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2011

1) Property Details Pages Redesign. We’ve completely redesigned our property details pages – the new look is thoroughly modern and sophisticated, and shows off all of the great new tools available to users of the Sequoia system. Among the many upgrades, any attributes for a listing which are left blank in the MLS description are now hidden, so users only see actual, useful information. We’re now using a unified map tool to display not only search results and property details, but also useful data from our Yelp, Education.com, and Walkscore tools as well.

We’ve also added tools to every listing detail that let you share it on either Facebook or Twitter, and we’ve hidden the Schedule a Showing tool for properties with inactive statuses. In addition, property addresses on listing details now include the unit number by default (if the listing is one) to boost the page’s real estate SEO potential!

2) Type-Ahead Search Technology in Sequoia Back-End. On the back end of your Sequoia site, you now have access to the same type-ahead search technology we recently introduced for locations – only now we’ve added this for lead names as well! Rather than scroll through your long list of leads, you can now select leads for actions like messages, tasks, and events by simply starting to type their name and selecting it from the list of suggestions. This not only makes your life easier, but also makes any pages that used to have these drop-down lists on them load much faster.

Also, our tracking of lead’s Last Active dates now rely on a much broader set of criteria in order to give you as much intelligence as possible on your users. Now this date is updated whenever a lead performs almost any action, regardless of whether they are working with sales or rentals listings. This date also now only tracks activity initiated by leads themselves – agents updating lead info no longer gets tracked for these stats.

Get access to these features and more when you sign up for a real estate website from Sequoia: you will also receive automatic site upgrades and additional features whenever we roll them out.

Contact Boston Logic today to get started!

Make More Money with These Lead Management and Sequoia CRM System Tips!

For those of you utilizing the great Sequoia real estate website platform, here are some helpful tips for using the LogicLeads Real Estate Lead Management and CRM system that will make you more money!

Enter each lead into the system. Regardless of source.
Setup nightly email updates.
Look at the searches your leads have performed, email them some listings and ask if they would like to see any of them.
Create a showing sheet and ask if they’d like to setup a time to see any of these listings.
Schedule tasks to follow up on.

5 Calls in 5 Days

Schedule a task to follow-up with each closed renter for 6 months later to see if they want to rent again (or maybe even buy!)
Ask every renter if they’ve thought about buying.

If "yes"...

Set them up with nightly email updates in the same neighborhood where they want to rent with their buying criteria

Send messages to leads directly from the system

*HINT: Make sure you’ve edited your profile to include a proper email signature!

Search through your lead activity to see who has been using the site and when and follow-up using that intelligence.
Enter each showing and make notes after so you know what each lead needs and / or wants.
Export calendar of events and tasks that you’ve set up.
Use export function to quickly get leads into your Outlook and phone.

Not set up with the best-in-class real estate website software? Contact Boston Logic today to make the investment in your business!

New Site Launch: Cabot & Company

Cabot & Company has been a Boston Logic client for several years. In search of more quality leads and better lead management and CRM tools, Cabot & Company upgraded to the Sequoia platform. Cabot chose to keep their existing design theme, but take the power of their web presence to the next level!

Cabot & Company wanted to give their agents the best tools in the business, as well as maximize their search engine ranking potential. With an existing design theme by Boston Logic, Cabot & Company chose a Mimic Theme for the Sequoia platform - letting them keep their unique look and feel while upgrading all of the functionality "under the hood" of their website.

Cabot and Company New Site Launch!

Choosing a mimic theme allows you to keep your existing design while upgrading the functional aspects of your website, as well as the potential for higher search engine rankings. This is a great option for anyone who wants to preserve their look and feel, while generating more leads on the web and working with the best tools in the industry!

Moving to Sequoia gives Cabot access to vastly more powerful tools, such as our recently launched CRM functionality, Sequoia's new lead management system, our easy-to-use LogicCMS, our proprietary content management system, which now features sidebar menus and HTML widgets, and of course the huge Search Engine Optimization potential built into every feature of the platform. Our sites are designed not just to help you manage your leads and workflow, but to get you more leads in the first place!

Contact the Boston Logic sales team today at 617-266-9166 to learn more about the Sequoia platform and our various design options.

Cabot & Company represents residential buyers and renters in Boston's premiere Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighborhoods and beyond.

How Do We Decide Which New Features to Add to the Sequoia System?

The other day, the owner of 2 real estate offices which use the Sequoia platform asked me if he could send me a list of ideas that he's compiled from his agents. These are features and ideas they have for the sequoia platform. Here was my response:

We want all of your suggestions. Here's how the Sequoia New Feature Selection Process works:

1) As feature requests come in, we put them into a Feature Request Log. We probably get about 2 per day, on average. Often, they come in 10 at a time, as I'm sure you're about to send me.

