Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

Finding or Selling Your Home while using Social Media

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

More and more people are taking their home search out of the car and onto the computer. With our great new site, ruhlhomes.com, it’s easy to search for a home from the comfort of your living room. Online websites have taken a lot of the leg work out of finding the perfect home. But many people aren’t utilizing social media, like Facebook, that they use on a daily basis to help them find a new home. How can social media help you find the perfect home?

Social media has provided us with an abundance of information that wasn’t necessarily available to us before! From a buyer and seller’s point of view, Facebook can aid you in choosing a real estate agent since it does provide a more up close and personal feel without being actually up close and personal. Real estate agents are turning towards social media, specifically Facebook, to help expand their client base. Ryan Vandaele, a Ruhl&Ruhl agent who uses Facebook as a business tool, says “There are sooo many people on Facebook in the Quad Cities that it seems that it is just as addicting as having your morning cup of coffee….Once you start getting more and more people responding to your posts or emailing you back, that is the time to promote yourself and your business!  People will read what you have to say!” As a buyer or seller, agents want you to read their page and check them out, use this to your advantage! You could find that a real estate agent has similar intrests, like is an avid cycler just like you, and you’d love to work with them because they know all the bike paths in the area.

For seller’s, Facebook is also a great way to get your home out there; not only will you have the exposure that a real estate agent is providing, but you can let everyone know that your house is up for sale! Maybe you have an acquaintance, which is also a friend on Facebook, who was looking to purchase a home in your neighborhood. 

For buyer’s, Facebook provides groups that can give you more information about the community. This is a great way to see if a community meshes with your lifestyle and is somewhere you would like to make your home. Also, buyer’s can scope out local groups they would like to participate in or join.

Facebook is not going to be your primary tool in selling or buying a home, but it does help provide information that isn’t traditionally found on an agent’s page or real estate website. Facebook can be used to aid in your home search or selling your home and make it an easier experience for all!

Mobile Ruhl: Search Listings on Your Cell Phone

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Customer Service
Office Telephone: 866-441-1776
CustomerService@RuhlHomes.com

Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS is adding another tool to your property search capabilities – your cell phone.

Ruhl&Ruhl is now the first agency in the Quad Cities and surrounding region to offer Mobile Ruhl, a mobile application used to search and provide real estate listing information on your cell phone, powered by Smarter Agent. Mobile Ruhl allows users to view real time property information, displays listings on a map and has GPS capabilities to show properties for sale in the area around the user’s location. Consumers are able to search almost every listing in Eastern Iowa, Western Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin using their personal cell phones, whether it is listed by Ruhl&Ruhl or another company.

“This new technology gives our clients the benefit of having all real estate listings right at their finger tips, whether at home, in the office or even in the car,” said Caroline Ruhl, President of Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS.

By accessing the Mobile Ruhl cell phone application, the GPS technology pinpoints the location of the user and instantly delivers information on almost any home for sale in that immediate area. In addition, consumers can search by mapping properties, minimum/maximum price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, as well as address, community name, city and zip code.

Search results reveal:

  • Price
  • Total Square Footage
  • Square Feet on each Floor
  • Large Pictures
  • Taxes
  • Interior and Exterior Features
  • Interactive Map
  • Beds/Baths
  • Estimated Mortgage
  • Property Type
  • County
  • Amenities
  • Appliances
  • Fireplace
  • Location of Baths
  • Parking/Garage
  • Heating/Cooling
  • Utilities

Users have the ability to connect directly from the application to a phone call with an experienced Ruhl&Ruhl professional who can schedule an appointment to see a specific property. The user can also choose to save the search or share the property.

Mobile Ruhl can be downloaded to a cell phone by visiting www.RuhlHomes.com and clicking the “Mobile Ruhl” icon to begin the process. The application works on 95% of cell phones across all U.S. carriers as a fully downloadable application or a premium mobile web version. Mobile Ruhl is free to download on Sprint devices, as well as the iPhone, BlackBerry devices across all carriers and Google’s Android G-1. For other carriers and devices, a nominal download fee may apply, similar to the cost of a game or ringtone. The premium mobile web version is free to access.”

Ruhl&Ruhl belongs to ten Multiple Listing Services in the region. Mobile Ruhl was launched first in the Quad City area and will be implemented in all other markets over the next 30 days.

A family-owned company since 1862, Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS annually sells approximately 3,400 homes in eastern Iowa, western Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin. Caroline Ruhl is the President and owner of Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS, and is the fourth generation of the Ruhl family to lead the residential brokerage and home services company. Headquartered in Davenport, Iowa, the company has 250 sales associates and 60 employees based in sales offices located in Bettendorf, Bellevue, Clinton, Coralville, Davenport, DeWitt, Dubuque, Maquoketa, and Muscatine, in Iowa, and in Moline, Illinois. In addition to residential sales, Ruhl&Ruhl offers services in relocation, new home sales, farm sales, senior services, and mortgage services through 1862 Mortgage. For more information on Ruhl&Ruhl, visit their website at www.RuhlHomes.com.

About Smarter Agent: Smarter Agent® creates mobile, location-aware (such as GPS) search applications that help consumers and professionals learn about, interact and transact with the world around them as never before possible. Smarter Agent invented and patented mobile, location-triggered real estate search and is now the largest mobile real estate portal in the world. Smarter Agent represents the first mass commercialization of a mobile application in the United States. Its reach includes premium downloadable applications with all major carriers, as well as access from all phones, operating systems and formats. CTIA, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, named Smarter Agent the Winner in its Emerging Technology Awards LBS/GPS category.

Visit www.RuhlHomes.com or contact us at 866-441-1776.

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Copyright © 2012 Ruhl & Ruhl REALTORS. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: All content on this blog is my own opinion and should not be treated as fact or relied upon when purchasing or selling real estate.