This is VERY rough and somebody can do this better. But youtube.com/editor will let you drag and drop your videos into one video. Good for before and after videos.
.
.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Video Tutorial: How to Forward IMPORTANT Gmail messages to your Cell as Text
(this and other videos will show up on the internal blog shortly)
I refer to this site to find out what your phone email address is (sends to your text)
http://www.emailtextmessages.com/
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How to Forward IMPORTANT Gmail messages to your Cell as Text Video Tutorial, how to transfer DPOR online. WORKS!
This shows you how to switch DPOR online, it is easy to mess up, so watch this.
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Sunday, November 16, 2014
MRIS Coming Soon Listings. Want them?
A year and a half after launching my Premls.com service, which now has over 4,000 agents in the DC area as members, the 400 pound gorilla just decided to get into the game.
Yes, MRIS Coming Soon status will be starting up on Tuesday Nov 18. The chairman of MRIS maintained in a Intro video that this was information not to be syndicated to third parties, or broker "IDX" sites like FranklyMLS. Yet, he also said we could share it with our clients. Confused? Me too. I asked for clarification. It had to be vetted through legal and compliance to clarify. Is it only for agents or our clients?
Ultimately we CAN share it with our clients. They just make it really hard and won't deliver the data on a silver platter, ala a RETS feed. But since the Realtors at Frankly Realtors have eye balls, we can look at this information and share it with our clients. How exactly will/must that be done, is unclear. Can we only call clients with this info? How about text them? God forbid email it or display it on the Web.
Regardless, if you want to know about MRIS Coming Soon Listings, you have come to the right place. Sign up today on FranklyMLS.com and let us know what you want to know about.
Frank LLosa
Principal broker Frankly Realtors
Fairfax, VA, MD, DC
Friday, October 31, 2014
Buyer Agent Reviews Are Back! Kinda!
Now when a Frankly buyer agent visits a property, they will add that information into FranklyMLS and a yellow bar will show up on the top of the listing. That way if you look at a listing and want to get an alternative perspective, you just email us and you can talk directly with the BUYER agent that visited the property.
Was it near a highway? Were the listing agent's photos accurate or misleading?
Maybe the buyer agent took 50-100 photos, or a walking video, of their own of the property, giving you a real view of what it looks like without the professional photography.
Let me know if you want more stuff like this.
Frank
Was it near a highway? Were the listing agent's photos accurate or misleading?
Maybe the buyer agent took 50-100 photos, or a walking video, of their own of the property, giving you a real view of what it looks like without the professional photography.
Let me know if you want more stuff like this.
Frank
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Predict Bidding War Situations. The New Fire Symbol!
With all the bidding wars going on, wouldn't it be nice to know when a listing might be more likely to have a bidding war situation?
See an example with a search in Arlington Virginia homes for sale.
Well now, we will show a
symbol when there is a listing that meets the following criteria
1) The homes is under 7 Days On Market
2) The listing agent has a selling track record of getting the seller over 100% of list price on at least HALF of their listings... that sell in 7 days.
The #2 is a little tricky, so I will explain it another way. The flame is just looking at the agent's track record when their listings sell in under 7 days. So they might have 100 listings and only 3 sell in under 7 days. Meaning only a 3% chance of a bidding war. And if 2 of those 3 (over 50%) sell for over list, there WILL be a flame symbol.
So the flame represents IF (a big IF) this home were to sell in under 7 days, it has over a 50% chance of selling for over list price based on the agent's track record.
I am open to suggestions for adjusting this metric, but for now I kept it simple.
What do you think? Leave your comments.
Also the FPP (Frankly Price Predictor) will have an adjustment shortly for homes likely to go over list.
Frank
Friday, May 24, 2013
FranklyMLS.com Cell Mode Tutorial (VIDEO)
Also, now you can login and retrieve your saved searches from the cell mode. Some people even use the cell mode at www.FranklyMLS.com/cell to do their main desktop searches because it is so fast and simple.
