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Google Maps Street view lets you navigate street level level images of different areas. It is a powerful tool for not only real estate professionals, but anyone buying and selling real estate.

Street View in Google Maps lets you explore places through 360-degree street-level imagery, whether you’re looking at locations in your town or across the globe. With Street View, you can check out a restaurant before going there, find beautiful places around the world to visit on your next vacation, or check out neighborhoods when you’re looking to move. via Google

How To View Google Maps Street View On Your iPhone

Google Maps has a good web app you can access from your smartphone by going to maps.google.com. However, if you want to view Street View on your iPhone, you will have to use the map app that comes pre-installed on you iPhone.

Step 1. Launch Maps, the map app.

Step 2. Type in an address, business name, or landmark.

To view Street View, click the icon button next to the address or business name. Clicking the arrow button will take you to a description about that address.

Clicking the icon will take you directly to the the Street View. You can scroll around 360 degrees to view everything around that area.

You can travel down the street by clicking the white arrow in the road. There is also a compass in the lower right hand corner that shows what direction you are looking.

Don’t know the street address? No problem. You can place a maker anywhere on the map by tapping and holding your finger on the map. A purple “Dropped Pin” will be placed on the map. You can drag the pin anywhere you want and click its icon to view the street view.

How To View Google Maps Street View On an Android Phone.

Ryan Lundquist, a real estate appraiser in California, made a video to show how to view Google’s Street View on an android phone.

You can view Ryan’s real estate appraisal blog HERE and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

How can the real estate industry use Street View?

• Home buyers can preview a neighborhood before looking at a house. This is especially useful for buyers that are relocating to a different city.
• Investors can use it to help decide if a property is worth in-depth look.
• Real Estate agent or for-sale-by-owners can embed a street view map on their website or blog to showcase their home’s area.
• Home buyers can use it to see how well a subdivisions is maintained.
• Use street view to see what amenities an area has to offer.

The Bottom Line

While street views are not available for every street and could be several years outdated they are a powerful tool for anyone buying and selling real estate. It is an easy way to to get a feel for an area. I use it all of the time to view neighborhoods before I do a real estate appraisal.

Being able to access street views on your Smartphone makes them even better.

According to Google, by the end of this year over half of all Americans will have a smartphone and over half of all consumers are more likely to buy from stores that have mobile websites.

Does your real estate business have a mobile website? If not, you can easily create one with Google Sites.

Google has launched a new service (well, a new addition to Google Sites) that lets you easily and quickly create a mobile landing page.

The new service has several templates to choose from including ones for restaurants, local businesses, lead generation, eCommerce. There is also one called “Social,” which links to your business Facebook page, Twitter account, and YouTube videos. The service also allows you to get analytics on traffic to your mobile site.

How To Create A Mobile Landing Page For Free With Google

Step 1. Go to sites.google.com/mobilize and choose a template.

For this tutorial we are going to use the “Local Business” template.

Step 2. Pick a color.

Step 3. Click “Try this template”

Step 4. Your mobile website will open and include some sample text. If you think you will be happy with the template and colors click the “Use this template” button.

Step 5. Setup Your Website.

Name your site.

Choose a theme. There are currently 52 themes to pick from.

Type in the verification code and press “Create Site”.

Step 6. Customize your mobile website.

Depending on what template you picked, you can now add your logo, a description, social median links, your contact information, and photos.

You can click on “Edit Page” at the top of your mobile website to open the site editor where you can edit the template information including links and text.

If you are using the local business template, you can upload your company logo by going to More Actions –> Manage Site –> Site Layout –> Change Logo.

You can add a company description and enable Google Analytics by going to More Actions –> Manage Site –> Site Layout –> General.

Press Save and you are done.

It only took a few minutes to create a mobile site for my business. You can view the mobile site here.

The Bottom Line

While the mobile sites are fairly basic and don’t allow for a lot of customization, creating a mobile site for your business couldn’t be easier.

The mobile site could serve as a stand alone site linked to your business listing or as an addition to your blog or full company website.

Does your Real Estate business have a mobile website?

Real estate appraisers crunch a lot of numbers including analyzing market trends. It can be difficult to create good looking trend graphs if you have a large data set. That is where Google Docs can help.

Google Docs now supports pivot tables. Pivot tables allow you easily look at large sets of data from different angles with just a few clicks of the mouse.

