eKEY Adapter for iPhone
Use your iPhone as your lockbox key! The eKEY adapter for the iPhone is now availabe at the CCAR Realtor Shoppe for only $59.99, While supplies last.
With eKEY software, use your iPhone as your lockbox key. eKEY updates wirelessly so you can do business anywhere.
There are two service levels available: eKEY Basic which provides basic keybox functions. eKEY Professional (coming later this year)adds MLS data saved to your phone, links Google maps to the listings, and delivers showing details to your phone.
eKEY Basic Features
● Wireless Updates and Alerts
● Obtain Listing Keys
● Keep track of all your key boxes right from your phone
● Manage and Program your keyboxes
● Easily place and remove keyboxes from listings using your phone
● Change your own shackle codes
Supra eKEY Adapter
The Supra iPhone Adapter plugs into the 30 pin dock connector. It adds Infrared to the iPhone. It is designed to hang from a key chain when not in use. When you are ready to show a house, just slide it out of its cover, and plug it into your iPhone.
ccarlive July Relaunch
The July edition of ccarlive, features information about:
● CCAR Scholarship Winners with Photos
● New 2011 CCAR Board of Directors
● REALTOR Safety: Fight or Flight?
● Industry News: How Inmates are Receiving the Homebuyer Tax Credit and Developing the Skill of Qualifying Buyer
● Navigating ccartoday.com
● A R.E.trospective by Jerry Kidd
● New Members from May-July 2010
● A Snapshot of Events from R.E. BarCamp 2010, CCAR Board Walk5k, A Taste of Nations, and the 43rd Annual Scholarship Awards Luncheon
● Eco-Friendly Home Improvement Tips
● and much, much more…
Hard copies are available at CCAR’s Real Estate Shoppe or call 925 295 9200 and request a copy to be mailed to you for a $5.00 shipping and handling charge.
Sincerely,
Your CCAR Team
New member benefit – augment your listing with more pics!
Now members can augment their listing with as many as 25 additional photos.
Simply login to ccartoday. You will ‘land’ on the brokertoday dashboard page. That page shows all of your active listings. Each listing has a row of options. One option is under the column ‘Photos’ and all you need to do is click ‘Add Pics’ for the listing you want to add or manage existing photos on.
You will be presented with that listings current ‘MLS’ photos, and an uploader to add pictures to augment this listings photos through the MLS Mirror. You will receive a convenient reminder each time a listing is entered going forward through the ELF – Event Logic Framework new listing channel. It is just that simple!
CCAR has built a Mirror of our MLS data. This strategic initiative puts us in a position to provide you with all of the tools that this email references, as well as a wealth of new ones on the horizon. But it also puts us in a position to create new tools by allowing you to layer information on top of your new listing.
The first and most obvious such tool we have created is a photo upload feature that allows you to add as many as 25 additional photos to your listing. Our MLS vendor only supports the ability for you to add 9 photos to a listing. In today’s internet driven world, where the consumer focuses so heavily on pictures, that is simply not enough. So we are giving our members the chance to login to ccartoday and augment their listing with 25 additional photos, for a total of 34.
Simply login, look at your dashboard on the ‘today’ page! There is a column for ‘Photos’ – just click ‘Add Pics’ to manage photos under that listing.
Your augmented photos will be available on all CCAR driven services. This includes HOT – HomesOpenToday.com, StreetURLS.com single property websites, agent and office galleries, and everything we create for you going forward.
Identity Theft Prevention
Top 10 Tips for Identity Theft Prevention
Identity theft is a serious and costly crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn’t commit.
The following tips can help you lower your risk of becoming a victim.
1. Protect your accounts against fraud.
Contact the fraud department of any of the three consumer reporting companies— Equifax®, ExperianSM and Trans Union®—to place a fraud alert on your credit report. The fraud alert automatically lets credit card companies and other creditors know they must contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts.
2. Don’t get caught by “phishing.”
Scam artists “phish” for victims’ information by posing as representatives of banks, stores or government agencies. This is done over the phone, through regular mail, and especially via e-mail. Don’t respond to a request to verify your account number or password. Don’t give out your personal information unless you made the contact. Legitimate companies will not request this kind of information in this way.
