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May 2011
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Putting a Face on Real Estate since 1995
Cool Tech: Continued it up as a new blog or as a page within your existing blog. One of the plugins you can use to make this possible is Tubepress (www.TubePress. org), an open source PHP library that displays gorgeous YouTube and Vimeo videos and galleries in your blog.
Kim Sandberg of Treaty Oak Homes shows off the builder’s new model home that was finished just in time for the Belterra Model Home Tour.
Save on your Phone Bill with VoIP Service
Buy photo: RL_05_05_11_D.JPG at www.myRealtyLine.com
Brian Pitman and Ann Carson, both of Independence Title, are pleased to hear compliments from Rick and Michelle Dewine about how well the closing on their home at The Waterford was handled. Highland Lakes Real Estate hosted a dock party to show others the fun that can be had by living at the lake.
VoIP, or “Voice over IP”, is an Internet technology that allows you to use voice, fax, SMS, and voice messaging applications over the Internet, rather than the publicly switched telephone network. What this means for you is cheap or free long distance calling. Vonage is a familiar carrier. A few others we like are Ooma (works through your home or office phone, so you don’t need a computer), Skype (video calling, and it works on your iPad), and Fring (free video group calls with up to four people at once, anywhere in the world. Works with iPhone, iPad, and Android).
Get to Know QR Codes QR is short for Quick Response code — a type of 2D barcode used to “hyperlink” objects in the real world. The practice of using them is also known as mobile tagging, because smart phones can be used to read them. The codes can be read from any direction, at high speed, and even if they’re severely damaged. And they
Putting a Face on Real Estate since 1995.™
can hold a lot more data than a UPC. QR codes can drive a smart phone user to almost any type of content — website, contact information, a message, etc. — and save them from having to type or do a web search. To read them, you need a web-enabled phone and QR reader (it comes standard with the Droid and there’s a free app for iPhone and iPad). Although they’re just starting to gain popularity in the U.S., QR codes have been used around the world in advertising, billboards, multimedia campaigns, and even public signage (for example: adding to or replacing expensive signs on nature trails or historical markers). In Japan, they put them on tombstones as a way to share additional information with mourners. If you’re hard core about it, there’s a tattoo parlor in Arizona that will give you a functioning QR code tattoo. How you can use QR codes in your business: • Put one on your business card • Put it on any promotional materials – flyers, T-shirts, etc. • Put it on your listings • Put it in your print ads • Put it on your for sale signs with pictures, virtual tours, details • Use it to promote events QR codes are easy to generate through sites such as kawya (http://qrcode.kaywa.com/) or QR Stuff (www.qrstuff.com). REALTOR.org has a field guide to QR Codes at www.realtor.org/library/library/ fg351. RL
Buy photo: RL_05_11_11_C.JPG at www.myRealtyLine.com
Buy photo: RL_05_08_11_C.jpg at www.myRealtyLine.com
Shirra Hanna, Michelle Burch and Diana Barton, all of Dwyer Realty, host a lunch with KB Home at the ShadowGlen community in Manor. REALTORS had a chance at winning an iPad after visiting the model homes there.
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After giving Texas congressmen an earful during the Austin Board of REALTORS rally on the hill, Sherri Teepen of Keller Williams Realty makes a special visit to the Texas Association of REALTORS office across the street.