Beginning July 1, all California Realtors will need to include their CA DRE license number on any “solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers,” as stated in a bill passed by the California State Senate (SB 1461). While the new amendment excludes electronic media, since vFlyer also provides print content for our users, we wanted to make sure that they had a way to include their DRE license number on their Flyers. That’s why we introduced an Additional Info field in the Account Profile, where you can enter not only your CA DRE license number but also other information, such as a mobile phone number. And given that different states have different laws regarding real estate advertising, the Additional Info field gives users more flexibility in terms of what information gets included in their Flyers and Account Profile.

You can find the Additional Info field on your Account page. Any text you enter in this field will appear in the Contact Information section of your Flyers (see images below).

Thanks to Chris Crane at Red Oak Realty, Kristine Johnson at Gallagher & Lindsey Realtors, and Jason Born of Signature Realty & Mortgage, Inc., for providing us with useful feedback on the new California law.

If you need assistance, call or email vFlyer Support.

The last few weeks have been busy at vFlyer and I wanted to fill you in on some of the great new features we’ve introduced in that time. There are four new features and capabilities in particular that I want to highlight:

First, we added 8 new Craigslist layouts for our vFlyer business subscribers when you publish a Flyer using a custom theme. Now you can choose how your flyers will look on Craigslist. You want bigger photos? Check. You want creative and attractive layouts? Check. See for yourself… New Craigslist Layouts. Also, visit the vFlyer Support Wiki for information on how to use these new Craigslist Layouts.

Second, we enhanced our print content for our vFlyer business subscribers. Now when you print a Flyer that uses a custom theme, you will get a whole second page full of photos. This feature was added due to the popular demand of our users. You see… we do actually listen to you. There are more print layouts on the way.

Third, we added a new narrow blog layout for our vFlyer business subscribers. The blog layout is 480 pixels wide and thus fits most major blog sites including Active Rain and Localism. When you publish a flyer with a custom theme, you can access the blog layout HTML by selecting Blog from the HTML drop-down menu. Then all you have to do is copy and paste the HTML to the blog of your choice. It’s that easy!

Last but not least, you can now share your Flyers on Twitter. When you publish a Flyer, a Share on Twitter link will appear under the More Options section on the right side of the Publish Successful page. We have even created a special shortened URL for Twitter that fits well within the 140 character limit. If you want to get the word out about your Flyer, use Twitter and you can connect with millions of others. For more information on the rapidly increasing popularity of Twitter, check out this article from TechCrunch.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As we continue to enhance our services to make vFlyer better and better, feel free to offer any suggestions you have on how we can make vFlyer work best for you. Send your feedback to support@vflyer.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Many of you have no doubt seen this already, but We recently redesigned the logged-in homepage to make it cleaner and easier to navigate. We changed the Flyer and Widget Dashboards so that they’re both accessible within the same frame via different tabs and added an Image Dashboard where you can easily upload images and access images you’ve already uploaded and enhanced using our Watermark Plus image enhancement program. In addition, we added a News Feed to give you updates on what’s new with vFlyer and a feedback widget so that you can send us your questions, comments, and suggestions right from your account.

We hope these changes make your experience of using vFlyer even better. If you have comments about the new logged-in home layout, feel free to send us a message through the feedback widget!

Earlier this week, vFlyer launched its new Theme Editor, which allows vFlyer business subscribers not only to customize the colors, fonts, and background patterns of their Flyers but, more importantly, to upload custom branded header images to them. In other words, any vFlyer Starter member or above can add his or her branding to the Flyers in the account… at no extra cost! This is a huge benefit to all you vFlyer business subscribers because it allows you to personalize your Flyers and streamline them with your websites and other marketing content in a way that wasn’t possible before.

In addition to the option of uploading a custom header image, you can also choose from over 25 new broker themes including ERA, GMAC Real Estate, Realty Executives, EXIT Realty, Long & Foster, and many others, or create a text header in the Theme Editor. Also, these 25+ broker themes are themselves customizable, so you can change them to your liking as well.

To create a custom header image, all you need is an image editing program on your computer, whether it be PhotoShop, MS Paint, or another program. What a number of our members are doing is taking a screen shot of their websites, cropping the portion of the image they want to use in the header, and then adjusting the image dimensions. The ideal dimensions of custom headers are 754 x 82 pixels. In your custom header, you can include your logo, a photograph of yourself, graphics from your website… you name it. If you aren’t able to create your own custom header image (or you want a professional designer to do it for you), you could have a graphic designer do it or alternately, vFlyer could create one for you for just $99 through the end of November. Here is an example of one that we created to match this member’s website.

