StreetSine Home Report Is Great – Have You Had Yours Yet?

I was fiddling with my new StreetSine market report for my clients to analyze and plan their marketing proposals. Just one word about this tool which I highly recommend for fellow realtors, AWESOME.

It makes Comparative Market Analysis so much easier. Gone are the days that I will have to spend to find comparatives to show my prospective clients, which could be done in just minutes.

What comes in the StreetSine Home Reports?

Individually selected private condominium or landed housing projects could be generated. You’ll have:-

Unit pricing and official caveat transactions since 1995
Comparable projects (by distance) & units (by floor level & size)
Suggests a Possible price for the unit
Rental prices
Rental yield & investment potential comparisons
Location Maps, Amenities (upcoming MRT stations)

The generation of report takes no more than 30 seconds and it’s being generated in pdf (20 plus pages, could be more) so you could send it directly to your client’s email for their references.

Tsk tsk, I save trees by sending to their emails instead. During presentation, I’ll be using my IBM X61T tablet so we could just draw on the report itself to make an impact on emphasis on any clauses in the report.

Download a sample copy of the Home Report from StreetSine.

Why StreetSine Home Report?

As professional Realtors, we do choose our listings, try to manage our time and effort when it comes to dealing with our buyers and sellers; The report generated by StreetSine references to the latest official statistics and data from URA. The reports act as a pivot point as data comes from official sources which would give a fair indicative of how the current market is doing.

Both parties would then know that an agreed price in terms of rental or sale if not far away from the recommendation would be an acceptable range.

You save time by closing deals more effectively.

StreetSine Home Report Sample - Similar Projects to Hillview Regency

The statistics generated impresses me. And if it could impress a professional like me, it should do more delight to your clients when you present it to them. I find the ‘Amenities within 2km’ and ‘Similar Projects’ very useful for presentation.

Should I get per report basis at $25 each or just pay $899 for an annual subscription for unlimited report generation?

It costs $25 to generate an individual report. If you’re a home owner who’s curious about your property data, I would suggest you just purchase one report. But for fellow colleagues, take the $899 option, whatever that you’re closing will make you way more folds than the subscription.

It’s just part of your business cost, tax deductable.

They’re also having a current special promotion. If you’re using my referral link to subscribe, you’ll save an additional of $200, discounting it to $699 effectively.

Bah why not share with my colleagues to get the account?

I would strongly object to this move. These things are intellectually StreetSine’s rights and I’m sure they do monitor your usage.

Also, your name, Real Estate company and phone number is included automatically in the report, so why go through the hassle of having a possibility of your account suspended or editing the data with your own signature?

Subscribe at $699 for a no-frill unlimited report generation today!

Home owners who are looking for an effective agent to market your property can also contact me for an analysis of your apartment or house anytime (:

Does PropertyGuru Deserves a Renewal on Premium Account After a Year?

I’ve received an email reminder from Sherlyn, PropertyGuru to inform me that my premium account is due for a renewal next month.

Let’s recap PropertyGuru’s review that I’ve done donkey months ago on how it’s affecting my review to the service it provides for both agents and consumers. Since then, PropertyGuru has massively transformed from a new player in the property market place to a veteran with a huge spike in internet traffic.

The Positive Changes So Far

All the minuses that I mentioned previously in my article was taken care of (and I wonder does the PropertyGuru team actually reads my article, and if they do, good call :))

+ AgentNet Login is being really obvious now with the big blue icon
+ Since I’m on premium, I have no complains with ~~their photos limit of 3~~ unlimited photo uploads limit.
+ New segments such as MarketPlace that allows more agent features, Wanted Leads that brings you direct clients with requirements.
+ Ask Guru still remains strong for property searchers to ask and for agents to showcase their knowledge.

Something New
+ SMS text message sent to your phone on enquiries by prospecting buyers, you get to call them right away. How’s that for customer service?
+ Listing of properties has became more friendly over the months, with new suggested search for condo listings, quality score, watermark feature and extending expire ads.

The Traffic War

First, let’s look at how much traffic it has picked up since the last review done a year ago.

PropertyGuru has breached the 100,000k rank since last year and is top 40,000 sites of the world. It's a feat. — PropertyGuru has breached the 150,000 Alexa rankings since last year and is top 40,000 sites of the world. It's a feat.

Even Alexa has changed dramatically with a facelift over the year. PropertyGuru has shed 120,000 ranks and is now at 39,000 (The lower, the better) ranked site in the world. PropertyGuru’s site penetration has one of the best for our locals, followed by South Korea, China and India.

The 3 reputated Singapore Property Portals (ST701, iProperty and PropertyGuru) showhand in Alexa’s comparison chart.

