Posted by Kim Gordon on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 @ 09:12 AM
In the last month we have been busy going to various conferences and exhibitions to meet our customers and hopefully meet potential customers! We had a great time networking, me
t lots of great people, and learned a lot about what our customers are looking for from us. Kirsten Elkins attended the Community Bankers of Georgia meeting at Amelia Island in Florida. This was our first meeting with this group and they were very welcoming to newcomers! The format for the exhibitions was a new one to us, it was similar to speed dating. The attendees were divided into small groups and then each group was sent to an exhibitor, after 4 or 5 minutes the attendees were alerted and everyone went to the next exhibitor and so on until every attendee had visited every exhibitor. This was a great way for everyone to see what the exhibitors had to offer and was lots of fun! The father and son team of Al and Alwyn Staley attended the NC Bankers conference on Father’s Day where they had a wonderful time learning about the needs of the North Carolina Bankers. This meeting was well attended by Bank Directors from across the state and there was great interest in CRS’s Market Share Report. The Association was very supportive and helpful getting us introduced to the NC Banking community and we are excited to be a new corporate member. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again at the next meeting. Rob Williamson, John Lutz and David Russell headed west to San Francisco for the Inman Connect meeting to see what was happening in the Real Estate Industry. This was an action packed meeting with events from early morning to late night. The theme was local. social. mobile. and there were sessions on everything from how to create smart phone apps to beginning blogging. There are radical shifts happening in the Real Estate world and this was a good place to meet and discuss how to respond. This is a conference we will definitely be attending in the future! We are truly blessed to have the customers and friends that we have. One common thread through the meetings seemed to be cautious optimism for the future. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that the economy keeps improving.
Posted by Kim Gordon on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 @ 03:11 PM
Even though the economy is slowly recovering, the real estate market is still sluggish. Houses are remaining on the market much too long, and the ones that are moving, seem to point towards one group. What group is that, you may ask? Your first time home buyers. A first time home buyer is most likely in their mid-twenties, and are in their first job out of college. The average starter home in the South is usually between the price range of $70,000 to $100,000 with a square footage from 1,000 to 1,400 sq. ft.
Your next question is , “But how do I find them?” One method is to target subdivisions that rents in the range of $700-$900 a month and search for absentee owners. Common sense would tell you that since they live some place else they are probably renting the home! Now you can send renters a mailer and begin prospecting.
Another method of finding customers focuses on homeowners who have lived in their house for 3-5 years and might be considering upgrading to their next house. If these people become your customers, you can sell them their next house, and get a listing on their current home.
For more tips and a guide on how to use the CRS PowerTools for prospecting, be sure to download our free white paper!
Noteworthy: Now is the time to buy with interest rates lower than they have been in nearly 30+ years. Take advantage of it!
Good Luck!
Don't miss the upcoming WebEx trainings on the Appraiser PowerTool and Commercial PowerTool this month! Click here to register.
Monday, June 28
10:00 am Appraiser PowerTool— Searching
11:00 am Appraiser PowerTool— Reports
Tuesday, June 29
3:30 pm Commercial PowerTool— Searching
Wednesday, June 30
10:30 am Commercial PowerTool— Mailing
3:00 pm Commercial PowerTool— Maps
Posted by Kim Gordon on Wed, Jun 09, 2010 @ 02:20 PM
Last week we participated in the Tennessee Farmers Insurance show in Nashville, TN. We met lots of new friends and really enjoyed showing how CRS can help insurance agents increase their income by prospecting or X-dating, as it is known in the insurance industry. For insurance x-dating, timing is everything. Renewal date marketing, or X-dating, is the act of knowing when a prospect’s insurance policy comes up for renewal. There is a small window of time that prospects are thinking about home insurance. By the time their current renewal notice arrives that window is closed. At CRS we can help you identify and contact potential customers within this window— customers will already have your information on hand, and in their mind when receive their annual statement.
At the exhibits we were able to demo the PowerTool and showcase our reports, which include homeowner information, sales and mortgage histories. Some of the agents were excited by how easy it is to search our data. You can search CRS PowerTools by sale date and begin contacting your prospects one, two, three, or as many months in advance as you wish. Our vast sales history will ensure that you will never be short on leads and our easy-to-use date search allows quick targeting of over twenty years of data history. Users can target homeowners at the exact time they are making decisions about home insurance. PowerTools are a powerful and affordable marketing tool that allows you to our target the exact price range of home that meet your target demographic. Combined with our current sales data, we will help you reach the people you need.
