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	<title>MLS Listings for CT Real Estate with the CTMLS</title>
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	<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com</link>
	<description>CT REALTORS search helpful tools and learn about CTMLS</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 20:06:58 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Compliance Blog: Connecticut Real Estate Commission</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/16/compliance-blog-connecticut-real-estate-commission/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/16/compliance-blog-connecticut-real-estate-commission/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 20:06:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Compliance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commission]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commission statements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cooperation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1931</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The MLS is about two things, cooperation and compensation. The MLS listing creates a compensation agreement between the listing brokerage and the cooperating brokerage. CTMLS Rules and Regulations state that entitlement to the cooperating broker commission is determined by the identity of the buyer agent who is the procuring cause of the successful transaction. There are no further qualifications or comments that can change these criteria. Commission in the MLS is paid on the gross sale price. CTMLS Rules and Regulations Article 7, Section 7.1 Compensation Specified on Each Listing. Common statements that are not allowed include, but not limited to: No commission paid on upgrades Commission paid on net only No commission paid if you&#8217;re a licensed real estate agent and buyer If you have any additional questions about how commission is handled within the MLS, please leave the questions in the comments below and we will answer them as they come in.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
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		<title>10 Ways To Promote Your Connecticut Real Estate Business Through Search Engine Optimization</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/15/10-ways-to-promote-your-connecticut-real-estate-business-through-search-engine-optimization/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/15/10-ways-to-promote-your-connecticut-real-estate-business-through-search-engine-optimization/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 15:11:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Analytics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Places]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Keyword research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1898</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I talked about this yesterday in my Internet Marketing 101 class. There are literally hundreds of social networks that you and your business can be on. There are literally hundreds of companies that will help you promote your business online. There are literally thousands of websites that you can pay to advertise on. So how do you sort through all of the clutter and get the most out of your time and your money online? Today I want to walk you through 10 different ways to promote your business sellingCT homes for sale using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Having 10 steps is not meant to overwhelm you, but rather give you a blueprint for your future. This way you can bookmark or print out this list and run through them like a check list and by the time you get to #10 you&#8217;ll have a truly robust presence online. 1.) Do keyword research: Keywords will be the backbone of your business online. You can do your research here. This is a critical first step in getting your business found online. You&#8217;ll want to create a list of 5-10 keywords with low competition and high search volume. 2.) Start a blog: Search engines LOVE content so having a static website is not enough, you need to be creating content everyday to improve your visibility in the search engine results page. A blog is a free and easy way to create this content. 3.) Build a website: It might seem counter intuitive to start a blog before building your website, but truth be told, I am a believer in running your website as a blog. You may have noticed that the central part of this website is a blog. Everything else around is just gravy. 4.) Optimize your website: Take the list of keywords you determined in step 1 and use it to optimize your website. A good rule of thumb is to include a keyword in every 100 characters of content that is on your page. 5.) Write your blog daily: The more often you write good, quality content the better your results in the search engines will be. If you can manage to write a blog post everyday, you&#8217;ll start to see results almost immediately. 6.) Build authority through linking with other sites: Google and other search engines use the links that point back to your website as a way of judging how relevant the content on your site is so a link from a well known site will carry a lot of weight for your website. So you&#8217;ll want to reach out to websites from well-established companies in your town to see if you can exchange links with them. 7.) Create a Facebook page: Facebook is the largest social network online, but that is of little importance to you when promoting your business, what is important is the power it holds to spread the word about your business. You know how referrals work right? Multiply the power of word of mouth referrals by a thousand and you have the impact a Facebook page could have on your business. 8.) Create a Google Places page: Google Places is the new yellow pages. You may have noticed when you search for a business on Google in a specific town there are listings that appear to be highlighted in the search results, those are places pages. This is free for you to set-up and is one of the most valuable tools that you have in promoting your business online. You can get started here. 9.) Spread the Word: Let everyone you know where to find your business online. Tell them about your website, your blog, your Facebook page and ask them to interact with you. Not only will this have a nice word of mouth effect, but it will also signal to Google and other search engines that your site is popular and worthy of listing higher in the rankings. 10.) Measure your results: The only way to truly know whether or not your efforts are working is to use an analytics tool to help you measure traffic growth to your site. Sure you can Google your business everyday and see if it&#8217;s moved up in the rankings, but that is an inexact science. You want to use an analytics package like Google Analytics (which is free) to measure your website performance and make adjustments accordingly. Start slow with this list as it will all take time, but once you get the [...]]]></description>