We are really excited about the new Theme Editor because it makes vFlyer immensely more valuable to our users, giving you all expanded capabilities to customize your Flyers. If you try out the Theme Editor and have some comments about it, let us know! You can email your comments to support@vflyer.com. And if you’re especially proud of a custom theme you created, we’d love to see it! Feel free to send a link to a Flyer that uses the custom theme.

We had a fantastic time exhibiting at Inman Real Estate Connect last week. The show gave us a chance to share with real estate agents and brokers, technology managers, and other attendees all about the benefits of using vFlyer and gave us the opportunity to catch up with some longtime vFlyer members and meet other members for the first time. vFlyer members who stopped by our booth included:

Also, the winner of our vFlyer Basic Annual Subscription Giveaway was vFlyer member Tom Plant of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Wildomar, CA. Congratulations Tom!

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and saying hello!

Also, our very own Oliver Muoto was a panelist on a panel discussion titled, “The Hottest Productivity Tools.” Way to represent, Oliver!

The Inman show is a great chance to learn about, discuss, and debate the most important trends in real estate technology and marketing. We’re delighted to have had the opportunity to participate in the conference again and look forward to future Inman Real Estate Connects.

If you’ve ever had your unsaved work on a flyer lost because your session expired while you were writing a long description, then you know how frustrating it can be. That’s why we recently introduced an autosave feature in the Flyer Editor and Photo Editor that automatically saves any work you’ve done on a flyer after 29 minutes of inactivity (or activity only in the description field). It’s still a good idea to click the Save Draft button every ten minutes or so in case you encounter a network problem or some other error, but the autosave feature provides added security against losing work you’ve done. 

Note: The autosave feature only applies to the Flyer Editor and Photo Editor.

I had coffee a couple of weeks ago with Jim Guise, who used to be a regional sales manager for Auto Mart Diablo Dealer. Jim has helped us better understand and support the needs of the used car market. Jim did a great job explaining some of the inner works of user car dealerships. “Turn” and Making Money According to Jim, a used car dealer’s profits really lies in their turn. “Turn” is a term used in the industry to represent the amount of time a used car sits on the lot. In general, if a user car dealer is able to turn a used car in 10 to 20 days – they make money, if they turn a used car in 20 to 30 days - they break even, and if it takes 60 to 90 days to turn a car – they loose money.
Acquiring Used Cars Used car dealers usually acquire their cars one of four ways:

• On a trade, when a customer trades in an old car towards the purchase of a newer one
• From a user car wholesaler, who purchase excess inventory from banks and other dealers
• At an auction, where dealers pay to have the car in the auction, and dealers pay to buy used cars
• From a private party, usually through classifieds

Marketing Used Cars Once a used car dealer acquires a car, they will spend on average about $300 in marketing cost to the car off the lot. “Low Gross” dealers will try and make at least $500 of profit on each car. “Middle gross” dealers look to make $1,200–$1,500 per car. “High gross” dealers, who look to make $3,500–$4,500 in gross margin per car, are rare in today’s economy. Used Cars and the Real Estate Market The down turn in the real estate market has actually hurt the use car market in recent months. Most affected are used car dealers in previously hot real estate markets like California and Florida. For example, San Francisco bay area BMW dealers who might have sold 1,000 cars in a 3 month period last year, are off the mark by as much as 70% in the same 3 month period this year! In the past, many home owners would refinance their home and use the proceeds to buy a new or used car – those days are gone for now!

So How Can vFlyer Help?
So how does vFlyer help a used car dealers become more successful in the increasingly competitive marketplace?

• Making your Product Look Good According to Jim, “You have got to make your product look and seem better”. Jim correctly notes that potential car buyers no longer “pack up the wife and kids” and cruise down to the local auto dealer”. Instead they start their search online! The Internet has become their ‘virtual lot’ and buyer are armed with more than just the MSRP! Auto dealers have the option of having their classified ads look ordinary or extraordinary – that’s where vFlyer can help!
• Bigger is Better Jim made an interesting point that in order to capture more of the consumer’s time and attention, bigger is better! Bigger photos, more photos, more information and more options! At vFlyer we allow you to include more photos in your gallery! You can customize flyers to add more information or options. Use the premium layout to make your ads really stand out! Use enhanced HTML templates for Craigslist that feature large photos on Craigslist and more!
• Market Cars on the Internet In the past, the biggest bulk of a used car dealers ad budget went into newspaper. With the advent of the Internet, this has all changed. A medium-sized dealer these days has a monthly marketing budget of $35K-$45k and as much as 25% to 35% is being spend on Internet. Cost-effective vFlyer allow you to significantly improve online distribution without the high cost associated with other marketing options. With vFlyer, you can get your entire inventory online the same day. Unlike TV and radio, the Internet is a point of sales (POS) vehicle that can work in conjunction with brand advertising to increase customer acquisition.

