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Skype brings people face to face with their dream property
As written on blogs.skype.com
Everyone knows that Skype brings people together. But we recently found out that our technology also helps bring people closer to their dream properties. Coming face to face with your ideal property, whether it’s a family home or a shrewd investment, is something we all dream about. But what about falling in love with your dream condo over a video call?
We met up with Leighton Herdson, Senior Real Estate Broker from Essex, UK based company, Real Estate Worldwide.
Real Estate Worldwide was founded in 2012 with the emphasis on bringing investors and developers together with safe and secure off plan developments across the United Kingdom. And recently, the business has found that Skype is helping enhance and expand their client base, as Leighton explains:
“As a company we started using Skype early on as an easy way to communicate with anyone overseas or whilst being out of the office. I had used it a lot previously with friends in Canada and the U.S as a way to keep in touch.”
From hotel rooms to family homes, Real Estate Worldwide often deal with developers who build from scratch. So how does Skype help them sell something that doesn’t even exist? Leighton explains how the company uses, not just video calling, but file sharing and IM to share brochures and investments plans, as well as maintaining contact throughout the process:
“It is an easy way for us to share docs with each other, to communicate with overseas clients, and do viewings with clients that can’t get up to development sites. It has become a big part of our day.” Leighton continues, “we do this with developers when sending documents and if a developer is presenting a new project to us, they may screen share the brochure or website along with other important bits of info, floor plans and renderings etc.”
So do developers also use Skype?
“Not all the time, but everyone is embracing technology more and more. Skype does allow developers and project managers to show clients around developments without the client having to physically be there. There’s a lot of scope for developers to utilize technology like Skype more. Again it’s an easy way to maintain contact with the IM feature.”
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In the past, we’ve come across interior stylists and decorators who advise on color palette, décor themes and even feng shui tips while using Skype. Leighton tells us how their viewing process is also similar:
“We have developments all over the UK and some people simply can’t get from London to Manchester, for example. It’s a great way to show them the site and to meet the developer or project manager and get comfort that there is something tangible there.”
We realize that property is a very personal, “touchy feely” experience that often depends on a vibe or a gut instinct that a particular house or apartment is “the one”. We wanted to know if viewing a property over Skype actually felt as if you were there in person:
“Definitely, it helps show dimensions and gives a feel for the place when clients can’t physically attend. Skype makes the process a lot more personal and in a world where everyone is constantly getting marketing email and cold calls, if you can move a business relationship away from those mediums and on to Skype or face to face, then it builds longer lasting relationships.”
Any funny stories while you or a client have used video calling?
“My colleague Chris Britto used Skype to call a client at an agreed time and the client was in bed half asleep when he answered. He dealt with it well but was a bit surprised to say the least.”
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With Skype being a recent addition to Real Estate Worldwide’s business repertoire, we wondered what the company would do if our technology didn’t exist. Leighton rolls his eyes as he ponders the thought:
“In the past I’ve worked with people in Canada, the States and a lot from the UAE. Our clients are global and know that UK property is a great investment. But without Skype, we would have to do a lot more face to face meet ups and it would require people that haven’t got the time to travel from London up to Manchester, Liverpool or Sheffield.”
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Are you a realtor on the go that is looking for a simplified way to manage your current clients as you take on new accounts? Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides you a single place to streamline business operations and manage assets, properties, vendors and prospects in marketing, service, sales and support functions.
Seven ways Realtors Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM
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To manage client contact information & notes
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To track activities and set alerts for follow-up
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To store and access internal/external documents
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To execute marketing campaigns
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To track opportunities & goals
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To capture and track trends from analytics
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To generate reports
Since Dynamics CRM is built on Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure it can be accessed from any device (e.g. laptop, tablet, phone, etc.) that has an internet connection. It also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office 365. For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691.
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Three #Tech Trends that Will Transform Real Estate
Technological innovation is radically changing how and where we choose to work, live and play, essentially forcing us to rethink the built environment—and our place in it.
From broad access to WiFi and the ubiquity of smartphones to ever-lighter laptops and more powerful tablet devices, technology has created an inextricably connected world. With the virtual barrier between work and home all but gone, the way we think about real estate is fundamentally changing, says Elie Finegold, senior vice president of global innovation and business intelligence at CBRE.