3. Keep your identity from getting trashed.
Invest in a paper shredder and shred all papers with personal information before you throw them away, including unwanted credit card applications and “convenience checks” that come in the mail, credit card receipts with your account number, outdated financial papers and papers containing your clients’ personal information.
4. Control your personal financial information.
Many states have laws requiring banks and other financial institutions to get your permission before sharing your personal financial information with outside companies. You also have the right to limit the sharing of your personal financial information with most of your companies’ affiliates. Write to your companies that you want to “opt-out” of sharing your personal financial information with their affiliates.
5. Shield your computer from viruses and spies.
Use passwords with at least eight characters, including a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Use firewall and virus protection software and update it regularly. Download free software only from sites you know and trust, and don’t install software without knowing what it is. Set browser security to at least “medium.” Don’t click on links in pop-up windows or in spam e-mail, and don’t download any file from an e-mail address you don’t know.
6. Click with caution
When shopping online, check out a Web site before entering your credit card number or other personal information. Enter personal information only on secure Web pages with “https” in the address bar and a closed padlock symbol at the bottom of the browser window.
7. Check your bills and bank statements.
Open your credit card bills and bank statements right away. Check for any unauthorized charges or withdrawals and report them immediately. Call if bills don’t arrive on time. It may mean that someone has changed contact information to hide fraudulent charges.
8. Stop pre-approved credit offers.
Stop most pre-approved credit card offers by calling toll-free 888 5OPTOUT (888 567 8688) to have your name removed from credit bureau marketing lists.
9. Ask questions.
Ask questions whenever you are asked for personal information that seems inappropriate. Ask how the information will be used and if it will be shared. Ask how it will be protected.
10. Check your credit reports — for free.
One of the best ways to protect yourself from identity theft is to monitor your credit history. You can get one free credit report every year from each of the three national credit bureaus. Order your free annual credit reports by phone, toll-free, at 877 322 8228, or online at www.annualcreditreport.com.
(Sources: The Federal Trade Commission, The Office of Privacy Protection in the California Department of Consumer Affairs)
Visit NAR’s REALTOR® Safety Web site at www.REALTOR.org/Safety
Discounts from T-Mobile
Special pricing and discounts from T-Mobile through June 30
T-Mobile, a C.A.R. Member Advantage Program partner, is offering special pricing on the new HTC HD2 Windows Mobile smartphone. This device features a 4.3-inch screen, 16 GB memory card, and 1 GHZ processor. New T-Mobile customers can purchase the HD2 for $149.99 and also receive a free Bluetooth headset.
California REALTORS® also qualify for discounts on the Blackberry® 9700, enabling users to connect to T-Mobile’s wireless network or any nearby Wi-Fi network.
Special pricing is available through June 30 and is not available in stores. To access these deals and for information on other offers available as a new T-Mobile customer, call 866 464 8662, enter option 3, and mention the code “C.A.R.”
All C.A.R. members receive 12 percent off their monthly recurring charges (select plans), free activation, and free shipping and handling. Current customers can complete an online migration form to access the monthly discount.
Upgraded Mobile MLS
Mobile MLS is 
upgraded.
CCAR offers FREE Mobile MLS service to our members. This service allows members to receive real-time data from Paragon using most cell phones, smart-phones, or Personal Data Assistant devices (PDA’s).
Beginning April 19 we will transition to a new provider for this free wireless MLS service. When you log on to Wireless MLS, you will automatically be directed to the new wireless product, reInsight Mobile. The new system provides enhanced features and has a much better look and feel than the current wireless product in addition to saving money for the association.
While you won’t find ‘today’s hotsheet’ on the new mobile MLS, you will be able to perform this type of search using “Status Date” as a criterion. More information coming soon!
SPAM HAPPENS
SPAM Happens : Understand how, why, and what you can do.
by Richard Tausch
First understand that CCAR has a firm policy of not allowing the distribution of a ‘bulk’ email address list. CCAR does not allow or facilitate the distribution of such a list under any circumstances. Our members’ privacy and ability to conduct business uninterrupted by unsolicited nuisance messages is of paramount importance. CCAR invests resources specifically in preventing this behavior, and in educating members how to best avoid being a target of such behavior.
So, while CCAR has never and never will distribute our members email addresses in bulk format, SPAM still happens. Understanding why, and what you can do, is a big part of preventing as much SPAM as possible.