A pivot table report is a dynamic table that lets you interpret data in different ways without ever having to enter a formula. Pivot table reports are particularly useful when you want to narrow down a large data set or analyze relationships between data points. In just a few clicks, you can summarize and analyze a large set of data through different categorizations and calculations. via Google Docs Help

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

Getting Started With Pivot Tables

Step 1. Go to Docs.Google.com and start a new spreadsheet. Google Docs is free to use and you will need to have a Google username and password.

Select “Create New” then select “Spreadsheet”.

Step 2. Import your data.

You will need sales data to use in the pivot table. Most Multiple Listing Services allow real estate agents and appraisers to download sales data. Google Docs supports multiple files types including xls., csv., and txt. files. To import a file, select “File” then select “Import”.

Step 3. Create the pivot table.

Select all of the data by clicking the cell in the top left corner.

Then in the menu bar, select “Data” then “Pivot table report”.

A new spreadsheet will open with a blank pivot table.

Step 4. Set the rows and columns to analyze.

The report editor is on the right hand side. You can select what data you want for your rows and columns. Then select the information that you want in the pivot table as values.

That is it! Once your pivot table is populated, you can select the data and easily create a chart. You can also easily select new data to analyze in the pivot table.

Google Docs Pivot Table Example

Lets say you want to look at the average sales prices by city over the past 3 years. Note, your data might have different labels depending on your local MLS or data source.

Select City for the rows.

Select Year for the columns.

Select Sold Price for the values. You will want to summarize the data by Average. As of right now you can not summarize the data by the median function.

Then select the data in the Pivot Table.

Select “Insert Chart” to create a chart.

Here is the chart for the Average Sales Prices in 5 cities in Middle Georgia over the past 3 years.

The best part about Pivot tables is that you can easily drill down even further into the data.

For example, if you want to analyze sales price trends over the past 3 years by month AND year all you have to do is add Month to the column data.

Here is the chart for the Average Sales Prices in 5 cities in Middle Georgia over the past 3 years by Month.

The Bottom Line

Pivot tables are a great way to easily slice and dice data allowing you to look at data any way you want. You can analyze the number of sales by month, the number of sales by type (Bank Owned, Short Sale, etc.), average sales prices by zip code and easily create great looking charts. The only limit is your data.

Send me an email or comment below if you use Pivot tables to crunch your real estate data.

Check out Google Docs Help for more help with creating and editing pivot tables.

There are numerous video hosting services to choose from today; YouTube, Vimeo, blip.tv,  dailymotion, Viddler, and Facebook just to name a few. YouTube is trying to make their service more appealing to video publishers by allowing their logo to be removed from embedded videos.

Google’s YouTube announced that you can now remove the YouTube logo from videos by adding ?modestbranding=1 to the embed code on your website.

How to remove the YouTube logo from your videos

Step 1. Find the video that you want to embed on your website and click the “Share” link under the video.

Step 2. Click “Embed” and copy and paste the code into your blog or website.

Step 3. Add ?modestbranding=1 after the URL in a player embed code.

The code from above would look like this:

Notice the added code ?modestbranding=1 is inside the parentheses directly after the video URL.

That is it. The YouTube logo will be removed from the video player.

You should note that a small “YouTube” text label will still show up in the upper-right corner of a paused video when you hover over the player. This label is a link back to the publisher’s full channel of video content where uses can view and subscribe to more videos.

This feature of logoless Youtube video player can only be implemented while using iframe embed code. If you have a WordPress blog you might want to check out the iframe for YouTube plugin. The plugin enables you to insert iframe code for a particular YouTube video on your WordPress blog.

The Bottom Line.

YouTube is a great place to host real estate videos. It is easy to use and best of all FREE. Being able to remove the YouTube logo from the video player makes YouTube even better for many video publishers.

What service do you use to host your real estate videos?

A DSLR camera can be a little overwhelming if you have never used one before. You can change the ISO, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, lighting, and distance. Read the manual as many times as you want but it is hard to imagine what the photograph will look like until you actually try it.

CameraSim is a free SLR camera simulator that lets you experiment with all of those settings and instantly seeing how they affect a photograph.

How to use CameraSim to master your Digital SLR Camera

Go to CameraSim.com to see an example photo and the camera’s default settings.

The example photograph on the website shows a child at a playground holding a pinwheel that is spinning. The pinwheel actual spins so you can change your shutter speed and see what’s necessary to avoid motion blur.

Modify any settings, Lighting, Distance, Focal Length, ISO, Aperature, and Shutter Speed. You can also change the mode to Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, or go fully Manual.

Once you have the settings like you want, press “Snap Photo”.

You will instantly see how your settings affect the photograph.

Do you want the background in focus? Do you want the pinwheel in motion? Play around with the settings until you get the picture you want.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what the settings do. At the bottom of the page there is a list of the settings their description.

