#REBCVB Flickr Group Up!!

I encourage everyone to bring thier cameras and video cameras to get some amazing footage at the Happy Hour Event tonight and the main event tomorrow.

Please join the Flickr group and upload as many pics and footage as you can!!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/rebcvb/

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate

Thank you so very much to Sherry Chris and everyone at BHGRE for their generous sponsorship of REBCVB!  We greatly appreciate their participation in our event!

With the October 2007 announcement of a 50-year agreement to license the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate brand from Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services, entered into a new era of service for consumers across the nation.

The result: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, a new international residential real estate franchise company with a growing network of the industry’s leading professionals. These agents combine a respect for the tradition of home ownership with an eye on innovation to deliver an exceptional real estate experience. Knowledgeable counsel, strong negotiation skills, and overall excellent customer service experience are the trademarks of the new Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC team.

Complementing this team is www.bhgrealestate.com, your premier online destination for a treasure trove of market and community information, easily accessed and leveraged through the site by you, the consumer. Moreover, the site is also offering “green” information and resources that reflect the rising tide of environmental awareness and wholehearted acceptance of these trends by current and potential home owners. We believe that home with the most value—whether newly built or renovated—is one that takes full advantage of the latest in technology, planning, and common sense, while protecting the environment for years to come.

Consider the foundation upon which our new brand has been built. The Better Homes and Gardens name has been a staple of American life since its inception in 1924. Today, the magazine alone boasts a circulation of 7.6 million and a readership of nearly 40 million, and was named “Magazine of the Year” for 2007 by Advertising Age.

We also have how-to articles ranging from remodeling your home to living “green” available on our “Live” section. That, plus the latest on housing trends, school ratings, community amenities and aids, and overall demographics will ensure that our story is your story, and both are happy ones in the years to come!

Sponsor Profile: Inman

Inman News is the leading source of independent real estate news, information, advice, research, opinion and commentary for industry professionals and consumers alike.

Sponsor Profile: Zipvo

If you attend any real estate conferences across the nation, you know the Zipvo boys.  We are grateful for their support of REBCVB and thank them for their door prize!

ZIPVO is a leading real estate media website where agents can enhance, broadcast and market themselves and their listings free and easily through the use of video, PhotoVideo, blogs, agent profiles and real estate news.

Our goal is to provide real estate agents the tools needed to successfully market themselves and their listings free and easily with the latest online technologies and strategies.

Revolutionary products such as ZIPVO PhotoVideo^TM allow agents to quickly and easily create a stunning online video presentation for their listings. Users can also upload videos that they or a videographer create. To stay in touch with their customers, agents can create blogs and write about anything relevant to the market. Through ZIPVONews agents can discover news, events and emerging technologies in real estate.

Not only do we want to make the jobs of real estate professionals easier, we’re also here to revolutionize the home search process. Our interactive maps, video walk-throughs and PhotoVideos make the process of searching for a home quick, easy, and we think even fun.

ZIPVO is here to revolutionize the way real estate professionals market themselves and their listings online, and how consumers find and connect with them.

Sponsor Profile: The Real Estate Book - Hampton Roads

Thank you to Bill McFall of the Hampton Roads Real Estate Book for his generous sponsorship of REBCVB!  You can reach Bill at:  www.hrtreb.com or billmcfall@cox.net.

AN INTERNET-INTEGRATED MEDIA COMPANY

Our simple and effective internet-integrated media approach focuses on three key areas of the real estate market: Home Sales, Rental & Leasing and Home Improvement. While “location, location, location” has always been the universal mantra for success in real estate, another valuable commodity has emerged: Information. The speed at which data can be accumulated and disseminated is vital in our industry.

First, whether buying, selling or renting, consumers use a variety of media sources to actively search for their next home. Secondly, because the Internet is an integrated element of our core business strategy, each of our 22 established brands is the single most cost effective marketing solution for our advertisers.

UNSURPASSED DISTRIBUTION

Our brands offer unparalleled audience reach to an advertiser’s best, most qualified prospects. NCI’s fleet of trucks delivers our magazines to a proprietary network of over 320,000 distribution points around the country. The biggest in the industry!

Our websites and online proprietary real estate portal, LivingChoices.com, complement the strength of our print publications. With over 10 million unique visitors viewing 500 million listings annually, LivingChoices.com is a top destination for consumers actively seeking their next apartment or home. Plus, our online distribution partners provide another 45 million online users monthly.

Sponsor Profile: RE Tech South

REtechSouth 2010 is for real estate industry professionals (agents, brokers, lenders, builders, attorneys, inspectors, stagers, and other real estate services) looking to incorporate social media into their overall business strategy. This day-long event also reveals how to use other technologies to enhance business production.  You’ll learn how to:

• Create content that is valuable to the new consumer
• Engage new audiences with your content
• Utilize free resources to improve productivity
• Build social capital and become an influencer in the marketplace
• Leverage new technologies to attract Clients
• Get more out of existing technologies you use every day
• and much more…

Who should attend?
Real estate professionals who are looking to save money and maximize results with their marketing efforts.  This event is designed to meet the needs of beginner level technology users and advanced users who have already established basic command of the tools available.  Custom sessions for Lenders, Brokers and New Home professionals will also be featured throughout the day.  All sessions will be marked as Basic, Advanced or Universal to allow each attendee the ability to customize their REtechExperience.

What makes  REtechSouth 2010 different?
This is the only event that ties cutting edge social media concepts and practices, plus tips and tacitcs on existing technologies, to the unique challenges of the current real estate market. It’s worth attending just to absorb all the expertise that will be in the room, as real estate’s best and brightest direct their attention towards your needs.  REtechSouth 2010 is the place to be for real estate technology, southern fried.

Sponsor Profile: Shaheen & Shaheen

Our mission is to provide the highest quality representation to our clients at reasonable costs.  Our lawyers and staff are constantly pursuing the appropriate and timely training, education, licenses and certifications in their respective fields in order to provide you the best possible service.

The firm has a statewide presence with offices located in Richmond, Virginia Beach and Blacksburg, Virginia. The firm also has affiliated offices in Newport News and Moneta, Virginia. Contact them at:  http://www.shaheenlaw.com

Sponsor Profile: Shaffer Title

Sponsor Profile: NeighborCity

NeighborCity is an unbiased real estate search engine built with real estate buyers and sellers in mind. Our goal is to help you find the perfect home for your next move, locate your ideal second home or to help you compare your home to others in your neighborhood when considering whether to sell your home and how to price it for sale.

Instead of partnering with existing real estate brokers or agents, our approach is to stay completely independent of the real estate “powers that be” so that we can maintain an impartial view on your local real estate market, your neighborhood or your home. Instead of listing only certain properties or providing an incomplete view of the market, our technology integrates directly with your local MLS (multiple listing service) to ensure that a search at NeighborCity.com brings you literally every listing available on the market (that is listed with a broker/real estate agent).

Most of the other real estate Web sites will only show you listings they obtained directly from a broker. They often do not include all available properties in a given area and sometimes limit the amount of property data and images they provide their end users. They also accept advertising fees from brokers and agents in return for preferred placement on their Web sites. NeighborCity.com is completely free for all to use and does not accept advertising dollars so that you have an uncluttered real estate shopping experience.

http://www.neighborcity.com

Sponsor Profile: Picnik - edit photos the easy way, online in your browser

What is Picnik?

Picnik is photo editing awesomeness, online, in your browser. It’s the easiest way on the Web to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, or apply effects to your photos.

Photo editing made fun

Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames.

It’s fast, easy, and fun.

http://www.picnik.com