Designer Tool
How one Realtor® makes Designer Tool work
Tom Scaglione, current MFRMLS president, an ardent believer in the power of Designer Tool.
In our last issue, we gave you an overview of Designer Tool, perhaps the most misunderstood online application offered as part of your MLS subscription. In this issue we're going to take a closer look at how one successful Realtor puts Designer Tool to work in his office.
Tom Scaglione is not only the current MFRMLS president; he is also an ardent believer in the power of Designer Tool. "What subscribers need to understand," Tom says, "is that you can take any report, and with Designer Tool, you can 'copy' and 'save as,' and change that report as needed."
For his own office, Tom employs four general groups of reports that he has customized in Designer Tool: his personal reports, reports for his agents, special research forms, and reports for clients to view.
By customizing forms to display the information he uses most, Tom has just the information he needs about a listing at his fingertips.
For his agents, he's provided custom reports that display the information that's most important for someone wanting to show a property at the top: listing status, listing date, and showing instructions.
Some reports are for marketing research and administrative purposes only. When searching through his own inventory, only four or five fields of information may be relevant; extra information would only slow him down.
Finally, he has designed forms to show clients only the information about a listing that they care about. Designer Tool even allows him to customize the look and layout of the form so it will stand out from others.
Tom admits that Designer Tool can be difficult to learn, but once you've mastered it, the benefits justify the effort. That's why he serves on a special task force designed to make the next release of Designer Tool more powerful and user-friendlier than ever.
Article from Florida Realtor® Magazine
Published by the Florida Association of Realtors®
Tom Scaglione says his Microsoft Office XP software suite plays a
key role in gaining new listings in his market area. For instance, in
February, Scaglione, a sales professional with Avalar Realty of Tampa Bay,
Realtors® in
Tampa, put his integrated software tools to good use when preparing for a
listing presentation for a $394,000 home in Tampa’s West Chase area.
Because the listing had expired, Scaglione first downloaded the
seller’s contact information from the MLS into Microsoft Access, the
database component of Office XP. Using a template in Microsoft Word, the
word-processing component, Scaglione quickly dispatched a personalized
letter and a seller’s marketing plan to the owner.
After getting a positive response from the owner, Scaglione took his
Toshiba laptop computer to the listing appointment and used Microsoft
PowerPoint, the presentation component, to illustrate the advantages of
using his service.
Office-management software such as Office XP — which also includes
Excel (spreadsheet) and Outlook (e-mail) — makes it easy for Scaglione to
efficiciently conduct his marketing and communications tasks, allowing
more time with clients and customers. “I get full use of Microsoft
Office,” he says.
A real estate professional since 1965, Scaglione has used
stand-alone word-processing and spreadsheet software since the mid-1980s.
He switched to the Microsoft Office suite in the early 1990s and has
upgraded several times since. Early in 2003, he bought a new Dell desktop
computer and upgraded to the professional version of Office XP, which
includes Access as well as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
Here are some of the ways he uses his Office software tools:
1. Build Contact Lists
Scaglione uses the database-management features of Access to keep
up-to-date records of his active clientele, usually 40 to 50 people, as
well as previous clients and customers, prospects, referral sources and
other members of the community. He gathers contact information — name,
address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address — following a phone
conversation, e-mail inquiry or face-to-face meeting. Access also lets him
enter follow-up and tracking information, such as the date he received an
initial inquiry. “When working with Internet buyers, I send a reminder
every three months to see if they’re still planning to move to the Tampa
Bay area,” he says. “I don’t want to be a ‘spammer’ [one who sends
unsolicited e-mail], so I re-obtain their permission beforehand.
|
2 Integrated Office Suites
Here are two productivity-enhancing office suite
applications for real estate professionals:
1. Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft — Professional, new user: $579,
upgrade: $329; Standard, new user: $479, upgrade: $239; Developer,
new user: $799, upgrade: ; $549; (800) 936-4900;
http://www.microsoft.com
2. WordPerfect® Office 2002, Corel Corp. — Professional Edition: $459;
upgrade: $219; (800) 772-6735;
http://www.corel.com |
Scaglione’s Tools
Desktop: Dell
Laptop: Toshiba
Printer: Canon Portable BJ80
Color: Epson Stylus Photo 925
Laser: HP LaserJet 3330mfp
Cell Phone: Two Motorola T720 & T730
PDA: Palm Pilot 515
Software: Microsoft Office XP (including Word, Excel, Access,
PowerPoint, Outlook, Explorer, FrontPage, Publisher and Streets
& Trips), QuickBooks Pro, RealFast Contract Forms, WorldMerge |
2. Integrate Client Data
Access gives Scaglione a convenient starting point
for integrating client and customer records with Office’s word-processing,
spreadsheet and e-mail applications. For instance, when it’s time to send
a new issue of his electronic newsletter, he exports the mailing list from
his Access database in Excel spreadsheet format, and then uses
ColoradoSoft’s WorldMerge software to send the newsletter to his target
audience.
3. Effectively Sort E-mail
Scaglione, who teaches an advanced e-mail class for
real estate professionals, uses Outlook to organize in-coming and outgoing
e-mail into different folders, such as articles received from online news
services or messages from colleagues.
But he says the biggest benefit of Outlook is the
ability to create a master “client” folder to organize online client
correspondence. Within that folder, he sets up separate folders for
individual clients and customers. “As I receive e-mails, I move them to
their folders,” he says. “I also answer their messages from those folders,
so my response stays there.” After a closing, Scaglione archives e-mail
folders for long-term record keeping.
4. Write Personalized Letters
Using Word’s template function, Scaglione created a
variety of form letters. When he wants to contact past clients, customers,
property owners or other individuals, he quickly customizes correspondence
with the person’s name and address. “Each morning, I can send out 10 to 12
letters in a few minutes using my Word templates,” he says.
5. Prepare Closing Cost Estimates
Scaglione finds that Excel’s spreadsheet templates
provide an ideal way to prepare closing-cost estimates for buyers and
net-proceeds estimates for sellers. First, Scaglione prepares a template
that includes individual costs, fees and other items along with automatic
calculation functions that total all the items in one column. Then, he
simply inputs the person’s name, property address and contract amount, and
Excel does the math.
Scaglione then prints out the spreadsheet for in-town
buyers and sellers or uses Adobe Acrobat presentation software to create a
portable document format (PDF) that can be e-mailed to out-of-town buyers
and sellers. “Excel is an efficient calculator that enhances my ability to
do business,” he says.
6. Make Effective Presentations
Scaglione uses PowerPoint to create effective listing
presentations — both in person and online. “I can sit down with clients in
their homes or e-mail my presentation to them,” he says. “I also include a
PowerPoint slide presentation on my Web site for prospects to download.
That feature alone puts me in front of people 24/7.”
Scaglione used a custom template for his PowerPoint
presentation and tailored it to his needs. “My presentation — about 130
slides highlighting my services, company and marketing program — covers
everything from the initial listing to the closing,” he says, “so sellers
know what’s involved.”
“One of the best features of any integrated office
suite software is that it’s easy to learn, and all the commands and menus
are similar ... that’s a time-saving benefit,” says Scaglione.
This column, designed to offer examples of how
salespeople and brokers are using software in their offices, won the 2000
and 2001 Best Regular Column from the Florida Magazine Association. The
column is for general information only. Opinions expressed here do not
necessarily reflect an endorsement of the views by Florida Realtor
magazine or the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR).
Questions, comments or suggestions on this article? Send
us an e-mail:
flrealtor@far.org.
© 2003
FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS
