Austin Smith - Goomzee.com

Ever wonder what all those abbreviations mean behind a real estate professional’s signature? We did too, which is why for the past year we have collected all designations and their definitions/criteria that have come across our radar. We call this list “Alphabet Soup”.

The list below may be useful to you; if you find any designations we’re missing, please add a comment to this post with as much info as you can and we’ll keep on top of updating the content. If you are re-posting this list, please give credit where credit is due and link back to Goomzee's Mobile Marketing Blog.

To view the list in its entirety, either click the following link or cut and paste it into your browser's address bar:

- http://blog.goomzee.com/2010/01/28/alphabet-soup/

Home buyers in North Carolina will soon be able to receive for-sale home pricing information, and photos, sent directly to their phone using text messaging (SMS) thanks to Goomzee. The Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® recently joined the growing number of REALTOR® associations, multiple listing services (MLS), brokerages and real estate agents choosing Montana’s Goomzee http://www.goomzee.com as their text message marketing solution provider.

Goomzee’s real estate text message marketing solution, Realty Connect®, combines integration with MLS data systems and innovative features to help connect buyers and sellers. Real estate professionals place signs or ads prompting home buyers to send a text message with a unique property code, or Gcode, to receive for-sale property information. Potential buyers send a text message, including the property code, and within seconds they receive for-sale information, and optionally photos, on their cell phone. The real estate agent is alerted, and enabled to connect with buyers in real time, providing timely follow up.

“We continually seek out the best technology tools and providers for our members and are pleased to offer Goomzee’s industry-leading SMS marketing platform. More home buyers are relying on technology for information when buying a home, and the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® recognizes the need to empower the real estate sales professional with useful technology to reach today’s buyer, especially on their mobile phones,” explains Brian Bell, CTO of the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS®.

An increasing number of Americans look to their cellular phones for instant access to information. According to the International Association of Wireless Telecommunications, also known as CTIA®, there are 276.6 million US mobile phone subscribers, representing 89% of Americans.

“Our research has indicated that over 74.4% of Americans are using text messaging (SMS), and over 72% of SMS users are ages 25-49. Potential buyers real estate professionals seek to reach with online promotions, are the same people who would rather text than talk. Goomzee’s mobile technology helps satisfy today’s buyer and increases responsiveness from real estate sales professionals. We look forward to providing our technology throughout more of North Carolina and are excited to be working with the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS®,” states Mike Sparr, Goomzee’s CEO.

Text messaging has rapidly become one of the most commonly-used features on mobile phones. Wireless carriers have reported that over a trillion SMS messages were delivered in the U.S. this year alone. Once a technology primarily for chatting amongst friends, text (SMS) messaging continues to grow as a valuable source for instant information. With Goomzee’s text message marketing service, Realty Connect®, real estate professionals have yet another arrow in their quiver to reach America’s home buyers.

About Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® The Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® (WRAR) was created on June 2, 1924. It has grown tremendously in the past 80+ years. Presently WRAR serves more than 2,000 REALTORS® in Southeastern North Carolina. Perhaps the best-known feature is the operation of our Multiple Listing Service, which can be found at http://TheWilmingtonMLS.com online. Our diverse membership is comprised of REALTORS® with the professional expertise to meet consumer’s real estate needs, whether it's their first home, a residential or commercial rental, or a commercial property for sale. Our REALTOR® Members adhere to a strict Code of Ethics, which maintains that a high standard of conduct will be met in all activities. To learn more, visit us online at http://www.wrar.com.

About Goomzee

Goomzee Corporation provides a mobile marketing technology platform that connects buyers and sellers at the point-of-interest. Goomzee's flagship product, Realty Connect®, and Mobile Virtual Tours, specifically assists real estate professionals to win more listings, acquire more leads and close more sales. The Company was established in 2003 offering hosted online storefronts to small businesses as well as consulting for some of the world's largest companies and brands. Goomzee is an industry leader in text message marketing and continues to innovate from a client first perspective. We connect buyers and sellers at the point-of-interest. To learn more, visit us online at http://www.goomzee.com or contact us at (866) 472 – 6062

A little bird fluttering about the office last week told me of a tantalizing opportunity for my 401(k). For those of you in the dark, a 401(k) is a retirement savings portfolio and can be used to facilitate investments. You may hear experts refer to it as a “four-oh wunk”; don’t be alarmed, this pronunciation also points to the same section of IRS Tax Code that serves as both an IRS Tax Code and the name of a retirement portfolio that can be used to facilitate investments.

Among other things, the bird mentioned that I should be primarily looking into real estate investments. Although I had heard of the NMTC (New Market Tax Credit), the RTC (Rehabilitation Tax Credit), and the benefits of using these in conjunction with a 401(k), I asked why real estate is so important, especially in light of our R.E. market woes. The answer was two-fold:

“Buy Low, Sell High, and take advantage of the Tax Credits!”

