Buying or selling a boat is a lot like purchasing a home! The dollar amounts involved can be large and many times, people’s emotional ties to a boat can easily affect their judgment. Most people, however, put more time and energy into buying a boat, however, than they do selling it. Boats for Sale is one of the many product categories you will find under vehicles. Obviously when selling a boat you want to make sure you are selling it at the right price!

When trying to determine the right price for your boat look at comparable either online or in local papers. You can also use a service like Value Check from BOAT/US that has a pricing service for its members. There are also a number of resources available online that can help guide you in pricing and preparing your boat for sale.

Examples:

• Calabria Cal-Air Pro-V
• 2004 18 ft Chaparral 180 ssi
• Selling Two Sea Doos

One of the real estate categories we support on vFlyer is vacation rentals. The Internet in general and online classifies specifically are transforming the vacation rental market by creating a global market for vacation rentals. This has led to increased competition as well as created some new opportunities.

Another trend affecting property rentals is shorter rental periods. ‘Short term’ rentals are becoming more popular with Baby Boomers who have busy schedules. U.S. workers are taking fewer full-week vacations, opting instead for shorter stays.

Higher transportation cost is changing the way people plan vacations and is creating opportunities for rental property owners. Author Christine Karpinski in her book on vacation rentals encourages property managers to advertise on the Internet and concludes that “Americans pinched by high gas prices can still enjoy a getaway close to home by staying at a vacation rental for a fraction of the cost of a hotel room.”

vFlyer allows vacation property owners and managers to quickly and easily to promote their properties on leading online market places such as Google Base, Oodle, Edgeio, Vast and others! With ski season is just around the corner, now is a great time to create real estate flyers for your vacation rentals!

Here are some vacation property rental examples on vFlyer:

• Heavenly Valley Chalet (Tahoe, CA)
• Pine Tree Lodge (Tahoe, CA)
• The Lazy Bear Cabin (Tahoe, CA)
• The Pine Tree Lodge (Tahoe, CA)
• The Hideaway (Tahoe, CA)
• Four Seasons Aviara Vacation Rental (Carlsbad, CA)

I always like to remind users about the many different services vFlyer has to offer to online sellers and real estate professionals. While most people know about our distribution platform that pushes listings and flyers to leading online marketplaces, some are unaware of the many of the other complementing services available including Watermark Plus (image enhancement), Domain Plus (single property websites), vFlyer Team and Agency (collaboration and sharing), Mobile and SMS (mobile distribution) and Widgets.

One of the goals of our blog is to continually remind and educate users on how they can make the most of our marketing and distribution platform to more successfully promote their listings, products and services.

It’s always encouraging to see users put some of this information into practice! For example, a couple of weeks ago we talked about using Watermark Plus to enhance photos of yourself and as a result a growing number of real estate professionals are using Watermark Plus for just that purpose!

I would encourage all vFlyer users to check out the vFlyer Blogregularly to find out how to get the most out of our platform, to learn and capitalize on online selling trends and technologies (such as podcasting), and to better market their listings, products or services!

This month’s vFlyer Star is John Lockwood, broker/owner of Sacramento, CA based Elite Properties. The vFlyer Star program identifies and recognizes our biggest and most active users, supporters and advocates. (See Previous vFlyer Stars)

Elite Properties does a great job of marketing its client listings and the company itself. John and his company are actively involved in many forms of online and social media marketing including blogging and ActiveRain.

John Lockwood is truly a “power-user” and one of a growing group of users that take vFlyer to the max! John has the following advice:

A special thank you from vFlyer to John Lockwood and Elite Properties.