‘Normal’ events can easily lead to your email address being added to SPAMMING lists. ‘Normal’ events would include things like registering for a service of some sort (credit reporting, updates from your favorite catalog, virtually anything where you supply an email address). Not all services and vendors are the same, of course. Some of these folks will sell address lists, others will simply not guard them very safely, and some will do an exceptional job of guarding your privacy. All of that can of course change over time. There is really no way of knowing for certain when it is sensible to provide an email address, and when you are asking for trouble. A good strategy to help with this to an extent is to have several email addresses, at least one of which you keep sacrosanct and never ‘give away’ online in this fashion (see below).
However, ‘normal’ events are not all that professionals like REALTORS® have to deal with. The particulars of the real estate business make it both relatively easy and desirable to SPAM its practitioners. Understanding that YOU ARE A TARGET, in many ways more than the average internet user, can help you minimize the problem to an extent. Not only are you a target, most practitioners have painted a convenient bulls-eye directly on their web presence. Let’s take a step back to understand this.
You have a website. You want exposure and leads (this is why you have a website of course), so you place your email address and link it to a ‘mailto:’ command that when someone clicks it will generate and email to you. Your email address is thus typically displayed in both plain text on the page (‘Click here to email me at something@somewhere.com’ for instance), as well as being embedded in the html code on your page.
Now, the way that people find your website is typically by searching for it. Search engines facilitate this by first ‘crawling’ or ’spidering’ the web to see what is out there. In doing so, they sample all of the text on your webpage, especially the links (like the mailto: link). Most of the time this is a harmless, and even beneficial thing. However, if someone wants to build a ‘bulk’ list of email addresses for REALTORS® in the bay area, the same techniques make it relatively easy to do so. ‘Spidering’ for web sites that discuss real estate, allow you to search the MLS, mention one or more city in the area, and have a mailto: link will give me a list to harvest from. Processing the content on those pages to end up with every email address from every page that fits that category is then relatively simple.
Best practices at this time is to avoid placing an actual email link, or your email address in plain text on your website. A picture of the text of your email address, for instance, is much preferable. A form that consumers can fill out on your page that then sends a message to you without ever exposing your address is ideal. Even simply typing your address with some obvious separator characters will help immensely (for example, something (@) somewhere (.) com).
Additional tips and techniques can be found below. Thank you for taking the time to understand that while you may receive a solicitation to your email to purchase a ‘bulk’ list of addresses, CCAR has never and never will sell, give away or facilitate the distribution of such a list.
Preventing Spam (or at least trying to)
Q: Is there a way to prevent junk mail from flooding my email?
A: Good question, but there isn’t an easy answer.
We suggest to never Opt Out when provided with the option. It only confirms the validity of the email address originally sent to and often it increases the level of junk that shows up.
There are lots of suggestions on how to handle SPAM, but the best ways aren’t going to work for REALTORS® as they naturally want to expose as many ways for potential clients to contact them as possible, so hiding contact information (email addresses) isn’t an option (hiding email addresses reduce the harvesting and population of SPAM lists).
The next best solution is that you may want to use a SPAM guard type software or 3rd party mail filter. There are many on the market and we haven’t done a head to head test on what products work better than others, so we cannot make any specific suggestions. The key components to look for are:
Accuracy, ease of use and automatic updating
Other quick suggestions:
Try not to send funnies or chain letters to your friends. When your friends send them to you, either ask them not to or create a free email for that purpose only. Because eventually one of those emails will fall into the hands of a list harvester and all the email addresses embedded inside (everyone it was sent to previously) will be added to SPAM lists. Don’t sign up for anything on the web using your primary email accounts. Create a few free email addresses and use them for different purposes.
SUPRA Changes
March 4, 2010
Dear GE Security Customer,
There are a few changes coming to SupraWEB in the next couple of weeks. These changes will provide several new tools for your use.
· Enhanced reporting features including a new mobile site customized for phones.
· Improved showing feedback options: You can automatically forward showing
notifications to sellers.
· Agent WebPAY is moving into SupraWEB. You will no longer need to remember two sets of passwords or use two different websites.
As part of this upcoming change, which will occur in about three weeks, it will be necessary for you to create a new user ID and password before you can access SupraWEB (until the change is made, you will continue to use your current password and key number). We will be providing information and training over the next few weeks on the set up process. You can visit www.ekeyprofessional.com/sso.html to learn how this simple process works. We will also add a dedicated queue in our call center with additional staff to assist you with the change.