ST701, iProperty and PropertyGuru Shootout

PropertyGuru emerged the winner among the 3 sites, considering ST701 was the market leader previously (again it’s not fair to judge with ST701 being a portal which is directly competing with classified sites like 88DB and Mocca, which means PropertyGuru did considerably even better than expected)

Testimony from Benson Koh

It works, I’ve some deals that has been closed with fellow agent friends and direct buyers coming. Why do I know? I have premium accounts with most available effective portals that we’ve mentioned previously and I always do ask my leads on where did they get to know me to keep track the effectiveness Return On Investment (ROI) tool I have, PropertyGuru scores undoubtedly high in that department.

Is it worth to pay for a premium account?

Hands Down YES.

ps. Tsk, if you’re thinking that PropertyGuru is paying me for such a review, maybe that SHOULD ;)

Rent Protection Insurance in Singapore by Jardine Llyod Thompson and QBE

Rent Protection Insurance in Singapore by QBE and Jardine Lloyd Thompson

It’s confirmed.

I was attending to a introduction session in our office by a lady from Jardine Lloyd Thompson on their new rent protection insurance product produced by their company and QBE. The launch will be on April’s Fool (1st April 2009) opening only to Real Estate agents to sell to their Landlords.

Cost of the premium is 15% of one month of rental (excluding GST), coverage of up to 24 months of the tenancy, which sounds alot more affordable than I thought. I had the misconception that this will be a premium cut from the rental every month.

Benefit kicks in when the policy is in effect when you have a loss of rental income with the following:-

Tenant defaulting
Tenant absconding
Eviction and/or Failure to surrender vacant possession
Loss or damage to property
Prevention of access
Murder or suicide
Death of tenant under sole tenancy
Loss of rental income due to real estate agent absconding with rent paid by tenant (you’re extremely unlucky if you’re that guy)
Legal costs
Agents commission for replacement tenancy agreement.

It seems and sounds really good, with some catches here and there.You can only get the insurance with a new tenancy term with your property and not when your current tenancy term is in effect.

Remember, you can only get this policy through property agents, so contact your usual leasing agent for more details.

I’d advice you to visit their site (the site is down for me, try it on 1st April 2009) and download the PDFs on their policies to understand the product further. If you need any clarification, you can also contact me questions on how it works.

SISV CEHA Courses Opens in April 2009

SISV Services Pte Ltd is running CEHA classes commencing from mid April in preparation for July 2009 Examinations.

Course Fee: $335.00 for 3 papers (exclusive of examination fee @ $321 for 3 papers)

Date/ Days/ Time: 15 April to 12 June 2009 (Every Wednesday & Friday) 10.00am to 1.00pm

Duration: 17 sessions (14 Lectures & 3 Revision Classes)

Venue: Toa Payoh Central Community Club, 93 Toa Payoh Central, #03-03 The Theatrette

You can contact Jennifer (SISV) @ 6848 7691 or email courses@sisvrealink.com

For those who is going for their CEHA, I’d suggest signing up for their course and attend ALL their lessons (without skipping and listen). You’ll pass if you put your heart to it. Good luck!

My Mobile Work Station – Property Agent Tools

Here’s a doze of my mobile station that allows me to work anywhere be it in the car, in the washroom or when meeting clients :)

HTC Touch Pro

The former Dopod 838Pro (Hermes) was retired last year. I was one of the first few who jumped into the sliding keyboard form factor when Dopod launched its old 838Pro despite its brick like size.

XDA Developers has been my creed for the past few years on mobile upgrades, customed ROMS which work usually wonders than the original ones provided by HTC and tweaks that maximises the phone’s potential.

With the TouchPRO, reminders and calendars are the boon to Realtor jobs, friendly Opera browsing and email functions are pluses (which I dont really use much since 3G/HSPDA connections tax alot on the battery life usually)

ps. I’ve just gotten the news that Touch Pro 2 is to be released by HTC this Q2. Pfft.

Continue reading “My Mobile Work Station – Property Agent Tools” →

PropGO – Network your Group of Real Estate Agent Friends!

Besides getting hitched with its Win $10,000 worth of advertising competition for the Best Singapore Agent award, here’re some other benefits that I’ve experienced over the past 1 week of fiddling with PropGO.

Networking

A new agent friend that specialised in commercial listings gave me a private messaged to touch base with me. Continue reading “PropGO – Network your Group of Real Estate Agent Friends!” →

PropGO Real Estate Social Portal Contest – List and Win $10,000

PropGO, the latest realtor social portal is starting an online competition for Property agents to use their services,

Singapore’s Top Agent Competition

Winner Gets $10,000 SGD, 4 Runner Up Agents Get $2,500 SGD. This Could Be YOU! Its FREE to Compete!

Details can be downloaded here.

Why PropGO?

