Will our industry direct its future or wait for change to move past us?

Volunteers and staff at AAR have been hard at work for several months developing two major projects: ARBI (Arizona REALTOR® Business Interface) and AZMLS (statewide MLS).

In August, AAR’s board of directors approved a plan to purchase ARMLS, a first step towards statewide MLS. However, the plans hit a snag in September when AAR received notice from SEVRAR that it would not sell its interest in ARMLS. Despite this setback, the momentum and enthusiasm for AAR’s statewide MLS keep growing, and we will continue to explore the options for moving this project to completion for the benefit of our statewide membership.

ARBI is a separate initiative from statewide MLS and is on track for a rapid development cycle. The data integration at the core of ARBI should result in significant improvements in efficiency for our members. You can read more about this project below.

AAR’s goal is to empower members to meet the challenges of tomorrow by harnessing the changes all around us today. Let us know what you think. Weigh in via the comments section below or email statewidemls@aaronline.com.

Tom Farley
AAR Chief Executive Officer

What is the Arizona REALTOR® Business Interface (ARBI)?

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Click to view a larger version of this image.

Here you see a mockup of what ARBI might be.  While the final result will look different, this diagram illustrates key features.  The virtual pathways at the extreme right of the diagram signify the many possible two-way channels into the dashboard, including MLS and public records, digital maps, electronic forms, digital signatures, Realtors Property Resource™ (RPR™), transaction management, iMapp, broker back-office support, third party applications and more.

Behind the scenes, information from all of the key applications is merged and redistributed to eliminate endless re-entry of the same information and decrease errors.  Although completely unseen by users, this data-integration is definitely the most complex portion of the ARBI project.  You may ask, “Why hasn’t this happened sooner?”

AAR’s approach to providing meaningful business services is to offer “best-of-breed” products in terms of security, usability and value.  This usually means different vendors.  Each vendor offers its own portal for data integration, but that means 14 MLS systems with each of three separate systems equals over 40 individual integration projects!  It’s no wonder that it’s taking so long to get all of the information flowing back and forth. Plus, it gets even more complicated: today, if a member wants to purchase CMA software, a mobile or iPad app, there is no guarantee that the software will work with their local MLS or even worse, multiple MLSs.  Vendors must obtain permission from one or more associations and possibly pay additional fees.

This approach is outdated and is difficult for vendors and members.  Consider the dilemma faced with, say, a CRM (customer relationship management) vendor… dozens of expensive integration projects with different vendors for one state?  Not happening. Enter ARBI, the “traffic cop” for all the information. With ARBI, AAR can now leverage its clout with its vendors to push them toward developing for a single interface.

At this point, it becomes clearer why a statewide MLS with one vendor makes so much sense with ARBI – one vendor, one integration and all MLS data in Arizona flows!  A CRM or mobile marketing vendor would then be able to code for one standard and be able to offer an integrated product for nearly 40,000 Arizona REALTORS^®.  That said, ARBI is important enough to stand alone, which is why AAR leadership chose to put it on a separate development track.  ARBI has been funded and will be completed, regardless of the status of Arizona MLS.

ARBI gives you:

• A single place to start a transaction – saves effort.
• Information auto-fills into other applications – saves effort and improves accuracy.
• A single place to check status for everything – saves time and effort.
• One central place to get information you need from the broker, the association, industry news sources, even the Department of Real Estate – saves time and effort.
• One username and password – saves your sanity.

Where are we now?

We have a sense of urgency in bringing ARBI “to market.”  The design team has decided on a “rapid application development” approach that presents a usable product to members at the very earliest date.  This technique is increasingly common with development of all size projects.  In it, a quick prototype release and long, open beta period brings a usable product to market quickly, then allows user input to shape ongoing development.

As mentioned, ARBI refers to not only the interface (the user screen), but the underlying technology that makes it all work.  The project will probably be developed in stages, beginning with the user interface (pictured) with stable, but basic underlying technology and moving into a refined user interface refinements with deeper technology development to enable further features.  Most of the technology changes will be invisible to users – users will just see more and more features as the system develops.

ARBI funding has been approved and ten major developers (including MLS vendors, e-forms vendors, transaction management vendors and general application developers) have been contacted to assess their interest and capabilities.  The ARBI Workgroup is working through proposals and determining the best course of action.

