How would you like to blow the socks off your competition as well as your potential buyers and sellers?

You can do it with Adobe's user-friendly products. If you didn't know that Adobe was Realtor-friendly, here's proof.

Adobe's GoLive software allows you to design your own Web site and use Adobe's Photoshop Elements to create easy, picture-perfect house photos in no time. Imagine being able to remove garbage cans or other unsightly objects from your pictures with just the click of a button, making Photoshop Elements is also a great addition to any digital camera.

Don't know how to layout your pages? GoLive will do it for you with templates. Just choose which design you like and plug-in your information. When you are ready for something more sophisticated, GoLive will expand with you.

If that's not Realtor-friendly enough for you, there's more. Here are the top five features in GoLive and Photoshop Elements that are specific to real estate professionals.

GoLive:

Adobe GoLive software allows you to create, manage and edit professional, dynamic database-driven Web sites for about $140.00 to $289.00 (for registered Macromedia and Frontpage users.) It can:

• Connect MLS listings in your area to your Web page. A "Dynamic Link" allows you to connect database-driven information to your Web site.

• Not sure about the layout of your site? GoLive automatically generates sites from templates and master pages.

• Don't know how to write HTML code? Or, maybe you do. GoLive allows you to design Web pages without knowing how to write HTML, and you can switch between your layout page and source page, if you are interested in seeing the code or editing it.

• Make a virtual tour of the inside of your listings. GoLive is the only Web creation software that lets you edit Apple QuickTime Movies in GoLive. It also tightly integrates with Adobe Premiere, video editing software. No more buying expensive subscription keys.

  - Allow your Web site to grow with you. Even first-timers can learn to use GoLive. The expansive abilities allow you to add more features to your site at any time.

Photoshop Elements

Adobe Photoshop Elements software offers unique features for commercial or residential real estate professionals who want an easy-to-use, yet powerful tool to visually represent property listings to existing and potential clients. At a cost of just $99, it can:

• Create “picture-perfect” photos - Photoshop Elements® allows you to quickly straighten and crop scanned or digital photos and fix under or overexposed areas with a few clicks of the mouse. Magically erase the background or any unwanted elements within the photo to enhance the way a house or property looks.

• Show a panoramic property views- Use the Photomerge™ feature to merge and blend multiple images into a seamless panorama. This is a great trick for providing online home shoppers with a 360° of each room.

• Get creative with your images - Combine multiple images, text, and graphics. Add text to an image, change fonts and type sizes or add graphic elements to photos by choosing from a library of shapes and symbols.

• Easily keep track of all your properties on the market - Use the integrated File Browser to visually locate the photo you want. Searching for a particular image of a house or commercial property is as easy as viewing multiple small images (thumbnails) in a folder.

• Quickly and easily create eye-catching visuals of your listings for your Web page - Use the Save for Web feature to optimize the images by compressing file size for posting on the Web, saving your clients vital time in their search for a new home or property. Quickly create three-dimensional text, buttons, and other effects on your Web page.

Published: November 13, 2001

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