The Diverse Solutions Blog

Hey everyone, we’ve updated our dsAgentChat Desktop with the most recent changes to the Adobe AIR framework, and a couple minor tweaks to dsAgentChat itself. To get on board with the latest version head to: http://admin.dsagentchat.com/Desktop/ and click the [Install Now] button, then you should be all set. Please post comments, questions, and issues here or email your support representative.

Here are a few notes on this release

• Better cross-platform support (Including support for Windows Vista)
• Audio and task/dock-bar chat notifications
• Cleaner Buttons, and small usability tweaks
• MUCH faster initial load (In most cases)

Also, I wanted to thank all of our customers that have been sending in their feedback and bugs with this program, it has been extremely helpful in finding our cross-platform issues, keep up the good work!

Hi, my name is Mike. I have been an art director for almost 8 years and now, I’m your personal web designer. That’s right! I design the looks of many of the websites around here, and now I’m here to help you continue the process! So, straighten up, pay attention, and do what I do.

Take the picture already!

No one wants to see a property with no pictures. NO ONE! So go grab a disposable camera, or, even better, buy a digital camera and start snapping away. Just remember, the more pictures you take, the more people are going to see them.

Turn on the lights!

Great photography starts with great lighting. I don’t care if it is high noon in the sun room, if there is a light in there… TURN IT ON. I’m serious, bring your own lighting if you have to. Well… you don’t need to go that far. But don’t be afraid to grab a couple of floor lamps from one of the other rooms. Be creative or you’ll get left in the dark.

Zoom out… more… more…

Don’t make your visitors crazy by having fifteen shots of the same room. Just take one good one. You want to get as much of the room in as possible. BACK UP, until you can’t back up anymore. Now, make sure you are zoomed out all the way. Take the shot!

Get in touch with you inner decorator

I know it’s not your house, but don’t be afraid to move things around; just move it all back when you are done. Is there a giant houseplant gobbling up your shot of the dining room? Well, set it aside. Are there throw pillows all over the living room floor? Why don’t you arrange them nicely on the sofa? Is there a big ugly car parked in front of the house? Have the owner move it out of the way long enough to get the shot. The camera may be point and shoot, but you don’t have to be.

You be the judge

Use your own good judgment. I see so many horrible listing photos on the Internet that are, frankly, counter productive. You know what people do and don’t want to see. They want to see a beautiful shot of the front of the house. They don’t want to see the same photo, again, with a fancy frame around it. They do want to see the living room. They don’t want to see a close up of the family cat, in the living room. They do want to see a clear picture. They don’t want to see a Rorschach test. You be the judge.

What not to do

For the best place to find “what not to do”, take a look at reagentinct.com’s Bad MLS Photo of the Day there are many instant classics, and some great insight into REALLY what NOT to do…

First of all, a big thanks to all the attendees who visited our booth at the 2007 CAR EXPO at the Anaheim Convention Center. We were really excited to see so much enthusiasm about our product lineup, especially with our MLS Search Solution: dsSearchAgent. In fact many of you commented that we’re the only company out there providing the broad range of technology and services which dsSearchAgent provides. Also, a big thanks to Loren Nason at www.futureofrealestatetechnology.com, who we had the pleasure of meeting with at the show, he had great things to say about dsSearchAgent.

We heard a lot of "Web 2.0" being thrown around at this year’s conference and we would like to reiterate that this "wave of the future" isn’t all just flashy catch phrases, "Web 2.0" allows you to help not only your clients buy and sell property, but it also helps you, the Agent, to work smarter and faster. For those of you who stopped by our booth, or even have just visited our website, you know that helping you and your clients buy and sell homes faster and smarter is what Diverse Solutions is all about.

On a side note one our helpful sales team members, Sean, is telling me that quite a few of you asked if the new dsAgentChat can be integrated onto a non Diverse Solutions website. The answer is: yes it can. With a $99.95 setup fee and $19.95/month or $199.95/year subscription you can be up and running with dsAgentChat on any website you may have.

Again, I want to thank everyone who spent time with us at our booth at CAR, it’s always a great pleasure to meet new people, and talk face to face about our products. And if you thought we stepped up our booth this year, please visit us at the National Association of Realtors® Conference in Las Vegas Nevada, we have big plans in store! Hope to see you all there.

Hey there blog readers. My name is Andrew, and I’m another one (the best of all) of the lead software developers who works around here. My responsibilities include maintaining our current suite of products, developing nifty new products and features, and dutifully getting here at 8:00 AM 8:15 AM every single day.

I’m really excited to announce that today is new feature Friday! It’s sort of like Taco Tuesday, but without the tacos and with more real estate technology. While you’ve been busy getting completely overwhelmed with feedback on how great your AgentCast website is or how incredibly easy and powerful your dsSearchAgent IDX solution is, we’ve been secretly working on a whole bunch of new features for you to have fun with. Best of all, all of these new features are completely free to all of our existing customers.

