Let AroundPoint find the points of interest!

April 15th, 2009

Hello AroundPoint Users!

Our service is now more than a year old and on Mar 15th we celebrated our first anniversary!
Thanks for the wonderful feedback we have been receiving.

Way back in Dec 2008, our users asked us if we could have AroundPoint find Points of interest near their property (as against, having to enter points themselves).

We listened and went back to the drawing board. We are happy to announce that the new version of AroundPoint will find points of interest within a specified radius around your property!

When shown on the map, you can ether ‘Select All‘, in which case they will all be added to your Circle of Interest, or select only some points to personalize.

Let us know your experience!

AroundPoint Support

http://twitter.com/aroundpoint

aroundpoint announcements

Announcement: Aroundpoint now integrates with your website!

December 11th, 2009

Hi all!

We are pleased to announce that with the latest release of Aroundpoint, we can now integrate with your website!

What does this mean? Well, here’s the list:

  1. A link next to each of your listings will show your house PLUS it’s surrounding Points of Interest AUTOMATICALLY using colorful icons on a fully interactive map!
  2. Realtors and Sellers will still have the option to add more points of interest and PERSONALIZE the existing ones via a secure login!
  3. A snazzy PDF brochure will optionally have the surroundings also printed (with pictures of the surroundings)!
  4. Voice integration for reading back the description of your property, by a speaking character!
  5. View listing in Google Earth
  6. Get a weekly hit-count report broken down by listing.
  7. Automatic syndication of your listing (via RSS) to Realtor.com (if you have a showcase status),  GoogleBase,  oodle, vast etc. This graphic says it all!

So next to your listings (on your website), you will have a link that will show this. How cool is that!

Please contact us for details!

The AroundPoint Team.

aroundpoint announcements

Aroundpoint basics

September 16th, 2009

A lot of users (Twitterers, really) have been asking us how aroundpoint works:

Here is the short answer:

1. Register by clicking here and supply a user Id and password.

2. You will be sent an email (to the address that you entered while registering) with a link. Click on that link. That activates your account. Login using your user id and password.

3. Create a property by entering it’s address. Aroundpoint will loacte it on a map.You may use an MLS# if you have one or use any ID (aroundpoint will ensure that it is unique).

4. Click “Add Points of Interest to Map” and then “Show me the Points”. Select a category of Points and supply a search radius.  AroundPoint will find the points around your property.

5. Click “Select All” to include the points.

6. Click on the points to personalie! That’s the big advantage. Tell your potential buyers why YOU think that proximity to this point of interest is a great asset.

7. Optionally add your own points of Interest and personalize.

8. Youre done! Now you can tell your friends about your personalized surrounding tour at aroundpoint .com. All they have to do is visit www.aroundpoint.com and enter your mls#  (or unique id) in the upper left box of the home page.

9. For value added services click here.

Of course you can upload pictures of the property AND the Points of Interest. Make your property look really good!

Enjoy! Please provide feedback here!

Thanks,

The AroundPoint Team.

aroundpoint announcements , ,

A day with Mr. and Mrs. Buyer

May 1st, 2009

I sell homes all over the Pittsburgh area. Pittsburgh has about 150 neighborhoods. I live in one of them. Knowing about the other 149 is a bit of a challenge.

Sometimes here is how my conversation with my out-of-town buyers goes:

Me: So… what do you think? lol

Mr. Buyer: Hmm.. nice house! Is there a gym nearby? :???:

Me: Um.. Yes there is… (thank God, I’d Google’d it out last night). Just 3 miles down the road. :smile:

Mr. Buyer: Does it have a pool, do you know? :???:

Me: Oh.. I’ll have to get back to you on that. :oops:

Mrs. Buyer: I love dancing. Is there a dance studio near here? :???:

Me: Yes… (Thankyou Google!). I did see it on the map of the area. :lol:

Mrs. Buyer: Oh great! Can I walk to it or do I have to drive? :???:

Me: I’ll have to get back to you on that too :oops:

Mr. and Mrs. Buyer: rolleyes :roll:

Well… that is an uncomfortable situation to be in. I’m sure many of my realtor friends will agree with that. Well, that’s where aroundpoint tours have helped me immensely.

I just created the inital property and let the seller fill in the details. Most times he’s more than happy to provide the detail to showoff his neighborhood. And now Aroundpoint will find the Points of Interest for you! All the seller or me have to do is to personalize them.

I hope you like the tool too! Try it here

Let me know your experience!

Cheers!

Shalini

shalini Uncategorized , , , ,

The answering machine is history… almost!

April 29th, 2009

Google is finding it’s way into the very fabric of our being! Google Voice is slated to hit prime time shortly. No more excuses… The answering machine is always on!

Gmail pioneered the unique approach of targeted ad campaigns by trolling through our in-boxes. Will GoogleVoice adopt a similar approach by parsing our sound bytes to figure out what we may want to buy?Although, I must say, listening to ads while retriving my voice-mail doesn’t seem very palatable :)

But of all the features the GoogleVoice offers, the one that floats to the top on my list is Personalized Greetings. With the ease of changing greetings via the web, having one voice greeting for the wife another for the boss is… sweet!

Now, if only they would add a Text-to-speech (TTS) feature to the voice-mail, the possibilities are endless: eMail to vMail and back, on the touch of a button!

Technically, parsing voice data seems like a daunting task. But… if any company is poised well to take on that project and scale it well, I’d bet my money on Google Inc.

answeringmcrip

aroundpoint Uncategorized

Interesting surroundings

April 28th, 2009

We know that more 80% of home buyers initially use the internet to begin their home search. With ubiquitous mapping solutions, there are tons of sites that will tell you what is around the property that is being considered for purchase. However, the personalizing of those surroundings is aroundpoint’s value propostion.

For instance:

Where does the school bus stop? Can I see it from my kitchen window? That can be an important fact to know if I end up driving my child to the bus-stop two houses down on snowy days.

I love dancing… is there a dance studio in the neighborhood of the property? If so, what’s it like? How much does it cost?

And baby-sitting! Are there enough baby-sitters in the area for my toddler when I want that much needed breather?

And tons more… Here’s a sample!

Thoughts anyone?

aroundpoint Uncategorized , ,

So you never forget a face?

April 21st, 2009

I thought I never forget a face…. and I was right!

facerecognition

I just took this test and got a 100% in the strongest category!

So… don’t cross me, I know where to find you!!

There are some, I know who don’t remember the face but the telephone number instead!! Who’s that guy… um.. 717 346 9 something!!!

Can you get a 100%? Give it a shot.. takes about 10 minutes.

shalini Uncategorized

Lockbox key on the iPhone

April 18th, 2009

Whatever happened to the hype about getting us to use our iPhones to unlock the supra lockboxes ?

The Supra Lockboxes use InfraRed waves for communicating with the “key” device. I would think that with the blue tooth standard, it would be easy for iPhones/iTouches to have the software to unlock the lockboxes. And you really don’t have to have a wi-fi connection to the internet when we are at the listing. Update the “keys” at home using the home wi-fi and then use bluetooth to unlock at the listing!

Why isn’t this already available?

Shalini

shalini Uncategorized , , ,

You can be anything you want!

April 16th, 2009

Hello friends!

I found this extremely funny!

Obama's dog wanna-be

Obama's dog wanna-be

shalini Uncategorized ,