“This industrial-era concept that there is a separation between work and home is becoming increasingly less relevant,” says Finegold. “Because you can work from anywhere, space has become more fungible.”
Finegold, an innovator and entrepreneur with expertise in real estate and technology, says there are three emerging trends reshaping the way people will use real estate in the future.
1. Radical mobility
The ability of people and machines to work from anywhere is transforming the utilization of traditional spaces. “If you conduct a survey and ask people, ‘Have you worked in a living room, a bedroom, a plane, an office, an elevator, somebody else’s house—even a bathroom?’ everyone is going to answer yes to almost every one of them,” Finegold says.
“There’s a whole set of tasks that were once capable of only being done in an office that we can now do from anywhere, and though working face-to-face with others will likely never become obsolete, companies are going to be looking for much more adaptable real estate frameworks as a way of managing both flex in the workforce and the diversity of working habits,” he adds.
By 2020, 40 percent of workers in the U.S. will be self-employed as freelancers, contractors or temp employees, which will further affect the role—and primacy—of traditional office space, says Finegold.
2. Collaborative economy
As people increasingly choose to share and crowdsource goods, services, funding and transportation, the real estate market must adapt to new ways of distributing demands, Finegold says.
The sharing economy created affordable solutions for consumers during the Great Recession and has offered unique income streams for people who need extra cash or more flexible work situations. For instance, Airbnb and Uber have enabled people to turn their homes and vehicles into sources of income.
As people migrate to cities, they may prefer to rent apartments or cars rather than own them. Similarly, if more people are going into business for themselves as freelancers or contractors, the demand for coworking spaces could outweigh the need for traditional office space.
3. Transportation revolution
The rise of autonomous vehicles and transportation—self-driving cars, multi-modal trucking, distribution drones, etc.—coupled with collaborative models like Uber, will make it easier for people and goods to move around more freely. It may also ultimately change infrastructure needs, Finegold says, cutting down on the number of cars on the road or in parking lots at any given moment, while simultaneously creating a competitive market for space utilization.
“There will be huge opportunities for redevelopment of spaces previously used for personal vehicles, from streetside parking spots to multilevel parking decks,” Finegold says.
While some of these trends may be in the distant future, aspects of all three already exist, and they are quickly creating new modes for people to access real estate, Finegold says.
“If you take all of these things together, they are breaking down traditional work/life balances and changing the real estate landscape,” Finegold says. “Companies are attracted to places where there are live/work opportunities for employees.”
Source: blueprint.cbre.com
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Contact Us & See How Today’s Technology is Shaping the Real Estate Industry of Tomorrow 800-293-6593
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With the competitiveness of the real estate industry, agents need to utilize current technology to give them a strategic edge. Real estate agents are constantly on the go showing properties and meeting with clients, so they need a reliable device that offers unified communications and messaging to keep everyone up to date. Why Are Realtors Using Surface Devices? Surface Pro 3 is a lightweight, versatile device that helps facilitate productive face-to-face conversations to address customer needs and cement new relationships. This device helps realtors deepen customer loyalty by providing features and tools that serve their customers in a timely and personal way.
The Surface Pro has been said to be one of the most productive devices for realtors. It brings together the best of the tablet and laptop while providing portable, fast, full HD display. Some realtors who have already adopted to Surface Pro said they loved Surface, as they realized they no longer needed their heavy laptops and their lighter but limited iPads.
10 Reasons Realtors Are Using Surface Devices
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Portability helps agents be productive anywhere by easily converting from a laptop to tablet when it’s time to head to a meeting or listing.
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Long and powerful battery life is reassuring for agents because they could work remotely longer without having to plug-in.
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Agents are able to pull up data instantly and effortlessly with Instant-on functionality. This makes it easier when researching property records and listings.
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Agents can open multiple documents side by side to show clients different listings or compare market analysis.
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Agents stay organized by using the pen to mark-up property listings and photos with drawings and notes. One click of your Pen opens OneNote3 so you can capture and sync your notes and doodles effortlessly.
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The Surface Pen is highly responsive and lets you write, draw, and sketch on a pressure-sensitive display. Agents utilize this feature when discussing goals with clients and could provide an interactive experience.
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Agents can be creative by utilizing the design apps to produce appealing property photos and listings.
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Agents can show information to clients anywhere for better customer acquisition and retention.