Moving forward…

Actual development should begin before the end of 2011.  Depending on a number of factors, members may see an initial version by the end of June 2012.  As mentioned, the approach will be to release new versions rapidly over the first year or so, refining and enhancing ARBI based on real user input.

A couple of weeks back, the esteemed Dean Ouellette asked on Facebook whether folks were using Gmail or MSN. Being the technological luddite that I can be at times, I asked what the big deal was about Gmail. After all, I had Windows Mail on my laptop, and all was well in the universe.

Granted, if I had to scan something, that file would populate on my desktop, and I’d then have to move it onto the laptop via my home network. And for reasons unknown, I wouldn’t take the laptop off my kitchen table, so I’d have to walk back across the house to get the file and email it to whomever might be waiting for it.

Rube Goldberg had nothing on me, I’ll tell you. But it worked. Or at least, until my laptop hard drive decided it was calling it quits.

Fortunately I had warning, which gave me time to get my email accounts set up on Gmail and to get my data moved over to the desktop. (Which itself had been in the shop two weeks earlier after a virus turned the hard drive into a doorstop. But I digress.)

Like the guy emerging from under the rock in the Geico commercial, I’ve discovered how much easier life is with Gmail. I’m sure I’m not using it to its full capabilities, and I still find the system of folders a bit clunky compared to Windows Mail. Tips always are welcome in that regard.

But if nothing else, being able to access my email from anywhere has been very, very welcome.

Perhaps I should listen to other people a little more often.

Real estate market statistics are an important tool for REALTORS® as we work with our clients. Timely statistics presented in a meaningful way can help communicate the history of the market, current trends and the reality of what buyers and sellers are facing today.

We have many useful statistics generally available to us, most from our MLS, such as:

• Median Price
• Homes (Units) Sold
• Dollar Volume Sold
• Listing Count
• Months of Inventory
• Days on Market

Another source I use for statistics is the House Price Index (HPI) from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (www.FHFA.gov).

The HPI indicates the rate of appreciation or depreciation for single-family homes, compared with one year ago, and is updated each quarter. From FHFA.gov:

The HPI is a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices.  The HPI is a weighted, repeat-sales index, meaning that it measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same properties. This information is obtained by reviewing repeat mortgage transactions on single-family properties whose mortgages have been purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac since January 1975.

The HPI serves as a timely, accurate indicator of house price trends at various geographic levels.  Because of the breadth of the sample, it provides more information than is available in other house price indexes. It also provides housing economists with an improved analytical tool that is useful for estimating changes in the rates of mortgage defaults, prepayments and housing affordability in specific geographic areas.

Here is detailed information on how the HPI is calculated and a good FAQ on the HPI. FHFA also provides a calculator to use the HPI to determine the change in value on a home, based on where it is located, when it was bought and for how much.

FHFA updates the House Price Index each quarter for the entire United States–9 regions across the country, all 50 states and over 300 Metropolitan Statistics Area (MSAs). There are 6 MSAs in Arizona:

• Phoenix, Mesa and Glendale
• Tucson
• Prescott
• Lake Havasu City/Kingman
• Flagstaff
• Yuma

I have taken the HPI data for the 6 Arizona MSAs and generated charts of the data. All 6 charts are available on www.ArizonaHPI.com. I also created charts for Arizona and the U.S.

They are unbranded charts, and you may use them however you would like.

Below is an example of the HPI chart for the Prescott MSA. Each bar represents the HPI for that quarter. Its value represents the appreciation or depreciation compared with one year ago. So a Q1 2011 value of -9.8 means that the House Price Index, or basically the value of a single-family home in the Prescott MSA, has gone down 9.8% from one year ago.

The values in the chart show whether the House Price Index has gone up or gone down from one year ago. Values above the line represent a time period where there is appreciation in the market. Values below the line indicated periods where home prices have depreciated from one year ago. The trends in the chart (the upward and downward movement) show whether we are heading in a positive direction or negative.

We as REALTORS® are often asked when will we see appreciation again in our market. I wish we had a crystal ball. But when we get close to that time, the HPI should be approaching zero, and when it does happen, the HPI will be a positive value.

And that is something we can all look forward to.

Visit www.ArizonaHPI.com for complete House Price Index charts for all 6 Metropolitan Service Areas in Arizona.

AAR is working to incorporate more video into our communications with members. Are you doing the same with outreach to your clients?

