emongoo blog

web 2.0 is?

What is 'Web 2.0'?  Well here are two definitions:  Wikipedia & O'Reilly .  Basically web 2.0 is being classified as 'user or community driven' websites.  Letting the general public place information and ideas on your website or websites that gather information from the community.  Blogs are examples of the web 2.0 concepts. 

In looking over the web and blogs out there many websites that just have 'cool' things are classified as web 2.0.  Maps, tagging, blogs and etc. are all used to make up a web 2.0 website.  The race is on for websites to step out and come up with new features.

The issue I see is 'ease of use'.  So many sites are coming out with all the 'bells and whistle' but how easy are they to use?

That is a struggle emongoo faces every day.  We try to come up with new and exciting features for our users to use and at the same time keep them simple.  Please let us know if we are succeeding in this goal.

The newest feature is our 'property comments'.  We have decided to incorporate a new feature to our detail page ( the page where the info of the property is shown ) where anyone can make a comment about the property.  Why do this?  Well in the good faith of web 2.0 we are creating a 'community driven' experience on our site.  The comments can be used to let the owner know about photos, errors on the listing ( aka pricing ), spelling errors or to just share an opinion.  We came up with this because many of our members were getting 'feedback' emails.  This way buyers or lookers can just give feedback and others can see the comments and the owners replies. 

We will be monitoring this so please keep your feedback or comments appropriate.  Please no crude words or rude comments.  The purpose of the comments is to help the owner sell and for the buyer or looker to be able to voice a mature opinion.

Technorati Tags: emongoo, real estate blogs, for sale by owner, real estate, FSBO, Real Estate Marketing, Real Estate Blogging, Real Estate Blog, Real Estate Blogs, Real Estate, Web 2.0

the power of the tour...

I spoke with Ruth Bailey for the first time last friday.  Ruth lives in Canton, PA and she was looking for an effective way to market her home. I told her that becoming a featured listing on emongoo.com was a surefire way to get people looking at your home.  What really got her attention was our “e-tour” feature that is included in becoming a “featured listing”

The e-tour gives you the ability to film your home inside and out and explain what you’re filming to potential buyers.  What could possibly put potential buyers at ease more than an actual insider’s view of the home that they are interested in?  Ruth saw the potential of what the e-tour could do for her and uploaded her footage over the weekend.  It looks great!  Click here to take a look.  To view Ruth's property click here.

Innovation is the name of the game at emongoo.com and that is why we’re quickly becoming the hottest name in real estate.  Our "e-tour" is a new feature to emongoo.com and we look forward to more and more tours being uploaded as the word gets out.  Stay tuned, you never know what we will come up with next.

what is in the future?

We have been asked several times what we think the internet can really do for the real estate industry.  The first thing the internet needs to do and will do, is make finding real estate easier.  It is a known fact that the technology that is out there needs to be incorporated into the online real estate world. But how and when? 

emongoo has taken another step towards creating a useful and informative real estate system.  Before I explain that, lets recap what emongoo has currently to help buyers and sellers connect: 

1.  Easy open text searching
2.  Map searching
3.  Advanced searching
4.  No personal information needs to be entered to get property information
5.  Detailed information about properties and map locations for each property
6.  Tools to better understand the real estate world ( Zillow, iLx Loans, etc. ) 
7.  Free listing option for sellers
8.  20 photos and an unlimited description.
9.  For Sale By Owner coaching to help in ALL aspects of selling your property

There may be a few I am missing, but that should illustrate the point.

Now there has been one thing that has been missing and we have been working on a solution for months.  Picture this, you are sitting at home at 2 am in the morning in your favortie PJs and you have a sudden urge to look at real estate ( don't try to deny it, we see the traffic on our site at 2:00 am ).  You find a property you like, you read the description, look at the photos,  look at all the property has to offer and then you watch the property's 'e-tour'.  Yes a video tour of the for sale by owner property.  You are able to walk through the property and see details of the property and even have the seller of the property tell you about it.  Why is this such a big deal?  Well besides the fact that you can do this at 2am in your PJs, emongoo has found a way to not only make the watching of the video easy, but also the adding of the video simple and fast.  Anyone can do it.  Any seller out there can create an 'e-tour' of their property and post it on emongoo.com. No need to buy anything or hire anyone.  If you don't have a camera emongoo will provide you with one, just call us! As a buyer you won't have to wait for 2 hours to download the video or have to install anything on your computer.  It is simple.  The key incorporating technology is to make it simple. 

