Here at Property Ad Guru, we have plenty of advice on how to make your website the best it can possibly be. But once property seekers leave your website and start looking on places like realtor.com and zillow.com, it becomes more difficult to ensure you stay top-of-mind.

That’s the issue US-based company realbird.com is trying to solve with its newly-unveiled a browser toolbar, which keeps agents in contact with property seekers even while they’re looking through property portals.

realbird.com explains that the toolbar, which can be branded for agents, sits at the top of a home hunter’s browser window as they search for property. When they come across a listing they’re interested in, a few clicks sends an enquiry back to the agent with the property’s title and URL. The agent is then notified via email, and the inquiry is also saved in their realbird.com account.

To access the toolbar, agents need to sign up for a “pro” subscription to realbird.com, which costs US$99 per year.

Looking for more tips on how to track enquiries? Start with our article on knowing where your leads are coming from.

Here at Property Ad Guru, we have plenty of advice on how to make your website the best it can possibly be. There’s a lot you can do on your own, but for UK agents still looking for an out-of-the-box solution, UltraIT could be worth checking out.

UltraIT is a European company that has just set up shop in the UK. They offer website packages for agents working in both sales and rentals, along with an SEO service. While their service isn’t free – package prices start from £1395 – UltraIT promises extras such as its “Application Match” feature, which automatically matches listings to customer requirements, make it worth the investment.

Meanwhile, Australian property data supplier PriceFinder is about to launch “Share” – a service that allows agents to give their clients access to information from PriceFinder’s database for free.

PriceFinder says the information available through Share includes property price history, estimated sales price, a map searching tool, property photos, and the potential yield of a property within the current market or any time in recent history.

At this stage, Share is only available to PriceFinder’s “pro” subscribers, who pay AUD$255 per month.

a la mode, the US-based company behind the TourNarrator iPhone app for home tours, is expanding its “SureDocs” e-signature system to offer a version designed specifically for real estate agents.

a la mode explains that many users of SureDocs are real estate agents who are using it for contracts and disclosures. “Making a dedicated agent version was a natural next step,” the company states.

The new version of SureDocs, which will be available in the second quarter of this year, will allow agents to “print” any type of document, regardless of industry or source, so it can be displayed on screen ready for signing or transmission.

a la mode says that as documents are printed to SureDocs, the program learns the formats and recognises them on subsequent uses. So a contract from a given board or a particular state disclosure form only has to be set up for signature tags once. The next time the same type of document is sent to SureDocs, the program knows where all the signature tags need to be.

The creation of SureDocs for agents comes after the Federal Housing Administration confirmed that it now considers e-signatures on third party non-lender documents to be just as valid as “wet ink” paper signatures.

“Many of the supposedly paperless loan files out there are full of scanned copies of traditional paper documents,” says a la mode chairman Dave Biggers. “That’s both environmentally and financially expensive. With SureDocs, signatures are applied on screen to purely digital documents, which don’t need to be printed unless the user needs it. It’s better all around.”

The current version of SureDocs for disclosure documents costs US$299 per year.

SOBOX offers agents two services. The first sets up all the social media accounts and channels agents require, ready to display with their own original content. The second service not only sets up these accounts but also populates them with content designed to gather fans and followers.

SOBOX is the first business launched by Classified Ad Ventures. Classified Ad Ventures is the creation of Simon Baker, the former CEO and Managing Director of the REA Group, which runs Australian market leading portal realestate.com.au.

In announcing the launch of SOBOX, Baker said: “Social media is an important marketing tool for Australian real estate agents and all agents should have a strong presence on the main sites – Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. We launched SOBOX to help Australian agents get the most from social media and to reduce their reliance on traditional and other online media when marketing themselves and their listings.”

Kelly Millar, CEO of SOBOX and former Consumer Marketing Manager of realestate.com.au, added: “Agents need to be relevant and they need to be where their customers are congregating online. Many agents are not sure where to start or how to build their brand through social media. It’s not just a matter of establishing a Facebook page and pumping through listings. It’s about relationship building and positioning, which is the key to generating listings and future business.”

That’s the pitch, but what about the price? The good news is, there is a free trial option, but from there its subscription packages start at US$99 per month.

