How I got started with Docusign and why I would do it again

I remember it was in January of 2009. I got an inquiry about a property that we had listed and the buyer asked if they could see it right away. I showed the home to the older couple and learned they were down from Utah and looking for an off-season place in the Phoenix area.

docusignTwo days later they wanted to get an offer in on the house, but they had returned to Utah. It was Saturday night and after talking to the buyers realized fax was not going to work easily as the nearest fax machine was not close to them, it was at a Staples which was over 30 minutes away.

I sent out a quick Tweet asking people for ideas on good electronic signatures. A few trusted friends responded back quickly and recommended DocuSign. So I signed up. During the sign up process I was in a rush and as happens, made a mistake and could not get it to work.

I had told the buyers they would have the contract before late on Saturday night, and here it was about 7pm. I sent out a quick Twitter alert that I was having problem and needed advice on how to fix it. Within minutes I received responses from both @DocuSign and @tgonser on Twitter. I would not realize until later that @tgonser was the owner and president of the company.  I was very impressed with their support on the Internet at 7pm on a Saturday. From there I was sold.

DocuSign not only helped me get that deal done, they have saved me dozens and dozens of hours of chasing contracts over the last 8 months. I have said it many times, besides my car and Blackberry, it may be the most useful tool I have in my real estate career.

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DeanOnFacebook.com, for now at least – Not using common sense in a specific situation

mecolor One of the great challenges I have faced my whole life is my name. I have joked for a long time that I want to change my name to Dean Skywalker, or something a little easier to spell. Dean Ouellette is not the easiest name in the world to spell, but it’s my name.

Towards the end of last year I decided I needed to control my name. Being in real estate and meeting a lot of people I wanted to be easy to find and when you searched for  Dean Ouellette you would find me and not an artist in San Francisco.

As most who will read this also know I am a big believer and user of social networking. I am very active on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. I also knew it was not going to be easy for someone to find me on Facebook as more often then not when they typed in my name they would not be typing “Ouellette,” but likely “Ouelette” or “Oullette” or “Ouellete” or… you get the point. It is more often than not my last name is misspelled.

I decided to steal an idea I had seen someone else use and I registered DeanOnFacebook.com.  I would then take that page and make it a direct link to my Facebook page. No worries about name being misspelled again.

I could not see a reason why Facebook would have a problem with that. After all if you were to look at the back of my business card, see DeanOnFacebook.com and wonder what that was you would be sent directly to a Facebook page. In theory more traffic for Facebook and more people seeing their advertising. It’s not like I created a parody site or I am trying to make money off it, just trying to make my Facebook page easier to find.

(Maybe instead of Dean Skywalker I should change my name to Dean Facebook.)

Here is the letter they sent me today. And it is a good thing I got it on my Blackberry because it went into my Gmail spam folder and would have never seen it. [Read more...]

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How the world is changing

The world is changing right before our eyes, are you changing with it. If you are not staying ahead of the curve it will be almost impossible to keep up. This is just a stunning 4 minute video on the world and the way it is moving.

H/T to @Ribeeze for finding this.

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Twitter for Realtors, how Twitter can help your real estate business

twitter-logo A fellow agent in my office recently asked me to put together something on Twitter and how real estate agents could utilize it. We are Realtors, there is one thing we all love to say when introduced to anything new, “I’m to busy for that.” And while it is true you, like I, may be very busy, it is important to look at what we are doing with our time and is it leading us to where we need to be down the road.

Twitter is one tool many of you have probably heard of, but have little clue what it is. The short answer is Twitter is a micro-blog social networking tool. My goal here is not to teach you the ins and outs of what Twitter is, but why as a real estate agent you should be using it.

Purpose

There are three main purposes I am going to focus on in hopes of convincing you Twitter is a tool you should be using.

  1. Presence: Have you ever searched your name on the Internet? What do you find? If you were to meet a potential client in your day-to-day activities and handed them a card what do you think they would do when they get back home? They are going to Google you more often than not. What will they find? Twitter is a tool that can help you control what they find. Not only does Twitter rank well so your actual Twitter account will be found, but Twitter can also be used as a tool to drive people to other sites that control your message as we will discuss more below. [Read more...]
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Phoenix Real Estate Bar Camp is this week

It’s just a few days away, Thursday April 23rd Phoenix area real estate agents gather for our first REBCPHX event. And an event it will be. We have over 300 people signed up and we hope to have over 300 attend.

The first question most real estate agents will ask is what is a bar camp? Bar camp is not a conference. Bar camp is an un-conference. There will be learning sessions going on throughout the day, but there are no sessions planned yet and there will be no sessions planned before you arrive.

So how does it work? When you arrive you will see white board that is broken up into 4-5 columns. Each column represents a different room at the Scottsdale Stadium. The day will be broken up into roughly one hour segments and each segment in each room something different will happen.