What will this do for the real estate online world?  It is already proven that 'virtual tours' or home video tours help sell properties, but the problem has been how do you get a system of national properties all using a simple system?  Well we at emongoo feel we have the solutions.  Just another way we are truly helping buyers and sellers connect.

Below is an example of an 'e-tour':

Now this is just the start.  In the next few days and weeks there will be many upgrades to this system.  Stay tuned.

your home...

There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about how the real estate industry is changing. Perhaps nothing is changing more in the industry then the way real estate is sold.

emongoo, as many of you already know, offers much more then just a place to list your property. Our services offer the ‘do it your selfer’s’ a way to not only save money, but sell properties with more confidence and in a much faster amount of time.

In the past sellers have had two options in selling real estate, sell it on their own or sell it with a real estate agent.  The average 'for sale by owner' approach costs $80.00 per month and leaves many real estate questions unanswered.  On the other hand selling with a knowledgeable real estate agent on average will cost $13,200.00 (Source: National Association of Realtors).  One of the emongoo services, ‘ultimate for-sale-by-owner coaching' offers sellers a third choice that combines the knowledge of a real estate professional and the savings of a for sale by owner approach. 

The ‘ultimate for-sale-by-owner coaching' coaches are trained by real estate agents, marketers, investors, interior decorators and real estate attorneys and offers an average savings of $12,000 over traditional real estate agent costs. 

emongoo coaches help property sellers with the following:

- Understanding the real estate paperwork for all 50 states

- Marketing of the property to attract potential buyers

- Preparing and fixing the property for sale

- Getting the property priced correctly

- Time management of selling the property

- Open house training and preparation

The more information you have the better you are prepared. And there is nothing you should be more prepared for than selling your largest asset, your home.

 

The Real Estate Guys are coming!

emongoo.com is excited to announce in the next coming week we will be including the "Real Estate Guys" www.realestateguysradio.com real estate news and information on emongoo.com. 

This new feature will help our members be more in-tune with the ever changing real estate world.  Both articles and pod casts will be used to inform our end-users about the world of real estate.

While at the L.A. Convention center I had the great opportunity to talk with Robert from the "Real Estate Guys".  I have attached our conversation to this post.  Please allow a view moments for it to download.

Download reg_emongoo.mp3

You guys do that?!...

Last weekend we unveiled the ‘Investor’s Corner’ at the Learning Annex Real Estate Expo in Los Angeles. The Expo was perfect, as they packed a hundred or so vendors and tens of thousands of investors into one location. It showcased the top real estate investing minds in the country all in one location, from Donald Trump, to Robert Kiyosaki, to emongoo. emongoo? Ok, maybe we aren’t a top real estate investing mind, but we do have a service that these real estate minds don’t: an investment property finding engine. 

There are many ideas and strategies about how to get rich off of real estate and there are many companies willing to help. They offer great knowledge and insights on what property types to buy and how to make them profitable; however as far as finding the properties go, it is up to the investor. 

This is where we can help. Once you know what you are looking for simply fill out an ‘Investor Wanted’ and let emongoo do the rest. After meeting with a seasoned investor in LA who understood the time this service would offer and how valuable it really is to an educated investor his reply was: You guys do that?!! Yeah, I’ll sign up!

Here we come L.A.

I attended the Learning Annex convention in San Francisco this weekend and it was quite an event. 

The event was focused on real estate and real estate investing. Names like, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, George Foreman and Anthony Robbins were all in attendance.   I had the opportunity to not only learn, but to speak with many of the speakers at the convention. 

My main purpose in attending this convention was to investigate the potential for emongoo.com and our clients.  Needless to say emongoo is heading down to the next convention in L.A. on April 8th through the 9th.  If you are interested in attending this convention click here.

What does emongoo have to do with a real estate investment convention?

Simple.  People need a place to sell their investment properties and people need a place to buy their investment properties. 