	Name: John Lockwood Company: Elite Properties See vFlyer | See Blog About Company: Elite Properties is a company that has been a leader in using of Internet marketing in the Sacramento area for several years. When we saw vFlyer, we knew that this would be an outstanding addition to our service offerings. How I use vFlyer: For the past several months, I have used vFlyer for all my company’s listings and provide it for my agent’s listings as well. I create thumbnail ads which link to the on-line flier on all my websites. I also use the flyer widget on my blog. I like the fact that vFlyer ads can be pasted into my main blog as well as my ActiveRain Blog, and I especially like that with about ten minutes of effort. I have a flyer that can also be used not only on my blogs, but on Craigslist, Sacramento News and Review (a Backpage sites that vFlyer supports), and that automatically gets syndicated to several other sites as well. What I Like Best: I like vFlyer so much that I recently used it in my online “listing presentation” video, which shows how vFlyer is an integral part of an overall online marketing strategy (Example) One of the interesting statistics from that movie is that during a particular period for one listing of mine, I had 91 hits in the MLS, 230 hits on Realtor.com, and over 1,000 hits on my vFlyer page for that listing. The statistics reports you can get make a great addition to any listing presentation. Usage: vFlyer Star Badge

If you think you or someone else you know should be recognized as a vFlyer Star, let us know by sending an email to blog@vflyer.com

Need another vFlyer account? As I mentioned in my previous posts on vFlyer Team and Agency, it is possible now possible to have and manage multiple accounts without logging in and out.

Adding Another Account:
Perhaps you use vFlyer for business but would like to sell items in other product categories or for personal use. Perhaps you run two businesses and need an account for each. There are also sales organizations and virtual assistants that manage vFlyer accounts for multiple clients and would prefer to access them from a single account. Thanks to the new collaborative features in vFlyer, adding another account to your existing account is a few simple clicks away!

How it Works:
You will notice a Settings link at the top right of the page, click on the Accounts tab and go to the Create a New Account section to add a second account to your existing one. You can only have one free (vFlyer Personal) account in your account network, so subscribers can add one free account or multiple subscriber accounts to their account network.

Last week was our one year anniversary, and as a way of saying thank you to both users and subscribers, this week, as part of our “value” program, users that sign up for or subscriber that upgrade to an annual subscription get an additional 10% discount on their plan.

There is a lot of “value” and real savings associated with choosing an annual subscription plan over a monthly one as part of this promotion (ends Oct 22, 2007)!

• Annual subscribers get two free months, so there’s already a built-in cost savings
• Annual subscribers get 1 to 10 FREE domain names, as part of our Domain Plus launch promotion
• Annual subscribers get an additional 10% discount

Taking advantage of this offer is simple. When you subscribe or upgrade you will notice there is Referral Code link at the bottom of the plan selection screen. Clicking on the link allows you to enter a referral code (Note: Use VALUE to take advantage of this promotion).

I just did a post on reasons to podcast on the GeekEstate Blog that I think is worth checking out!

I recently started podcasting and found that it has many applications in both real estate and blogging. My post summarizes some of reason I love podcasting including:

• You can it anywhere and anytime.
• You can do it as many times as you want.
• You can keep it real.
• You can blog it.
• more..

Last week Inman New released a list of the 25 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers. Our good friends at Sellsius Real Estate, the thought leaders that they are, have put out an equally important list of top bloggers - 12 Top Women bloggers in Real Estate! (They did one in 2006 as well). Actually ran into the latest list while visiting the Real Estate Tomato!

I was very pleasantly surprised that I recognized at least half of the folks on the list as being as vFlyer “all star” users, including Missy Caulk, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, Kristal Kraft, Teresa Boardman, Laurie Manny and Maureen Francis. As I started speaking with some of them and listening to their great insight, I decided to turn my conversations into a podcast and to reach out to everyone on the list.

The result is 12 podcast interviews in which the 12 Top Women bloggers in Real Estate share their backgrounds, their intro to blogging, and their advice to fellow bloggers! All of these interviews were unrehearsed and most happened “on the spot”, some while busy agents where driving from a closing, or at a conference - so please excuse any inconsistency in sound quality and understand that some of the interviewees had time and other constraints working against them.

I will confess that I had a blast speaking with all of them and they all share great insight and advice in their interviews so I would strongly recommend listening to as many of them as possible!