Like most of the REALTORS® we support, AAR doesn’t have fancy video equipment or videographers on staff. Yet it is amazing what can be accomplished with some basic equipment and free online tools. Here’s how we put together our latest video (which, by the way, you should definitely check out).

1. Script It. We developed a script but knew it was just a guideline. It’s better to improv a bit—or even a lot—rather than read on camera. Of course, it will surprise no one that AAR General Counsel Michelle Lind knows her stuff and needs little in the way of notes.
2. Film It. We used our digital SLR still camera (a Canon EOS Rebel T1i) to shoot the video. The camera produces high quality video as long as you respect its limitations. First, once it’s focused, it’s focused. If Michelle were walking around in front of a group, we would have switched to our video camera. Second, unless we plug in a microphone, we need to shoot in a quiet spot. Her office was perfect. Third, we put the camera on a tripod. Shaky footage is nearly impossible to avoid when a person is holding the camera. Michelle did it in one take—naturally!
3. Upload It. We uploaded the video to AAR’s YouTube channel. It turned out to be a little bit longer than we had intended, so under Privacy, we marked the video as unlisted at that point. (When a video is unlisted, only those with the direct link can see it.)
4. Edit It. In an article on cloud computing in the June/July issue of the ARMLS e-zine Wave, I found a reference to the YouTube Editor. Though the editor launched in June 2010, this was the first I had heard of it. It couldn’t have been simpler to use. I read this YouTube help page and watched this video to get myself familiar with the product. Then I got to playing with it.

   I wanted to cut out about a minute. To do so, I dragged the video into the grey section at the bottom. I clicked the scissors icon, which shows up when you mouse over the video image, and edited out a bit at the start by dragging the vertical bar on the left a few ticks to the right. (The double arrows pointing in either direction at the top and bottom of the vertical bar are critical for editing in the tenths of seconds.)  Then I moved the bar on the right over to the appropriate spot. My first segment was ready!

   I dragged the same video into the grey section after the first and started to create the second segment. I did this a few more times until I had five segments of just the parts I wanted included in the final video. Then I fine-tuned things a bit using those top and bottom double arrows to stop and start at just the right spot and avoid over-obvious cuts. This takes time but is well worth it.

   Note: As I was using the native audio, I didn’t explore that part of the editor, but you can add a new audio track using this editor too.

   Voilà! I had a video. I gave the project a name (upper right) and hit Publish.

5. Annotate It. There were a few text notes that I wanted to add to the video, so I went to the video’s page (still unlisted at this point). I clicked Edit Video Detail at the top and put in a title and description. Then I clicked Edit Annotations and put the notes in the relevant spots within the video. With a little bit of practice, this was a cinch.
6. Launch It! After a quick once-over the final product, we were ready to make it public (Edit Video Details | Settings). We put it on the AAROnline.com homepage, shared it on our Facebook page and sent a link out via Twitter.

Are you wondering why I didn’t make a video of this process rather than write up an article? First, it was my first go, and I knew it would be too sloppy to share. Second, I personally like to have written notes on a process. Pausing and restarting a video in one tab as I do the steps in another tab doesn’t work as well for me. But then, I’m Gen X. Perhaps if I were Gen Y, I would be better at that?

While we’re talking YouTube, check out this article with some pretty clever YouTube URL tips from MakeUseOf, which our graphic designer J Thurston dug up. I have often wanted to share just part of a YouTube video, and this explains how to do it (among other things).

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to tackle video. It’s not as hard as you think.

“People don’t wake up and go to your company website every day.” This is one of my favorite quotes about the growing number of businesses using Facebook to connect with clients. At AAR’s Broker/Manager Conference in May, I had a chance to moderate two roundtable sessions on Facebook for real estate firms. Here are my notes and a few thoughts.

Separate pages and profiles in your mind.

Profile = Person, Page = Business. Profile = Person, Page = Business. A person creates a profile to interact within Facebook. Through your profile, you can create a business page. Your profile becomes the default administrator of the business pages you create. Administrators can edit/delete the page and post updates, links, pictures and videos as the page.

Profiles have friends; pages have likes.

Your personal profile can be friends with other personal profiles.  Two actions are required to accomplish this: friend request and then acceptance. A personal profile cannot be friends with someone who does not accept the friend request.

Profiles can like business pages. One action is required; click the Like button. There is no acceptance that needs to happen on the business’s side.

Remember that once the Like button is clicked, it will no longer be visible on that page.

