Houston Real Estate Blog

From the monthly archives:

August 2010

How Much Page 1 Google Real Estate Do You Own?

August 27, 2010

By: Michelle Sandlin
Director of Global Relocation Services

Can you say that you own page 1 of Google for search results on your name? I can! And if your answer is also “yes,” then you must be doing all kinds of right too! I cannot over-emphasize the importance of this to your business and your personal brand. For example, I have worked very hard to make sure that my name is synonymous with Houston Relocation. This didn’t happen over night, but over a series of many sleepless nights, week after week and month after month.

As a bi-product of my efforts, my name has also become synonymous with Social Networking. If you are friends with me on Facebook, connected to me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, read my Houston Relocation Blog, etc., then you know what I am talking about. I am out there posting, commenting, linking, following, blogging literally all the time. Of course it helps that I am an insomniac, as I often do most of these activities during the wee hours of the morning…thus the idea of many, many sleepless nights.

To read more, click on: Houston Relocation Blog

iPhone App is coming to the Houston Real Estate Market

August 18, 2010

Over the last year iPhones and Androids have really taken a powerful leap and are becoming more popular among real estate agents. Technology is growing in the mobile market. About a year ago 68% of our agents were using BlackBerries. Today I can say that 45% of our agents are on BlackBerries. More and more agents are turning in their BlackBerries in for an iPhone or Android. Our agents say they like the larger screen size and that the functions are more intuitive than the BlackBerries. Not only that, there are many more apps available for the iPhone and the Android. Also, our website statistics show that we receive over 1,000 hits a month from the iPhone, iPad and Android. 1 year ago we had only 150 hits a month! So there is definitely a growing trend going on here.

Houston Association of Realtors has announced plans to release an app to the consumer and for realtors. They currently going through the process of getting it approved by Apple. Apple has tightened up their guidelines considerably for approving new apps. No more are the days of paying $500 and getting your app published in the App Store. So far from what I’ve seen of their app it is pretty impressive. You’ll be able to bookmark listings, search for homes for sale in Houston that are near you, conduct a Houston real estate map search, save history searches and much more. Can’t wait to see it in action!

As technology evolves in the real estate industry, we know that we must stay ahead of the game by providing our clients and website visitors the latest tools and trends in technology that will provide them with the best service. Technology plays an important role at John Daugherty, Realtors. We have been working on some top secret projects that we are about to introduce that will provide better service to our clients and website visitors.

Stay tuned!

Houston is Truly a Great City to Live in

August 12, 2010

Houston, Texas is one of the best cities to live and ranked the 4^th largest city in the U.S. One of the many advantages of living in Houston is the low cost of living, ranked the best city for job growth, strong economy and there is no state income tax.

I moved here from Philadelphia in 2002 and absolutely love the city. Houston is not just an open range full of horses and cowboys that I thought it was. In fact, Houston is modern and an urban metropolis.