With the addition of the new Century 21 design theme, vFlyer now offers six premium broker themes to business subscribers! We have themes for the following brokerages:

Century 21	Keller Williams	Alain Pinel
Coldwell Banker	Prudential	REMAX

Premium broker themes are available to all vFlyer subscribers (vFlyer Starter or better).

DotHomes is a real estate search engine with European roots. It is the first consumer-facing product of BytePlay, a London-based search technology company. The site is unique in that it lets consumers quickly search for real estate across multiple countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa and most recently the United States. Although it may be new to some Americans, dotHomes has a huge following overseas. It has the largest database of estate agent listings in South Africa and the second largest in the United Kingdom. We applaud dotHomes on their move into the US market and are happy to have them as a distribution partner! vFlyer users can syndicate their real estate listings to dotHomes by simply selected them as destination marketplace in the Automatic Submissions section of their flyers.

Tags: Real+Estate, Realtors, dotHomes, vFlyer

Every morning after my cup of coffee, I startup my RSS News reader (I use Wizz RSS which is Firefox addon that is accessible right from my browser) and see what folks have been blogging about vFlyer.

Using RSS to Keep Track what Customers are Blogging about You
There are a number of blog-specific search engines including Google, Technorati, and Feedster, as well as some news-specific search (Yahoo! News and Topix). All of these search engines let you access your results as an RSS feed. So for example, the URL for the RSS feed from Google that allows me to search for any occurrence of “vFlyer” in the Blogosphere looks something like this:

 Accessing blog (and other) searches via RSS feeds is a great idea for professional sellers (real state agents, auto dealers, i.e.) to keep tabs on what others are blogging about. Its easy to do and it gives you quick access to news about you or your company!

Creating a Single Property Websites for Less than $5 and other User Posts
As a member of the vFlyer team, I always like to see what people are blogging about vFlyer. Us marketing folks like to keep tabs on this sort of thing and I usually run into all sorts of interesting posts promoting different aspects of our service. Recently I ran into a couple of great posts in the last couple of weeks that I thought I would share:

• How To Create a Single Property Website for Less than $5
  I loved this post by Texas Real Estate Blog’s Jason Blackburn who carefully and in great detail explains exactly how to build a Single Property Website (using vFlyer) for only $5.00 and in less than 20 minutes!
• HGTV’s “Secrets to Sell” features vFlyer-power Property!
  This was news to me! Apparently this home (see vFlyer, see Craigslist vFlyer) is being featured on HGTV’s “Secrets that Sell” TV show! and Amy White of Eagle Realty is using vFlyer to promote it! Amazing the things you learn! I love the way Amy uses the Enhanced Craigslist template to include large photos of the property! Congrats Amy!
• 10 Cool Widgets for Bloggers and #5 is…
  Nice short list of “must-have” widgets for bloggers that includes vFlyer listing widgets as a wall to increase sales!

Yesterday I mentioned that we recently added Yahoo! Real Estate to our line up of distribution/syndication partners! What I forgot to mention was we also recently added dotHomes, a new real estate search engine to that list! I will feature both partners in upcoming days/weeks for those unfamiliar with these two real estate marketplaces! We should also be announcing additional distribution partners in the weeks to come!

Tags: real+estate

Premium themes are where its at! I an a big believer that “It’s all about the brand!” and vFlyer definitely allows you to communicate your brand and identity to the world! I have talked about our premium themes in the past. These are themes are available to all vFlyer subscribers (with a vFlyer Starter account or better).

Here are some good examples of how you can really “brand” your vFlyers using premium themes:

• Keller Williams Theme
• REMAX Theme
• Prudential Theme
• Coldwell Banker Theme
• Alaine Pinel Real Estate Theme

This level of brand customization is hard to find anywhere else so be sure to take advantage of it! The examples above also feature the premium layout option also available to vFlyer subscribers.

Tags: real+estate, themes, vflyer

vFlyer now syndicates your Residential For Sale and Rental Property listings to Yahoo! Classifieds (Yahoo! Real Estate).

Adding Yahoo! to your list of automatically syndicated marketplaces is easy! Simply click Enable Partner Sites (located in the Automatic Submission area of your vFlyer) to select Yahoo! and other new distribution partners such as Zillow, HotPads, and Backpage. Once you have added new partners they will continue to appear under Automatic Submission.

Many MLS Services allow you to add a link to a Virtual Tour for your Listing. In most cases, the MLS restricts the agent from linking to a Virtual Tour that contains their branding and/or Contact Information. vFlyer is pleased to announce that vFlyer now automatically supports an MLS version of the Premium Layout for business subscribers.

Now, when you publish a Real Estate for Sale flyer, we will generate two flyers for you: the flyer as you published it, which will automatically submit to any of our partner sites that you select in the Flyer Editor, and an MLS version of the flyer that hides the Agent/Broker contact information and branding. The MLS version can serve as a Virtual Tour on any MLS listing. You can access the MLS version in two places: from the Publish Confirmation page and from the Post Flyer tab in the Flyer Editor.

Location #1 – Publish Confirmation

Location #2 – Post Flyer

A big thanks to Dave Macklin of Butler Team Homes in Virginia Beach, VA for helping us develop the MLS version of the flyer!

