By Peter Ricci Today’s real estate agents should always be thinking of ways to utilize technology to better communicate with their clients and potential homebuyers, and instant messaging programs, which can be incorporated into agent’s real estate websites, are

By Stephanie Sims If you’re on Pinterest and not yet overwhelmed by all the “pins” and “repinning” and just how many categories you can pin ideas to, congratulations, because as an agent, Pinterest is a site that can help

By Peter Ricci Zillow has completed its fourth major acquisition in just 18 months, purchasing the real estate shopping website Buyfolio for an undisclosed sum. A fun, streamlined approach to online home shopping, Buyfolio is a New York City-based

By Peter Ricci Here’s an eye-opening stat for you: according to the latest studies by Forrester, a prominent research firm based in Cambridge, Mass., text messages increased 14 percent from 2010 to 2011, and in 2011, more than two trillion texts

By Peter Ricci Yesterday, we looked at how real estate agents can establish themselves as neighborhood experts by creating custom maps in the Google Maps function. Today, in the second part of our neighborhood expert series, we’ll take a

By Peter Ricci Real estate news feeds, including Crain’s and Inman News, reported yesterday that Naperville-based tech firm Cartavi has completed a successful Series A round of venture capital funding, with such investors as I2A Fund, Firestarter, OCA Ventures

By Peter Ricci The Internet has been a double-edged sword for real estate agents. On one hand, the Internet is great, because it allows you to market your business to bevy of potential homebuyers; but on the other, it

By Peter Ricci Real estate syndication site Zillow is making headlines with its decision to list 1.2 million “pre-market inventory” foreclosure properties on its site, a decision that is simultaneously satisfying the data needs of potential homebuyers and riling

By Peter Ricci Let’s face it – smartphones are more than mere mobile devices; rather, they’re precious, indispensable companions, ones that we use for our photography, scheduling, email, messaging and, of course, phone call needs, and in many cases exclusively. Therefore,

By Peter Ricci By now, a number of outlets – ours included! – have written about the benefits of Instagram for real estate agents, and it’s certainly true that as a photography app, Instagram offers agents a quick, easy

By Ian McKendry Estately, which uses the straightforward tag line, “home shopping made simple,” is another real estate search site. However, the tag line is appropriate – the website is intuitive and not overly cluttered like some of the

By Peter Ricci Let’s start with two highly obvious points – real estate is becoming increasingly technological, and the iPhone 5 is the latest, hottest piece of technology on the market today. Nine out of 10 homebuyers begin their

By Peter Ricci LifeLine Response is an app for iPhone and Android smartphones that takes a highly intriguing approach to the mobile safety app marketplace, a niche in the app landscape that, as we have covered, grows more crowded

By Ian McKendry The housing market is starting to stabilize and has actually been one of the few bright spots for the US economy over the past few months, but structural challenges and tight lending standards have been holding

By Peter Ricci Well, so much for our Trulia IPO skepticism – the real estate website became the latest tech darling yesterday when it’s stock hit the New York Stock Exchange, rising 41 percent and closing at $24 a

By Stephanie Sims Zillow sued Trulia yesterday, alleging that Trulia infringed on its patented technology that valuates properties. This patent, called “Zestimates,” is particularly known on Zillow launching “Trulia Estimates” for public