Sequoia New Feature Building Process

2) Once per quarter, we sit down and look at the Feature Request Log and see how many times each feature has been requested. We also consider whether or not a feature actually adds value or is just some wacky request from a nut who's paying us (we have more than a handful of those).

3) We also consider whether or not the feature fits into the mission and direction of the product. For example, if someone wanted us to make an automatic newspaper ad generator, it would be unlikely that we'd build it. We don't believe that making it easier to waste money is going to help any of our real estate clients.

4) Lastly, we consider how much work it will take for a feature to be implemented. Small features, even if they'll add limited value, might get done just because they're low-hanging fruit while features that require 150 hours of our time might need to be scheduled further into the future.

5) Then, we order feature requests based on all this evidence and go to work. Depending on how busy we are and which features we choose to take on, we might get to a feature during that quarter or we might not. Then, 90 days or so later, we look at the list again, add any new requests and go through the process again.

It's through this process that our system evolves, largely informed by client input.

It's important to note that when more clients request a new Sequoia real estate website feature, we're more likely to implement that feature. Some ideas are good, but require a lot of work and maybe only 1 client has ever made that request. So, they wind up at the bottom of the list every time we review it. After more then 6 or 12 months and no more requests, we simply remove a feature from the road map.

New Sequoia Feature Launches: 3/7/2011

While the Sequoia real estate website platform already has the best real estate website features available, read up on the latest in Sequoia feature upgrades for your real estate website!

1) MLS rental listings now show in rentals searches. Our RentJuice clients can now show off rental listings from their MLS in rentals searches! Thanks to recent upgrades to the RentJuice API, Sequoia sites with this component enabled will now show users any MLS rentals that match their search criteria in rentals searches. This can be turned on or off at your discretion in your Settings section.

3) Featured Properties Page Company Listings. You can now choose whether your company’s listings automatically show on your Featured Properties page. Controllable in the Settings section of your Sequoia realtor web design, you can now opt to have all of your listings automatically show up here when listed, or not – for those of you who wish to hand-pick only the best listings to feature!

4) XpressDocs Single-Token Login Tool Integration. For those of you who use XpressDocs for your print advertising needs, we’ve integrated their single-token login tool to the back end of your Sequoia realty web design. Simply enter your XpressDocs account info into your Settings section and your brokers and agents will have access to an XpressDocs login button on their Dashboards, allowing them to access this web-based tool without needing to log in twice!

Not a Sequoia client yet, but like what you see? Contact us to get started on your own real estate website design today, and to have access to all the features above and much more!

New Sequoia Real Estate Agent Site Launch: Christine Lacava

Christine Lacava is an agent with Jack Conway & Co. When she needed a new website, she came came to Boston Logic and the Sequoia platform in order to leverage all of the great tools she came to know and love on the Jack Conway corporate site!

Christine needed a great site at a great price, so she took advantage of one of our ready-to-deploy design themes for the Sequoia platform.
Choosing a standard theme allows you to have a new, fully functional website up and running in minimal time. For a low startup cost, you can have your new Sequoia site live to the world in less than 24 hours if you choose one of our standard themes. This is a great option for anyone on a budget - or in a hurry!

Our Real Estate Agent Sites offer all of the great features of our sites for entire offices, as well as integrated lead management - which enables you to get leads assigned to you from your brokerage as well as from your own website! No need to log into two systems; leads captured on your office's Sequoia site can be sent directly to your real estate agent website for you to manage directly. This system cuts down on much of the time and effort required to maintain your own site while still working as a member of an office.

Contact the Boston Logic sales team today at 617-266-9166 to learn more about the Sequoia platform and our various real estate web design options.

Christine Lacava represents residential buyers and sellers in Plymouth and Bristol counties.

New Sequoia Website Feature Launches: 2/7/2011

Read up on the latest in Sequoia real estate website features!

We’ve added the ability to create Sidebar Menus and add them to any page! You can now create custom menus in addition to editing the standard system menus such as header and footer menus. When editing or creating a page with our LogicCMS, you will now see a “Sidebar Menus” dropdown for all pages; just pick your custom menu from the list and it will be added to the page. Sidebar menus will be shown above the quick search form in the left sidebar. You can now also choose whether each page can have a quick search form – just check the “Hide Quick Search” box to remove the form. You can add it back at any time by unchecking this box.

We’ve added the ability to create HTML sidebar widgets and add them to any page on your Sequoia site. Sidebar widgets can be any HTML or plain text object you want; images, Flash files, embedded video – the same content you are able to add and edit in our LogicCMS. Sidebar widgets are essentially secondary CMS blocks you can add to the sidebar of your site. You can create as many as you want, and add as many as you want to any page!

We have added a Bing Webmaster Tools to the Settings section of Sequoia; you can now verify your site on Bing by entering your settings and updating your site.

We’ve added the ability to enter your own representative 3-bedroom unit prices, both for sales and rentals, to our Developments component. Simply enter the information on the setup page for any Development and your customers will be able to view the data at any time.

