McGlothlin Properties works hard to utilize technology to make your transaction smoother, more efficient, and easier. Check out all the different technologies McGlothlin Properties uses to help your transaction! The best part? All these technologies are included for free when you hire us to help you sell your home! Be sure to click the links to see examples of how we use the technology!
Electronic Lockboxes with Sentrilock – Gone are the days of combination lockboxes. Electronic lockboxes are more secure than combination lockboxes since only licensed realtors and specific contractors (like termite inspectors and appraisers) have access to them. It also makes showings easier since showing agents don’t have to ask for a combination before showing – although we always ask that showing agents call us first to give us a heads up! Sentrilock is great at keeping track of showings as well. The next day after a showing we get an e-mail that logs all of the people who have accessed the lockbox which allows us to contact all agents who showed the property for feedback – even if they didn’t call us first or leave a business card.
MRIS and the MLS – MLS stands for the multiple listing service which is basically a catalog of all listings for sale available online. Only real estate agents have access to the MLS though the public can browse the listings using homesdatabase.com. MRIS is the regional MLS provider. By entering your property into the MLS, your property becomes instantly available to any licensed agent. In addition, MRIS sends out your listing to major real estate websites such as trulia.com and zillow.com.
Realbird, Facebook, and Craigslist – In addition to the MLS we also enter your property into Realbird, another popular real estate website. Realbird is great for listings as it also syndicates your property to other popular real estate websites. Realbird also creates a clean user friendly webpage for your property that contains all the information for your property in one place – including description, map, photos, and video tour.
Realbird works seamlessly with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In fact you can easy and effortlessly help promote your property by “liking” your property. Once you like the property Facebook blasts it to your wall where you friends will see it. They can then also like your property and then it gets put on their wall as well. This viral marketing helps you find a buyer even in an unlikely place. It also helps make your property look more desirable and look like it has a lot of interest.
Realbird also helps us create a beautiful and attractive Craigslist ad that links to your Realbird property page. Craigslist is one the top places buyers go to begin their home search.
YouTube – If pictures are worth a thousand words then videos are worth millions of words. Ordinary agents will only take pictures of your property that don’t really tell your property’s story. By utilizing video tours we can help buyers get a better idea of your home’s floor plan, how spacious rooms are, and how beautiful your yard looks. Video tours are especially great for people who are out of state who can’t personally visit the property yet and for buyers first beginning their home search. Once your video is uploaded to YouTube it is then embedded into your Realbird property webpage and your DCNova.com blog post.
DCNova.com – In addition to popular real estate websites like MRIS and Realbird we also write a post on our Northern Virginia dedicated real estate blog. Our blog contains information about our brokerage, our listings, restaurants and activities in the area, and provides resources for all sides of a real estate transaction. Every time we blog about a property it gets automatically sent to our Facebook fanpage as well as our agents’ personal Facebook walls. This helps increase your exposure on social networking and helps reach a wide range buyers – including our friends!
QR Codes – Realbird also generates a QR code which is a special barcode designed for web enabled smartphones. By scanning the QR code, buyers are instantly taken to your Realbird property page. We put your QR code on all of your marketing and place the code on your property. That way if buyers without an agent come by your property they can find more information about the property, find who your agent is, and view photos and your video tour. Mobile browsing is becoming a powerful force in today’s market and it’s important to have an agent who understands and embraces it.
Google maps – Not just for directions anymore! Google maps help us market your property by making the area more desirable! We place your property on the Google map and then highlight restaurants, shopping, and commuter routes around your property. By highlighting hidden restaurant gems, how close your property is to great shopping, and showing how easy it is to access major commuter routes your property is that much more desirable! Plus being able to see it on a map rather than reading about it in a description is very powerful.
Zipforms – Real estate can be a very complex business. As if keeping multiple transactions organized wasn’t hard enough, legal matters can pose a serious threat to your sale. Zipforms, as well as our many years of combined real estate experience, helps us keep your transaction organized while following up-to-date legal guidelines. Zipforms is an online library of all the forms, supplied by the local realtor association, necessary for completing a real estate transaction. Using zipforms, we can type in information so it is easy to read avoiding confusion. Zipforms also allows us to keep all your documentation organized in one place online making it easy to locate your paperwork from wherever we are. Most importantly, as legislative and judicial decisions impact the real estate industry the forms in Zipforms are automatically updated to reflect those decisions. This ensures that your transaction are always represented by the most current and legally compliant forms.
Docusign – Docusign is a web-based application that allows you to review and sign documentation over the Internet. By using Docusign you have the control to review the documents relating to your transaction at your leisure and sign them whenever you want wherever you want provided you have Internet access. Docusign is great for signing time sensitive addendums as well as routine addendums, like closing extensions, when organizing a whole meeting to just sign one document is inconvenient. Our clients love the convenience and ease of Docusign. Docusign follows strict guidelines set forth by the federal government and each e-signature is as powerful as your pen and paper signature. Read more about their policies here.
Zoho sheet and Excel – Real estate agents have been using spreadsheets for years to approximate for their clients how the cash from the transaction gets distributed including taxes, realtor commissions, loan payoffs, and other fees commonly associated with the transaction. McGlothlin Properties agents take advantage of the interactivity that computer-based spreadsheets, like Microsoft Excel, provides to easily and accurately calculate the amounts while also being able to change numbers easily to accommodate most what-if scenarios. Zoho sheet allows us to embed an interactive spreadsheet on the blog so you can estimate how much cash you can expect to receive at the end of your home sale.