Truer words have never been spoken. With the options available today, real estate investment done right is so lucrative it should be illegal. But what type of portfolio to use? I’m no investment specialist, but the real experts say that self-directed IRAs or 401(k)s, both preferably with the Roth option, are the best for real estate investments. The Roth umbrella shields your portfolio from income tax in certain scenarios, and is the best way to get the most out of your investment money. You can work your way into a Roth IRA or “four-oh wunk” from a traditional account via rollovers and Trustee changes. Roth IRAs/401(k)s are great because you deposit money after taxes, meaning you won’t have to pay tax upon withdrawal. This allows you to save more in the long term than a traditional IRA or 401(k). If you decide to stick with the traditional “four-oh wunk”, you are allowed to invest directly in real estate depending on the rules of your portfolio. Also, you are allowed to borrow against your 401(k), but be warned: by doing so you are not eligible for the mortgage-interest tax deduction.

Another option would be to use a real estate investment trust. To my knowledge, this means that you would be placing investments through a trust of real estate specialists, thus alleviating some of the inherent risk from the shoulders of your portfolio. This is a great option for inexperienced investors that want to turn a profit but are scared of getting burned. If you already know your way around the real estate arena, most advise to skip the investment trust and the fees that come with them.

More important than the means of investment are the tax credits available to real estate investors. The New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) offers a 39% return on initial amount paid via tax credits spread through seven year installments. A private investor would receive these credits when he invests in a designated Community Development Entity (CDE). The CDE in turn invests “substantially all” of your monies in a low-income census tract. For more info on low-income tracts including lists per region and qualification criterion, click here. The best part about the NMTC isn’t the credit itself, but its ability to “twin” with the Rehabilitation Tax Credit (RTC), a credit reserved for the renovation of historic properties. The combination of these two credits “has a net effect of adding 30-35 percent more equity to the transaction”, offsetting the financial risks involved in renovating a historic property rooted in a low-income neighborhood.

A word of warning: consult both an investment and tax specialist before attempting to navigate this minefield. There are a number of pitfalls throughout the real estate investment process so it is best to move forward per the advice of a professional. If you can overcome the inherent risk of an investment coupled with the possible tax woes, a real estate investment holds the promise to be your biggest earner yet. The silver lining to 2009’s R.E. market cloud is falling home prices. True, this thought is heartbreaking in the sense that the net worth of many Americans is plummeting, but it is an “investor’s market”, and those with the cash should be chomping at the bit to get in while prices are low. Real estate is long term, secure, and has great potential for varying sources of ROI, from new renters to property appreciation and more.

So to review, a self-directed IRA or 401(k), with the Roth option, is reportedly the best way to go when investing in real estate. Alternatively, a real estate trust or loans are viable options. If you do decide to put your hard-earned money into property, be sure to take advantage of both the NMTC and the RTC. These credits “twinned” together, paired with low housing prices and an influx of inventory, means that NOW is truly the time to invest in real estate.

“A 2% reduction in negative word of mouth boosts sales growth by 1%”

• London School of Economics and Political Science, “Advocacy Drives Growth” Study

If you are an active participant in today’s social media circles, you NEED to be monitoring and managing your reputation. I’m not talking about your street rep (the kind that keeps you from getting mugged by a rival gang), but your online rep (the kind that keeps your company and your name shielded from mudslingers). As shown in the London School of E&PL’s Word - of - Mouth study, mismanagement of your online reputation has the potential to devastate not only your image, but also your sales rate and company growth. Thankfully, there is a bevy of web-based tools, both free and paid, that can assist you in your rep tracking.

“Reputation Management” may strike fear in your heart and conjure dollar signs in your eyes, but rest assured that you can effectively track and manage your web rep without paying for anything. How, you may ask? Well, as David Salvato comments, “Free tools are the best tools when powered by Google.”

1. Google Alerts/Google Reader, and Google Blog Search

If it was deemed socially acceptable in a business setting, I would have ‘Google’ tattooed on my forehead in full color. Unfortunately I would probably lose my job so I’ll have to be content with directing readers to use Google’s array of rep management tools. Firstly, be sure to set up Google Alerts for yourself. These keyword searches are completely free and are delivered to you as they are indexed by, you guessed it, Google. The easiest way to organize and view your Alerts is to send them directly to your Google Reader, as opposed to routing them into an email inbox. Here is a list of keywords to get you started:

• Company & Product name
  • Also track variations thereof, for example “Company X has terrible service”, “Company X is fantastic”, and so on
• Employee names
• Website Keywords
  • Check your website analytics to see which keywords are generating the most traffic
• Competitor names

Setting up your Reader to the best of its potential can be a pill; check out this preso from Ian Lurie for an easy-to-follow walkthrough. Another great tool to familiarize yourself with is Google’s Blog Search. As opposed to the basic Google Search, Blog Search scours blogs, forums, and comments to deliver results per the keywords you request.