We sincerely appreciate your continued business. We are working hard to add benefits to the Wireless Information System that will continue to make things easier for you.
Sincerely,
Greg Russell, Product Marketing Manager
CCAR Mobile!
It is 7:35am on Tuesday, and it’s not quite a day-in-the-life-of Real Estate Agent Jim Greene. Jim is finishing his newspaper and a cup of joe. He reaches over, turns his laptop on, and behold…nothing, nada, zip, zilch, kaput. Jim sits there staring at a blank screen and an empty cup, and then it enters his mind that a few days ago he was informed by someone at CCAR of a new set of mobile tools at http://m.ccartoday.com. He surmises that perhaps he can work mobile the entire day – because ultimately he’ll have to. That old 486 computer sitting in the closet wont suffice….it has plans to become a boat anchor in its next life which is overdue. Now CCAR Mobile is put to the test!
Let’s follow Jim’s schedule to see how he pulls off this mammoth of a day “a la mobile!”
8:15am: Appointment with CCAR Tech Support Jim drops off his laptop with CCAR Technical Support. He is told that it is likely they will have it fixed by the next morning.
8:30am: Check emails and Respond Jim pulls out his Blackberry, checks emails, and finds that one of his new clients, Lauren Wilson and her husband Alex, are now looking for a 3-bedroom in Danville. Jim calls his clients back to gather more details. He opens the browser on his Blackberry and brings up the new CCAR mobile site, logs in to the “Wireless MLS” page, does a few searches, and later that day, will meet with Lauren and Alex to show them a few properties. Bada Bing!
11:30am: Photo on new listing A couple of days ago Jim was told that he had to have one photo up on his brand new listing within a certain number of days, but he wasn’t sure how many. Again Jim pulls out his Blackberry and goes to the CCAR Mobile page. Toward the bottom he locates the “MLS Rules Mobile” page and learns that he has up to 5 days. So he wipes his brow, heads over to that new listing on Wayland Street, and takes a photo using his Blackberry. He places a reminder on his Blackberry…to to upload to uploadhe photo he took (when his laptop comes back), and replace it with a professionally-shot one next week. Voila!
1:45pm: Plan Staging Home on Bayberry Street
Jim gets a pop-up on his Blackberry reminding him to stage one of his listings ASAP. He contacts his ‘go-to’ home staging resource, and they inform that there is no furniture currently available. On his Blackberry, Jim scrolls down the CCAR Mobile site to the “Find an Affiliate” link and locates a furniture rental company. He calls the company and is told that they can have the property staged by the next day. Bada Bing!
3:00pm: Reminder to check ZipForm class schedule
Jim’s Blackberry suddenly reminds him that just the other day he had ZipForm®6 set up on his computer and was planning to take a class at CCAR. So, once again, he scrolls down the CCAR Mobile site and locates the “Mobile Event Calendar” link, notices that a class is available on Friday at 2pm. He calls CCAR and registers for the class right then and there. Bingo!
3:45: Meet with George Hauser
Jim arrives at his on Maple Street listing to meet with George Hauser, a buyer’s agent. The phone rings, and George indicates he will be running 30 minutes late. No newspaper or book in his car, so he decides to pull up his trusty CCAR Mobile site and visits the “Mobile News” link to read a few articles. Before he knows it, George pulls up, meets with Jim and indicates the counter offer was accepted by the buyer. Yahoo!
4:00: LAPTOP READY FOR PICKUP FROM CCAR!
Now it is 4:00pm and Jim gets a call that his laptop has been repaired ahead of schedule. He stops by CCAR, grabs his laptop, and heads home. It is now the end of a day-in-the-life-of a CCAR mobile user!
Fix Your Network
How to Resolve Your Home Network Issues
by Richard Tausch
“My computer is not connecting to the internet. What do I do now?!”
Your heart is racing and your nerves are frazzled. It’s Friday. You just glanced at the clock and noticed it is 4:48pm. You have a customer packet that needs to go out before 5pm, and you cannot connect to the Internet. Sound familiar?
It looks like Murphy’s “Lawlessness” has wrapped its claws around you and taken hold. Don’t fret….at least, not just yet!
