Dear CyberAgent user,

What makes a good estate agent? Must he or she be 100% trust worthy, keen and have a good mentality? Or is it that "knowledge" of the industry that counts the most? We do know that estate agents in general often get some bad press. The problem is that in terms of perception estate agents are looked in the same manner as "sales people".

"Of course the integrity and commitment of your agent should not be in question, but effectiveness is the key third factor. This is evident from the fact that despite the financial challenges of the past few years, and the negative impact these have had on the property market, there are some estate agents who have continued to achieve a steady stream of sales anyway, no matter what type of property they are marketing." Jan Davel MD of the RealNet property group.

Here at CyberAgent we believe that a good estate agent is also the most effective estate agent. They are those who have all the right knowledge and the correct tools to help them to not only get those mandates but to sell a property and to achieve the best possible price in the shortest possible time. This is then also the reason why we are well aware of the importance to upgrade our CyberAgent software on a regular basis. Read more in CyberAgent Program Enhancements

Having your own website gives you a great deal of flexibility and increases your marketing options. Consider just a few of the things you can accomplish with your website. Now that you have your website we are sure that you are left with ample questions. Our website team has compiled a brochure for those who feel that that they've been left in the dark where it concerns their websites. Welcome to your new Cyber Agent website!

Until next month!
The editor

We had a lot of enquiries on the CyberAgent reporting therefore we place this article for a 2nd time. Also included is a list of all the available reports:

DESKTOP

Each module has its own reports relative to that module. Property module has various reports about the listings captured on your system. The reports range from property lists to individual property details.

The various modules include Property, Client, agent and Sales.
With the addition of the Advert Generator module, agencies can now print pamphlets and newspaper advertisements directly from CyberAgent.

The detailed report can be found on the form where the property/client is captured.

The list reports are mainly defined under the report wizard. These reports are group together depending on the relative section or module.

Sales form has a number of reports ranging from a detailed sales report, summary report, management summary up to a payslip for each agent.

Included in sales, are numerous reports based on sales dates and broken down into Originator, Granted, Lodged and registered sections as well as a commission breakdown.

All reports has a report definition file and this definition file can be customized to suit your agencies individual needs. To have a report customized, you would have to contact our support department.

CYBERAGENT ANYWHERE

The same reports as in desktop are available in CAA.

Each Module has a report button which will open a form with various related reports are already defined.

The main difference between desktop and CAA, is the management module. This module has reports specifically designed to meet the criteria needed to manage your agency.
They are broken down into sales and property reports.

You can draw a report per province or for the whole of South Africa, if you are registered as a franchise holder or group site. The management module is only available to Administrative users.

Individual agents do not have access to this module.

Individual agencies can see their own data only.

Reports Available.

Desktop

Report Wizard has the following Reports

Your website is up and running, what now? We have put together this handy document containing information that can help you to get the best out of your website, including info on how to enhance your website, information about SEO, link building and how to create good website content.

1. The new version includes bigger pictures.

Should you wish to start using larger pictures for the websites, we can now accommodate for this. There is a once off conversion fee of R300 excl. VAT to enable this functionality. You will then be able to load pictures of 600 pxl width as opposed to the 275 pxl in use currently, so the quality will be much better.

Should you wish to make use of this – or how to use this, please contact support@cyberprop.com

Bigger Pictures Q & A

What about the pictures on your current listings?
You do not have to reload pictures on your current listings, the older pictures will still display correctly on your website.

How do you load the bigger pictures?
When loading new pictures, make sure the picture you want to upload is bigger than 600 pixels wide.
Desktop: Upgrade your software to the latest build and load pictures as normal.
Anywhere: Load your pictures as normal.

What should I do if some pictures are not showing on my website?
First thing you need to do is a "Sync All Pics" in CyberAgent, if this doesn't work please contact our support desk at support@cyberprop.com or on 011 955 9100.

2. New Sales Report

A new sales report has been added go give you a list of sales that an agent is involved in. It can be found under the sales manager form=>Reports.

This report gives a list of sales and contains the following fields:

• Erf number
  
• Date of sale
  
• Sale price
  
• Commission
  
• Bond
  
• Attorney
  
• Totals
  

What makes a good website?

If your real estate website only sees a few visitors each week and generates even fewer leads, now might be the time to check out Google’s latest tips on what makes a good website.

It’s interesting to note that, along with basic advice about content and accuracy, Google has made a point of mentioning how important a good domain name is, going so far as to advise keeping it under 10 characters and avoid special characters. If you’re considering registering a new domain to promote your real estate business, start buy reading through our tips on what you should be focusing on with that all-important name choice...

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Do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions

Johan
webmaster@cyberprop.com

Build 3.100.1541 is now available. Please make sure that you are using the latest version of Cyberagent.

How to contact support?

We have a huge problem with clients sending support queries to specific members of support with the result that issues are not being attended to promptly. The specific person might not be available at the time the email is sent. Please mail all your support queries to support@cyberprop.com. This is an automated email account that will allocate the query to the first available member of support and it will also issue the client with a ticket number for future reference.

Q&A Section:

Q: What is the correct way for me to list my properties?

