Real estate professionals are taking advantage of the power of CyberSpace. Members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society,share their tips and tricks for using thesetools to leverage their effectiveness and profitability. I'm a quarterback receiving those tips and it is one of my joys to pass these Cyber tips and tricks along with pointers to special Internet places of special interest to real estate owners, investors and related professionals.

Now you can go to http://www.recyber.com/reintelligence and link directly to any of the Great Places appearing here or in any previous Real Estate CyberTips Columns.

Ever get "Page Not Found" or a similar message when using a web address someone gave you? Addresses on the Web (URLs) are like addresses in the real world--people move--as do web pages! The "return to sender" of snail mail has become the "Page Not Found" of cyberspace! Dick Tracy has a trick to help you find that lost page!

Simply reenter the URL and delete everything after the last slash. This will tell your browser to "go back one page on the site". You can repeat this process by deleting back to the next slash. Quite often you will find that the page you are looking for was simply moved within the site. This cyber-sleuthing will help to track it down -- unless of course it went to Cyber-Heaven!

Free phone calls

Give this company name, Speak4free.com, to the kids away at school. They'll love you for it -- and it will save a lot of collect calls!

This unique service provides a convenient, efficient, FREE alternative to conventional landline or cellular calls. Unlike others offering phone calls on the internet, this service requires no additional hardware and no download of software. It functions on all platforms and is simple, quick, and easy-to-use. The calls are all on your conventional phone with no computer speakers or microphones to contend with.

After you register, just add the numbers you want to call in the program's phone book along with your own phone number. Then when you click on a number the service automatically rings your phone and after a short ad, connects you to anywhere in the U.S. for a free 5-minute call.

You may not thrill to the short ads--but the kids won't mind -- and they'll like the price!

Create Your Own Surveys, Get Answers

At Zoomerang.com, you have a fast way to read peoples minds! This free survey service provides you with a powerful survey engine that allows you to set up your own survey that you can send to a few---or even thousands of friends or business contacts.

For your business: Check on customer satisfaction. Test product concepts. Solicit business suggestions. At home: Use the survey for family or school event planning or reunions--even schoolwork!

This survey generator is easy to use with customizable templates. It's confidential and secure ---and, ta da---it's free!

Find out about your competitors

Go to Websmostlinked.com to check on how your web site ranks---in the entire world! This quick and easy little site tracks how many other folks are linked to a web site and ranks them accordingly. All you need to do to check out your competitors (or friends) is type in their domain and click "submit". For example: Realtor.com ranked 287 out of 382,498 domains in the tracking database.

See where your competitors rank! See where you rank! It's free--see where everyone ranks!

Copies of all previous "Real Estate CyberTips" columns complete with all direct links are available at http://www.recyber.com/reintelligence/cybertips.html

Published: July 17, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

John M. "Jack" Peckham is the Executive Director of REcyber.com (the Real Estate CyberSpace Society). In that capacity he oversees the development and delivery of the latest up to the minute Real Estate Cyberspace tools, strategies, networking structures and services that the Society provides its members to leverage their effectiveness, visibility, professionalism and earnings. As host of Real Estate CyberSpace Radio, he provides over 40 hours of programming to help listeners integrate the power of the Internet into their daily business lives. He is the author of several real estate books published by Prentice Hall and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich including his latest Master Guide to Income Property Brokerage from Wiley Publishing. A columnist for the Boston Herald for nine years, his syndicated columns have appeared in over 100 papers nationwide. Jack loves to sell real estate has been involved directly in the sale of over one billion dollars in Real Estate. Today he sells in his jeans and fuzzy slippers as a one-man shop and has closed over $40,000,000 in sales on the Internet recently in 20% of his working time. The balance he spends directing the affairs of the 10,000 member Real Estate CyberSpace Society. The Society awards the RECS (Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist) Designation to members based on the current criteria. He served as Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is a Past President of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and has been honored as the Massachusetts State Realtor of the Year. You can reach Jack at or by calling 617-523-4441.