Hello there. It’s been a few weeks. We’ve been busy and are really excited to release REpurposedApps into the wild. This project was built as a tool for members to recommend apps that they use and add comments to already existing apps. We’ve had a great group of beta testers helping us hammer out the bugs and offering suggestions. We have an amazing group of Showcase members who will be curating lists of apps they think are worth your time. The great thing is that as long as you’re a member of NAR, you are a part of this conversation.
Typically, the apps being recommended are not real estate focused and that’s a good thing. What we’re discovering is that members are really thoughtful in how they can apply these apps to their workflows. Recommendations we’ve had have ranged from weight loss apps to
You get to shape the content and what’s happening on the site. To start, you will need to create an account here. Once you have that account, you can recommend apps and comment on the already existant apps as you’d like. We’re also interested in feedback. Definitely let us know your thoughts at @crtweet and use the hashtag #REpurposedApps when you. Thanks!
It’s Earth Day today and all this week, we are going to be covering sustainability topics. What better way to kick off the celebration than by participating in NAR’s Green REsource Council? As CRT looks to the future, we believe that the more information that our members have about sustainable technologies, the better. The best way to kick start you on this path is by getting NAR’s Green Designation. Continue reading »
One of our new charges in CRT is to delve deeper into sustainable technologies and see how they may have practical applications in real estate. We’re constantly looking for new and exciting things that indicate where these technologies are going and could be seen as the starting point for bigger movements. There are three products I want to highlight today as possible milemarkers on this journey. A cone, a ball and a puck: these three simple shapes represent where the future of sustainable energy production is heading.
Continue reading »
Note: This is part 1 in a series that will be ongoing in the coming weeks. This initial article is pretty long, but there’s really no way around that, as we dive into some of the concepts and make Responsive Design what it is. I recommend using a service like Pocket or Instapaper for offline reading
In August 2011, CRT was charged with re-thinking the technology that was behind realtor.org. We were determined to implement technologies that were freely available and built on open standards. One area we were really excited to move into was the area of Responsive Web Design. We did a lot of research and review of what information and materials were available. At that time, there were not many organizations that were using these principles. The Boston Globe launched in October of 2011 and that was about it for larger organizations and Responsive Web Design.
In April 2012, a revamped version of realtor.org launched using Responsive Web Design principles. The largest factor for us moving in this direction was that we anticipated the increase of mobile usage on our sites in the very near future. We were right. In 2010, 3% of visitors to realtor.org were using mobile devices. As of today, we are seeing 25–30% of our visitors using mobile devices. That’s a huge leap. As CRT continues to work on sites at NAR, we will employ these principles on all web properties.
Continue reading »
CRT has been hard at work on a new project for the last 6 months called REpurposed Apps. We’ve been building a place for members to come together and share with each other the apps they use on a daily basis. It’s a great hub for connecting with people and finding apps that weren’t built specifically with real estate in mind, but are being used in ways to streamline workflows.
We are now at a point where we are looking for beta testers to help us shape it and carry it the rest of the way.
For this project, we are looking for people who are heavy app users and are using regular non-real estate intentioned apps in their daily workflow. We are looking for creative uses of these apps as well.
Taking a page from the Google Glass application process, here is what we need you to do:
- On Twitter, post a tweet with why you would be a good beta tester and your favorite app and add the hashtag #REpurposedApps to the tweet.
- Follow @crtweet so we can direct message you if you’re selected.
- You do NOT have to fly to New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles or pay us $1,500 to participate.
NOTE: Applicants must be a member of the National Association of REALTORS®.
We’re asking that you help us get the word out. Please share this link or retweet the original tweet.
The first round for the application process will end on Sunday, 3/10 @ 6pm EST. We are excited to get this beta test going and get other people outside of the project involved.
If you’re not selected, no worries. This is only the first round of beta testers and we may issue more calls in the future. Our goal is to go live with REpurposed Apps around MidYear. Thanks for listening, and we look forward to reading your applications.
NOTE: CRT has a couple of new members to the team. One of them Sean Charles is a really amazing developer and all around great guy. He started in August and has quickly made himself a valuable member of CRT. You will see more of Sean as CRT makes its rounds at events. Sean attended the most recent Inman Conference and found it to be a great educational experience. – Chad.
I’m a senior Drupal developer here at CRT (The Center for REALTOR® Technology). In a nutshell, I live and breathe the Drupal CMS and strive to find new and innovative ways the Drupal CMS can provide benefits to our members.
Recently, we launched a new version of our website Realtor.Org, which was an honor to have been involved with. My primary responsibilities were with the home page slideshow gallery. This section allows you, our members, the ability to view content most relevant to your role within the real estate industry as well as content related to your particular interests.
I’ve always found programing to be exciting, challenging, and rewarding work. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to develop for some very large scale and well-known Drupal sites, such as Ghirardelli Chocolate, Maui Jim sunglasses, and even a site for the United States Government; however, I find much more reward as a team member within an organization whose collective goal is to better understand the needs of its members and to ensure we continually innovate, providing the latest value-added information, technology, and services to benefit your professional needs and help keep you ahead of the curve.
I truly enjoy my work and look forward to bringing you more value through technology and teamwork here at CRT.