What happens when I like a page?

Liking a page means you have subscribed to that page’s updates. You have just told Facebook that it’s okay to allow the page’s updates to show in your general news feed. This is the main feed that is displayed when you first log in to Facebook. It shows all the happenings of your friends, family and other pages you like.

How do I get people to like my page?

The million-dollar question! You’ll start with the low-hanging fruit: ask the friends of your personal profile. Then the creative, strategic, consistent work comes into play. It is not an automatic fountain of business. Bottom-line: You want to continuously create content that engages your fans. Do not use Facebook as a megaphone to broadcast your corporate message.

Keep in mind this is social media. You want to be personable with your likers. Ask them questions, help each other out, post pictures and videos. If you have fun with it, people will like it.

Should I post my listings to my page?

Broad-stroke answer: Don’t do it. Are there exceptions? Yes. 

There are a lot of vendors out there that will auto-post your listings to Facebook. This is using it as a megaphone and is not recommended. It’s okay to celebrate successes. It’s okay to be excited about a feature/picture/amenity of a listing. 

Golden Facebook Rule

Treat your likers and/or friends the way you want to be treated. Be the company you want to like.  Be the person you want to friend. If you’re not sure what I mean, then use Facebook for a few more months before creating a page for your business.

Other notes from the session:

• Create Facebook friend lists to easily share information with certain groups of people.
• Google how to do things you see other people doing. (There are lots of tutorials out there!)
• Tag friends and pages in status updates.
• Facebook.com/help is a great resource.

View of Backup Folders

Here’s one of the very best tips I got at RE BarCamp last week:

“Backup to Gmail” is  a Droid application that you can download immediately from the Marketplace.

This is a MUST HAVE type of app for any REALTOR®.

Download and install it, and then your call log, multi-media messages and simple text messages are backed up to your Gmail account in folders called “Call Log”, “MMS” and “SMS.”

It’s easy, simple AND cheap.

Cost: $1.99

With this app, or something similar like Backup SMS+,you will have a history of your conversations with clients, office and servicers, which is searchable.  And, as we become more and more reliant on texting as a way of communicating in our business, it’s absolutely critical to be able to document and track our conversations, easily and effectively.

Sample Text Backup

For those of you who’ve tried to use Digital Ink™ on your own, you know that it takes a little practice and a little getting used to; but once you know the tricks, it works great.  Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Always check your forms before sending them out for signature.  Digital Ink™ is pre-mapped to zipForm® documents, however there are fields that may not need to be signed or initialed.  There are many such fields throughout the forms; it is critical that you review your forms to make sure you’ve eliminated non-essential signatures/initials.  Two examples:
  • Residential Purchase Contract -
    • Lines 156 & 157:  The lead-based paint disclosure has two lines, one of which needs to be initialed depending on the date the property was built.  The agent should remove the initial field for the unnecessary initial.
    • Lines 412 & 416:  The seller will be prompted to sign line 412 to accept the contract and yet still ask for inititals on line 416 to reject it.  One of the two required fields must be removed.
    • Counter Offer – Lines 32, 34 & others:  There is no logic between Digital Ink™ and zipForm® at the present time.  Digital Ink™ knows a signature is required but doesn’t know who needs to provide it; the agent needs to “tell” Digital Ink™ who needs to sign these lines.
• Once forms and parties have been selected in the eSign Selection window, click the “Continue to zipLogix Digital Ink™” button to continue; do not use the “Review” or “Send Now” buttons.  The “Continue to zipLogix Digital Ink™” allows you to add parties/documents and edit prior to sending submitting for signatures.  Soon, the “Review” and “Send Now” buttons will be removed.
• Watch one of the online training webinars.  Click on a date/time to register for a webinar:
  • Wednesday, March 23  |  1:00pm – 2:00pm
  • Friday, March 25  |  10:00am – 11:00am
  • Monday, March 28  |  3:00pm – 4:00pm
  • Wednesday, March 30 | 9:00am – 10:00am
  • Thursday, March 31  |  12:00pm – 1:00pm
  • Monday, April 4 | 1:00pm – 2:00pm
  • Wednesday, April 6 | 10:00am – 11:00am
  • Friday, April 8 | 10:00am – 11:00am

If you use Microsoft Outlook for you email, and you haven’t discovered the Outlook Social Connectoradd-in yet, now is the time.  That is, if you want to expand your on-line social network, keep up with what your friends, family, colleagues, and clients are doing on Facebook, LinkedIn and a couple other networking sites.

