Dear CyberAgent user,

International property sales and home prices may be appearing flat but it seems that the rental side of the Real Estate Industry is booming. Are rentals on the rise in South Africa? It seems that the answer is yes. Here at CyberAgent there has been an increase in the amount of rental listings on our CyberProp.com website. Overall the percentage of rental listings is on the rise, the number of households are increasing and South Africans, just like other parts of the world, are downsizing.

It’s that time of the year, award time. And if you have won an award this year, congratulations!

Real Estate Agents works hard. You have to canvass, meetings with your buyers and sellers, listings to do, unending phone calls, mountains of paperwork and come Sunday’s you still have to show houses. To crown it all you have the pressure of that award as you want to be the best. It’s easy to see why burn out in the real estate profession is so high.

You have to stay focused and motivated! I know, this is easier said than done but by balancing your life and your career it will increase your productivity, release pressure and put you on the road to become that great agent that you want to be.

Here at CyberAgent we are all the way with you. We are constantly upgrading our CyberAgent software to maximise your productivity. Our application can help you with those techniques, habits, ideas, concepts and winning attitude that can make you the best real estate agent! And if you still don’t know what our CyberAgent application can do for you visit our website, pick up the phone and ask or even better book a seat at our next training session.

Until next month!
The editor

We are now updating to Property Junction!

PA Media has joined forces with Avusa, one of SA's leading Media companies (Sunday Times, Nu Metro, Exclusive Books) to create a market place called Junction.co.za. This new market place allows online users to look for property, cars and jobs in one simple, user-friendly place.

CareerJunction, SA's biggest job site (1.8 million registered CareerSeekers and an average of 600,000 users a month) will be used as the catalyst to introduce the PropertyJunction brand and your properties to an unprecedented number of consumers in South Africa through web, print and mobile media.

	Why pay more? We are a Performance Based Lead Generating service. You only pay for what you get, nothing more. The no. of leads charged for are capped. Leads are charged at market value rates. Unique leads are valid for 6 months.
	We make it easy. We have already linked up to the CyberAgent listing management system so no extra effort is required to send your listings to PropertyJunction.co.za
	Quality > quantity. All leads generated from your listings comprise of registered buyers, ranked according to quality. This allows you to prioritize your leads.
	Can Buyers afford the property? By using our Affordability Calculator buyers can search based on their affordability and tell you what they can afford in the lead.
	Is the Buyer also selling or letting a property? Now Buyers can tell you in the lead you receive.

To have your properties listed via the Cyberagent software contact us at info@propertyjunction.co.za or give us a call now on +27 21 818 8607.

The PropertyJunction Team www.propertyjunction.co.za Better homes. More often.

Property score feedback

Dear Cyber Agent

I am currently loading a vacant stand on CyberAgent, I am very worried what the score for a vacant stand can do for my overall score. Surely the score for a vacant stand cannot work on the same score basis, you can only take so many pictures of a vacant stand.

WHAT TO DO????

You will not be not be penalised as long as you have 3 pictures as it counts out of 100. As for the scoring on bedrooms/bathrooms etc. you will automatically get full points for this.

From a principals viewpoint:

The new scoring system is magic! I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that the average score for my agency was only 29%. I can now understand why a property of millions of rands is not receiving the Internet enquiries that it should. Well done!

Teuns
Clockwise Properties

Do not hesitate to send us your questions regarding the new scoring system. These questions can be mailed to developers@cyberprop.com

CyberAgent Programme Enhancements

1. A recent question was asked regarding the Buyer requirements screen on Anywhere; "How do I ignore listings not on the internet."

There is a checkbox on the “Matching Properties” page to not show “not listed” listings. Look for Include Not Listed Property.

If the checkbox is checked then all your listings will be displayed. If unchecked, then only listings that are For Sale or To rent will be displayed.

We also added a link the view the listing on your own web site. Under property info, the new link will appear at the bottom. “View on Website” will be visible if the listing is active.

