Real Estate Marketing Made Easy! | the Association of Real Estate Investment Professionals AREIP.org |

AREIP and OrangeCat.net have put together some special packages for AREIP members that can get your business online with no installation or configuration on your part – pre-installed Open-Realty or WordPress web hosting.

Put your real estate listings on your own domain using Open-Realty, build your own mailing list, use WordPress to build your search engine ranking and buy or sell more houses!

Open-Realty is an Open Source (free to use) real estate listing application that allows you to build an entire real estate website. It is easy to use and easy to update – you don't need to know any code. There are dozens of templates to customize the "look-and-feel" of your website and add-ons to make it even more powerful. And you don't even have to worry about installation and configuration. OrangeCat.net will take care of all of that for you. You can learn more about OrangeCat.net Open-Realty pre-installed web hosting right here, but don't forget to come back and get your special AREIP member pricing here.

If you already have access to a listing application or already have your own website, you know that you need to build traffic to your site and listings. WordPress software can help. The search engines love blogs and WordPress can get you started blogging in minutes. And OrangeCat.net will get you set up, install and configure WordPress, install and activate plugins to make your website even more attractive to Search Engines. You can learn more about OrangeCat.net WordPress pre-installed web hosting right here, but don't forget to come back and get your special AREIP member pricing here.

Remember that you can order either Open-Realty or WordPress as the primary (root) application on your server, and the other as secondary. We'll install and configure both at no extra charge.

Click here for the special AREIP Member links - Members ONLY.

Non-AREIP Members, investors and Realtors® can take advantage of the OrangeCat.net pre-installed Open-Realty product and the pre-installed WordPress product by visiting the OrangeCat.net website.

There are no reports of phishing crews exploiting this problem as yet and Internet service providers are rushing to plug the potential leaks. But it could take some of them months to correct the problem.

You can read the whole NY Times article here.

Later in the article, the author mentions that using OpenDNS as your domain name server can eliminate the problem. OpenDNS is free and there are easy instructions on how to install it on your computer or home/small office (SOHO) network.

I installed it on our network this morning and it took less than ten minutes. Not much of a time investment for peace of mind.

That OpenDNS logo at the top of the page is active. If you install OpenDNS and come back to this page, it will tell you that you are using OpenDNS. Same if your provider or workplace has OpenDNS installed. If the button says "Use OpenDNS - Get Started," click the button and get started! (or just click here)

While researching OpenDNS, I discovered that it is also useful for speeding up your broadband connection. On my network, I have noticed no change in speed the first time I loaded a website after installing OpenDNS. But subsequent loadings seemed to complete 25% to 50% faster. Cool!

Read David Pogue's New York Times article on speeding up your broadband connection with OpenDNS here.

This video wasn't designed to sell a single house. The Realtor® that produced it obviously intended it to appeal to both buyers and sellers to promote her services as the "go to" agent in her market area.

First, I want to say I really like the concept and execution was great! So to everyone involved in the project, "Nice job!"

What I would do to make it even better would be to create a YouTube account for the Realtor® where the info box could contain a more promotional pitch with keywords that would more likely be entered by visitors looking for keywords.

Ms. Waddell has a tiny link on her website that says "Youtube clip." The video itself should be embedded on her website, even if that means building her own website around the video and linking back to her listings site. That would create some Google-friendly backlinks and would feature the video that really deserves to be showcased.

One more thing… that URL for the listings website (http://mwaddell.4222000.com/). What's with the 4222000 domain? It's not only butt-ugly, but is also meaningless to both search engines and potential visitors.

Are you working in a bad market? Are Real Estate sales slow in your area?

What can you do to turn your market around?

There are bright spots in bad market just like there are dark spots in good ones. But how do you get the word out. One group or Realtors® in the Kentucky Bluegrass has taken matters into their own hands. The Lexington Board of Realtors (L-BAR) has produced a video that has been used on local broadcast (ran in CBS Sunday Morning local slot this morning) and cable television to inform homeowners in their market area that it may not be a bad time to buy or sell a home after all.

Here is L-BAR's video on YouTube:

This video should act as inspiration to those sweating out a local real estate market downturn. Although the L-BAR video is a professional production, you can produce video carrying a similar message for your area using one of the many tools available to you.

Market downturns come into existence when a critical mass of consumers overestimate the effects of a market disrupting event or series of events. Market upturns begin when confidence in the markets returns. Most stimulus measures are designed to restore that confidence by creating an event that causes a positive effect - even a small positive effect can build confidence out of proportion to the event.

The L-BAR video has tremendous success potential if it's member Realtors® believe it's message and use their energy to spread the word. Taking action is the key. When was the last time you heard of someone whose success could be attributed to waiting around for something to happen?

The Lexington Area Realtors® have taken a very positive step toward improving the market conditions in the Bluegrass. What are you waiting for?

What can you do?

Output a PowerPoint presentation to video using Camtasia, use Real Estate Shows, QuickTime or Windows Movie Maker. The point is to not sit around waiting for the market to turn around. Take matters into your own hands and become even a small catalyst in the recovery of your local market.

One of the primary goals of the Association Of Real Estate Investment Professionals (AREIP.org) is to bring fresh new approaches to real estate investing from new voices with great new ideas.

There are a lot of seminars, courses and books on the subject of foreclosure and short sales. Many of them just rehash old ideas. There is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes an established idea or method presented in a new way will resonate with a new group of investors.

We all know that good photos of the homes you have for sale encourage potential buyers. But very few of us can afford to send out a professional to very home. Here are a few tips to help you get better photos.