Here’s an example of what I see when I click on Nick Bastian’s name while I’m in Outlook. Recent emails, Facebook posts, and LinkedIn updates. Almost instantly, I know what Nick has been up to.

Last week, I was responding to an email from an agent who wanted to show one of my short sale listings.  When I clicked on Reply, the lower part of my screen brought up our most recent correspondence, and I was instantly reminded that this agent had submitted an offer on an REO listings last year, and that she’d shown yet another traditional listing a couple years before that.  I loved making the connection in my mind, as I crafted my response to her.

The Outlook Social Connector is easy to install and works with Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010. Installation instructions can be found here.

Let me know how it goes for you.

AAR now offers unlimited zipLogix Digital Ink™ electronic signatures to AAR members included in your membership dues.

zipLogix® Digital Ink™ is a digital signature solution for signing transactional documents within zipForm® 6.

Digital signatures improve your efficiency while reducing costs, saving time, eliminating delays, and better serving customers. They facilitate quick, easy interaction between REALTOR® and client, and encourage a paperless transaction. Digital signatures revolutionize the customer experience and offer your customer a truly paperless electronic process that can be trusted. Instantly e-mail real estate forms requiring signatures and eliminate the cost and time expense of printing, faxing, or cross-town meetings to get paper copies signed.

Start planning for a more efficient 2011 by trying your zipLogix® Digital Ink™ member benefit today.

Sign up today for one of the online training webinars:

Friday, 3/11     2:00PM – 3:00PM
Tuesday, 3/15     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Thursday, 3/17     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Wednesday, 3/23     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Friday, 3/25     10:00AM – 11:00AM
Monday, 3/28     3:00PM – 4:00PM
Thursday, 3/31     12:00PM – 1:00PM

Digital Ink Support:

Direct: (480)304-8930
Toll Free: (866)833-7357
Email: support@aaronline.com

I’ll be heading up to Prescott for the Arizona Association of REALTOR’s Winter Conference next week, and am really looking forward to it. And of course, I’ll have a camera or two or three. (Funny how every piece of technology now has a camera, isn’t it?)

When I go to an event in my community or off to a conference, I often share my photos a couple different ways. Three of the easiest ways that I’ve found are with Twitpic, Facebook, and Flickr.

Twitpic

With Twitpic, I take a photo with my phone and then email it to a special email address that was assigned to me with I created my account. The text I type into the subject line, along with the photo, are posted to both Twitpic and Twitter almost immediately.

The Tweet looks like this:

And, the link goes to this:

Facebook

While you can post to Facebook from your phone, I prefer to upload photos from my computer. It gives me a chance to edit and improve the photos first. With the longer shelf life, I like to have a higher quality picture available.

With Facebook, I can upload a single picture to my wall:

Or, upload many photos to an album:

Either way, the photos give me the opportunity to tell a story, share an insight, and connect with my Facebook friends.

One very important note about photographs published on Facebook, from their Terms of Service, most recently updated on 10/4/10:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”).

Another important point about photographs on your personal Facebook page:

You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

Use your Facebook business page for sharing your real estate related information.

Flickr

Flicker is a social networking site that attracts amateur, budding, and serious photographers. You can upload and license your photographs in a number of variations, from All Rights Reserved to Creative Commons with no restrictions.

I found Flickr as a solution for finding Creative Commons work that I could use on my blog. Over time, I started taking my own photographs and uploading them. I found that by tagging each photo, other bloggers from around the world were using my photos and giving me credit for the work by linking back to my Flickr account. Flickr has an internal messaging system and an active social group too. Flickr’s terms of service do restrict commercial use of the site ( i.e. Don’t use Flickr to sell), but do have Best Practices for how businesses can use Flickr to showcase their work.

I put some of my better photographs on Flickr, and group them by subject, and locate them geographically on the Flickr map. Over time, these photos on Flickr really begin to tell a story about the community I live in.

The old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” really is true. Use your photos to tell a story of your life, your work, and your community.

Look for photo updates from next week’s AAR Winter Conference. I plan to post in all three locations. I do hope you can join us.

And please, share here with us, by commenting below. Tell us the web sites you post your photos to, and please contact me directly with links to your AAR Winter Conference photos, so I can share them here next week.