Ed Kaminsky's Real Estate Blog

I have spent the last week digesting the latest & greatest Real Estate tool to hit me in all the years I have been doing business. I am so excited about ListingBook. Not only because it is FREE for my clients, but because it has such a comprehensive platform for client and data management. ListingBook is similar to Facebook, but it's all about Real Estate. My clients can now long in any time, day or night, and search the very same information I use as a leading agent to do my job everyday.

What's so great about it, and why it's different than a simple IDX fed based information program, is that it pulls directly from the MLS and updates itself every 30 mins. I can set up a CMA and email it to a client and if that client goes back into that email link of the CMA I sent, the data is all current and up to date because it refreshes every half hour, saving me loads of double work and time. I can watch my buyers and sellers as they broaden and narrow their searches, save favorite properties, and reject properties they do not like. But what's so cool about this is that they can jot me a quick note about a property they are interested in, I can jot one right back and we can literally virtually source a home or work on comparables together in real time. Even better, we can set up showing appointments right through the system and ListingBook will prepare a showing itinerary for the client, complete with photos, detailed descriptions, appointment times & more, which will also remain updated if status were to change right before we head out for a showing.

I am so excited about being able to let my clients take better control of their buying or selling experience. The power of the internet has truly allowed buyers and sellers to quickly become very educated in the Real Estate process and this tool will only help me serve them better. I am such a fan of this system that I already tied it into my website so that buyers and sellers can access it, set up their accounts and get busy right away! I already loaded over 3,500 contacts into the system and within 2 days I had hundreds using it. It also sets up marketing campaigns, prints flyers & emails traffic reports right to my sellers. My sellers can see how many buyers looked at their listing as well as how many agents looked at it, flagged it &/or emailed it to a client. As a team leader, I can work on a buyer or seller lead, help bring along the relationship, then easily assign that lead within ListingBook to the client manager of one of my buyers' agents--tranferring with it contact notes, property search history and more.  I am aggressively integrating ListingBook into EVERY marketing system I subscribe to, own, and/or operate. My clients will no longer aimlessly wander around the internet looking for Real Estate info when from now on, it's coming direct from me and we can be eye to eye.

I have been told that Southern California is the ONLY market West of Chicago that has this service for agents. A new agent to my team, Helen Archer, has joined us from Atlanta, Georgia recently and she tells me she had this service (by a different name) in her area and she truly believed it helped set her apart from other agents. I think this is going to change the name of the game as we know it.

What better service can I offer than FREE and accurate information that will keep my clients informed, in touch and in tune with current market conditions. This is that "third arm" I have been needing for 22 years. I'm gearing up for a great summer!