2. StepRep

In the same vein as Google Blog Search, StepRep delivers search results per the keywords you dictate, and files them according to your response. This means that every search result you receive will be filed in your “Reputation Monitor” within either the “Positive”, “Negative”, or “Not Relevant” folders. StepRep will oftentimes deliver pages that Google Alerts miss. They also provide a website widget you can embed in your blog or site that features an easily-updated list of the StepRep results you want to promote.

Between these two tools you will have eyes on almost every mention of your brand and your competitors indexed across the world wide web. Keep in mind though, that beyond simply tracking your online reach it is imperative that you constantly produce good content. Reputation management ties directly into social networking best practices. If you are posting regularly on your blog and syndicating your content to as many sources as possible, you will increase your reputation, be it positive or negative. If you are active on Twitter and like-minded ‘live interaction’ platforms, you will affect your rep. If you are responding positively to comments and linking out to sources and working on your SEO and…the list goes on and on. Basically, if you are following the guidelines and suggestions set out by successful social media marketers you will be effectively managing your web rep. By producing as much positive content as you can muster, you will eventually smother the negative content nipping at your heels. One of the best ways to do this is syndicate your content to a multitude of sources; of course, this means that you need to set up a multitude of profiles/blogs in as many places as you can. This sort of ‘spider-web’ network increases SEO as well, since you now have 20 blog posts linking back to “Yourwebsite.com”, as opposed to just 3 or 4.

So now you know how easy (and FREE!) it really is to manage your online reputation. The tools I have listed above are free or charge, easy to use, and extremely effective for both corporations and individuals. If you would rather not use the tools mentioned above, check here, here, and here for more ideas. Remember that it is best to approach negative feedback with a customer-centric mindset; don’t fall into the trap of hoping it will just go away on its own. Take the proactive approach: deal with the problem and then bury it under a mountain of positive web content. And always remember that cultivating a good reputation is tied directly to your social networking efforts. If you are truly transparent in your networking efforts, your good reputation will make itself.

Missoula MT Sept 8, 2009 - Agreements with Intermountain MLS of Boise and Northwest Montana Association of REALTORs in Kalispell, plus two others, continue to grow Goomzee’s nationwide footprint. Goomzee®, a leading text message marketing and lead generation provider that connects buyers and sellers in real time, announces agreements with four more multiple listings services.

Intermountain MLS of Boise Idaho spans southern Idaho and eastern Oregon and is the largest multiple listing service provider in Idaho. Northwest Montana Association of REALTORs spans Montana’s beautiful Flathead Lake communities and is the largest multiple listing service provider in Montana. Goomzee also has signed agreements with Missoula Organization of REALTORs and Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORs with respective deployments pending.

“It is the Intermountain MLS’s practice to provide our members with the best available information resources and tools, increasing their value to their customers and making them more productive,” said Greg Manship, CEO of the Intermountain MLS of Boise. “Goomzee will be a great asset in helping agents connect with buyers using today’s mobile and web technology.”

Mike Sparr, CEO of Goomzee, celebrated the signings.

“The nation’s leading MLS groups are recognizing Goomzee’s unique value proposition and continue to move forward with implementations. Recently in California, for instance, we’ve been selected as the provider of choice for three additional MLS groups totaling over 51,000 members. The nation’s leaders continue to acknowledge that Goomzee’s service, agility, and dedication to helping their members is unrivaled and for that, I’m thrilled.”

With the addition of Intermountain MLS, Northwest Montana Association of REALTORs (NMAR), Missoula Organization of REALTORs (MOR) and longtime client, Billings Association of REALTORs, Goomzee has further secured its leadership position throughout the Inland Northwest. Additional rollouts in Pennsylvania, and pending rollouts in North Carolina, California and other key markets continue to secure Goomzee’s leadership position nationwide.

Goomzee’s existing partners continue to rave about the power Goomzee’s technology delivers to their agents, and their organization.

“Goomzee has provided a cutting edge product to the membership with very little effort by MLS Staff while having developed many opportunities for rev share or site license to its partner,” states Rosemary Scardina, CEO of The Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORs. “The Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS MLS couldn't be more pleased to be working with Goomzee. ALL MLS' SHOULD CHECK THEM OUT.”

Goomzee’s text message marketing solution, Realty Connect, compliments any MLS system and not only simplifies text message campaign publishing with their MLS Publishing Wizard, but also delivers valuable real-time market intelligence to the MLS organization on what buyers are looking at, when and where. Before Goomzee, there was no efficient way to gather this information for a 360-degree picture of the market.

About Goomzee
Goomzee® Corporation, based in Missoula, MT, is a mobile and online service that connects buyers and sellers using text messaging technology. Its industry-leading text message marketing platform, Realty Connect, delivers unmatched value and innovation to pacify sellers, buyers and sales professionals by facilitating live interaction while delivering property information and photos to buyer’s cell phones. Goomzee was founded in 2003 and services clients worldwide, including the world’s leading mobile technology and telecommunications firms, real estate brokerages and franchises, multiple listing services and REALTOR associations. Learn more about Goomzee online at http://www.goomzee.com.