Podcast Interviews:

	Diane Cohn (Chase International) Play: or Diane has developed a great business slant on blogging after she discovered the lead generation potential of the Internet. Diane talks about valuable learning resources for bloggers, the need to develop focus, and other cornerstones of real estate blogging. Links: Blog | ActiveRain
	Frances Flynn-Thorsen (RealTown/Realty World) Play: or I was impressed that Frances is currently involved with over four different blogs and is quite the blogoholic. Frances talks about the need to take a risk and really connect when having a conversation and worry less about SEO. Links: Blog | ActiveRain
	Ines Hegedus-Garcia (Coldwell Banker) Play: or Ines got involved in blogging a little over a year ago after hearing about blogging from a professional photographer. She then joined ActiveRain before launching her own blog. Ines also recently did a great post on real estate blogging and stresses the importance of persistence and reading other people’s blogs. Links: Blog | vFlyer Gallery | ActiveRain
	Kris Berg (Prudential California Realty) Play: or Kris and her husband got involved in blogging after seeing the success of Rain City Guide, which according to Kris is the “gold standard” of real estate blogs! She was also determined not to be “left behind”. Kris shares a lot about the less tangible benefits of real estate blogging and the need to be “true to yourself”. She is also a contributor to the BlogHoundBlog. Links: Blog
	Kristal Kraft (The Berkshire Group) Play: or I talked to Kristal as she drove around the city and she shared with me how she developed her blogging skills over the last 4 years. Kristal also makes a couple of great suggestions on being hyperlocal and keeping a journal of your blog ideas! Links: Blog | vFlyer Gallery | ActiveRain
	Laurie Manny (Prudential California Realty) Play: or After playing a little phone tag, I was glad I got a hold of Laurie. Laurie has some great advice on getting started, the role social networks can play in blogging, the importance of SEO as well as the need to go local! Links: Blog | vFlyer Gallery | ActiveRain
	Maureen Francis (SKB Sotheby’s International) Play: or Maureen has been blogging over two years and got first involved in blogging about 4 years ago when trying to create for her daughter’s baby book and got hooked! Maureen makes a great point about “finding your own voice” and using blogging as a social networking too. Maureen was one of our early users. Links: Blog | vFlyer Gallery | ActiveRain
	Missy Caulk (RE/MAX Platinum) Play: or Missy shares her background and tells us now she got started in blogging. Like many others, Missy talks about the important role ActiveRain has playing in her blogging as well as her plans to add a local real estate blog to her list of blogs. Links: Blog | vFlyer Gallery
	Rhonda Porter (Mortgage Master Service) Play: or Rhonda was almost “forced to blog” less than a year ago and suggests “not thinking about it” too much and being committed to the process. Links: Blog | ActiveRain
	Roberta Murphy (Murphy Group) Play: or Roberta got into blogging on ActiveRain but soon with the help of Jim Cronin of Real Estate Tomato expanded into additional online properties and is now blogging on 3 platforms - wow! Roberta stresses the need for commitment and finding a honest voice - after all, blogging is about “having a conversation” with your audience. Links: Blog | ActiveRain
	Sharon Simms (RE/MAX Metro) Play: or I spoke with Sharon late Friday (both of us where on our cellphones) about how she got started in blogging. Sharon learned about the success of blogging from one of the organizations she was involved in. Among other things, Sharon recommends getting involved in ActiveRain and Localism as part of the learning process. Links: Blog | ActiveRain
	Teresa Boardman (Keller Williams Integrity Realty) Play: or Teresa has the additional distinction of being selected as one of Inman’s Top 25 Bloggers in Real Estate. Her blog is known for its tangible results and Teresa explains how she got involved in blogging as an experiment and gives some good advice to prospective bloggers. Links: Blog | vFlyer Gallery | ActiveRain

Click here for page 2 of this post that contains a summary of some of the great insight these bloggers where able to share with me about real estate blogging.

Drew Meyers of Zillow recently invited me to be a contributor to GeekEstate blog. For those who don’t know, Drew is involved with community building and relations at Zillow has was pioneered many of the company’s efforts in social media marketing including the Carnival of Real Estate (which we hosted last week) and the GeekEstate blog.

The GeekEstate Blog was started as a resource for real estate professionals who want to learn more about how they can grow their business through smart use of technology. The blog claims that its “varied authors are geeks” - which I guess makes me “geek” or perhaps a former geek in recovery. In any case, I think its a unique idea that exemplifies how the community element of blogging can draw on the knowledge and experiences of broad range of contributors and cover an even broader range of technology related topics in real estate. Check it out today!