Bottom Line

CameraSim gives a realistic view of what it is like to use a DSLR camera right from your browser. Be sure to check it out if you are thinking about getting a DSLR camera and want to learn how to use it.

If you want to learn more about digital cameras, Digital Photography School has an in-depth guide on how to use your Digital Camera.

Vidiolicious is a free iPhone and iPad app that helps anyone create great looking videos in three easy steps.

The app works by letting the user select photos from their iPhone, record a short video (up to 50 seconds long), and add music. Videolicious automatically puts it all together and creates a video that can be shared via YouTube, Facebook, and email.

Based on patent-pending technology used by some of the world’s largest brands, Videolicious is revolutionizing how video is created.
via Videolicious

Click HERE if you can not see the video above.

How to create a video with Videolicious

Step 1. Select photos for videos from your iPhone’s camera roll. Select photos in the order they need to appear in the video.

Step 2. Shoot a short video of yourself. The video can be up to 50 seconds long.

Step 3. Pick some music to make your video rock. The app comes with 6 tracks you can use or you can select music that is already on your iPhone or iPad.

That is it! Videolicious will automatically edit and layer the clips and photos to create a video.

You can email your video or share it with Facebook or YouTube.

How the real estate industry use Videolicious

Real estate appraisers can tell a little about their company and services they provide and use photos of homes they have appraised. Videolisious will put it all together into a professional looking video.

Real Estate agents can use the app to make video tours of homes they have listed for sale. They can give a tour of the house and show photos of each area of the house.

Real estate professionals can make short videos about local restaurants or attractions.

Bottom Line

The app has several downsides. You can not use a video that has previously been recorded on your iPhone. For example, if you create a video and decide you want to include different photos, not only do you have to select new photos you also have to record a new video. You also don’t have the option to set how long the photos appear in the video.

However, the app is really easy to use and does a great job of combining the video and photos into a professional looking video. It is well worth trying out if you need to make good looking videos quickly and easily.

The app is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation), or iPad 2.

Cost: Free

Download and try the Vidiolicious app for yourself, iTunes Link.

Dropbox is an online service that, once installed, will automatically backup selected files and/or folders from your desktop or laptop.

Dropbox has a ton of great features including the ability to sync files between computers, share files with others, access your files on your smartphone, and it even lets you recover files that have been deleted from your computer’s hard drive.

How To restore a deleted from from Dropbox

One of the best features of Dropbox is the ability to recover deleted files. Dropbox keeps all the files you store with the service even if the file is deleted from your computer.

To restore a deleted file, click the “Show deleted files” link from your Dropbox home page.

All deleted files will show up in gray. Once you see the deleted file you want, hover your mouse over it, click on the arrow that appears to the right of the file and select “Restore Files” from the drop-down. The file will reappear in all of your synchronized Dropbox folders.

How To Permanently Delete Your Real Estate Files From Dopbox

While the ability to recover a deleted file is fantastic, this also means that all of your deleted files are taking up space in your Dropbox account. You might not have any room to spare if you have a basic subscription and use the free 2 gigs to backup a select number of files or share files with co-workers.

To permanently delete a file from Dropbox you must first delete the file off of your desktop or move the file to a folder that you do not automatically sync with the service.

Next, select “Show Deleted Files” option in the main menu. Select the file that you just deleted (it should be gray in color) and then select “Permanently Delete”

Bottom Line

Dropbox is a great way to automatically back up important files on your desktop or laptop. Dropbox gives users 2 free GB worth of storage and you can upgrade to 50GB for $9.99 /month or 100GB for $19.99 /month. They also have apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry.

Photosynth is an amazing tool that lets you transform your photos into one big interactive 3D world that you can virtually explore. Click the link above to view an example of an interactive image created with the Photosynth iPhone app.

Photosynth for the iPhone is a free panorama photography app. Take a bunch of photos of the same scene, in any direction, and the app will automatically stitch them together creating a panoramic photo.

You can share your photos on Facebook, publish on Bing Maps, or upload to Photosynth.net.

Hands On With The Photosynth iPhone App

Click HERE if you can not see video above.

How to create a panoramic photo with Photosynth

Step 1. Download the app.

The app is free in the app store. iTunes Link.

Step 2. Tap the screen to start taking photos.

Step 3. Start to take photos.

The app features an interactive capture system that lets you see your progress during capture.  You can see what photos you have taken and the outline of what will be photographed next.