Please remember that the street and street number does not appear under the property info, as a lots of agencies email the list to the buyer and they asked for the street to be removed so potential buyer would not privately approach the seller.

2. Watermark on images

You can now add a watermark image over your pictures, for example, a company logo.

This is currently only available in the desktop version, but will be available in CyberAgent Anywhere in due course.

To add a watermark, click on the pictures button in the Property Manager, and then click on “Add Watermark” (in red text) near the bottom right of the form.

Firstly, you will need to select the watermark picture (“Select Watermark”) – this will need to be smaller than the property picture to work.

Then select the vertical alignment, horizontal alignment and transparency (how see-through the watermark will be).

You can then select if the watermark will be applied to the first picture only, or all pictures for the property.

“Not against edge” will leave a small gap between the edge of the picture and where the watermark will show on the image.

As you change settings, the preview will show you how the end result will be when you click on “Apply Watermark”.

NB: Watermarks cannot be undone, so be sure that the watermark is correct before clicking on “Apply Watermark”, or you will have to reload the pictures.

It is also HIGHLY recommended that you set watermarks before putting Sold Text on the images, or if you restore an original picture with Sold Text, the watermark will be lost.

Build 3.10.1593 is now available. Please make sure that you are using the latest version of CyberAgent.

CyberAgent Stats

By now you should have received a monthly email with the subject “Client Stats”. This is a breakdown of property views (primarily) so you can see which properties are being viewed and on which websites. This coupled with your property score can assist you in the correct marketing of your listings and improve you requests on listings

There have been a few questions about the stats, a common one that came up:

Q: Please send me the stats in another format as I don’t have Winzip on my computer and cannot open it.

A: All Windows from XP up have built in ZIP format support. To open the ZIP file (once saved on your PC), simply right click on the file and select “Open with ->”, and then “Compressed (Zip) folders”. This will then open like a normal explorer window

CyberAgent Reports

Recently we have gone through all our system default reports. Our main focus was to make the reports easier to read. The majority of the revamped reports were in the Property and Sales managers, but we have also revamped the Client reports.

To get the new reports, simply download the new version of CyberAgent (they will already be available in CyberAgent Anywhere)

Q&A Section

Q: After I run an update website I get a message saying “there are errors in one or more updates” what does this mean?

A: All this means is there is a property in your database that you are trying to update but there seems to be a problem with it. To see what the error is, there is a button that says ‘validate data’ just to the right of the ‘update website’ button. This will then give you the amount of validation errors that you have. To see which properties are giving the errors there is a dropdown box to the right of the window with the label ‘Error management’ above it. In this dropdown list you can select the property/ies and then click the ‘go to’ button which will open the applicable property and you can amend the error.

Q: We don’t have the FNB option only Private Property. Please advice

A: Private Property and Quicksell are both FNB. We send one email out for both options because both run at the same time. If you look at the Type column you will notice it says P for Private Property.

Q: Will CyberAgent run on my Apple computer?

A: Our software is written for Windows – Microsoft and does not run in the apple environment unless you have a windows “virtual” environment. CyberAgent Anywhere should however run on the browser provided by apple but there are some issues with it. Screens appear slightly different and some call backs don’t work.

Very Important Notice:

We have been receiving a lot of Mail Delivery bounce back messages on our server

The majority of these mail failures are due to incorrect email addresses that have been updated to our websites

I would therefore like to advice our clients to please check that the agent email addresses are loaded correctly in the Cyber Agent, Agent Manager

And also for those clients updating to us by means of a data feed, please check that the email addresses are loaded correctly on your system

I have come across numerous mail failures where there is a simple spelling mistake, or a just letter left out…

This is vitally important, as you will be losing Internet Enquiries and or messages from potential clients

So therefore please make sure that you load info correctly, as a simple mistake could cost you dearly…

Q: We keep receiving the following message from our anti-virus package when receiving your newsletters. Not sure if we are the only ones receiving this alert?