It makes a lot of sense for someone to buy a $250,000.00 'fixer upper' spend $100,000.00 fixing it up and sell if for $400,000.  That is a profit of $ 50,000.00.  Now if that person doesn't have a cost effective and proven system in selling this property (like emongoo) then they are forced to use traditional methods.  So now they have bought the property for $ 250,000.00, spent $ 100.000.00 on repairs and have placed it on the market for $ 400,000.00.  But wait they are using traditional methods of selling this property so now they have a $24,000.00 commission to pay out, now the profit from this property is only $26,000.00.   Yes it is a profit, but what happens if the repairs cost $120.000.00? 

Now my point is not to say that traditional methods of selling investment properties are ineffective, my point is that there are now more effective ways to sell properties then ever before.  When selling your property on emongoo.com not only are you getting all the necessary tools to sell your property, you are also saving thousands and thousands of dollars in the process.

emongoo will be at the L.A. convention center on April 8th through the 9th and we will be educating people on how emongoo can help sell properties more effectively than any other traditional methods available. 

"Priceless"

It is obvious that it is time to give back the power of real estate to the people and no two companies are achieving that more than Zillow and emongoo.

A change has been needed in real estate for quite some time and both Zillow and emongoo are paving the way for changes in the real estate industry. With Zillow offering "zestimates" or property values on homes in the US and with emongoo providing comprehensive seller and buyer coaching, both companies are paving the way for sellers and buyers to not only understand real estate more, but do more on their own and save thousands of dollars.

emongoo offers so many different and powerful tools to help our end users better understand real estate.  Our coaching staff will not only educate sellers and buyers, but will empower them to achieve more in selling and buying real estate.  There is no need to pay 1000's of dollars in real estate commissions when you can simply be "coached" through the process.  Sellers and buyers can now learn to understand real estate instead of it being a "well kept" secret. 

What are members saying about this unique coaching approach? 

Joelle S. had this to say about her experience with emongoo:

"You not only answered my questions, but went to the next level, explaining just what I should do next. To have the ability to call/email you with any situation that came up has given me the ability to work with potential buyers intelligently and protect myself at all times.  I didn’t feel I was talking to a “business”…I felt I was talking to someone who really cared about my personal situation. And to add to that…you followed up each time by contacting me and making sure I knew what I was doing. 

The ability to talk to someone “in the know” is, as the TV commercials say, “Priceless”."

emongoo takes great pride in all we do and feedback like the above is "priceless".   emongoo is growing and we are growing at an incredible rate.  Not taking advantage of the services that emongoo offers will only cost you more money in the end.  All of our emongoo services are backed with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.  So what have you got to lose except a lot of money using traditional methods?

map searching

The new map searching is now live!

Go to www.emongoo.com/map/ to search for properties accross the U.S.

To see a picture and a brief overview of the property click on the home icon.

To see further information click on the property name or the picture of the home. A window will popup with additional pictures, a description of the property, amenities, and tools.

How to find a property using the map searching.

Use the search options to the left of the map to find homes in a location.  A location is a state in the U.S. and as we add support for Canada (see below) it will include provinces.

Use the search options to narrow down the results by:

• cities
• price
• property type
• square feet
• bedrooms
• bathrooms

Where is my property?

Only properties for which we can find the latitude and longitude coordinates are searchable using the map.

All properties may still be found by using opentext searching or the advanced search.

Why can I not search for or find Canadian properties?

We do not currently have support for showing Canadian properties on the map.

To find properties in Canada please use the opentext searching or use the advanced search.

Tell us what you think.

We want to know what you think of the new mapping!

Tell us what you like, dislike, or problems you are having by adding a comment or by sending an email to beta@emongoo.com.

your wish is our command...

emongoo has launched the store!  Check out the store and all it's features at http://www.emongoo.com/fsboStore.php.

Never before has a for sale by owner website offered so many unique and powerful tools.  emongoo as harnessed the power of traditional Realtors, but for a fraction of the cost.  emongoo is able to offer all these service due to the power of technology and the world wide web.  Whether you live in Alaska or Florida, emongoo.com can assist you in the sale of your home.

We are big into backing up what we say here at emongoo.com, so with that said every product on emongoo.com comes with a 100% money back guarantee.  Now we can't guarantee that we will sell your property, but we can promise you that if you are not 100% satisfied with our services we will refund your purchase amount no questions asked. 

With over 500 clients in the last 30 days we have yet to refund any of our clients on products and services found on emongoo.com.

Check out the store click here .  Looking to sell your property?  Sell it for free! Click here.