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Review: Tools for Work – Epson WorkForce 845

December 8, 2011 By 5 Comments

An Epson rep sent me an email a few weeks back asking me if I would like to have a free printer in exchange of a review. Not a bad deal, I thought, I get to test drive (and keep) one of their latest model and write about it at the same time. Which it kinda takes care of two things at once, since:

  1. My other printer is about 3 years old. – Still good, just a little *on the slow side*, due to old age.
    And
  2. I need to create blog content.

So, it seems like a win-win situation

I just took it out of the box and thought it would take me a while to set it all up. Alas it did not. It took me merely 6 minutes to get the whole thing running. Yes, I timed it.

And here are my thoughts about it: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology & Real Estate Tagged With: ,

Video Blog: Episode One

July 18, 2011 By 7 Comments

Hi everyone!

Last week we were quietly preparing the videos for the next few updates, so there were no articles published. I’m sure you understand. I was busy trying to figure out the video editing thingy…

And finally, here it is. This is the first one I shot exclusively for the blog readers, and, there is another one (soon to be published here) I did for McGill Real Estate, you know? That awesome Real Estate Agency I’m part of ;)

For those how are reading this message from your email, notice the video won’t load in your inbox. You will have to click here to view it.

Transcript:

Hi this is Deya Bautista here at the Montreal Real Estate Blog. I wanted to share some very interesting news with you today. As you’ve well known and if you’ve been following this blog for a while, I’ve been writing some articles since 2007 and we’ve decided to move a little bit more towards the new trends which is Video Blogging. This is pretty much my first video blog that I’m doing, my first episode*. Just a little introduction to let you know:

Hi my name is Deya, and you’ve been reading me for quite some time, and from now on you can expect to have a mix of writing, video (and perhaps some podcasting; we are not sure yet, but we are working on that.)

If you like this video, video please vote for it. Spread the word, if you like the blog, please tweet it, share it with your friends on facebook.

We are going to give you some information on new construction in Montreal. There are very interesting projects coming up. The agency which I work for, McGill Real Estate, has picked up a really interesting bunch of new projects. Very different all of them, from very high end to more affordable ones. Soon enough we’re gonna be doing a little tour of each one of them so you can have an idea of what to expect; price range, what they look like, the whole information about them. So, if you have any questions you can leave me a comment below. Or you can email me at deyanira at mcgillrealestate dot com. I’m gonna be leaving all my contact information at the end of this video, and…so that’s it for now.

Don’t be shy. Send me a note, leave a comment and I will see you soon. Bye Bye.

* Not really my first, because I did many test shootings before. Also, my broker had one of my so-called video experiments and he published it. So, in reality this is my second published video. First one on the blog though :)

Filed Under: Video Blog Tagged With: ,

Where did your email message go?

September 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

August was a slow month for emails, I thought. Usually we’ll get a good amount of message from the blog. Our readers like to keep in touch, whether it is to ask questions, to follow up with their comments on a post I’ve written or simply to say hello.

I noticed a big drop in messages lately, and at first I thought it was because people were on vacation and away from computers, or not too interested in real estate at this point…who knows? But as it turns out, my email server has been directing a great deal of messages to the junk folder – the only folder I hardly ever check, because, well, it’s full of junk. And along with messages from pharmaceutical companies asking me to enlarge my male part (uh?), and the viagra campaigns, were the missing blog-reader messages from the month of Mid July, August and some September.

The glitch has been corrected now, the only question is…how many more “good emails” got sent to the junk folder and automatically deleted. Hopefully not many.

If you wrote to us during those weeks, chances are your message ended up in the junk folder and we’re now trying (as fast as we can) to reply to you. Your email was not ignored, we have nothing against your message, it was just misplaced.

At this point, I’m still catching up with unread and unanswered mail retrieved from the catastrophe. I promise I’ll get to yours soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Filed Under: General Info Tagged With: ,

New Zoocasa Application for Yahoo! Canada

September 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

It has been two years since we last wrote about Zoocasa. Back then, they were just starting out and I do believe they were still on Beta. A lot has changed since then.

Zoocasa

It turns out that Zoocasa, owned by Rogers Communications, developed iPhone app (home search on your phone? great!) AND now Yahoo! Canada has teamed up with Zoocasa as their Real Estate Home Search. They have just launched a new application that lets users do home searches directly from their yahoo.ca home page.