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		<title>5 Must-Know MLXchange Shortcuts</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/14/5-must-know-mlxchange-shortcuts/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/14/5-must-know-mlxchange-shortcuts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 14:28:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[MLXchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hotsheet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[listing results grid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Map View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Market Statistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Realist 2]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1894</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;re all pressed for time and when you&#8217;re navigating MLXchange to find what you are looking for you&#8217;re better off using a few shortcuts that will help you get to the information in the shortest possible time. Whether you&#8217;re heading off to a client meeting or late for an office meeting, these shortcuts will come in handy so you can be ready with every piece of information that your clients or office mates are relying on you for. These few tips will allow you access crucial information on the market in general and on a particular property. 1.) The Hotsheet: You may be familiar with this tool in MLXchange, but did you know you can customize this to truly give you a picture of the market in your area? A quick click will give you a snapshot of any changes to the market that you specify. In order to truly leverage the power of this tool you&#8217;ll need to insert the criteria for the market that most interest you. In order to do that, follow the quick video below. 2.) Access photos from the Listing Results grid: This shortcut will help you get a glimpse at a particular property without having to drill down into the listing details page. Just simply hover over the iBubble and click on the camera icon. This will open up a pop-up window that will contain a slideshow of all the photos of that particular property. This will allow you to get a glimpse of a property without having to bounce through each listing that was returned by your search results. 3.) Get a Realist record for a specific listing: Spending the time to first search in MLXchange for the listings you&#8217;re looking for and then opening Realist and searching again for the tax records of those listings can be very time consuming, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be. Make sure to use this shortcut when you&#8217;re on the listing details page. If you&#8217;re interested in the tax record for a particular property, open up the listing details screen in MLXchange and then select &#8220;Tax Search CT Statewide&#8221; which will then open up a printable copy of the tax record pulled directly from Realist. 4.) Add a Map to your Listing Results grid: If you want to get an idea where the properties you&#8217;ve found through your search are located, you can have them plotted out on a map for you. This one is quick and easy, just look at the lower right hand corner of your screen and select &#8220;Show Map&#8221; which will open up a Bing map for you to use. The map can be navigated to see what is nearby and you can use a number of the views that are provided by Bing including Bird&#8217;s Eye View which is a 45 degree angle from the sky. 5.) Snapshot Market Statistics: This is a great one for when you&#8217;re heading to an office meeting and you want to give other agents in your office a glimpse as to what the market is like in your town. Simply open a Basic Search, type in your town and then select &#8220;Statistics.&#8221; This will open a window with a handful of reports that you can use to analyze your search results including DOM Breakdown, Price trend and so many more. Quick and easy. Do you have any tips or tricks that you can share when searching for CT homes for sale inside MLXchange? Share them in the comments below.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/14/5-must-know-mlxchange-shortcuts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The iPad, MLXchange and You</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/11/the-ipad-mlxchange-and-you/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/11/the-ipad-mlxchange-and-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Compatibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FusionMLS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[android]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IPad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tablet]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1891</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve been getting a lot of calls around here about the iPad and how it interfaces with MLXchange. The easy answer is, it doesn&#8217;t. The more in depth answer can be found in the video below. On this site before we&#8217;ve talked about whether or not you should consider purchasing the new iPad, but whether you have the original iPad, iPad 2 or the iPad 3, you will have the same luck accessing MLXchange. As for other tablets, in it&#8217;s current form, MLXchange will not work with these other tablets either. However, FusionMLS, mentioned in the video above, will be natively compatible with any tablet that runs flash. Fusion will also run on any web browser. Bottom line, should you ditch your computer for the iPad or a similar tablet? If you can hold out for a couple of months, I would say you just might be able to do that and run your business from the tablet. For now, hang on to that laptop or desktop, otherwise you might not have complete access to MLXchange and in turn MLS listing data.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/11/the-ipad-mlxchange-and-you/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Membership Blog: Don’t give away the keys to the kingdom&#8211;</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/10/membership-blog-dont-give-away-the-keys-to-the-kingdom/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/10/membership-blog-dont-give-away-the-keys-to-the-kingdom/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 13:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Membership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CTMLS rules and regulations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[password security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sharign]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1887</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Passwords are like keys, used to unlock doors that open to hidden treasures. Consider the passwords you have and why. What do they unlock? When you were given your CTMLS User ID and Password, it was to allow access for you to enter and amend listings, perform searches, run reports, and take advantage of the variety