Let’s start by discussing the three most common areas of failure if you cannot connect to the Internet, some of which you may be able to resolve by your lonesome. We won’t go into the details regarding the third item, “Virus’s and Malware,” but just touch upon it briefly because we will have a separate article on products and how to use them to remove viruses and malware in an upcoming article. But I would like to cover some items that you can address that may bring you back online without having to wait on hold with Comcast, Yahoo, or another provider and you may even beat that deadline yet, provided you can leap into action.
Here are the three situations that typically cause your internet (or, in the case of viruses and malware, your browser) to fail:
• Your ISP May Be Down
Often times it is difficult to tell whether your ISP is down (outage) or your local network is down, because often the same lights flash (or fail to flash). In both cases, you are left with the ambiguity of not knowing how to proceed, aside from calling your ISP directly or simply restarting your computer.
In the case of some outages, when you call in to an ISP, there may be a message reflecting the status of an outage in your area or the ability through prompts to check for an outage in your area. But if your internet is down, the issue may lie in your home network, specifically your Comcast or DSL router, your wireless router, your cable connection, or your computer itself. So let’s discuss these next:
• Your Home Network
o Your home network is a fairly complex system, but easy to diagnose for most situations. These suggestions might help resolve your connectivity issue:
1. The first thing I usually ask a customer to do is to try going on the internet with another browser. Many computers have Firefox (and even Safari) installed. If this is the case, try opening up Firefox and go to both google.com and yahoo.com. If that works, there is a good chance that your Internet Explorer browser is corrupt or hijacked by malware, which tries to direct you to certain sites, among other annoyances such as failing to load a web page. If there are other computers on the same home network, verify that they also cannot get on the Internet. If they cannot, proceed to step 3. If they can get, proceed to step 2 instead.
2. Repair your network connection. In Windows XP, either right-click on “My Network Places” and go to “Properties.” As an option, click on the Start button and look for “My Network Places,” right-click on it, and go to “Properties.” In the window that opens, look for either the “Local Area Connection” Icon or the one that indicates “Wireless.” Right-click on it and choose “Repair.” Wait 2 minutes and try your browser again. In Windows Vista, go to the Start button, click on “Network,” and then “Network and Sharing Center” in your breadcrumb (the blue menu bar). Finally, click on “Diagnose and Repair” on the sidebar. Often times this can result in success.
3. Restart your Comcast Cable or DSL unit. If the above fails, here is something you can do in virtually 2-3 minutes: If you are using a cable modem such as Comcast and there is no network activity (you may have only 2 green lights flashing), go to the back of the Comcast box, pull out the power plug (the little black plug), wait 20 seconds, and then replace the plug. Then remove the coaxial cable, wait 5 seconds, and tighten it back in. Wait 3 minutes or until 4 of the 5 green lights are lit and then retest your browser. If you are using a DSL connection, then pull the little black power plug out of the back, wait 20 seconds, connect the plug back up, wait 3 minutes, and try to connect to the internet.
4. Reboot your computer. Sometimes after resetting your home network, you may still need to reboot your computer.
5. Restart your wireless router. Last but not least, locate your wireless router if you have one. This is the device that is connected to your Comcast cable or DSL box. Look for the little black power plug at the back, pull it out, wait 20 seconds, and then replace it. Wait for 3 minutes. If you still cannot get on the internet, then it is possible you will need to contact your ISP.
• Viruses and Malware
It’s no secret that many viruses and malware creators have gravitated toward trying to make money rather than just propagating destruction on computers these days. These new derivatives come in the form of browser hijacks that try to redirect you to a site that you did not choose in hopes of having you purchase products, or trying to capture keystrokes that could include personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers. Naturally, the best way to avoid having these situations is to make sure you have anti-virus and anti-malware software on your system, and that they are updated. There are a number of free choices which will be discussed in a future article.
How will you know if there is a possibility your browser has been exploited by viruses or malware? That may be the case if your system has slowed (slowness can also be caused by other things) but, most important, if you enter a web site and get the wrong one, or your browser fails to load, you may have been victimized by malware. That holds true as long as others in your network are able to get on the Internet from other computers. If so,this situation suggests the necessity of installing anti-virus or anti-malware software, and updating it if already installed, and doing system scans.
Start at the top of this list and work down. Perform the checks and steps outlined above, and there is a good chance you will be back on the Internet in short order.
Here’s to happy connections,