A couple of tips: The less info you put the better. If looking for a specific home try just 2 variables:
1) the street #
2) the zipcode or street name
Don't put in stuff like "St." or extra small words. Just try two. Soon you will be able to favorite individual listings from the cell mode too.
Written by Frank
Thursday, May 23, 2013
iPhone & Android Cell Users, add a Shortcut to your Home Screen
Attn cell/tablet users. I'm working on making your site experience better. Maybe an APP, but who needs another app if you can just add a bookmark on your home screen which is essentially the same thing (on my site).
For iPhone watch the video below or follow these steps:
1) Go to www.franklymls.com/cell
2) Press the [>] button at the bottom
3) Select "Add to Home Screen"
For Android, watch the video below or take these steps.
1) go to www.franklymls.com/cell
2) Save page as a bookmark ("add bookmark" from menu at bottom of phone)
3) GO back into bookmarks, and HOLD the screen over the bookmarked page
4) Select "add shortcut to Home"
If you prefer the main FranklyMLS.com page, you can also make a shortcut icon for that. You can even make an icon AFTER you conduct a search, so you are 1 button away from seeing the results page and all homes in the search you want.
Hope this helps!
Frank
For iPhone watch the video below or follow these steps:
1) Go to www.franklymls.com/cell
2) Press the [>] button at the bottom
3) Select "Add to Home Screen"
For Android, watch the video below or take these steps.
1) go to www.franklymls.com/cell
2) Save page as a bookmark ("add bookmark" from menu at bottom of phone)
3) GO back into bookmarks, and HOLD the screen over the bookmarked page
4) Select "add shortcut to Home"
If you prefer the main FranklyMLS.com page, you can also make a shortcut icon for that. You can even make an icon AFTER you conduct a search, so you are 1 button away from seeing the results page and all homes in the search you want.
Hope this helps!
Frank
Friday, December 28, 2012
Now showing "just" 2012 SOLD MLS data
Thanks to Megan for this suggestion.
Frank p.s. We also have buyer agent commissions being shown, more on that soon!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Verify Cell Coverage!
I will admit when I get an idea from another place. And it was so obvious. Lani Rosales from Agent Genius did a blog post about a new service that will use an app on millions of people's phones to independently show you cell coverage for any home address. Brilliant.
She found a service called Open Signal that does this and wrote about it in this blog post. She challenged all large and small home search sites to see who would incorporate it first.
I was on it.
But it first required a "key" from the company.
So I did the next best thing while waiting for that key. I now made it so in one click you can verify the coverage of ATT. The address is already built into the link, just send it off. Just like you love the Verify Schools link (certain counties).
Soon this dynamic link will work for Verizon, Tmobile and Sprint. For now they are simply links that require you to re-enter the address. I couldn't do it immediately since I am about to head out on a 20 mile run, a new record for me (sorry too much info??).
So what do you think?
To those that say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", sorry I made the site a tad better today.
Frank
She found a service called Open Signal that does this and wrote about it in this blog post. She challenged all large and small home search sites to see who would incorporate it first.
I was on it.
But it first required a "key" from the company.
So I did the next best thing while waiting for that key. I now made it so in one click you can verify the coverage of ATT. The address is already built into the link, just send it off. Just like you love the Verify Schools link (certain counties).
Soon this dynamic link will work for Verizon, Tmobile and Sprint. For now they are simply links that require you to re-enter the address. I couldn't do it immediately since I am about to head out on a 20 mile run, a new record for me (sorry too much info??).
So what do you think?
To those that say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", sorry I made the site a tad better today.
Frank
Thursday, August 30, 2012
New Design, Need your help & Feedback
Ok, so after a year of effort we have launched the new design. (not to be confused with the database crash bugs and glitches recently occurring)
The reviews are mixed. Some hate it because it doesn't work perfectly for them, while it might work perfectly for others. The problem is we are trying to do so much, and are such bleeding edge with this stuff that we can't test it out on all 10,000 variations of browser sizes, types, version, Mac or PC.