The top producing real estate professionals are always looking for an edge. They are often voracious readers of the leading blogs such as Future of Real Estate Marketing, participating in online communities such as ActiveRain, and attending industry conferences such as Inman Real Estate Connect. We wanted to share with our community that an exciting, new Real Estate Technology conference, REtech South, is happening next week in Atlanta, GA.

Brad Nix, Maxsell Real Estate, is co-hosting the event on March 27, 2008 at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast. I am especially impressed with the top speakers such as Pat Kitano and Kevin Boer that will be participating in this inaugural event. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Brad Nix for the invaluable feedback on our service and the Real Estate Industry in general that he has provided us over the last year.

We recently received an email from Lyn Sims asking why she could only post the standard layout of her flyers to her Active Rain blog and not the premium layout. Well, you can actually post both Standard and Premium layout flyers. Here are the instructions for both.

Embedding Standard Layout Flyers

Embedding flyers is simple! Follow the straight forward instructions. Simply go to the Post tab of your flyer, copy the HTML in the Other Sites HTML tab, make sure the HTML tab of your ActiveRain post is selected, paste the HTML and voila.

Embedding Premium Layout Flyers

Embedding a Premium Layout flyer requires the use of an IFrame.

First, copy the URL of your premium layout flyer. This URL is available on both the Publish screen and the Post Flyer tab when re-editng the published flyer.

Second, create a new post to your Active Rain blog. Then click the HTML tab above the text box (as opposed to the WYSIWYG tab) and type

<iframe src= “<flyer URL>” height=”1000″ width=”900″></iframe>

Continue with the post and click Post Blog Entry when you’re ready. You should see your beautiful premium layout flyer appear with all the links active! And you can do this for any premium layout flyer that you’ve published!

Here’s an example of a premium layout flyer posted as an IFrame.

<iframe src=”http://getaways.vflyer.com/home/flyer/home/638000″ height=”1000″ width=”900″></iframe>

See example on Activerain

So, not only have you learned to post your premium layout flyer to your Active Rain blog, you’ve also learned how to use an IFrame!

Thanks Lyn for bringing this to our attention!

As some of you know, when you create a flyer on vFlyer, the service automatically generates a Printable version of the flyer. This flyer is in PDF format. Thus, it is easy to print attractive copies for your Open Houses. We are pleased that thousands of members are using this feature. That said, the vFlyer Team is currently working on new layout options for printable flyers. We would love to talk with some of you that have time to share your thoughts on what is important in the design of Residential Real Estate Flyers.If you have time and interest to chat for 5 to 10 minutes, email us at print@vflyer.com with contact information or reply to this post. Thanks.

As I mentioned in my round up of new partners, vFlyer now syndicates real estate listings to the very popular real estate site Zillow. Many of you know Zillow as the home real estate valuation service. The idea is simple, You type in the address of a property and find out its Zestimate, an approximation of a home’s market value!

Last year Zillow announced they are going to begin accepting listings from real estate professionals and essentially entered into the real estate classified ad marketplace business! The move made a lot of sense given that 50% of their 4 million monthly visitors are in the market to buy or sell a house. Their syndication service has been up and alive for several months and Zillow has done a great job of integrating agent and broker listings into their search results.

For vFlyer users, syndicating to Zillow is easy! I previously talked about how you can add Zillow and other new real estate partners to your list of available marketplaces. Simply create a flyer (or edit an existing one), add Zillow to the list of marketplaces you automatically want your listing syndicated to, click the publish or re-publish button and you are done! You have put in your full days work and you can go home and wait for the phone to ring!

Example:
Here is an example of what a vFlyer that has been syndicated to Zillow looks like:

• vFlyer: $129,900 3 Bdrm, Updated Cape Cod
• Zillow Listing: 506 W James St Columbus, WI 53925, Map View

Michael Friedenberg of Frank Howard Allen Realtors uses the new premium flyer layout to market the Perfect Small Farm! I like Michael’s choice of layout and I like the “completeness” of his flyers including a great photo, large galleries, and a good company logo!

Some real estate agents have put Watermark Plus to particularly good use! By simply combining the photo of their property being listed with their own personal photo and an eye-catching message (Just Listed, Price Reduced, i.e.), they can make their property photos really stand out!

A growing number of subscribers are using the new premium flyer layout! There are a handful of examples of the new layout available as part of the vFlyer Starter, Basic, Premium and Professional subscriptions:

• 2bd/2ba Upscale Condo and Everyday Price (Real Estate)
• 2004 Audi A8 4.2 Quattro (Auto)
• Landlords #1 Home Rental Company (Real Estate)
• 2005 Honda Accord EX Sedan 4D (Auto)

Compare these to the standard layout to see the difference!

If you are subscriber, simply preview your flyer and select Premium layout while in Preview mode:

This new premium layout applies only to the landing page for your flyer. The standard layout will continue to be used for Craigslist postings, Email, and Print/PDF.

You can upgrade today to take advantage of this new premium layout option!

Yesterday, I mentioned we added Zillow, OLX and Geebo to our list of distribution partners. I forgot to mention that we are also syndicating Residential for Sale listings to Hotpads. Those familiar with Hotpads probably remember that last year the company launched For Sale listings, in addition to the Rental Listings they have traditionally been known for!