Who determines what will be talked about in each break out room? Everyone who shows up. Maybe you want to learn how to build your business paperlessly and mobile. It is a subject I think many are interested in hearing about. Or maybe you will want to talk about Twitter, SEO, basic intros to blogging, it will all be discussed if those who attend want to learn about it.

Don’t just take my word on what the Phoenix Bar Camp is, check out the website dedicated to the event then RSVP. It’s going to be fun and it’s going to be a learning experience.

Still undecided? Check out this video.

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Making real estate easier – DocuSign electronic signature helps simplify business

docusign I want to thank DocuSign for asking me to do an interview for their blog. I want to take a few minutes and go more into my history of how I made the move to use their service. If you are a real estate agent I recommend you sign up immediately if you have not done so already.

After I had written a few dozen real estate contracts I realized after I had been in business a few years I was going to be overwhelmed by paperwork, it was stacking up quickly. When you consider the Arizona Real Estate Contract is 9 pages, then you add in the buyers advisory, home owners association addendum, as-is and more, a real estate contract could easily become close to 30 pages.

[Read more...]

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Phoenix area Realtors should consider attending upcoming Technology Conference

I wanted to let you know about the SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Technology Conference on the 27th of January 2009!

We’re holding it at the Mesa Convention Center in Building B and we have some FANTASTIC people lined up to speak!

Jack Peckham - Founder and CEO of the Real Estate Cyberspace Society (www.RECyber.com)
Greg Tracy - REALTOR and Founder of www.BlueRoof360.com 
Joeann Fossland- GRI Technology Instructor and Business and Life Coach -www.Joeann.com 
Chip Lambert- LinkedIn Master Instructor from www.IntegratedAlliance.com 
Bill Austin- Social Media Guru & the 3rd most linked person in Phoenix on LinkedInwww.azhttp.com 
Jay Thompson- Blogger Extraordinary - www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com 
Chris McKeever- NAR Center for REALTOR Technology -http://www.realtor.org/technology
Jeff Raskin - Microsoft Expert - http://technologyforrealestate.net/
Kathy Lunak- AAR Transaction Management - http://www.aaronline.com/TM/

In addition, ARMLS will be doing training all day long on the following topics

Custom Views and Q & A
Business Cards, Flyers and Q & A     
Personal Preferences and Q & A
Wireless flexmls and Q & A

If that was not enough you will get the opportunity for one on one time with experts in:

Blogging
Twitter
LinkedIn & Other Social Media
Search Engine Optimization
Tablet Computers
Technology Tools
Transaction Management

SEVRAR Members and Non-Members planning on attending the Keynote Address shouldSign up with this form so you can order lunch (the address is over the lunch hour 12:00-1:00).

As always, SEVRAR Members who don’t feel they need lunch can sign up atwww.SEVRAR.com

Our Keynote Address by Jack Peckham is over the Lunch Break so please DON’T FORGET TO ORDER A LUNCH when registering!

Thanks to our sponsors for keeping this event FREE to EVERYONE!

www.BlueRoof360.com
www.SendOutCards.Com
www.REALTOR.org
www.ORHP.com
www.magnustitle.com
www.DiverseSolutions.com
www.Zillow.com
www.HWA.com
www.VisitMyLuxuryHome.com
www.mycomputerworks.com
www.ARMLS.com
www.Superlative.com
www.DynamicPageSolutions.com
American Title Agency

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Mesa: Top 10 city in technology

e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities magazine has named the City of Mesa one of the top digital cities in the nation through its eighth annual Digital Cities Survey. The 2008 Survey examined how cities use technology to create a seamless environment between local government and constituents.

The City of Mesa has recently started using Twitter. For those on Twitter you can follow me here.

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Do you Twitter?

I have always been a technology geek, but to date have tried to avoid social networking.  I must admit, over the last couple of weeks as I have been playing with it I have become fascinated by it.  I am now on twitter. Send me a tweet at @deanouellette. Who would have thought that posting everything you do would be so addictive, but it is. Not only is posting addictive, but following others is just as fun. It is a great way to stay in tough with friends, family and business associates. Be honest, when you are going to hire a real estate agent to help you with the biggest transaction most people will ever want to make in their life, don’t you really want to know who you are dealing with? Twitter is a tool to not only let people know about you, but to learn about others. Join today, it’s free and fun. 

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Have you discovered Lee Lefever?

Lee Lefever makes some great videos on common things. Ever wonder how a CFL light bulb works and will it really save money? Or how about how web searches really work?  Want to Twitter, but you are not really sure how to? Lefever always has videos that explain it in clear language. The one that really changed my life was RSS in plain English
 
Check out his work, it is worth the time.
 
And just for the season.
 

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