So we need your help. Tell us what you like and what you don't like. We can tweak it so it will work on more browsers.
Just so you know, here is the goal.
GOAL 1: LARGER DEFAULT IMAGE ON POP UP
a) Old way. After doing a spreadsheet search one would mouseover a MLS# to see the 4 inch preview image. The images were preloaded so it would be screaming fast. Ie, the image would appear in under .1 seconds after mousing over the MLS#.
b) New way Attempt #1: A mouseover of the MLS# would show the LARGE image as the default. 4x larger. We also preloaded these images so they would be instant, but it crashed many computers since thefilze sizes were so big. 100 results x Large images = too much for some.
c) New way Attempt #2: Instead of preloading the default image, we call them up after you mouseover. The upside is it doesn't crash some of your computers. The downside is the .1 second reaction time jumps to .5 seconds or even 1 second, which is too slow for us instant gratitude people.
d) Proposed new way: Stick to the preloaded middle size images, but keeping the new pop up for the other benefits (see below). You can see the larger main image (after doing another rollover) 1 second after the instant middle size image.
GOAL 2: SEE ALL 30 IMAGES FROM THE POP UP
a) This custom pop up software (after 6 programmers failed to achieve this) is more interactive. It lets the user see all 10-30 more photos, all in the huge size, all from within the pop up. No need to go to the full listing page. A huge time saver (eventually once the bugs are gone)
GOAL #3 Coming soon: See ALL DATA in POP UP
a) Now it will also let you see the remarks and address and price like before. But soon it will show most of the same data available in the Full listing. Tax assessment, former price, #bdr, etc. REALLY saving time.
So keep emailing me your thoughts. Be kind. Jerks will be told to go elsewhere. Send screen shots if something looks funky and if I only hear from the negative nellies, those that like it might lose out.
Other fixes: Login was being hidden based on your browser width. That has been fixed.
Frank
Broker FranklyRealty.com
Owner FranklyMLS.com
p.s. Please leave a comment about your thoughts (consider reading the other comments too). And use a name other than Anonymous. Heck use a fake name. It makes it easier to reply to a different name. Also try and include your computer type and monitor type.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
New "Open House" search
Now you can add the phrase "Open House" (with quotes) to any area to see all upcoming registered open houses (this is only of the agent checke a box for an upcoming open. It will NOT look for lazy agents that just put "Open Sun" in the remarks.)
Example:
Vienna "Open House"
22101 "Open House"
"Open House" Lake Barcroft
An hour after the open house ends, the search should no longer show that OH. Note that most agents place OHs midweek.
Feedback?
Frank
--
Thank you,
Frank LLosa, J.D.
Broker www.FranklyRealty.com Better Technology, Better Agents.
Owner www.FranklyMLS.com
Gtalk/IM: fllosa
Example:
Vienna "Open House"
22101 "Open House"
"Open House" Lake Barcroft
An hour after the open house ends, the search should no longer show that OH. Note that most agents place OHs midweek.
Feedback?
Frank
--
Thank you,
Frank LLosa, J.D.
Broker www.FranklyRealty.com Better Technology, Better Agents.
Owner www.FranklyMLS.com
Gtalk/IM: fllosa
.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
School Boundary Zones Now for Arlington, Fairfax, DC
Now after a search, to the right of the map you will see an option to show School Boundary Zones, also know as School Attendance Zones.
Currently we only have Fairfax, Arlington and Washington DC. If you all like it, maybe we can add more.
Disclaimer: Don't buy a home solely based on this data. We also have a "Verify School" link. But ultimately if a school is crucial to your purchase, you need to call the district to verify that everything is up to date and nothing is changing.
Also let me know if you think anything is wrong.