Don't miss the upcoming WebEx trainings on the Investor PowerTool, Appraiser PowerTool and Commercial PowerTool this month! Click here to register.
Monday, June 21
3:00 pm Investor PowerTool— Searching
Tuesday, June 22
10:30 am Investor PowerTool— Maps & Reports
11:30 am Investor PowerTool— Mailing and Prospecting
Monday, June 28
10:00 am Appraiser PowerTool— Searching
11:00 am Appraiser PowerTool— Reports
Tuesday, June 29
3:30 pm Commercial PowerTool— Searching
Wednesday, June 30
10:30 am Commercial PowerTool— Mailing
3:00 pm Commercial PowerTool— Maps
Posted by Kim Gordon on Thu, May 20, 2010 @ 02:08 PM
Courthouse Retrieval System attended the mid-year NAR trade show last week in Washington DC where we showcased the Real Estate PowerTool, Commercial PowerTool and the Compliance PowerTool. We had a great time and talked to lots of friends, customers and potential customers. The energy was incredible and the mood was optimistic for the future. Below is a video from one of our satisfied customers from the Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS®.
In Video George Raad Harvey Z. Raad REALTORS 1505 South Fourth Street Allentown, PA 18103.
Download our white paper on
How to Mine Gold from Public Records.
Don't miss the upcoming WebEx trainings on the Investor PowerTool and Commercial PowerTool next week! Click here
to register.
Tuesday, May 25
10:00 am Investor PowerTool— Searching
11:30 am Investor PowerTool— Maps & Reports
3:30 pm Commercial PowerTool— Searching
Wednesday, May 26
10:30 am Commercial PowerTool— Mailing and Prospecting
1:30 pm Investor PowerTool— Mailing and Prospecting
3:00 pm Commerical PowerTool— Maps & Reports
Be sure to check our training schedule - we add new webex's all the time! Follow the link above and click on the upcoming tab!
Kim
Posted by Kim Gordon on Fri, May 07, 2010 @ 03:50 PM
This has been a busy and exciting week at Courthouse Retrieval System!
Last Friday, April 30th at the close of business, we officially welcomed the Property Profile customers from PropertyInfo Corporation into the CRS family! This key acquisition extends our footprint further into Southwest. We would like to extend a warm welcome to all of our new customers!
CRS is also getting ready for the Mid-year National Association of REALTORs® show in Washington DC. The exhibits open on Wednesday, May 12 and end Friday May 14, 2010. If you are attending mid-year, be sure and stop by our booth, #201, meet our staff and enjoy a demo of all the new features we have added to the Real Estate PowerTool!
Some of our new search features are:
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Advanced search
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Subdivision block and lot search
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Search by sales deed book and page or document number
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Previous owners name search
If you haven't seen our BING™ maps with custom layers, check out the photo to the right! Many of our most useful marketing and data enhancements have originated from customer feedback so be sure to share your ideas. You should make sure to stop by and see the exciting feature set this product can add to your business.
We would like to extend a special invitation to any attendees from Property Profile to stop by the booth and get to know us! We are eager to get to know you.
Kim
Posted by Kim Gordon on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 @ 02:19 PM
CRS was excited to have the opportunity to sponsor the Nashville RE BarCamp this past Wednesday, April 28, 2010 in Nashville, TN. Mallory Davidson, Kirsten Elkins and myself (Kim Gordon) attended from CRS. BarCamp was organized by Brian Copeland and drew attendees from over 30 states! It's rumored that this was one of the best BarCamps ever. The location was fantastic, it was held at 5th and Main which is a new development of condos surrounding a courtyard with restaurants on the first floors. All the sessions were held in new (unsold) condos and I heard more than one REALTOR, say, "I'm just going to take a peak around." And having restaurants on-site was very convenient! Kudos to Brian for such a great job organizing.
