us know what you think.

Also, we have added new business card design options, including ones that contain photos. Visit Alexander’s Print Advantage to review the options and create and order your business cards.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Debuts First ProCoach-U Video

Help-U-Sell Real Estate’s online university, ProCoach-U, debuts early next year, but we’ve begun filming the lessons and we’re excited to share the first one with you. “The Elevator Speech” gives tips on how to differentiate yourself from your competitors and keep potential clients hungry for more information. Watch the video by clicking the image below.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Elevator Speech — Help-U-Sell Real Estate's ProCoach-U online university video preview is called The Elevator Speech.

The complete ProCoach-U program will contain integrated training videos covering nearly all aspects of the real estate industry in an accessible, modular-driven format. The program is free for any franchisee. Look for more videos coming soon.

New Map Features and Listing Profile Redesign

The upgrades and redesigns never stop here at Help-U-Sell Real Estate! To help you keep track, here’s a summary of what we’ve just completed and what’s ahead.

Continuing our full-featured map upgrades, we have added links to each property’s popup bubble. Now, visitors can opt to view listing details, contact the listing agent and save the listing right from the popup.

You may have noticed that a number of MLS listings do not appear on your map. That is because the geocodes, or map coordinates, had not been included with those MLS listings. We are in the process of collecting that information, and within two weeks’ time, we plan to have all of the MLS listings mapped. The other main project that remains for the maps is perfecting functionality where a visitor can drag his mouse across the map and see properties on the newly exposed portion of the map.

Early next week, you will definitely notice a redesign of your listing details pages. We have condensed the information currently displayed on the pages so that less scrolling is required and the page can be easily scanned. A short registration form on the left side of the page will encourage more visitors to turn into leads. We’ve also added a recommendation engine which will suggest similar houses to the one the visitor is viewing.

You can get a sneak peek at the redesign on our Test Office site. Please keep in mind that we are finalizing the design and functionality this week, so this is not the polished and complete version.

Lastly, if you chose one of the background themes for your website, you will notice that we’ve changed the images for Beach, Mountain and Desert.

Please share any feedback or suggestions with us either as a comment on this blog post or via email or a call.