Note this data IGNORES the agent school input field and is based solely on the county maps.
Frank
Currently we only have Fairfax, Arlington and Washington DC. If you all like it, maybe we can add more.
Disclaimer: Don't buy a home solely based on this data. We also have a "Verify School" link. But ultimately if a school is crucial to your purchase, you need to call the district to verify that everything is up to date and nothing is changing.
Also let me know if you think anything is wrong.
Note this data IGNORES the agent school input field and is based solely on the county maps.
Frank
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Cell Mode Changes. Now Shows Favorites
I made some changes to the cell mode.
Including
Up next, GPS based "Homes Near You" and "Open Houses Near you"
Anything else you want to see?
Frank
Including
- Cleaner layout. Moving the search box to the bottom after a search.
- More clear how to search for Sold properties when you are out in the car.
- Added subdivision info on the results page
- See your saved favorites! You will first have to login on the front page of FranklyMLS.com from your cell phone (Yeah I know not ideal) but you will only have to do it once. Then you can save stuff on your computer and when you go out in your car, you can see all of your favorites.
Up next, GPS based "Homes Near You" and "Open Houses Near you"
Anything else you want to see?
Frank
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Realtors: Sign your clients up for Branded Alerts
This is a Step by Step for Realtors to sign up their clients and watch their progress, and edit their saved searches. Many Realtors have asked how to do this, so here is a step by step. This assumes you already signed up for a free Branded FranklyMLS search site.
1) Start from a clean slate. Click http://franklymls.com/clear to make the site act like a new user/visitor (ie no cookies).
2) Hit your branded page. Aka www.FranklyMLS.com/YOURID
3) Conduct a search, for example Arlington Condos from $500k to $600k
4) In the middle of the page it lets you "Save Search" by entering in your clients email address. Enter their email and press Join/Login (no passwords needed)
5) It will ask the user (you) to confirm the link in their email.
6) If you signed up under your branded page, YOU, the Realtor will get a copy of the confirmation email. Either you OR the client can confirm the sign up.
7) Go back to FranklyMLS.com/YourID and if it does not say "Welcome: jon@jon.com" then
log in as them on the front page, upper right corner.
8) Conduct more searches and save those searches. Also if there are special homes you want them to get price change alerts on (you get a copy of all alerts) then click the RED HEART to save those homes.
9) Finish by logging out, by visiting http://franklymls.com/clear (or there is a Logout button on the search page, but don't hit the Unsubscribe button)
Done. Great! Your client will now get daily emails "From Realtor's Name" and you will get a copy of those alerts (which you should route to a folder to check periodically). They can change it to update every 15 minutes by following the directions in the alerts.
EMail me if you have any questions
To make changes to an existing account.
1) Clear out your session http://franklymls.com/clear
2) Go to your IDX Franklymls.com/USERID
3) Login with their email address
4) Conduct searches, save searches, save homes, delete saved homes, etc.
5) When done, clear out your session http://franklymls.com/clear
Let me know if that isn't clear. Let me know if you log in as a user and you don't see your branding on every page.
Frank
Coming soon, a live tutorial demo.
1) Start from a clean slate. Click http://franklymls.com/clear to make the site act like a new user/visitor (ie no cookies).
2) Hit your branded page. Aka www.FranklyMLS.com/YOURID
3) Conduct a search, for example Arlington Condos from $500k to $600k
4) In the middle of the page it lets you "Save Search" by entering in your clients email address. Enter their email and press Join/Login (no passwords needed)
5) It will ask the user (you) to confirm the link in their email.
6) If you signed up under your branded page, YOU, the Realtor will get a copy of the confirmation email. Either you OR the client can confirm the sign up.
7) Go back to FranklyMLS.com/YourID and if it does not say "Welcome: jon@jon.com" then
log in as them on the front page, upper right corner.