So is ClickTale worth it? Judging by the recent glowing write up on geekestateblog.com, we’d says it’s at least worth a try. “It’s probably only a matter of time before some of their features are incorporated into Google Analytics and other analytics software I would imagine,” Matthew Swanson predicts.

Of course, we’d love to hear views and reviews from anyone who has experience using ClickTale.

As you’ve probably read by now, Google Maps has just launched a big marketing push in Australia and New Zealand, along with a new website targeting real estate agents: maps.google.com.au/realestateagents. While this is an Australia and New Zealand-based push, the tools Google promotes here could be used by agents anywhere. What we want to know is, will agents get on board?

Let’s take a look at the eight tools Google is promoting on the website:

Google Maps is, unsurprisingly, top of the list. Uploading listings is free, and there are a number of property portals around the world already sending their listings through. Google says Maps now links to over 1,000 real estate websites in Australia and New Zealand, but when, if ever, will we see agents forego their portal subscriptions completely in favour of this option?

AdWords is next on the list – the sponsored links we’ve become so used to seeing around Google search results and on other websites, which can be effective if used properly. As our guest blogger Glenn Batten points out, using AdWords is not just about selecting the keywords with the highest traffic. “Some keywords might only attract a couple of searches a week, but you want to come up number one every single time,” he says.

YouTube is another Google-owned option that can be an effective promotional tool if your videos are done well. Of course, we’ve got some tips for you here.

Those are Google’s three “lead generation” tools. The next five come under the heading “improve operations” and include Google Apps, Google Analytics, Google Insights for Search, Google Earth, and Google SketchUp.

Probably the most useful of these are the widely-used Google Analytics and Insights for Search. Some kind of web analytics is essential when running your own website, while a tool like Insights for Search can give you an even clearer idea of where your traffic is coming from and what people are actually looking for.

The other Google tools depend more on personal needs and taste. Some people live and die by Gmail from Google Apps, while others couldn’t leave Outlook behind if they wanted to. Those with a talent for drawing with the mouse could put Google SketchUp to good use and make great floor plans, but for others this will take up too much of their time.

So, are you keen to make the jump to Google Maps and start using Google’s tools? Or do you plan stick with what you’re currently using? As always, let us know your thoughts and ideas in our comments.

The iPad hasn’t been released in the Netherlands at this stage, but the first models will ship in the US in late March. Our bet is that a string of iPad-related releases, for property seekers and agents alike, will start to surface before they even hit the stores.

US company Digital Map Products, which lists redfin.com, zillow.com, and trulia.com amongst its clients, has released a new mapping tool that visualises how home prices change over time.

The product, dubbed SpatialStream, animates property price fluctuations as colours on a map, changing from green to red as prices fluctuate. The company says this is an easy way to show what would otherwise be thousands of separate data points on a spreadsheet.

This video shows SpatialStream in action, displaying sales prices in Southern California changing over a three year period:

The product is aimed at developers, and allows them to choose various pieces of code to create the kinds of visualisations they need. Trial accounts are available, however the website does not go into detail about the cost of a subscription.

The US National Association of Realtors (NAR) has announced the 14 winners of its Game Changer Challenge, all of which will be fully funded by the NAR and guided by a panel of consultants.

Social media platform Front Porch, resume standardisation tool Realtor Resume, and Realtor rating tool Realtor Finder were among the ideas chosen for NAR backing.

Amongst the more unique ideas chosen by the NAR was the Heroes Welcome Home program, which aims provide education for Realtors working with returned service men and women. Training and mentoring would also be made available to returned service people. This idea comes from the Chicago Association of Realtors.

All the entrant’s ideas can be found on the NAR’s website.

By recording multimedia information about a potential buyer’s reaction to properties during a tour, including photos, notes and audio, TourNarrator aims to stop clients becoming confused about which property features they liked or disliked and jogs their memory on important aspects of the property they might otherwise forget.

These details are then converted into a personalised PDF that can be accessed online. a la mode sums it up by saying:

“With easy to reference property summaries, you’ll eliminate unneeded second showings and have buyer’s thoughts well organised. Confident buyers are committed, quick closers, and that’s what everybody needs in today’s shifting markets.”