Dan Lenehan recently joined the vFlyer crew as a Customer Success Representative! We’re excited to have Dan on board to help our customers resolve problems they’re having and maximize the benefits of the vFlyer service. As for Dan, he’s busy educating himself about all the ins and outs of our products and services and is thrilled at the opportunity to communicate with customers across the country. You can reach Dan or someone else on the support team by email at support@vflyer.com.

vFlyer now automatically syndicates to partner Backpage.com. In the past, users could cut and page HTML templates directly into Backpage.com, but now, thanks to a new a partnership with Backpage.com, the process is automated!

Now flyers in the real estate, vehicles, services, general merchandise, and jobs listings can automatically be syndicated to Backpage.com.

Simply click the Enable Partner Sites link in Automatic Submissions section of Edit Flyer to enable Backpage syndication.

Although most of the posts on our blog deal very specifically with the goings-on at vFlyer, the industries we serve, or our customers, every once in a while I like to do a “big picture” piece on some aspect of technology. One of those areas that recently go my attention was the subject of “killer apps”. I recently got a call from blogger Steven Groves about Google’s OpenSocial announcement and got into a great conversation with him on that very subject.

I also read Steve’s post on the Future of Real Estate on OpenSocial, as well as a post by Zillow’s Drew Meyers titled What Does OpenSocial Mean to Real Estate on the GeekEstate Blog. There has been similar chatter about the Facebook application platform and I myself did a post on how the iPhone can Revolutionize Real Estate.

It seems that that everytime anything that looks like the “next big thing” comes out we ask ourselves who will build the killer app for that next big thing and what does it mean to Real Estate, or finance, or fill in the blank?

The purpose of this post is shed some light and share my personal thinking on the subject of killer apps – what they are and what they are not. I think in general we put too much emphasis on killer apps and here is why:

• There is no “killer app” for the “next big thing”!
  The next big thing is (or can become) the killer app – as long as the makers of the next big thing can get all of us entirely focused on building applications (killer or not) for the next big thing – the means become the end and thus we cause next big thing to become the closest thing to a killer app. LifeDev echoes the same sentiment!
• It’s about “killer technologies” not “killer apps”
  In reality, killer apps tend to represent technologies or application classes, as opposed to specific applications made by specific companies. A couple of examples: Xerox – but how many of you use a Xerox brand copier?  yeah, that’s what I thought.  Fax – here and gone, again no brand comes to mind. Cell phones – whoa, too many brands to name. Tivo – okay, here is a brand that in a way has become yet another “Xerox”.   For example, I use a DirectTV DVR but I call it a “Tivo”, so there! The moral of the story is that unfortunately (or fortunately) when killer apps do appear they tend to benefit the copy cats more then they do the originals.
• Do “killer apps” actually exist?
  Honestly, when was the last time you actually saw the mythical beast known as the killer app.  As I made mention in my previous point, most killer apps really represent killer technologies.  That said, great apps abound and as developers improve them (as we do here at vFlyer), some have a chance of becoming killer apps.
• Is everything a “killer app” or just “killer features”?
  Anil Dash of Six Apart has an interesting perspective when he says “In social networking, we won’t see a single killer app is because there will be thousands” - which supports the next point I make. Many applications today (especially mini apps and widgets that propagate social networks) are really features – and I encourage developers to seek out and incorporate some of these killer features to create better apps.
• One man’s “great app” is another man’s “killer app” (and vice versa)
  I am a big fan of great apps, I think services like Facebook, Zillow, Trulia Voices and of course vFlyer are all great apps. I love them all! They are best-of-breed, well designed, aesthetically pleasing and even fun to use. Professionals and consumers alike need services and applications that help them save time or money, generate income or revenue, and become more productive or entertained – we should focus more on great apps we can build or improve that can become killer apps for certain groups of users.
• “Killer app” mentality can lead to bad business decisions and wasted effort
  Consider the following: Bay Area VC fund Bay Partners recently launched a investment fund for startups building killer apps for Facebook called AppFactory! Unless you are ALSO an investor in Facebook (last time I checked they weren’t), this isn’t a great idea and only fuels killer applicationitis. I would encourage developers and entrepreneurs to spend time building those great apps than imagining killer apps. Consider this: its easier to turn a great app into a killer app, than it is to turn a great idea into a killer app.  You still with me?
• So what does all of this have to do with me, you ask?
  That’s a good question. If you find a killer app, it means someone else already built it! If you build the killer app, someone else will copy it. If you figure out what the next killer app is, you probably won’t tell anyone!  Heck, just because you know what a killer app is, doesn’t mean you know how to build it! If you actually build a killer app, it is probably going to be my mistake. The closest most people will come to a killer app is talking or blogging it.  All in all, you don’t have to worry about killer apps, because they’ll take care of themselves!  Enough said.