A: Trend is telling you that the email " that may contain malicious contents". It does not mean that the email has a virus in it. Trend will have to be configured to allow the email. It is not something we can change on our side. As trend is a 3rd party antivirus application, you will have to contact them if you need further support.

Please email me at dillon@cyberprop.com for more information or should you have any questions.

Some time ago I told you about how you can register your business on Google. Those agencies who did it are now reaping the awards on Google Place Pages. If you have not register do it immediately.

to read Google’s advice on how to get started with Places and manage your listing.

to sign up, go to Google Places

You can even take it one step further as a couple months ago Google rolled out Business Photos.

to find out more

National Top Performers

Data methodology applied:

• Registrations concluded for the period 1 Jan 2011 – 31 May 2011.
  
• Full title and Sectional title property values were viewed collectively.
  
• Transactions less than R100k and greater than R15mil are excluded.
  
• Only transactions where buyer was a natural persons or trust (i.e. excl. companies, municipalities, government etc).
  
• Suburbs classified as industrial and commercial are excluded (as per Knowledge Factory's ClusterPlus tool)

Click Here for printable .pdf file

Website Stats as at end September 2011

*Please note these values were the last stats received, and are kept primarily as  indicators

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

• Gauteng (Daily)
  
• Kwazulu Natal (Monthly)
  
• Western Cape (Monthly)
  
• Garden Route (Quarterly)
  
• Eastern Cape (Twice yearly)
  
• Free State (Twice yearly)
• Mpumalanga (Twice yearly)

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

• CyberAgent Anywhere (online module)
  
• CMA SAPTG (online module)
  
• New developments in CyberAgent
  
• The Ad Generator in CyberAgent
  
• General questions on CyberAgent Desktop and Anywhere

The training in George went smoothly and the concepts covered were received with enthusiasm. The general level of CyberAgent knowledge is definitely at a high level and queries were are resolved quickly. If you still don’t know what extras are available in your CyberAgent application make sure that you attend a Free training session at our offices or contact support for more information - support@cyberprop.com

A warm welcome to all new Agencies August & September 2011:

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

The EAAB has already sent out Renewal Notices to Estate Agents/Principals for 2012. To avoid late renewal penalty fees, we encourage you to renew for 2012 before the said due date. In cases where renewal notices were not received, Estate Agents/Principals should contact the EAAB on 011 731 5600 and request our Call Centre to provide your 7 Digit Ref No. Please indicate your 7 Digit Ref No. when making payment.

Banking details for FFC renewal payments:

ABSA
Account name: The Estate Agency Affairs Board
Account number: 405 203 3310
Branch code: 632005
Branch name: Protea Park

FIDELITY FUND CERTIFICATES UNCLAIMED

The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) has compiled a list of Fidelity Fund Certificates that have been returned as unclaimed by estate agents from the various Post Office outlets. In this regard, the EAAB has made every effort to trace the estate agents to no avail.

If your name or company appears on this list, we request that you urgently contact us to make arrangements to either re-post or to collect your FFC ... click for more

Financial Intelligence Centre - Estate Agencies must continue registering

The Financial Intelligence Centre urges Estate agencies to still continue to register despite the closing of the set deadline earlier this year.

For any enquiries FICA have advised agents to call the Compliance Centre on 012 641 6292.

Note: In completing your registrations please do not refer to Institute of Estate Agents or Estate Agency Affairs Board or their employees as contact where your Accounting Officers details are required.

The first generation of the international real estate franchise brands are being challenged by new innovative franchisors. In this article, international real estate expert, Bill Hunt and Keller Williams Worldwide President, Chris Heller, discuss the present and the future of real estate franchising.

While the European real estate markets are still fighting their way through the economic recession, characterised by decreasing number of sales, declining prices and the tightening of the credit market, and the majority of real estate agencies downsizing as a consequence, a few key players in the real estate industry are making moves that could change the face of global real estate...