8) Conduct more searches and save those searches. Also if there are special homes you want them to get price change alerts on (you get a copy of all alerts) then click the RED HEART to save those homes.
9) Finish by logging out, by visiting http://franklymls.com/clear (or there is a Logout button on the search page, but don't hit the Unsubscribe button)
Done. Great! Your client will now get daily emails "From Realtor's Name" and you will get a copy of those alerts (which you should route to a folder to check periodically). They can change it to update every 15 minutes by following the directions in the alerts.
EMail me if you have any questions
To make changes to an existing account.
1) Clear out your session http://franklymls.com/clear
2) Go to your IDX Franklymls.com/USERID
3) Login with their email address
4) Conduct searches, save searches, save homes, delete saved homes, etc.
5) When done, clear out your session http://franklymls.com/clear
Let me know if that isn't clear. Let me know if you log in as a user and you don't see your branding on every page.
Frank
Coming soon, a live tutorial demo.
New Mobile Idea, Done in 4 minutes. Suggest yours!
Chris W. emailed me about some ideas for the site and it sparked a no brainer. I was able to get it live in 4 minutes! And a blog post up in another 5 minutes. A new record.
In mobile mode, FranklyMLS.com/m, I am working on a "Near you" button so you can drive up to a home and in 1 click see all the homes near you. (I know, pretty standard in the app world).
In the meantime, I made it so the mobile mode will list the subdivision and let you click on "See more" to see all the other homes that are active/UC in that subdivision.
Try it out: http://franklymls.com/m/FX7665108, you can test it from your computer too.
I also moved around some things on the cell mode to make it easier to see more data (less indenting).
Thoughts? So keep sending in your ideas so I can expand on them, or just flat out steal them and take credit. ;-)
Frank
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
10 Tweaks today
Been making a bunch of changes today to the Full View (1 home per page) http://franklymls.com/FX7665108
including,
1) Clearing out the junk in the upper left and right
2) Moving the HEART saving option next to the Status=Active (before it made no sense to be in the upper right part of the page since it didnt look like part of the listing),http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
3) Add a Mobile mode icon and moved it down near the multiple photos
4) Moved the Neighborhood reviews and House Wiki comments to another location lower on the page
5) Added a printer Icon to let you know you can print a 1 page version of the site
6) And for people that are NOT on a branded version of the site, I added more Frankly logos and chat windows.
7) Moved private notes and View Count to middle left of screen
8) More details for what Under Contract means. (We get a ton of "Can I see this home that is Under Contract")
9) More ads featuring recommended local buyers agents (if you have your owner agent, great, but have them get a free IDX so their name is on each page)
10) Annoying photo of me lurching on the left side of the page ready to chat (already got one complaint on this today, you hate it too?)
including,
1) Clearing out the junk in the upper left and right
2) Moving the HEART saving option next to the Status=Active (before it made no sense to be in the upper right part of the page since it didnt look like part of the listing),http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
3) Add a Mobile mode icon and moved it down near the multiple photos
4) Moved the Neighborhood reviews and House Wiki comments to another location lower on the page
5) Added a printer Icon to let you know you can print a 1 page version of the site
6) And for people that are NOT on a branded version of the site, I added more Frankly logos and chat windows.
7) Moved private notes and View Count to middle left of screen
8) More details for what Under Contract means. (We get a ton of "Can I see this home that is Under Contract")
9) More ads featuring recommended local buyers agents (if you have your owner agent, great, but have them get a free IDX so their name is on each page)
10) Annoying photo of me lurching on the left side of the page ready to chat (already got one complaint on this today, you hate it too?)
Friday, September 16, 2011
What's In It for You? Realtors Ask In Fear
FranklyMLS invites competing firms to join the site. Why?
Update: Don't Miss Peggy James' great comment on how she profits from FranklyMLS.I offer several free services for Realtors in other firms. Easy to convince them because it is free? Nope, I spend a lot of time easing their fears & untrustingness (is that a word?).