I was creating a flyer the other day and remember an important feature that we don’t often talk about – the ability to create any number of custom fields and attributes on your flyer! This is one of the many features that truly sets our flyers apart! In addition to the other 45 product categories we support, we allow users to create their own “custom flyers” by allowing them to add and remove features and attributes on their flyers to create something that is unique.

This feature allows you to modify ANY flyer in ANY category by adding custom fields and attributes, fields and attributes

Simply click the Add Field button to add an custom field or a the Add Attribute button to add a custom attribute (you an also add values to any of our drop down menus as well).

You can remove custom fields by click on the Delete icon next to them. To remove attributes, simply uncheck them. When add custom fields to a flyer in a given product category, vFlyer “remembers” and saves them so that the text time you create a flyer in that same category, your custom fields will appear!  Here is an example of a flyer with custom features and attributes.

I has happy (but not surprised) to see that Jim Cronin, founder of Real Estate Tomato recently made it to Inman’s list of 25 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers: 2007.

I have known Jim for a while but got to meet him in person at the Inman Blogger Connect earlier this year. I have long admired Jim’s approach to bringing Realtors online, especially his innovative use of ‘coaching’ and education. I decided to give Jim a call yesterday and do a quick podcast interview. I briefly talked with Jim about his company and popular Real Estate Tomato blog, how he got involved in blogging and any advice he may have for follow blogger. As always, Jim has some great advice for real estate bloggers (and blogger want-to-be’s). Click on Podcast icon below to hear the entire podcast.

Congrats as well to Kevin Boer (3Oceans Real Estate), Joel Burslem (Future of Real Estate Marketing), Patrick Kitano (Transparent Real Estate),Joseph Ferrara and Rudolph D. Bachraty III (Sellsius Real Estate Blog) and Glenn Kelman (Redfin)who also make the list!

One of the biggest problems general marketplaces like Craigslist, Google Base, Oodle, and Vast have to deal with is fraud and scams! Because our flyers are published into general marketplaces, we are not immune to the problem and are constantly on the alert for fraudulent activity.

We have recently added some new features to flyers (only in certain categories - specifically consumer electronics and certain computer items) to warn potential buyers to be on the lookout for fraud and common scams.

A warning message will appears at the top of flyers in the electronics and computers for sale if there is any suspicion of fraud (incomplete, missing or mismatching information, fraud ‘trigger’ words, user complaints or flagging, i.e.). Buyers can remove the warnings by simply clicking on the minimize link to the right of the warning.

You can also visit the vFlyer Support Wiki for more information on avoiding fraud and scams.

Online Selling FAQ

I had to laugh when I saw this statement that Marc Davison, a founding partner of 1000watt Consulting, made in his article “The Many Faces of Real Estate“ in Inman News. Marc laments the topic of real estate commissions, making a case both for and against “high” commissions. Trying to paint a picture of the “modern day” Realtor, Marc writes:

An agent takes 100 shots with her $350 digital camera, shoots video and uploads it to Wellcomemat, produces a Real Estate Show, blogs about the home, adds it to Zillow, creates a vFlyer Web site and syndicates the listing to 20 additional Web sites — all within a couple hours. The listing then appears on the screens of thousands of agents and consumers who view the photos, read the blog post, and map out a drive-by.

I like (and agree with) Marc’s insinuation that services like vFlyer save time and cost and make real estate professionals more effective, but don’t we all wish it was that easy! Selling real estate is hardly a walk in the park, that’s why everything helps.

The Inman Blog recently announced that the U.S. Justice Department’s launched a new Web site focused on competition in the real estate industry that’s worth checking out. Included are a number of charts on real estate commission costs as well and other interesting pieces of information.

This Week’s vFlyer makes creative use of an artist’s rendering of the property as part of the listing. Small House, Big Opportunity! features a starter home in Oakland, California and real estate agent Nicole Bailey does a great job in highlighting her listing! Its nice to see so much attention to quality in a flyer (logo, personal photo, main photo, i.e.).