Dear CyberAgent user,

“South Africa property prices rising trend for 2010. According to Joina Properties, a leading Property Group focusing on South Africa and Zimbabwe in their report, South Africa 2010 – A property market perspective. Increased buyer confidence in the market will remain unchanged for about 8 to 14 months after the World Cup. The expected level of activity will however not reach the boom years of 2003 and 2007, mainly due to the current stringent lending policies by banks. Technology and the Internet will help the South Africa property market to see a significant movement towards an efficient property market with better marketing campaigns said Chipo Madusise, CEO of Sabi Digital, a leading Digital Marketing Agency in the report.”

Through our CyberAgent application for the real estate office and real estate agent we believe that we can give you the technology and Internet marketing that you need to put you one step ahead.

Technology – Our flagship product is CyberAgent. CyberAgent is an office management application for the Real Estate industry. Our CyberAgent application is a total office management system comprising of all aspects involving a real estate office, operating in the selling of property. It currently consists of 12 different modules from canvass management to property management and is available to the real estate agencies for as little as R 350 per month.

Internet marketing – CyberProp.com has become a property portal with more than 140,000 properties listed both for rental and for sale. CyberProp.com and our CyberProp.com newsletter is our community channel with the man in the street, providing them with “real time property” and industry related news. Currently we have 35,000+ subscribers for our CyberProp.com weekly newsletter. We also formed a relationship with other property websites and currently update the properties of our real estate agencies to 50+ affiliated websites.

2010! Make sure that you have the best of the best!

Good Luck!
The editor

1. Slide show enhancement

You can now display your P.O.A. properties in the slide show

2. Mapping on Cyberprop.com and affiliated websites

We are now able to display the office location of our CyberAgent customers on a Google map on CyberProp and our affiliated websites. Read more in Mapping on CyberProp.com

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, USP Designs has added mapping to www.Cyberprop.com, its client’s as well as affiliated websites.

With this in mind, we now are able to display a map and plot agencies on that map, yet again, a first for the industry.

A web user can now zoom into a particular area on the map and request a display of all Real Estate Agencies for that area. The user can define what area they wish to buy in and then see which agencies are nearest to that area. The area can be as broad as the whole of Southern Africa or it can be focused right down to suburb level.

To help us speed up this process, we ask if you would please enter your agency’s mapping coordinates.

If you are a CyberAgent Professional/Lite user;

you can use CyberAgent desktop application, Under “Site Update” we have added a new “Map Agency Coordinates” button.

Clicking on this button, will open a web page where you will be able to enter your coordinates.

CyberAgent Anywhere;

users can find the link under “Agency Setup” Menu option.

On this page, is a quick find, which will help you to navigate quickly to the suburb where your agency is located. Once you have located your suburb, simple click on the map to plot where your agency is. This will add a pointer and retrieve the coordinates for you. Then Click on the “Update” button to save the coordinates to our database.

Please remember to be as accurate as possible. This will help prospective clients find your premises quickly.

All our newsletters are stored on the CyberAgent website - so you can view any previous newsletter by simply going to www.cyberagent.co.za/newsletters.shp and then simply click on the newsletter link on the right.

"Het verlede week 2 huise verkoop vanaf die Cyberprop link voordat ek dit nog in die plaaslike koerant kon adverteer!”

This might sound like a “lotto” advert but it’s not. This was send in by

Charles Knipe
www.irmaknipeproperties.co.za

We also receive received feedback from Rob from Prime Star Properties who sold a house from his own website within the first month of being a client of CyberAgent.

This can be you!

“Life in the 21 st century is full of technological advancement and in this technological age it is very difficult for a business to survive without a website. Businesses without a website in today's date tend to lose large number of its potential customers. Each and every individual from a kid to an elderly person prefer the internet to look out for their desired products. The number of search engines is increasing day by day and if your business is not on these engines you tend to lose your customers to your competitors.”

Lastly, one thing that is for permanent in this world is CHANGE.

If you have any website questions or would like to make changes to your website contact Johan at webmaster@cyberprop.com.

Video clips can now be uploaded onto your website.

• All you need to do is to go to YouTube, create a free account and upload your video.
  
• Once the video is uploaded successfully, YouTube will return a string to use on your own web site.
  
• There is a link that you must put it in your picture description, exactly the same way as you would do with virtual tours. For more information contact our support desk

And the winner of a FREE video by Viewr.com is:

Marelize van Rooyen
www.nationlinkplattekloof.com

Click Here for printable .pdf file

We provide you with FREE training session in the following areas;

• Gauteng
• Kwazulu Natal
• Western Cape
• and the Garden Route

During these training sessions more information will also be provided on:

• CyberAgent Anywhere
  
• Keep me Informed Function
  
• New developments in CyberAgent
  
• New Update Manager
  
• REEP (Real Estate Evaluation Portal)

A warm welcome to all new Agencies November & December 2009:

We trust that by now you are well aware of what CyberAgent can do for you. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@cyberprop.com or phone us at: +27 (0)11 955-9100 or 086 112- 9237

Most Internet enquiries December 2009:

The Estate Agency Affairs Board recently conducted Anti-Money Laundering Presentations in four of our major cities around the country which were presented by KPMG.

For South Africa to develop economically and remain a responsible global citizen, it is essential that the integrity and stability of its financial system be protected. The fight against crime, money laundering, and terrorist financing forms the front line of this battle.

Estate agents are intimately involved in ensuring compliance with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA).

The Estate Agency Affairs Board also used the opportunity for stakeholders to address any concerns, and presented an update on the Education Requirements that came into effect on 15 July 2008.

KPMG Anti-Money Laundering Presentation

The principals and managers of the 2,000 members of the Western Cape Institute of Estate Agents South Africa will very soon be in a position to review wholly relevant data concerning their operations...

Residential property prices in South Africa rose for a fifth month in December after the central bank cut interest rates and the recession ended, according to the country’s biggest mortgage lender.

The average house price rose 4.7% to 1 million rand ($134,454) last month from a year ago, after gaining 3.4% in October, Johannesburg based Absa said...

Municipal valuations of residential property are time and again a cause of contention, says Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight Frank.

“If the municipal valuation of your property is above the genuine market value and you do not get it altered in the next round of revaluations, you could find that when you decide to sell your property the buyer has to pay transfer duty on the higher municipal valuation, not on the price achieved. This could be a cause of considerable annoyance.”

In these circumstances, says Steward, the agent has a duty to prove that the market price has not been artificially manipulated to achieve a lower transfer duty. He or she can do this by compiling a comparative market analysis citing the sale prices achieved by similar homes in the area. It may also be necessary to ask two or three agents to produce sworn valuations of the home, proving that it has not been under-priced.