So here I will list what Realtors from other firms can do with this site to help themselves and WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME.
Ways Realtors can benefit from FranklyMLS.com:
1) Join and get your free branded banner on FranklyMLS. Even if you "already have an IDX."
With the branded Version of FranklyMLS (Technically NOT a true IDX), the logos of my firm get dropped and replaced with your image and banner. All "request a showings" go to you. When your client signs up for email alerts you are notified and each alert has YOUR branding. Also you get a BCC of each email alert of your client.
Over 250 agents have joined. Many stopped paying their 2003 garbage $50/mo IDX and others have dropped even the "high tech and latest" IDXes.
Why do they ditch their IDX?
a) FranklyMLS.com does so much more. I can't list them here, but recently an "I already have one"-type agent got the "oh mine doesn't do that" moment about 5 times and finally the lightbulb went off that this might actually help HER and her client.
b) Your clients are probably already using the site anyhow, so why not have your name on each page (and stop having them bug me instead of you, but I will get to my benefits later)
2) Contribute to the MLS Wiki (Rules). 200,000 Photos already added by buyer's agents!
Land free clients. No referral fees. A couple agents have closed $1M clients from this.
Buyer agents can add reviews (once your client decides not to buy it) and photo albums (this is why you should be taking buyer agent photo albums for your clients anyhow) to most MLS homes (about 95% of MRIS listings allow blogging/comments).
With these reviews a buyer agent can add photos from the buyer agent perspective. Add information about distance to a noisy highway or something the listing agent might have left out. This is REALLY killer for photoless REOS. This can even save a Realtor (and their client) a 1 hour drive if another buyer agent took 30 photos of a photoless listing (this happened to me once). Hum, imagine agents helping agents. A novel concept.
Agents get points for adding reviews (10 with photos) and top contributors get featured on the front page. With this service, many get more traffic than Google! And if a buyer is looking in a particular area and they keep seeing helpful comments (not annoying ads) they say "hum, maybe I should use that agent".
Also agents can LINK to all of their reviewed homes in 1 click. So people on your blog can see the areas you have recently visited and your comments.
3) Join the referral network. FranklyMLS.com is a hugely trafficked site, but FranklyRealty.com is a smaller firm. So having a network of agents in other areas, I can send clients your way.
Ok, finally, the big question. FRANK WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU?
Again, I have no interest in stealing your client. It isn't some trick.
Benefits to ME:
1) Your clients are already using the site! So brand it & save me time.
It is kind of annoying to get a request for information on a home, for the user to say "I love my buyer agent Patrick." Ok great, so why did you contact us? It would be easier on me if Patrick had his branded FranklyMLS so I wouldn't waste time with a happily represented buyer. And yes this happens a lot. Recently at a [Large Real Estate Firm's] technology meeting it went like this: "Are you all noticing that half your clients are using FranklyMLS?"
2) A Branded Agent might start contributing to the WIKI.
The Free Branded Version of FranklyMLS is also the bait to come check out the site. Once agents get their bannered version of the site and give their custom link to their clients (that are wildly happy with the link see one non-Frankly agent's review). And even though the Wiki sends THEM tons of traffic, it helps build a better site for all to use. Having 200,000 MORE photos than ANY other MLS... that is valuable since photos are key. Why go anywhere else?
3) Expanded referral network
Those that I see contributing, are perfect candidates to send business their way. It lets me meet agents from areas I would never have reached out to.
4) Frankly brand respect amongst other agents.
Helping my full time agents have a respected brand to work under is huge.
By offering a free Branded Version of FranklyMLS to 250 agents, and helping other agents get a ton of free business, it helps build the FranklyRealty.com brand. When my agent has a bidding war against 3 other no-name firms... it helps when the listing agent is like "Yeah I know about Frankly Real Estate, your company, you help other agents out." Or "Oh you guys only have the highest quality full time agents with gorgeous 30 photo listings 100% of the time" That is a big plus.