The app will automatically take photos if you line up the green dot in the center of the screen with the edge of a photo that has already been taken. You can also tap the screen to manually take another photo. You can take photos in any direction to create a full 360-degree image.

Step 4. Press finish.

When you are done taking photos, press Finish and the app will begin to stitch the images together.

Step 5. Share you photo.

You can view the photo on your iPhone, share on Facebook, publish on Bing Maps, or upload to Photosynth.net.

If you upload the image to Photosynth.net you can edit its properties before you upload. You can set a thumbnail, add a name, and link to a business.

The flattened image is also saved to your iPhone’s camera roll.

How to embed an Photosynth image on your blog

Once you create a 360-degree image, you can embed that image on your blog or website.

Step 1. Log into Windows Live or create an account if you don’t already have one.

You can create one here: Windows Live. You can also create one within the app.

Step 2. Select Upload to Photosynth.net.

Step 3. Go to http://photosynth.net/ on your desktop and log in.

Select My Photosynths from the top menu.

Step 4. Select the image you want to embed.

Click on Embed in the bottom right corner.

Step 5. Copy the code an paste it in your blog or website.

If you run WordPress, make sure you are in HTML mode and not visual mode when pasting the code.

That is it!

Below is another example of an image I created with the Photosynth app. Click the image to view it and use your mouse to scroll around in any direction.

How can the real estate industry use Photosynth?

• Create an image for a house that you have listed for sale and embed it in a blog. The image is interactive so the view can rotate it in any direction.
• Create an image for a subdivision. Show your expertise in a local area by showing what a subdivision looks like, its entrance, the homes, and any common areas like a clubhouse or playground.
• Create an image and instantly share it on Facebook.
• Embed your images on Bing Maps so anyone searching Bing will find your photos.
• Photosynth would be a great way to show that a house has a spectacular view or a custom feature.

Bottom Line

The app is a great way to create 3-dimensional photos. I took me about two minutes to create a panoramic image. The app is fun to use and is going to be very useful for any real estate professional.

The best thing about the app is that you don’t need any special equipment to create an image. You can create an image, upload it to Photosynth.net or Facebook in just a few minutes.

There is also a free Photosynth viewer app for the iPhone called iSynth. The app brings the funcationality of Photosynth.net to the iPhone. You can use it to view the images you created and explore the images created by other users. iTunes link.

Check out Photosynth.net and see the cool interactive images that have been created. You can also download the free Photosynth app in the app store. iTunes Link.

MagicPlan is an augmented reality app that you can use to create a floor plan with your iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch.

MagicPlan is the only application that MEASURES, DRAWS and PUBLISHES an INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLAN on the web, just by taking pictures with your iPhone 4 or iPod Touch (4th generation). via iTunes

To build a floor plan, stand in the middle of a room and line up the 3-dimensional corner lines with the corner of the room. Then slowly turn around and tell the app where each room corner and door is until you get back to the starting point. The app will automatically create a floor plan of the room.

You can create a floor plan for an entire house by combining all of the floor plans of each room. There is no need to move any furniture and you don’t need a tape measurer!

How To Create A Floor Plan With MagicPlan

Step 1. Watch the tutorials.

Magic Plan has 5 tutorials that show you exactly how to create a floor plan. The second tutorial is an augmented reality video that lets you create a floor plan from a virtual room using your iPhone’s camera.

You’ll be able to use the app after watching one or two tutorials but I recommend watching all five.

Step 2. Create a plan.

Under “My Plan”, press the “+” button to create a new plan.

Step 3. Give your plan a name.

You can enter an address and any notes that you want to remember. You can also add a photo and a Google Map to the floor plan to help you remember where the house is and what the house or room looked like.

Step 4. Add a room to your floor plan.

Press the ‘”+” button to add a floor plan. Then pick what floor and room you will be creating.

Step 5. Create a room plan.

Line up the 3-dimensional corner lines with the corner of the room. You then rotate and tell the app where each room corner and door is until you get back to the starting point. The app will then automatically create a floor plan of the room.

Step 6. Create a floor plan.

You can create a floor plan for an entire house by combining all of the rooms you created.

Step 5. Export or publish your floor plan.

You can save, email, and print your plan.  You can also publish your plan to the web where others can view it. It costs $9.99 to have the file hosted on the web for 6 months.

How can the real estate industry use MagicPlan?

MagicPlan is easy to use and going to be useful for homeowners, homebuyers, home sellers, real estate agents, and contractors.