In the coming year, CRT is going to include green and sustainable technologies in its discussion of technologies for our members. We are excited to be partnering with NAR’s Green REsource Council to bring you these features as part of an ongoing conversation on green technologies. Aside from CRT staff, we have some great writers from the real estate industry lined up as well.
Why Green Technologies?
For over a decade, CRT has been a think tank and hub for new technologies. Green and sustainable technologies are developing rapidly, which makes this an exciting time, as we feel that our forward-looking mission and charter is a perfect fit for this field.
Exciting changes are happening in green technology, like solar panel chargers for mobile devices, which are steadily coming down in price and becoming accessible to a wider market. We are also seeing devices with solar panels built into them. We are seeing smart home technologies come to the fore, with energy efficiency being the integral piece in that movement. We are seeing members working with more and more clients who are very interested in these emergent technologies. CRT will be actively involved in helping members understand what these technologies mean for them and how they can contribute to cost savings and conveniences that benefit their professional needs. Moving ‘off the grid’ makes it easier for members to be more mobile without having to worry about where their power will come from.
What Types of Technology?
Along with our guest contributors, we’ll be covering topics such as:
- Building Sciences (Creating High-Performance Homes)
- Materials that are less impactful on the environment, more sustainable and can increase the value of a home
- Paints
- Building Materials
- Insulation
- Windows
- Personal charging and power devices
- Solar power chargers
- Kinetic chargers
- Gas-free generators
- SmartHome Technologies
- Smart Thermostats
- Wifi-enabled LED light bulbs
- Metering devices
- Member and Brokerage movements
- Sustainable Brokerages leveraging technology
- Member-promoted initiatives
- NAR’s Green Designation and what it means for you
We’re very excited to discuss these topics and have you join the dialog. If you would like to be considered for a guest post or have a topic you would like to see covered, send us a note on Twitter. – @crtweet
A special thank you to the NAR’s Green REsource Council for helping us get this initiative off the ground.
As we head into 2013, the CRT team is excited to begin a series of weekly blog posts designed to keep everyone up-to-date on CRTs plans and goals. CRT will be blogging about current projects, future initiatives, as well as answering questions and harnessing feedback. We continue to work on NAR’s web properties (realtor.org, realtormag.realtor.org, archive.realtor.org, and blogs.realtor.org) but we have more in the pipeline. To kick off the new year, I’m going to highlight three major initiatives CRT will be driving in the coming year and discussing how these plans will benefit members.
Three areas we’ll talk about in the coming week:
- Green Technologies - We’ll explore personal technologies as well as building science.
- New site and app creation for members at large - Our first effort in this vein is a project we’re calling REpurposed Apps.
- Data Work - Making data sets more presentable as well as more accessible to our members and our associations.
As we move forward into 2013, we’ll be reaching out for feedback from the community.
Along with the initiatives listed above, we’re getting back into doing member-focused technology reviews. We see mobile and the ‘Internet of Things’, as some call it, as areas that are vital to the future of real estate and you’ll see posts that cover that. We’re also excited to feature guest posts from Mark Lesswing (CRT Emeritus) our Senior Vice President and Chief Techology Officer and Keith Garner (CRT Emeritus) VP Of ITS at NAR. Stay tuned because we have a lot in store for you.
CRT Wifi Hotspot bathed in sunlight. Come relax with us at 1pm!
For those of you in Orlando, Greg and I will be at the CRT Wifi Hotspot and we’ll have an array of tablets with us. We’ve got an iPad Mini, Microsoft Surface and a Nexus 7. The Wifi Hotspot is located just outside Grand Ballroom T in the Peabody. It’s located in the atrium and in my opinion, there couldn’t have been a better spot for it. We’ll also be demoing REpurposed Apps as well, and there to answer any questions about what CRT’s been up to for the last couple of years. Come on by if you’ve got some time!
Today at Annual during the Business Technology and Information Systems forum, we previewed a new site that CRT has been working on. We’re calling it REpurposed Apps and we’re pretty excited about it. We’ve targeted it for a Q1 launch and will have updates here on this blog, at @CRTweet, and on our Facebook page.
REpurposed Apps is a site that allows members to share apps they use and how they use them. Comments are allowed for each app so there is space for ideation and education between members. The purpose of the site initially is to allow members to share those apps that weren’t built for real estate, but are being used for members’ daily workflow.
There are three things we will filter the apps for:
- Misuse of the REALTOR® trademark
- Offensive or derogatory apps
- Self-promotional apps
Beyond that, it’s fair game. Again, these are not apps recommended by NAR, but by members. CRT will not recommend apps in the recommendations queue. We will have a special section to feature NAR apps and some apps we think are interesting, but the main section is member territory.
For each app, we’ve identified what platform it’s compatible with (iOS or Android for now), included the app store descriptions for those platforms, and provided a link to download the app. Ratings on REpurposed Apps will also be implemented.
Another section of this site allows us to feature members who’ve been heavy users of apps. They can recommend their top apps and share in one place info on how they’re using them. We’re calling these Showcases. Typically these members have been doing these talks for a while and this allows them to share their thoughts on a larger scale and helps members discover who they should be following in the real estate tech community.
As we refine this project more, we will provide updates. We hope you’re as excited about it as we are. Let us know what you think.