There you have it! My arguments against the myth of killer apps. No, I am not trying to be a software development kill-joy, just a pragmatist and my advice to all is:

• Instead of looking for the next killer app go build the next great app.
• Copy killer features to make even better great apps.
• If you do find the next killer app, create a copy
• If you come up with an idea for the next killer app, immediately call me. 

One of the real estate categories we support on vFlyer is vacation rentals. The Internet in general and online classifies specifically are transforming the vacation rental market by creating a global market for vacation rentals. This has led to increased competition as well as created some new opportunities.

Another trend affecting property rentals is shorter rental periods. ‘Short term’ rentals are becoming more popular with Baby Boomers who have busy schedules. U.S. workers are taking fewer full-week vacations, opting instead for shorter stays.

Higher transportation cost is changing the way people plan vacations and is creating opportunities for rental property owners. Author Christine Karpinski in her book on vacation rentals encourages property managers to advertise on the Internet and concludes that “Americans pinched by high gas prices can still enjoy a getaway close to home by staying at a vacation rental for a fraction of the cost of a hotel room.”

vFlyer allows vacation property owners and managers to quickly and easily to promote their properties on leading online market places such as Google Base, Oodle, Edgeio, Vast and others! With ski season is just around the corner, now is a great time to create real estate flyers for your vacation rentals!

Here are some vacation property rental examples on vFlyer:

• Heavenly Valley Chalet (Tahoe, CA)
• Pine Tree Lodge (Tahoe, CA)
• The Lazy Bear Cabin (Tahoe, CA)
• The Pine Tree Lodge (Tahoe, CA)
• The Hideaway (Tahoe, CA)
• Four Seasons Aviara Vacation Rental (Carlsbad, CA)

Drew Meyers of Zillow recently invited me to be a contributor to GeekEstate blog. For those who don’t know, Drew is involved with community building and relations at Zillow has was pioneered many of the company’s efforts in social media marketing including the Carnival of Real Estate (which we hosted last week) and the GeekEstate blog.

The GeekEstate Blog was started as a resource for real estate professionals who want to learn more about how they can grow their business through smart use of technology. The blog claims that its “varied authors are geeks” - which I guess makes me “geek” or perhaps a former geek in recovery. In any case, I think its a unique idea that exemplifies how the community element of blogging can draw on the knowledge and experiences of broad range of contributors and cover an even broader range of technology related topics in real estate. Check it out today!

I has happy (but not surprised) to see that Jim Cronin, founder of Real Estate Tomato recently made it to Inman’s list of 25 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers: 2007.

I have known Jim for a while but got to meet him in person at the Inman Blogger Connect earlier this year. I have long admired Jim’s approach to bringing Realtors online, especially his innovative use of ‘coaching’ and education. I decided to give Jim a call yesterday and do a quick podcast interview. I briefly talked with Jim about his company and popular Real Estate Tomato blog, how he got involved in blogging and any advice he may have for follow blogger. As always, Jim has some great advice for real estate bloggers (and blogger want-to-be’s). Click on Podcast icon below to hear the entire podcast.

Congrats as well to Kevin Boer (3Oceans Real Estate), Joel Burslem (Future of Real Estate Marketing), Patrick Kitano (Transparent Real Estate),Joseph Ferrara and Rudolph D. Bachraty III (Sellsius Real Estate Blog) and Glenn Kelman (Redfin)who also make the list!