• Homeowners selling their house FSBO (for sale by owner) can easily create a floor plan to include in their marketing materials.
• Homebuyers can use the app to create floor plan of homes that are interested in.
• Real estate agents can create a floor plan to include on flyers and MLS listings.
• Homeowners can create a floor plan of their house, then modify it to see how renovations or an addition might look.
• Create a room plan with dimensions before you buy new furniture.
• Contractors can create a floor plan to help estimate building or renovation costs.

There is a free and paid version of the app. The free app contains a watermark or you can pay $4.99 to remove the watermark. iTunes Link

Bottom Line

I watched the tutorials and was able to make a room plan in about a minute. The best part about the app is that you don’t need to use a tape measurer and you don’t have to move any furniture. All you need is your iPhone!

The free app contains all of features of the $4.99 app but does contain a watermark on all plans created. The app is well worth $4.99 if you need to create a lot of floor plans.

According to the website, MagicPlan does work on the iPad 2. As of right now there are not immediate plans to create an Android version due to the lack of Android phones with gyroscopes.

Visit Sensopia for more information or download the app for free and try it yourself, iTunes Link

Email newsletters are important to both business and social communication. They can create loyalty and develop relationships and trust.

However, setting up, creating, and distributing an email newsletter can be time consuming. You’ll need a reputable email service provider, an email marketing service provider like Aweber, Constant Contact, or Mail Chimp, and might need a WordPress plugin to integrate the newsletter with your blog.

If you want something super easy and quick then look no further. You can easily send your newsletter to your blog readers, customers, and prospects with Posterous.

How to use Posterous for your email newsletter

Step 1. Sign up for a Posterous account if you don’t already have one.

To create an account, enter your email address, a username, and a password and click “almost there”.

Step 2. Choose whether you want a Posterous site or a Group site.

A Posterous site is like a blog, you can post and share anything; blog posts, pictures, videos, and links. A group site allows your members to post to the site. If you have a group site with other real estate appraisers, anyone in the group could add content to the site by emailing it to sitename@posterous.com. Group members do not need an account to post and you can also make groups private.

You probably want to create a Posterous site, not a group site, if you are gong to be using it for a newsletter.

Step 3. Add people to your site.

Option 1: Add email addresses yourself.

Under “Manage” click the “People” tab.  In the People tab, you can manage who you’d like to receive emails containing your new posts, who you’d like to contribute to your site and who has complete control over your site or group.

Click “Add People” to add subscribers and contributors.

A new window will open where you can enter email address or import addresses from a CSV or vCard. You can also select to have subscribers receive your newsletter when you post it or have it sent out in a daily email. If you are creating a newsletter, you probably want to select “Instantly”.

Your subscribers will have to confirm their subscription before they receive your newsletter. Asking for permission is vital to your email marketing efforts.

Once your customers confirm their subscriptions, they’ll automatically receive an email each time you post. The email will appear as if it’s coming from you, and the title of your post will be the subject line of your email.  And don’t worry about clunky attachments – all photos will appear inline with the rest of your content. via Posterous

Option 2: Have people subscribe.

Some individuals would probably rather subscribe to your newsletter themselves. No problem! Anyone visiting your posterous site can sign up to your email subscription list at any time. There is a “Subscribe by email” link on every Posterous site and you don’t need a Posterous account to subscribe.

When a visitor to your site clicks on the subscribe by email link, a new window will open. All they have to do is enter their email address and click “Subscribe by email”.

As a site owner, you will receive an email notification every time someone subscribes to your site.

Anyone with a Posterous account can manage their subscription by visiting their subscription management page.

Step 4. Send your first newsletter.

Send your first newsletter by posting content to your Posterous site.

You can post by email or post by web. To post by email, just send an email to post@posterous.com from the email address you used when you signed up. Your email will be posted instantly. The title of the post will be the same as the title of your email, all photos will appear inline with the rest of your content, and your subscribers will automatically receive the newsletter and the email will appear as if it’s coming from you.

To post by web just click the “Post by web” button under the “Posts” tab.

An editor will open in your browser where you can add text and upload images, audio, video, and docs. You can also schedule the post for the future.

That is it! In just a few minutes you can have your email newsletter setup.

Bottom Line

While it is dead simple to use, a Posterous newsletter does not integrate tightly with a real estate blog hosted somewhere else. You can’t capture email addresses on your blog and have it automatically transferred to Posterous. You will either have to collect email address on your blog and transfer them manually to Posterous or link to your Posterous site where your blog readers can sign up.

But if you are looking for something simple to use, creating and distibuting an email newsletter with Posterous couldn’t be easier. If you want to start a newsletter for your real estate website but don’t want to have to learn a new software or system, Posterous might be a good solution.