  New Online Tool Helps Buyers Keep Track of Properties 3/31/2011 By Susan Stellin  TECHNOLOGY has made buying a home easier by making an unprecedented amount of information available to buyers. But managing that data and keeping track of multiple properties can be a challenge for house-hunting clients and their brokers Matt Daimler, the founder of Buyfolio, said the idea grew out of the frustration he experienced several years ago when he was looking for an apartment in New York City and his broker kept sending e-mails with links to apartments he had already seen on the Web. “So she stopped sending new listings as if she thought, ‘He’s doing a fine job searching for himself — I’ll just butt out,’ ” Mr. Daimler said. “The collaboration piece was what I felt like was missing from the process.” Buyfolio.com, which debuted last year, allows brokers or buyers to search its database of properties for sale in New York City — for instance two-bedroom condominiums in the West Village — and save promising listings to a folio. After looking at an apartment, either on the Web or in person, the agent or the client can drag that property to one of the folio’s categories — “To See,” “Saw & Liked” or “Didn’t Like” — and add comments explaining why. “I’ll say ‘too narrow’ or ‘not where I want to live,’ ” said Jen Buice, who has been using Buyfolio with her husband to communicate with their agent, Donald Brennan, about properties on the market in Brooklyn. “I don’t mince words because I’m comfortable with Donald,” Ms. Buice said. “He’s very much like that, too.” Mr. Brennan, the owner of Brennan Realty Services in Brooklyn, said he had about 10 Buyfolio accounts that he was using with clients, and prefers its tool to a feature on StreetEasy that offers a way to save, organize and share listings in folders. “The clients who are trying to find something in the near term are very active with Buyfolio,” he said. “It helps me organize the listings we’ve looked at as opposed to just sending links to people by e-mail.” Other real estate sites like StreetEasy, PropertyShark and Nytimes.com allow buyers to save properties they are considering in a list or a folder, and will send updates when there is activity like a price change. But for those who prefer to do their searching on another real estate site, Buyfolio offers a way to import a property by copying the listing’s Web address into a folio. Stephanie L. Davis, a vice president of the Corcoran Group, said she started her searches with the firm’s database but used Buyfolio to manage the buyers’ feedback. “Not all of my clients embrace it, but I would say the majority do,” she said. “I really love the ‘Didn’t Like’ category because sometimes you do come back to a listing you may not have initially liked, so you don’t want to delete it from your purview.” Although Mr. Daimler’s inspiration for Buyfolio grew out of his experience as a buyer, he said he wanted to create a tool that was useful to brokers, and solicited feedback from agents during the development process about what features would help them communicate more efficiently with clients. Access to Buyfolio is free now, but he said he anticipates charging brokers a monthly subscription fee down the road. So far, about 1,100 buyers and 400 real estate agents have signed up to use Buyfolio, Mr. Daimler said. The tool is also available as an app for the iPad and the iPhone. Nile Lundgren, an associate broker with Cooper & Cooper Real Estate, said he uses the Buyfolio app when he’s visiting open houses with buyers, giving him mobile access to the client’s search history — and eliminating the need to carry around a bunch of printouts picked up at open houses. Buyfolio also serves as something of a digital memory aid, remembering properties that have already been viewed. “My buyer sent me a listing the other day, and when I tried putting it into Buyfolio it said, ‘You already rejected this,’ ” Mr. Lundgren recalled. And when clients reject properties, Buyfolio prompts them to leave a comment for their broker explaining why. “You can’t just go in and say, ‘I don’t like that, I don’t like that, I don’t like that,’ ” Mr. Lundgren said. “I’m not saying they write me paragraphs, but it kind of holds them accountable.” View on New York Times online CLICK HERE  Home, Via 140 Characters 1/26/2011 By Alexis Tirado @AlexisTT Craigslist. E-mails. Word of mouth. We’ve all found apartments through the usual ways, but did you ever think Twitter could be the key to your next humble abode? In the summer of 2009, Omayah Atassi, a Columbia University student, tweeted about looking for a new apartment. “I was living in the suburbs of Chicago at the time, and I didn’t really know how to go about looking for an apartment when living outside the city,” she says. View on Metro New York CLICK HERE  January 2011 The People's Choice Awards
You Voted and Inman News tallied the votes on individuals who you think are making an impact on the industry in your area:
* The Social Butterfly or The Social Bee: Stephanie L. Davis View on Facebook Fan Page CLICK HERE  Click on image to enlarge.  Click on image to enlarge.  Click on image to enlarge. Ms. Davis advises and provides guidance on leveraging the power of New Media in the marketing of tag's exclusive sale/rental listings. Harvard-educated and the woman behind Faith Popcorn before she founded her own national forecasting firm, The Next Group, Melinda Davis has been described variously as "a secret weapon of the Fortune One Hundred" and a "hired-gun visionary." Her success lies in her uncanny insight into the human mind, and her ideas have paid off for leading corporate clients, including AT&T, Viacom, Unilever, and L'Oreal, to name a few. In The New Culture of Desire, Davis reveals findings from a 6-year study conducted by The Next Group that identify a profound cultural shift taking place in our society. As a country, says Davis, we are no longer motivated by physical desires (food, sex, money, etc.). Instead, we are in search of things that feed the metaphysical (internal) state (spiritual, emotional and intellectual satisfaction). In her book, Davis identifies the major trends that illustrate this drive for psychic survival. Like the national bestsellers, Megatrends and The Tipping Point, The New Culture of Desire is sure to have a profound impact on the way we perceive and pursue our lives. Melinda Davis is President & CEO of The Next Group, the action-oriented futurist think tank and marketing consulting group in New York City, specializing in strategic vision of the future, brand positioning, and new product and business development. She is a popular speaker internationally on the subject of popular culture and creative consumer marketing. Her background includes adventures in journalism, magazines, advertising and literary fiction. Educated in Europe and America, graduated Harvard University, Melinda lives in New York City.  Better Homes and Garden Vlog: Clean Slate "Insights into the Real Estate Industry." View Playlist on tag's YouTube Channel CLICK HERE  New York Magazine. 2/9/2009 Click on image to enlarge.  New York Magazine. 5/4/2009 Click on image to enlarge. |
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