When big guns such as Coldwell Banker and Realtor.com rolled out e-mail notification of new listings to consumers, the service was considered cutting edge and a clever means of maintaining customer loyalty. Agents can obtain the same advantage on a personal level.

Allen Hainge, principal of Allen F. Hainge Seminars put out the alert on his newsletter asking for readers to forward the names of e-mail notification programs. His readers came through with the names and practical applications of several.

The program that received the most overwhelming response was Soar MLS by Soar Automation.

Soar MLS is designed to automate MLS activities with the goal of making MLS information preparation easier.

The site offers a typical example of a search in which the agent:

1. Sits at the MLS computer
2. Enters search criteria (again)
3. Finds comparables
4. Manipulates data
5. Prints the information
6. Writes a cover letter in another program
7. Puts the right comps with the right cover letter

Each of these steps is done one agonizing prospect at a time.

Soar Automation president, David Huey, estimates that it would require " 30-40 hours a week at the MLS computer to send information to 100 prospects."

SOAR MLS eliminates wasted time by allowing a one-time search criteria. Each search criteria whether you are preparing buyer information or seller CMA's is entered one time, your prospect's results are stored in the Soar MLS database. Soar MLS automatically dials up the agent's MLS, performs the search for compar ables, merges the data and prints, faxes or e-mails it automatically. The agent doesn't have to do a thing.

Another benefit is that an infinite number of prospects can be notified simultaneously.

According to Soar MLS, you can:

• Send buyers a new list of properties every week until they are ready to buy.
• Send seller prospects an updated CMA every month until they are ready to list.
• Send current listings an updated CMA every two weeks making them aware of all the competition in the market. This makes them more flexible about price issues.
• You can even automatically fax or e-mail the presentations directly to your prospects and clients.
• You can customize your reports with SOAR MLS’s built-in word processor. You can import graphs for a more elaborate presentation. You can reduce the output to two, or more, listings per page to conserve on paper and postage. The things you can do with SOAR MLS are virtually limitless.

"The applications for SOAR MLS have far reaching implications. When you send a prospect new MLS information each week, you will bond them to you," writes Huey. "With a service like this, you are doing something most agents won’t! You’re preparing MLS information every week!"

One of Hainge's readers, Tom Morrissette, RE/MAX Teamwork Realty, East Longmeadow, MA wrote, "I have only had the program for a short time and I have not used it yet for e-mailing. It does a great job alerting me to new listings that meet the specific requirements of my buyers. It does have a learning curve, but the more I use it the more I find that it can do."

Many of these benefits are also available for agents through home search systems such as HomeSeekers and Realtor.com.

Hainge protégé Wynne Achatz, CRS, of Marine City, MI, touts HomeSeekers' CityNet feature which includes e-mail notification of new listings for agents' clients.

She says, "HomeSeekers sells Web sites and provides MLS data through its CityNet. HomeSeekers has a feature that lets you save your search criteria and provides you with e-mail notification whenever a property meeting your criteria becomes available. The message will provide you with embedded links back to HomeSeekers, providing you with all the specifics and available photographs as they become available.

Achatz goes a step further by offering readers a means to compare. "So that your readers can see the difference between the HomeSeekers Web page and CityNet, here are my HomeSeekers page, http://www.wynnesmichigan.com/, and CityNet page, http://www.citynet.homeseekers.com/. I've set up a sample featuring the results of the search on the CityNet page. The codes you'll need are location code, mmls, and the agent code - achatz," she suggests.

Les Sulgrove, ABR, of RE/MAX Realty Group in Des Moines likes the new feature, Personal Planner, on Realtor.com. "If your MLS is using Realtor.com, this is a new feature that they are working on as we speak. You can set up individual profiles of your search requirements called "Personal Planner," and then set up a schedule that you would like to be updated, i.e: daily, weekly, etc."

"I've played with the feature a bit and it seems to work pretty well. There are lots of other features that Realtor.com is working on. Take some time and check it out at Realtor.com go to "Find Homes." This page will give you the opportunity to create a "Personal Planner."

Whether you load your own software program such as SOAR MLS, or give your listings to home search sites such as HomeSeekers or Realtor.com, you and your customers will benefit from e-mail notification of new listings - another great example of technology working for you to save time and effort.

See More: Technology Advice

Published: February 24, 1999

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