of services that CTMLS provides, such as Data Co-Op and Kurio. Use of these applications is limited to Participants, Subscribers Administrative Assistants who have completed an application to join our service and paid all applicable fees. As a member of CTMLS, you are expected to practice &#8220;smart computing&#8221;, which means that you must follow the most basic of the &#8220;smart computing&#8221; principles of not sharing your password – with anyone. The truth is, sharing your password is not smart. Our policy against password sharing (CTMLS Rules and Regulations, Attachment A, Section (P)) clearly states that sharing a User ID or Password is a serious violation. A fine of up to $5,000 will be assessed and membership may be terminated for any instance of allowing access to an unauthorized person. This includes husbands, wives, children, parents and co-workers. Remember that your password is also a key to your personal information, and protecting it is perhaps the smartest thing you can do to protect your privacy. Think of it like sharing your banking information. Would you give someone else your bank account or credit card number? Not a smart thing to do, and neither is sharing your password.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/10/membership-blog-dont-give-away-the-keys-to-the-kingdom/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Compliance Blog: Inventory Watch</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/09/compliance-blog-inventory-watch/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/09/compliance-blog-inventory-watch/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 19:43:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Compliance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[firm inventory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inventory watch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MLXchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[office inventory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal inventory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Inventory Watch is located on the home page of the MLXChange. This is a great tool for several reasons. Most importantly it is a summary of agent’s personal listings, their office and their firm’s listings. Agents can check this Inventory Watch daily to see the most current status of their office and their company listings. By checking this daily, agents can keep their inventory up to date by managing their listings that have been on DRENT, SHOW or DEPOS too long, soon to expire listings and open houses that need updating. Helping to keep their office and their firm inventory accurate. Additionally, Inventory Watch can be used in place of the office inventory book. To further explain, most offices have an “office inventory” book that is kept at the floor/duty desk. When an agent is on floor and calls come in for their office listings, they can quickly refer to this book to look at the MLS fact sheet on the property. Unfortunately this book is not always updated. So what the agent can do is simply log into their MLS utilize this feature to quickly check their office, firm and or their own personal listings. All right there at their “mouse” tip. If you&#8217;d like to use Inventory Watch to keep track of your personal, office and firm listings you can learn how to use it in the brief video below.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/09/compliance-blog-inventory-watch/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>You Can&#8217;t Do That On The Internet&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/08/you-cant-do-that-on-the-internet/</link>
		<comments>http://ctmls.ctreal.com/2012/05/08/you-cant-do-that-on-the-internet/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 15:21:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-mail marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[referrals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[selling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ctmls.ctreal.com/?p=1880</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Truth be told there isn&#8217;t a lot you can&#8217;t do on the Internet, in fact you can do just about anything you&#8217;d like online. Maybe a more appropriate heading would be You &#8220;Shouldn&#8217;t&#8221; Do That On The Internet, especially if you want to grow your business. The lifeblood of any CT real estate business is referrals. One client telling a friend how great you are and having that message travel from person to person garnering you and your business new clients along the way. It&#8217;s a tried and true method for gaining new clients both on and offline. We talk a lot about building online referrals in our Internet Marketing classes. You might think that it&#8217;s ok to go to the ends of the Earth to secure referrals online then right? Well, not so fast. There are truly some things you really shouldn&#8217;t do when trying to cultivate new business online. Here are just a few of them. 1.) Don&#8217;t sell: This is critical. This article is an interesting look into the brain of the &#8220;new&#8221; consumer. They don&#8217;t want to be told what to buy, they want to discover what to buy and who to buy it from. They trust their friends and family members to give them good advice and that&#8217;s how they will choose you, not through a Facebook post about how great you are. 2.) Don&#8217;t be pushy: Being pushy is an instant turnoff to the consumer. If you have a client&#8217;s e-mail address and you are constantly e-mailing them, unsolicited information, will quickly turn them off to using you as a REALTOR®. 3.) Don&#8217;t post all your listings on Facebook: This might be counter-intuitive to you as there is a desire to put your listings in front of as many eyeballs as possible, but this practice will inevitably turn people off from your listings and from you. Having listing after listing after listing display in a potential clients news feed will become tedious and may drive some people to unlike your page which will in turn give you one less chance to turn them into a client or one of their friends or family into a referral client. 4.) Don&#8217;t write about the real estate industry on your blog: If you have a blog&#8230;HOORAY!! You are ahead of the game. Just keep in mind who you are writing that blog for. You are not writing it for other industry professionals, you are writing it for potential clients. If one of your past clients sends a friend or family member to your site and the first article they see is &#8220;Generate More Leads Using The IDX Search Link&#8221; they will likely move on to someone else. Focus on the consumer, not the REALTORS® Avoid these four things and you&#8217;ll be well on your way to being a successful Internet Marketer. Do you do any of these things or have you seen other REALTORS® doing them? What has been your experience? Share it in the comments below.]]></description>
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