A: First of all you need to make sure the correct agent or agent team is loaded into the system so you can select them when loading your property and also make sure that the agent’s contact details are correct so that future enquiries are sent to the correct address. The agent only needs to be loaded once so just check that they are in your system and if they are it isn’t necessary for them to be loaded again.

Then you need to load the owner of the property, this needs to be done in the contact manager. It is recommended to do this so that you can link properties and owners together for more complete information when doing reports and searches in Cyberagent.

Once that is done you can now begin loading the property, when loading a property imagine yourself as the customer who will viewing this property and what you can imagine they will be wanting to look at when viewing a property. This is even applicable to those CyberAgent users that is making use of data feeds;

• Include good quality photos
  
• Use neat, informative headings
  
• Add as much information about the property as possible using the ‘specifics’ and ‘notes’ sections. This will not only benefit you by making life easier for the potential client but will also benefit you on the search engines such as Google as you are adding information that could potentially be picked up on prospective clients searches
  
• Keep you listing “clean”
  
• Use simple fonts where possible
  
• Check for spelling mistakes
  
• Make sure your listings looks the best
  
• Make sure your contact details are correct

Q: Adding of appointments:

You guys rocks! Please explain how this works – Erica

A: The developers have recently built a calendar into the Cyberagent system, both for the offline and Anywhere versions of the program. It works much like an Microsoft Outlook calendar. You can record appointments, reminders and memo’s and can allocate a date and time when each is happening and you can open the cyberagent calendar each time you log in to see when your various appointments occur.

Multiple admin users:

There is now an additional facility for agencies who would like to use multiple admin user accounts. The cost for additional admin users are as follow:

• One additional user R100 excl VAT
  
• Second additional user R75 excl VAT
  
• Thereafter R50 excl VAT

Please email Support@cyberprop.com for more information.

In another effort to link itself to local businesses, Google has started rolling out a feature called Google Business Photos to enhance the profiles on Google Place Pages.

As Google explains here, businesses can now apply to have their premises photographed in scheduled photo shoots, with the resulting images then added to the business’s Place Page. At the moment, the service is available in select locations across the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

While Google Business Photos is a feature probably more suited to places like restaurants or hotels, this service, which currently appears to be free, could still be useful to real estate agencies who want to show off the atmosphere of their offices.

If nothing else, this is another reminder for real estate agencies to ensure their profiles on Google, especially their Place Pages, are as complete as possible. Click here to read Google’s advice on how to get started with Places and manage your listing.

We received enquiries on gated communities and data that are not displaying correctly. Herewith an answer from SAPTG on this problem.

The data issues are simply a case of missing/incorrect NAD and a lack of CAD data especially in these areas. The bottom line is this will always happen and has to be fixed on a case by case basis.

To ensure quicker turnaround times with data problems you can now contact SAPTG directly by mailing them at datalog@saptg.co.za

The contact person is Jolene Martin

Click Here for printable .pdf file

Website Stats as at end April 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 recent training in Bloemfontein and Nelspruit was received very positively and the overall comment was that they were very excited about using the extra features that they did not know about. They were very happy with the extras available to make the day to day running of the business more professional and efficient. 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

Gauteng

A warm welcome to all new Agencies April 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

Dear All,

Over the past few weeks there have been a number of good discussions on the forum regarding the CPA.

Some of the topics under discussion have revolved around contracts & agreements, direct marketing and the returning of goods.

Please login at some point and take a read through some of the topics and share your comments or experiences. The forum is only as useful as our contributions to the discussions, so don't be shy!

Cheers,
Darren
www.saconsumerprotectionact.com

Send your viewpoints to news@cyberprop.com

As most consumers will, by now, be aware, CSTM was interdicted by the High Court, Gauteng South on 24 May 2011 from continuing to operate as an estate agent. This means that CSTM may no longer legally perform the functions and activities of an estate agent including, in particular, the management of sectional title schemes. The Court also appointed a curator to administer and control all CSTM trust accounts...

Agents and principals in the real estate sector in South Africa have traditionally been represented by their branch of the Institute of South African Estate Agents (IEASA). However, as of this month (May) there will now be two representative bodies: REBOSA (Real Estate Business Owners of South Africa), who will represent these senior leading members of the property market, and IEASA, who will now be mainly concerned with agents and other real estate employees...

In the cut-throat world of business competitiveness, creating a strong, positive and memorable presence is the key to survival. Whether you are an executive in a large company, the owner of a home industry or a part-time estate agent, the business card is an effective communication and marketing tool. But like any tool, it must be used properly. E-mailing as well as social networks are now di rigueur and we carry cell phones with a plethora of applications. But there are two reasons why business cards remain indispensable...

By Prof Graham Paddock

In the current climate, there is a lot of competition in the estate agency business. One needs to stand out from this competition and those that can provide a superior service are those that will do well.

Only those estate agents who specialise in home owners' associations and sectional titles schemes need to know how these types of community schemes operate to be able to iron out any difficulties that may arise in their sale process. But for the last twenty years, all middle and upper-class housing has come onto the market as either HOAs or sectional title schemes. So, for any estate agent concentrating in newer and up-market areas, this knowledge may be very useful.