For those of you who don't know what RE BarCamp is, RE stands for Real Estate and BarCamp is "a user generated conference."* It is a very free flowing event. When you arrive you are asked for some information-two topics you are interested in and, are you willing to lead a session. Then you mix and mingle for a while- breakfast was provided along with a DJ to get the crowd energized. Next, we met in the courtyard where Brian explained the layout of the building and how the event would work. The sessions were projected on a wall and the event got started!
There were sessions covering everything from Twitter 101 to Blogging to RPR. At BarCamp, everything is interactive. This is not your typical conference where you sit down and listen to a speaker's lecture. Audience participation is key. One theme that seemed to resonate throughout the day, at least in the sessions I attended was "hyper-local" - being an expert about everything in your local area is the consensus path to success.
This was my first BarCamp and I definitely plan on attending the next one. The interaction, learning, and energy were better than any other conference I have attended and I met lots of people. If you haven't been to a RE Bar Camp, you need to find one in your area and participate- you won't regret it!
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Download our white paper on
How to Mine Gold from Public Records.
If you are going to the Tennessee Association of Mortgage Brokers Tradeshow, May 3-6, stop by and visit our booth!
Be sure to check our training schedule - we add new webex's all the time!
*wikipeida
Posted by Kim Gordon on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 01:27 PM
CRS is in the service delivery business and that service is confidence in property information. Confidence is valuable in a time when property
information is a nationalized commodity. It is an unnerving thought that every year billions of dollars of real estate transactions are based on data that may or may not be accurate. It begs the question, "How ‘good enough' should property tax data be?" Inaccurate or suspect data causes injury to somebody everyday. It is not fair to anybody reliant on accuracy of data to have to play "Who Do You Trust" every day.
CRS has made the expensive choice to take on the responsibility of collecting data locally from the actual source - county courthouses. Then, we self-check the information to ensure accuracy and currency. The other option is to buy data from national sources and assume that it is "good enough." That's a poor choice. At best, someone will be inconvenienced; at worst, someone will suffer loss and that is not the way we want to treat our customers.
Confidence in another sense of the word is promoted in CRS's online user interface. The sheer volume of data and statistics offered by some competitors and the complicated software necessary to extract and analyze the information can be intimidating to many users. Because CRS's interface is intuitive and easy, users have confidence to do their work both easily and accurately.
Many different professions, with various needs and work processes, have need of property information. CRS has rejected the "one-size-fits-all" approach and has designed industry-specific tools. As a result, users don't find themselves drowning in irrelevant data and functionality. Rather, they find that they have just what they need - no more, no less. Users have the confidence that CRS knows their specific business and anticipates their needs in the data and software design.
Download our white paper on
How to Mine Gold from Public Records.
Don't miss the WebEx trainings on the Commercial PowerTool next week! Click here to register.
Tuesday, April 27
3:30 pm Commerical PowerTool— Searching
Wednesday, April 28
10:30 am Commerical PowerTool— Prospecting & Mailing
3:00 pm Commerical PowerTool— Maps & Reports
Be sure to check our training schedule frequently- we add new webex's all the time!
Posted by Kim Gordon on Wed, Apr 14, 2010 @ 03:08 PM
No marketplace moves faster than real estate, where trends and values can appear and disappear in a few months and where prices fluctuate weekly and sometimes even daily!
So we have created a blog to begin a conversation with our customers and other interested people. We’ll use this new outlet to quickly report on important new developments, follow up on industry news, report ongoing issues and trends or highlight insightful success stories that you can put into practice. We’ll also dish up advice on a variety of topics relating to the markets we serve: residential real estate, commercial real estate, investor, appraiser, lending and more. The blog will also include notifications to free trainings, events and shows we attend, additionally, we will feature useful CRS Powertools tips and tricks that will help you leverage our Power Tools to help you make money!
Speaking of tips and tricks, we would like to offer all our blog readers a complimentary gift! Download our new free white paper on Five Tips on How to Mine Gold from Public Records! This white paper will give you tips on how to use CRS PowerTools in developing leads and evaluating homes, along with some great marketing tips– crucial information in today’s market. To download the white paper now, visit http://blog.crsdata.com/how-to-mine-gold-from-public-records/.
We want this to be an ongoing conversation not a monologue. We invite you to join our community so feel free to suggest topics, or comment on a blog.
Let the conversation begin.