Reports, reports, reports, so what??

In the last few days I read articles from Real Estate magazines about some weakness in the rental market showed during the summer. Reports showing that some lawyer companies postponed their associates starting dates, so the apartment searches have been postponed as well. Reports showing merely percentages about the decline compared to the previous year. Numbers?? Companies policies?? So what, that’s all we have to say about one of the greatest real estate markets in the entire world? It doesn’t seem very much to me, when everybody already knows about the problems that our economy is facing. We don’t need reports showing the market decline, or showing that corporate companies are becoming wiser with their investments, or that less students can afford the tuition/home combos offered by NY Universities. We don’t need to know what we already know, that’s simple.

I honestly liked a short little paragraph from Citi Habitats CEO saying that landlords are willing to offer incentives (a thing that probably only RE professionals know about) in order to rent their units. This is what we need. We need tips, not reports. People need to know how they can rent in Manhattan without spending a fortune in a weak market (it wouldn’t make much sense, right?). And while everybody is looking themselves in the mirror by showing and explaining reports, someone else is showing how to rent properties in Manhattan (this is probably why they are the #1). So much paper for reports and almost absence of tips for apartment hunters won’t help the rental market to go back faster than the recovery of our overall economy.

I don’t have a photo editor on my computer

I still remember a few years ago when I used taking apartment pictures with a 35 mm camera, go to the closest 1 hour photo development store and get a cd with the digital stills. Now with my 3 years old Canon Powershot those days is history. Cameras are becoming cheaper and cheaper and pictures are suitable for large printed material as well.

However, the large files produced by these kinds of cameras are not always ready for the web and have to be resized down. Oh no, how can I do that? I am not a graphic designer!!! Well, there is a great tool on the web that comes handy. Its name is FotoFlexer, an on-line web site that allows to upload a file, manipulate and save it with a different name. A photo editor on your finger tips!

So, what is exactly PhotoFlexer? PhotoFlexer is the engine behind PhotoBucket and its interface is entirely developed in Flash, so it’s not even browser sensitive. In addition to that, users don’t even have to subscribe, so there is not even the hassle to remember a new user id and password. At this point, just add the url http://fotoflexer.com/ into your Favorites and you are ready to go!

Enjoy!!

When RE brokers meet with the IT people

When I was a little kid, I used to be scared of my first day in a different school. With my family I used to move quite a lot around the States and settling with new friends and teachers was always challenging. When I became a teenager and faced the job market, I became scared of the new people I would have met at work. It wasn’t really the “meeting someone” that scared me, but the challenge of becoming part of an existing mechanism.

It’s a fact in the Real Estate business, the IT department plays a major role in the company’s day-to-day operations. It represents a well oiled mechanism that allows brokers to use incredible tools to increase their business. It also represents the scariest department for a newbie broker. I wonder what kind of real estate broker never felt at least once lost in the procedures and instructions provided by the IT department. We are scared because we are not stupid, but we feel like stupid, we know how to use a computer, but we feel like children. Well, I saw many times these kinds of faces strolling around in the office. I felt bad for them!

So, I came out with the idea of running a blog about this. I want to make brokers with few IT skills more confident about new technologies and the web. I want to make brokers with no IT skills not felt behind of colleagues who master the IT language. Don’t feel lost, don’t feel upset, just check this blog once in awhile and write me an email! Its’ that simple!!!

À bientôt!