Daily Archives: June 23, 2011

Mt Kisco Realtor sees “Google Docs Integrates More Deeply with Office & Box.net” | Search Engine Journal for Mt Kisco Real Estate

Leave a reply

Google Docs Integrates More Deeply with Office & Box.net

For a cloud-based service like Google Docs, one of the major challenges is integrates fully and effectively with the popularity productivity mechanisms already in place. While Google does offer the advantage of innovative cloud storage and document creation options, that advantage is likely to vanish in the near future thanks to Office 365. Likely to ensure the continued lifeblood of Google Docs, Docs integration with two major services – Microsoft Office and Box.net – is being expanded.

For Microsoft Office, the partner in question is certainly not Microsoft themselves. Rather, it’s the standalone “Google Cloud Connect” software that’s tuned to Microsoft Office. While the Cloud Connect service has been around for some time, several features have been missing. One of the more prominent is now being added: the ability to open files directly from Google Docs, viewing and editing them right from Microsoft Office. You can even use a search option in the provided dialogue box to locate your target document quickly.

Box.net, meanwhile, will allow users to open their Google Docs files directly from their Box profile. As explained by Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.net, “Box’s 6 million users can easily create and collaborate on Google Docs and Spreadsheets from within Box, as well as edit the existing 50M+ Word and Excel files already stored on our platform.” Box.net hopes that the collaboration with Docs will help expedite how quickly cloud software takes over as the main way to interact with documents and files, and by choosing Google Docs over Microsoft, Box.net is making an easily observable statement about how open the cloud should be. In the Box.net press release, Levi stated, that the company is “betting that platforms built around openness will triumph over the closed, proprietary approach” – such as that represented by Microsoft Office 365.

via searchenginejournal.com

South Salem NY Real Estate finds “5 More Handy Web Apps to Save You Time at Work” | South Salem NY Homes for sale

Leave a reply

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Web apps are a friend to all who mash the keyboard from nine to five. They live in the cloud, are accessible from any Internet connection and are great for chopping those mundane work tasks off at the knees.

We’ve previously highlighted a batch of web apps that reduce the headaches and keystrokes associated with common tech chores, and after receiving some great feedback from readers, we thought it only right to hunt down a few more worthy bookmarkables.

See below for five more picks, and remember to leave your own time-saving web ditties in the comments.

via mashable.com

Katonah NY Real Estate reads “Wells Fargo exits reverse mortgage biz” | Inman News for Katonah NY real estate market

Leave a reply

Wells Fargo exits reverse mortgage biz

Taxes, insurance worrying big-name lenders

Wells Fargo announced in March it would no longer accept reverse mortgages through its broker network, and last week it got out of the industry altogether.

Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest reverse mortgage lender, was the kingpin in the industry in more ways than one. It had 26.2 percent market share, according to the latest data from Reverse Market Insight, the largest network of reverse mortgage professionals and a money-making operation.

It simply did not like the road ahead.

HUD has been considering lowering the maximum borrowing amount for its reverse mortgage. In addition, lenders are concerned that if taxes and insurance payments are not kept current on homes, they could be forced to foreclose on cash-strapped seniors. No lender is eager to do so.

A reverse mortgage historically has enabled senior homeowners to convert part of the equity in their homes into tax-free funds without having to sell the home, give up title, or take on a new monthly mortgage payment. Reverse mortgages are available to individuals 62 and up who own their home.

The maximum amount of funds received is based on age, current interest rates and a current home appraisal. Funds obtained from the reverse mortgage are tax-free.

“Reverse mortgages and HECM loans are readily available to seniors as an important tool to help them stay in their homes and to fund their longevity,” said Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. “The decision by Wells Fargo that it will no longer originate new reverse mortgage loans does nothing to change this. The HECM program remains a relevant tool and the vast need for it continues.”

In April, reports show Wells closed 1,317 reverse mortgages and its annual total for 2010 came to 16,213 FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. While its monthly average was down slightly, overall volume did not appear to have any substantial change leading up to the exit.