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Agents can Print or add storage with USB port and even collect signatures directly from the screen.
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Agents can keep clients satisfied by using cutting edge technology and a personalized experience so they’ll keep using you again and again.
Managed Solution has years of experience deploying and implementing Microsoft technologies as a Microsoft Gold Partner. We work hand in hand with Microsoft to provide our clients with the most up-to-date technology solutions that drive innovation, productivity, and increased revenue.
Not only is Managed Solution proud to be a Microsoft Gold Partner, but also a digital adviser for real estate industries. For more information on real estate workflow solutions contact Managed Solution at 800-550-3795.
Contact Us & See How Today’s Technology is Shaping the Real Estate Industry of Tomorrow 800-293-6593
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Hybrid Cloud Environment Increases Productivity and Collaboration for a Real Estate Development Firm
Industry: Real Estate
Business Needs:
A small real estate firm with about twelve users who planned to grow their business quickly needed to provide users remote access, improve their network speed, and provide a better e-mail solution with larger mailboxes, anti-spam filtering and calendaring. They were currently using expensive third party conferencing tools but their mailboxes were small and they were having trouble collaborating through calendars. They needed better conferencing tools including bigger mailboxes, anti-spam filtering and calendaring. Because their employees constantly travel for meetings, they also wanted to provide better mobility with a remote access platform to make it easy to connect directly from anywhere on any device. With no current back-up strategy in place and a need to refresh their current hardware and collaboration tools, they needed a technology partner to assist with a solution scalable to grow with their business.
Solution:
Managed Solution created a hybrid cloud environment that included moving from their Exchange Server to Office 365. This solution would improve calendaring, create larger e-mail mailboxes, and allowed them to implement Lync for conferencing. Managed Solution started the project by upgrading their bandwidth and their switch to prevent bottlenecks in the network. We recommended virtualizing their servers to reduce hardware costs and create added redundancy and lessen physical imprint, while implementing a Back-up and Disaster Recovery Solution to prevent data loss.
Success:
Since partnering with Managed Solution, the firm has doubled in size while reducing IT costs by switching to a hybrid cloud solution. Their technology solution supports their rapid growth model without having to implement new changes as they grow. Remote users are easily accessing e-mail through the cloud and they are very happy with the increased productivity and collaboration tools. Their staff has expressed how easy it is to use our help desk services and find a solution to daily IT issues. Deploying remote desktop services and Office 365 provided a remote mobile working solution for employees to work from anywhere on any device, enabled them to fix their calendaring issues and implement Lync for conferencing, which helped them reduce costs from third party conferencing companies.
Services/Resources:
What is Cloud Computing? Tools to Improve Real Estate Brokerage
Here's what Wikipedia has for a definition of "cloud computing:" computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.
To simplify, we use online solutions instead of onboard software to run our business. We log in to servers on the Internet to do what we are used to doing on our own computer or our in-house network.
So, how are we going to use cloud computing to manage and market our real estate brokerage?
Why should we even care?
Here's a partial list of things we can do in this new virtual environment:
- Maintain a lot less office floor space with agents operating remotely
- Cut operating costs with online document and communication services
- Reduce reliance on office staff in pure overhead support functions
- Better serve our clients by using the latest available technology
- Enhance our marketing, get more leads, and increase brokerage income and profit
In this article by James Kimmons, Real Estate Business Expert, he shares resources with you to help you to adopt a cloud brokerage approach to your business. You'll get links to resources that provide online services, as well as basic instructions in how and why to use them.
Keep reading, and I believe you'll be amazed at what you can now do without more staff, less office space, and generally lower overhead. Meet with your decision makers and those who will be impacted and get their buy-in.
If you view the process of moving your brokerage operations to a virtual online presence as a major process that requires a complete and immediate transition, then you'll probably not want to take it on. You can certainly do it quickly and completely, but it's not necessary.
You can move through the process in an orderly way, with very little business disruption along the way. I believe that the ultimate result should be an almost "office independent" structure, but you can also stop at any point that you believe is right for your company.
Here's my view of the complete and effective Cloud Brokerage:
By James Kimmons, Real Estate Business Expert
Source: http://realestate.about.com/od/brokerofficemanagement/ss/cloud_broker.htm
Want to learn more about cloud computing for your business?
Chat with one of our experts today.