It’s a neat way to drive traffic. If you don’t understand how PropGO works, I suggest you to register and add me to your list of friends if you’re a fellow agent *grin*.

Social portals of such are like Friendster and Facebook if you’re familiar with them; allowing you to build your network of agent friends, share news and information with all, do advertisements. As a social portal, the things you could do is limitless if their web traffic is good.

Traffic is Picking Up for PropGO

The traffic for PropGO is picking up, with most users coming from Hong Kong, and China just slightly behind. It should do well should they continue to market their portal right. I would suggest picking up an account and start building your network to avoid missing any type of opportunity.

The only thing that I worry is with the blogging function that they have which interferes with my own blog. Duplicate contents usually doesn’t work very well with search engines; Google hates them, nobody likes them anyway. So if you have to blog two places or more, make sure your contents are never duplicated anywhere else; aka unique to PropGO.

Win SGD$10,000 worth of advertising!

Remember to add me if you’re registering with them. Contests starts from 4th of February and ends on 28th of February. There’s a list of things you’ll have to do; and those are farely simple, and if you’re all out to win, remember to put your heart to it ;)

Good luck!

ST Classifieds 2 For 2 Advertisement Promotions

Business for CATS should be affected as Realtors hold back their spendings on marketing amidst the bad times.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was placing ad for both Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s to prospect for buyers and The River Place for tenants when the CATs girl mentioned that they’re having a 2 ads for 2 ads promotion till the end of the month.

Requirements are:-

Similar ad have to be posted word-for-word, no amendments for 2 days.

Within 7 days, the similar 2 free ads have to be posted.

That’s it. If you need some exposure be it for property agents or even owners, this might be a good time :) Call 1800-28999881. Offer ends this month.

Fooling Around with Lenovo T61X

One of my 2009 resolution is to harness the best of what I could with my pocket and information technology infrastructure to boost our possible way of closing sales and getting organised effortlessly during the down times.

Nicholas actually sent me a link of how our American counter-parts actually used a tablet to deal with most of her daily routines and how it boosted and managed her ways of effective time management.

In a quick spur of moment after a few sleepless nights consideration, I’ve decided to do my studies on which tablet laptop should I buy to replace the current Asus centrino that I have. There’s only a few models available on the market which are really worth considering. They’re Fujitsu Lifebook T5010, HP Pavillion TX2500z, Toshiba Portege R400 and the winner Lenovo Thinkpad T61X/200X.

There was a battle between getting the R400 and Lenovo whilst I phased the T5010 and TX2500Z out; both feels great, but I didn’t like the Fujitsu salesman in Funan (bwahaha) and TX2500Z is running on Turion, which means excessive heat and less battery hours of usage. I’d need something that could last me for a good amount of time in terms of processing and battery power if I were to really use it like a regular book.

Verdict – The T61X Won My Heart

Lenovo’s 8 cell battery with core 2 duo could probably do the trick. (R400 is running on U, which means better battery life as well, but ah well, it has a glossy surface which doesn’t seem viable if I’m out with alot of sun, T61/200 does the trick with anti-glare screen.)

T61 won over my heart, though T200 would have been a better choice with the new specifications, but it’s a tad too expensive at the moment considering the new model just got into the market. Also I would have to pre-order from local Lenovo dealers and would have to wait for the shipment to arrive. Time and tide waits for no one; at least I want my tools to be that way.

I’ve always been fascinated by how Thinkpad users have actually rated so much highly than any brands of laptops that they have used before. It’s time for me to get a piece of action.

Getting package ready on 23rd December

We’ll see how it changes the way I do business in 2009, and whether am I more organised with my paper cluttered desk which will be almost completely paperless after all the housekeeping is done (after scanning them into pdfs to be stored on my new power-toy). *Fingers crossed and starts scanning documents to be ready for the package*

Another Realtor’s Tool For Those Who Drive – Motorpay

Yes it costs about $1 – $2 extra a month, but I would think it’s better for you to keep track of your ERP spendings rather than aimlessly topping up your cashcard on a regular basis and missing out paying your gantries to suffer fines! Introducing Motorpay, your Electronic Road Pricing tracking & paying ticket.

The Requirements

You’ll need a Singapore registered car, a valid working credit card (DBS Mastercard preferred for free subscription for 6 months), and a working IU (I’m pretty sure the IU is working, else you can’t pay your tariffs can’t you?)

Registration is easy. You’ll enter your mobile number, and some funky automated system would give you a call to provide you with an access number for verification.

Get your IU ID from the side of your IU (white sticker with 10 digits) ready. Register with the necessary information and wait for approval (takes about 3 days).

Ahaa! Here you go, pass through gantries like you’ve never cared about your cash card balance before and track ’em down.

Now no longer pay $10 administrative fines and keep track of your road tariffs to LTA ;)