Now the more than 17 million Canadians who visit Yahoo! every month will be able to search for a new home, research local neighbourhoods and receive updates about properties that fit their personal profile, all through the Zoocasa.com application on their Yahoo.ca homepage. Combining real-time listing information and mapping technology, Zoocasa.com allows users to personalize their search experience and discover community, demographic and lifestyle information to help them choose the right home.
[ Source: Finantial Post. Read More ]

The site grew in popularity, but their affiliation with a powerful search engine such as Yahoo! Canada definitely puts them in the major leagues. Now there’s talk about brokerages like Re/Max, Century 21 an Royal LePage looking for alternative sites, such as Zoocasa, to advertise their listings, since they feel that Realtor.ca is lacking some important features:

“Realtor.ca isn’t as technologically advanced as its competitors, lacking information that prospective home buyers like, such as demographic data, school zones and average prices for neighbourhoods.” [ The Globe and Mail . Read more ]

And we second that opinion.

If the joint venture of Yahoo! Canada/Zoocasa and the major brokerage firms succeeds, realtors will now have our own Canadian version of Zillow. Pretty interesting to say the least. Not to mention the different options for online exposure to all home sellers, having a mix of Realtors.ca, Google maps Real Estate (also gaining popularity with home searches) and the already existing listing sites like micasa.ca.

Other articles:

Yahoo! nouvelle application immobilière: Yahoo! annonce le lancement d’une application en partenariat avec Zoocasa, un site Internet canadien dédié à l’immobilier.

Filed Under: Technology & Real Estate Tagged With: ,

Google Maps the Next Real Estate Search Engine?

January 15, 2010 By 7 Comments

I guess it was just a matter of time before Google decided to monetize on the home search queries. A lot of real estate related websites are now using google maps (in the form of a plugin) as part of their listings, and so far is working out just fine.
Google Map -Real Estate
I’ve noticed more and more properties appearing on google maps – or  Google Real Estate 2.0 as they are calling it- since this last summer, and the last time I checked there were a lot of listings from the west  coast of the US. But slowly is moving into Canadian territory. More and more Canadian cities are listing their properties online with google base. Agents and brokers are able to upload their listings via google base or RSS (I have yet to check into it). I was surprise to see that not many brokers/agencies listed from Montreal, there are 2 main websites getting most of the hits from google real estate map searches.

Will they compete with the MLS®, Realtor® website?
Compete, most probably. But they are neither a broker nor a MLS system, according to their disclaimer. The complete answer and explanation is found in their FAQ for Real Estate Agents and Brokers:

“Is Google a broker? A national MLS?

We’re neither. Our role is to connect users as quickly as possible with the information they need. People come to us looking for all kinds of information, including housing listings, comparable pricing, and how to find an agent or broker in their area. In all cases, we want to deliver these users to the industry experts who can provide the most useful answers.”

Well, as long as they don’t start crawling the MLS the Realtors.ca database -without permission- they will be lawsuit free. It makes me wonder if, say, 5 years from now, Google Maps -Real Estate 2.0 will be more popular than our Realtor’s site. We’ll have to wait and see.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Technology & Real Estate Tagged With: , ,

Now you can add a video comment!

April 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

video-comments

In addition to text comments, you can now find a new comments feature on the Montreal Real Estate Blog.
Over the last couple of days I’ve tested the new plugin and it seems to work fine. The only drawback is that the audio can be a little off sync. Maybe it’s my computer. I’m not sure.

The video comments is powered by Seesmic. If you have an account with them, it will link to your profile or you can leave an anonymous comment as well. All comments (written or video) will continue to be moderated before they’re published.

Willing to leave the first video comment?

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This Blog is Getting International Recognition

March 24, 2009 By 7 Comments

I wanted to share a little something with you…
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to talk about the blog and the use of social media with a radio station in Venezuela. Some of you may know, I was born and raised there (that would explain a lot all my grammar errors, eh?), so many of my contacts online are also from down south.

It was through a blogger-friend (thank you Croncho!) that I got referred to the radio station La Mega, to be interviewed with AnaIrene and Nacarid from La Makina on the subject of: How is the social media benefiting your business?
We had a great exchange of ideas and I was asked many questions regarding the way I use the web 2.0 (blog, facebook, twitter, etc..) to market myself and my services. As well as the different types of information we provide on this blog.

I was surprised to hear that not many people in my industry have been using (or being interviewed for using) social media. But even more surprised than me, they were astonished at the fact that here in Canada we’re a little behind (the Real Estate Industry) with the use of technology, web and social media to enhance our client communication and build new relationships. After all, we’re a developed country, n’est pas? I really hope that will change soon.
In any case, I took the liberty to record the interview, and will need to get the permission  first to publish it. But if I do, unfortunately it will be all in Spanish. Sorry in advance for those who: No Habla Español :)

It was a fantastic experience to be talking live in a radio show, about the two subjects that I’m very passionate about: Technology and Real Estate.

UPDATE (March 26,2009):
The program has released the interview in podcast version. The program is a little long and they talk about technology, you can find my interview almost at the end of the program itself. Here is the link. Again, is En Español.

Filed Under: Technology & Real Estate Tagged With: ,
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