Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.

Last week’s Tech Tuesday post featured a video from Albert Tran of the California Association of Realtors discussing the latest version of zipForm‘s, which allows Realtors to type their contracts.  One of the great features for California Realtors in zipForms is that it is DocuSign compatible, meaning that Realtors can have their contracts electronically signed, securely and legally, by all parties in the transaction.  While at the CAR Expo in San Jose this year, I stopped by the DocuSign booth to and spoke with DocuSigns An Bui.  Here is a video of our conversation with her explaining a little bit more about the DocuSign product.

Docusign also has a great blog that answers many of the common questions about their product such as the legality of electronic signatures, illustrates why DocuSign Electronic Signature might be a Realtor’s best friend, and discusses new features of the DocuSign product such as their new iPhone application.

DocuSign and zipForms are two technologies that are a huge step in the right direction for Realtors who are interested in making the real estate transaction as seamless and efficient as possible.  I suggest you check them out.

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You probably answer some version of one of the following 3 questions from your clients and prospects every day:

• What is for sale?
• How much is my house worth?
• How’s the market?

I’ve found a vendor who helps Realtors to answer these questions from a very informed perspective.  Altos Research offers a series of products that are based around real time local market data.

My favorite of Altos product offerings are as follows:

AltosCharts

This is a graphic image that reflects local market conditions and is automatically updated once per week with current market data.  They have charts that show the general pricing trend, the average days on the market, the median price per square foot, and the active inventory level, to name a few.  This image reflects a sample of the charts available for Palm Springs.

Here is an example of a Realtor who has incorporated AltosCharts into his site:  Brian Wiegand – SeattleHome.com

AltosStats

Their newest offering, just released last week, AltosStats provides a tabular 7-day snapshot view of a local market answering questions such as the Median List Price, total inventory, average home size, days on market, average price per square foot and average age of a home.

Here is an example of agent using it in a blog post:  Irina Netchave – SanMarinoCaRealEstateHomes.com

AltosReports

AltosReports are a pdf report that can be emailed to your prospects and clients or printed for use on listing presentations, open houses, or client meetings.  They are customized to you with your name, photo and contact information, and present a detailed anaylsis on the local market along with written commentary to help explain the numbers and trends.  The reports also provide a “quartile analysis” so that you and clients can compare the trends around different pricing brackets.  The reports are approximately 10 pages long offering a plethora of data on the local market.  In addition, there is a 1 page summary report that is useful for prospecting in places like open houses. You can see a sample report here.

Why I Think This Product Is Good For Realtors:

I think the Altos products are a must have for any Realtor website.  Buyers who are utilizing the internet for property searches (84% of the buying population according to NAR) want to see what the local market conditions are.  They want to know what the trends are in a local market.  They want to know what the average price is right now.  Why not give them what they want?  It builds credibility that you have a pulse on the local housing scene and provides a reason for buyers to come back to your site.  And, with the Altos products, there is no updating necessary on your part.  You don’t have to do anything – the data automatically stays current.  I also see their products as an outstanding listing tool.  How powerful would it be to graphically show a seller what the current trend is for median and average list price in the area, what the percentage of properties with price decreases is, and what the percent of re-listed properties is?  I think Realtors armed with this information are having very different discussions with sellers about pricing than those who aren’t, and these Realtors are far more likely to secure and sell listings than those who do not use this data.

Learn More:

Altos Research also walks you through how to gain leads and secure listings utilizing their products.  Tomorrow (Wednesday March 4^th) at 11:00 am they are hosting a webinar discussing how to market utilizing statistics.  There is no cost or obligation to attend the webinar, but you do need to register here.  They will discuss practical ideas and applications in using their products to:

• Get buyers “off the fence”
• Set realistic seller expectations
• Prospect and lead generate
• Drip market and convert leads
• Build client trust

Definitely a great vendor for Realtors to check out!

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.