Come on, you know when you get a contract from a firm with a bad reputation, or all weekend warrior agents. You are like "darn, this might be a nightmare deal."
5) Recruiting.
AHA! Ok, everyone will now probably ignore all of the above and say "AHA". Well it isn't like that. While I have interest in growing Frankly Real Estate, I only want to do so SLOWLY and in select areas. Like maybe adding 1 great and high producing agent a year that is looking to upgrade from their "national brand" firm. (note that most firms recruit 20 agents to get 1 real producer). This site lets them get an introduction to Frankly and 1 in the 200 might join (I turn down many requests). But that is NOT my main motivation. Prove it? In 4 years of this free service, last month was the first time I emailed them in batch about an update to the site.
6) Doing Cool Stuff
I just love doing cool stuff. Like building the Frankly I Wish concept in 24 hours from idea to creation to Agent Genius featured story. And it is more fun to do stuff in a large scale with many agents. If I can come up with a way that helps everyone, then why not! And it does create indirect and unexpected benefits like winning the 2009 Inman News Innovator of the Year award. Couldn't have done it without everyone's cooperation.
Ok, so I hope you will join FranklyMLS and see what you are missing. It is free.
Thank you for your time, please report typos
Frank
Founder FranklyMLS.com
Broker FranklyRealty.com Better Technology, Better Agents
Photo Credit Fear
So here I will list what Realtors from other firms can do with this site to help themselves and WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME.
Ways Realtors can benefit from FranklyMLS.com:
1) Join and get your free branded banner on FranklyMLS. Even if you "already have an IDX."
With the branded Version of FranklyMLS (Technically NOT a true IDX), the logos of my firm get dropped and replaced with your image and banner. All "request a showings" go to you. When your client signs up for email alerts you are notified and each alert has YOUR branding. Also you get a BCC of each email alert of your client.
Over 250 agents have joined. Many stopped paying their 2003 garbage $50/mo IDX and others have dropped even the "high tech and latest" IDXes.
Why do they ditch their IDX?
a) FranklyMLS.com does so much more. I can't list them here, but recently an "I already have one"-type agent got the "oh mine doesn't do that" moment about 5 times and finally the lightbulb went off that this might actually help HER and her client.
b) Your clients are probably already using the site anyhow, so why not have your name on each page (and stop having them bug me instead of you, but I will get to my benefits later)
2) Contribute to the MLS Wiki (Rules). 200,000 Photos already added by buyer's agents!
Land free clients. No referral fees. A couple agents have closed $1M clients from this.
Buyer agents can add reviews (once your client decides not to buy it) and photo albums (this is why you should be taking buyer agent photo albums for your clients anyhow) to most MLS homes (about 95% of MRIS listings allow blogging/comments).
With these reviews a buyer agent can add photos from the buyer agent perspective. Add information about distance to a noisy highway or something the listing agent might have left out. This is REALLY killer for photoless REOS. This can even save a Realtor (and their client) a 1 hour drive if another buyer agent took 30 photos of a photoless listing (this happened to me once). Hum, imagine agents helping agents. A novel concept.
Agents get points for adding reviews (10 with photos) and top contributors get featured on the front page. With this service, many get more traffic than Google! And if a buyer is looking in a particular area and they keep seeing helpful comments (not annoying ads) they say "hum, maybe I should use that agent".
Also agents can LINK to all of their reviewed homes in 1 click. So people on your blog can see the areas you have recently visited and your comments.
3) Join the referral network. FranklyMLS.com is a hugely trafficked site, but FranklyRealty.com is a smaller firm. So having a network of agents in other areas, I can send clients your way.
Ok, finally, the big question. FRANK WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU?
Again, I have no interest in stealing your client. It isn't some trick.
Benefits to ME:
1) Your clients are already using the site! So brand it & save me time.
It is kind of annoying to get a request for information on a home, for the user to say "I love my buyer agent Patrick." Ok great, so why did you contact us? It would be easier on me if Patrick had his branded FranklyMLS so I wouldn't waste time with a happily represented buyer. And yes this happens a lot. Recently at a [Large Real Estate Firm's] technology meeting it went like this: "Are you all noticing that half your clients are using FranklyMLS?"
2) A Branded Agent might start contributing to the WIKI.
The Free Branded Version of FranklyMLS is also the bait to come check out the site. Once agents get their bannered version of the site and give their custom link to their clients (that are wildly happy with the link see one non-Frankly agent's review). And even though the Wiki sends THEM tons of traffic, it helps build a better site for all to use. Having 200,000 MORE photos than ANY other MLS... that is valuable since photos are key. Why go anywhere else?
3) Expanded referral network
Those that I see contributing, are perfect candidates to send business their way. It lets me meet agents from areas I would never have reached out to.
4) Frankly brand respect amongst other agents.
Helping my full time agents have a respected brand to work under is huge.
By offering a free Branded Version of FranklyMLS to 250 agents, and helping other agents get a ton of free business, it helps build the FranklyRealty.com brand. When my agent has a bidding war against 3 other no-name firms... it helps when the listing agent is like "Yeah I know about Frankly Real Estate, your company, you help other agents out." Or "Oh you guys only have the highest quality full time agents with gorgeous 30 photo listings 100% of the time" That is a big plus.
Come on, you know when you get a contract from a firm with a bad reputation, or all weekend warrior agents. You are like "darn, this might be a nightmare deal."
5) Recruiting.
AHA! Ok, everyone will now probably ignore all of the above and say "AHA". Well it isn't like that. While I have interest in growing Frankly Real Estate, I only want to do so SLOWLY and in select areas. Like maybe adding 1 great and high producing agent a year that is looking to upgrade from their "national brand" firm. (note that most firms recruit 20 agents to get 1 real producer). This site lets them get an introduction to Frankly and 1 in the 200 might join (I turn down many requests). But that is NOT my main motivation. Prove it? In 4 years of this free service, last month was the first time I emailed them in batch about an update to the site.
6) Doing Cool Stuff
I just love doing cool stuff. Like building the Frankly I Wish concept in 24 hours from idea to creation to Agent Genius featured story. And it is more fun to do stuff in a large scale with many agents. If I can come up with a way that helps everyone, then why not! And it does create indirect and unexpected benefits like winning the 2009 Inman News Innovator of the Year award. Couldn't have done it without everyone's cooperation.
Ok, so I hope you will join FranklyMLS and see what you are missing. It is free.
Thank you for your time, please report typos
Frank
Founder FranklyMLS.com
Broker FranklyRealty.com Better Technology, Better Agents
Photo Credit Fear
Days on the Market Explained, in the Shower
Excited to learn more about what Days on the Market is, and specifically the difference between DOMM and DOMP? Well check out this video I made to explain it to FranklyMLS users.
Or you can read the longer version over here about DOMM and DOMP
Frank
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Verify School. Death to the "Call School Board"
I always hated the lazy agent "Call School Board" entry. Don't you know that people search based on schools and if you leave them out, people will miss your home?
Well now we have a "Verify Schools" link. It shows up in about 60% of the counties. Some are simple links to a page with more info, but many will include the home address in the link and immediately pull up the exact schools for that address.
Like everything though, if a school is a 100% crucial factor, you need to triple check in case the boundaries just got moved.
Try it here: http://franklymls.com/FX7587862
Frank
Well now we have a "Verify Schools" link. It shows up in about 60% of the counties. Some are simple links to a page with more info, but many will include the home address in the link and immediately pull up the exact schools for that address.
Like everything though, if a school is a 100% crucial factor, you need to triple check in case the boundaries just got moved.
Try it here: http://franklymls.com/FX7587862
Frank
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