I’m definitely fired up about the first new feature I have to share with you, especially since there is literally no one else out there that offers anything at all like this. It’s our new map statistics panel that conveniently slides out as soon as you hover over the tab on the right-hand side of the map. Once it slides out, you’ll find some really cool pricing, home size, and lot size statistics for all of the properties that are within that very map view. Actually, to be more accurate, the statistics are only for the property types that you have checked under the “Advanced >>” portion of the search tab. If you don’t like this functionality, you’ll even be able to turn it off in your dsSearchAgent admin area. However, it’s both really fun and really easy to use, so I encourage you to try it out!

Another set of crazy new features that we are releasing are our blog and website modules. While you might already have modules on your site from Altos Research, Trulia, or any other company, now you can add our great new modules to your site. Our slideshow module allows you to display your listings, or any listings that match any criteria you set up as a link in your dsSearchAgent backend, in a nice slideshow fashion. Our map module allows you to take those same properties and display them nicely on a map. Finally, our map search module is essentially a mini-IDX search application that you can put on your page when you don’t want to instead link to the full-fledged version. Using it, your visitors can search for homes based on almost any criteria they’d like. Clicking on a property that is displayed in any of the modules will bring the visitor directly to that property in the full-featured IDX.

Next (not that we need to wow you anymore for today), you’ll very shortly be able to tie your IDX solution to a domain name of your choice. For example, say you specialize in real estate in Elbonia and you have the domain name elboniarealestate.com. Previously, you’d probably use that domain to either host a site where you advertise yourself and what you know about that area or to host a blog. Well now you’ll be able to hook that domain name up our dsSearchAgent solution so that visitors who go to that domain will be able to immediately search for real estate in Elbonia and contact you via email or a dsAgentChat instant message when they have questions. Yay!

We’re also releasing a number of features that aren’t as, um, take-your-breath-away-awesome. You’ll soon be able to turn on the option to embed your contact info into the results panel. We’re also now announcing that you can connect your rockin’ dsSearchAgent IDX solution to your Top Producer lead management system. Finally, we’re rolling out the ability to search for houses by community, year built, and tract in many of the MLS’s. If you don’t have it yet in yours, be patient as it will be there very soon.

Sooooooo, now that I’ve got you all worked up, I’m going to risk getting my car egged by a rogue gang of agents and brokers by telling you we’re not going to immediately release all of these features to everyone at the same time. Instead, we’re going to do a slow rollout over the next two weeks or so in order to monitor any issues that pop up because of these features. If you have dsSearchAgent, you want to be one of the first to have these features, and you enjoy having stuff break on you (just kidding), drop us a line at info-attt-diversesolutions-dottt-com and we’ll see what we can do to turn the features on for you. In the meantime, be on the lookout for the press releases relating to these great new things!

Well, until the next time I have something cool to share, hasta luego!

All over the web, you can read about the new generations of IDX solutions. IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is a platform that companies like us can use to provide agents and brokers with an interface that their website visitors can use to search through the MLS. The latest buzz centers around mapping IDX solutions that allow visitors to search through the MLS using a map as the central focus point. Our own mapping IDX solution, dsSearchAgent, was first released at the 2006 NAR conference in New Orleans; soon after, we signed a site-license agreement with SoCal MLS to provide our mapping IDX solution to all of their 55,000+ members and 20,000+ offices.

Recently, I had the opportunity to hold a training class at the SoCal MLS facility to talk with them about our dsSearchAgent program and gather feedback. During the class, I posed the following question to them. “How do you plan to market yourself in the fallout of a post-subprime market?” One of the brokers who was there immediately replied, saying “that is why I am here, to see what I can do.” As I thought about what he said, I realized that his statement has almost become a rebel’s cry by those who intend to stay in the business. In all, about 20% of the people had an answer; the rest were silent.

For months now, I have been speaking with agents and brokers looking for the latest in technology to help them grow their business; similarly, I’ve read the same thoughts echoed in various blogs. It has become quite clear that agents and brokers who really do care are embracing technology. Accordingly, the tech industry is reacting with great new solutions and bringing with it a whole new group of forward thinkers.

Anyway, I continued to ask the group questions. One of the questions I asked was whether or not they currently blog. Once again, the same 20% who initially gave me feedback told me that they did have a blog. An agent outside of the 20% group shared with me that she did had started a blog, but had never posted anything and couldn’t remember her password. On the other hand, one of the brokers had posted several blogs but had found it difficult to keep up on in and often found it difficult to think of things to blog about. I explained to the group that they need to be specialists within their area. As my mother use to tell me, it really is possible to be the “Jack of all trades, but king of nothing.” Too often, agents and brokers want to be everything to all and everywhere at the same time. A much better approach is to specialize in your area of expertise, which, in turn, will give you much more to blog about.

After the training class was over, I realized that I had just witnessed the famed 80-20 rule in person. 20% of the group participated in the focus group, sharing their concerns, asking questions, and giving general feedback. The other 80% sat there and curiously listened and watched as I spoke about the importance of emerging technologies and the future of real estate. I, for one, wouldn’t want to find myself in the 80% group when it comes to this kind of stuff. On one side, there’s an interest in new technologies, mapping, instant messaging, blogs, RSS feeds, and the like. On the other side, there’s just silence.

What group are you in?