All of the reverse mortgage industry’s big-name players have left the business this year. Financial Freedom, Bank of America and Seattle Mortgage preceded Wells Fargo’s exit. Like the others, Wells Fargo indicated it was closing the reverse component to focus on its core mortgage business, or “forward” mortgages.

Earlier this week, Vicki Bott, HUD’s deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing, announced she was leaving to focus more time and energy on personal family matters.

Bott hastily uprooted her family in Austin, Texas, and moved to Washington, D.C., to help supervise FHA’s single-family loan programs during a period of unprecedented growth as the nation slowly dug itself out of a housing foreclosure crisis. Although she supervised a staff of hundreds focused primarily on FHA’s “forward” mortgage programs, she had a profound impact on the HECM program.

Tom Kelly’s book “Cashing In on a Second Home in Central America: How to Buy, Rent and Profit in the World’s Bargain Zone” was written with Mitch Creekmore,  senior vice president of Stewart International, and Jeff Hornberger, the National Association of Realtors’ international market development manager. The book is available in retail stores, on Amazon.com and on tomkelly.com.


    via inman.com

    Bedford Real Estate learns “Setting the visual stage for a real estate sale” | Inman News for the Bedford NY Real Estate market

    Leave a reply

    Setting the visual stage for a real estate sale

    Make sure beauty is in the eye of the homebuyer

    There is more to staging than meets the eye … but not much.

    The first impression of your listing is the impression made by its visual presentation on the Internet. Eye-catching photographs of the home are important, and the competition for prospects is fierce.

    Look at real estate community websites and you get an idea of what visual staging on the Internet looks like when you have thousands of dollars to spend.

    Fortunately, certified professional stagers can help home sellers compete at a very high level on the Internet, and they have the client videos to prove it.

    The second first impression is the one made by the home itself. In other words, staging has become a marketing tool that draws the market to the product, as well as a merchandising tool that helps win over the prospect to the look and feel of the home when visiting in person. You need both, and with staging you get it.

      via inman.com

      Bedford Corners Real Estate finds “The First Company to Hit One Billion Monthly Unique Visitors: Google” | Search Engine Journal for Bedford Corners NY real estate

      Leave a reply

      Google: The First Company to Hit One Billion Monthly Unique Visitors

      While the world of web technology is far more about loyalty, revenue, and a few other less-than-easy to track metrics, Google has nevertheless earned some bonus points for being the first in one easily tracked category: monthly unique visitors (or MUVs). While Facebook has been growing rapidly, with a 30% growth rate in the last twelve months that threatened to hit the billion user point before Google could make it, Google did cross the finish line first. May of 2011 was the first month that Google is estimated to have seen more than a billion unique visitors.

      The unique visitors statistic is provided by comScore, who uses a panel of approximately two million users and extrapolates the global data from the information provided; this happens in much the same way as other global statistic tracking, including television sweeps. While comScore did provide information on Google’s overall search share and other relevant data oriented specifically toward search (including the impressive 12.2 billion searches figure and the current 63.3% of search market share), the most notable data includes more than Google’s search sites.

      Beyond the core Google search (Google.com and its various localized versions), the comScore figures examine the unique monthly visitors on a variety of other sites – including YouTube, Google’s second most popular property, and other major sites such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Android-associated websites. In the race to the company with the most popular properties, it wasn’t Facebook – despite its intense growth – who was right on Google’s heels. Rather, Microsoft’s various properties came in a fairly close second, with over 900 million unique visitors in May of 2010.

      via searchenginejournal.com

      Chappaqua Realtor asks “How do you know when it’s done? Seth’s Blog” | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

      Leave a reply

      Of course, it’s not done. It’s never done.

      That’s not the right question.

      The question is: when is it good enough?

      Good enough, for those that seek perfection, is what we call it when it’s sufficient to surpass the standards we’ve set. Anything beyond good enough is called stalling and a waste of time.

      If you don’t like your definition of ‘good enough’, then feel free to change that, but the goal before shipping is merely that. Not perfect.

      via sethgodin.typepad.com