By Mitch Levinson Chicago real estate agents and homebuilders, are you using social media as part of your marketing strategy? If your answer is no, it’s most likely because you’re overwhelmed by all of the different social media outlets

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 a bevy of potential homebuyers; but on the other,

By Peter Ricci According to a new survey jointly conducted by the Department of Psychology at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and technology firm Merge, 64 percent of agents said they update clients weekly or several times weekly. But this communications

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 Charlene Jiminez, AGBeat If you’re an Apple fan, you’ve probably heard about the rumored and unconfirmed mini iPad. The regular-sized iPad is a 9.7-inch tablet. The mini, on the other hand, is slightly smaller than that, at around

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 Alan Bryan Managing a company’s online reputation isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. It involves a savvy mix of online relationship building, core online business tools and consistent attention to what’s being said about your

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 Barbara Kleban It seems as though the hot topic among Realtors of late is e-marketing. To text or not to text? To email a newsletter or skip it and go to the Bears game (sigh)? Today’s marketing has

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