We added Printable Listing Sheets for rentals, which display to the public just like our Printable Listing Sheets for sales. Users of your Sequoia site can now print a formatted details page showing the valuable information about your rental units with the click of a mouse!

We enabled your own exclusive listings to use any listing sheet you want instead of our standard HTML sheets. All you need to do is upload a listing sheet PDF to your exclusive listing on the back end of your Sequoia site, and the “Print Listing Sheet” link shown on the front end will now provide users with your own custom file!

We’ve added ZIP code to the setup form for Town Pages – you can now use our Town Pages component to feature all listings in a given ZIP code!

Thanks to updates to the RentJuice API, Sequoia sites can now search for rentals based on minimum bathrooms as well as minimum bedrooms!

Not a Sequoia client yet? Contact us to get started on your own real estate website design today, and to have access to all the features above and more!

New Sequoia Features and Upgrades! 1/21/2011

The latest Sequoia real estate websites feature releases and site upgrades - if you are a Sequoia client, be sure to check them out on your own website!

We’ve upgraded our system emails in many ways; the most noticeable being the email address and name the emails come from. Now each company’s system emails, such as daily email updates for leads, messages generated by the LogicLeads CRM system, and more will reflect the appropriate company or agent name. Emails to assigned leads will come from the agent, with their email address and name in the “From” fields in the message. Unassigned leads will get messages from the company’s name and default email address, set in the Settings portion of the back end of each site.

We’ve added an optional email signature on every agent’s profile. Agents can edit this signature at any time, and it is appended to any email sent on their behalf by the Sequoia real estate software system.

We’ve expanded the back-end property search functionality to include rentals from LogicRentals or RentJuice. The back-end navigation item that used to be titled “Search Sales” is now titled “Property Search” – and if you have a rentals component, there are two sub-items; Sales Search and Rentals Search. The back-end rentals search shows agents and brokers comments and remarks that are not publicly available, such as showing instructions. Just as the back-end sales search provides a comprehensive property overview for MLS listings, our new back-end rentals search allows brokers and agents to get as much intelligence as possible on any given listing – without having to log into two separate systems!

We’ve added a great new feature for brokers and agents who need to show multiple listings to one client, or to organize their showings for the day. You can now create Showing Sheets on the back end – these are helpful sheets with basic property info that allow agents to print a list, with images, of the day’s properties to be shown, or to email the list to a lead. Now when you execute a search on the back end, whether for sales or rentals listings, each search result has a checkbox to add the listing to a showing sheet. Sheets can be associated with leads, or printed simply for agents’ own use. If you set a start and end time for a showing sheet tied to a lead, this gets saved as an Event in the LogicLeads CRM system – the same is true for emailing a sheet to a lead. There’s a new tab on each lead’s profile titled “Listings” which shows any listings that have been emailed to the lead – and now and showing sheets for either sales and rentals as well!

Like what you see and want to learn more? Contact us about your own real estate website design today!

New Sequoia Site Launch: Maxfield Real Estate 1/14/11

Maxfield Real Estate came to Boston Logic in need of a new real estate website design - and having spent many years with their previous site, they knew that it was time to redesign from the ground up.

For the Maxfield team, this was an opportunity to both explore a new look and feel for their web presence, and to build that real estate web design on the best software in the business - the Sequoia platform.

As many of our clients do, Maxfield Real Estate chose to have us design a fully custom Sequoia theme - redesigning everything from the home page and common theme elements to interior pages, such as the listing details and search results pages.

The new Maxfield Real Estate site is modern and organized, giving users easy access to Maxfield's many listings in the lakes region of New Hampshire.

The design option of choice for our most discerning clients, our Custom Design Theme lets you start fresh, with a newly designed site built just for you. Our design team presents several initial concepts, from which one is chosen and modified through several rounds of revision. Home page layout, color schemes, global elements such as headers and footers, are configured to order - and the custom layouts don't stop at the home page. Custom Design Themes also include layout changes for standard system pages such as search results, agent profiles, and more.

The following is a great testimonial from Maxfield Real Estate in working with Boston Logic and the Sequoia platform:

"Boston Logic has been instrumental in bringing our new Maxfield website to fruition. We look to Boston Logic as an expert in online marketing. Ashley Osgood especially has been dedicated to helping our agents get started, answering questions and providing educational opportunities. We look forward to continued success and the growth of our site through the help of Ashley and Boston Logic." - Denise Williams, Maxfield Real Estate

Contact a member of the Boston Logic sales team today at 617-266-9166 to learn more about this great way to make your new Sequoia site truly unique.

Maxfield Real Estate is a sales leader in the lakes region of New Hampshire, with over fifty years of experience representing luxury properties and unique vacation homes.

Learn the New Sequoia CRM! Sign up for 1/11 LogicClassroom NOW!

Boston Logic will be teaching an in-depth LogicClassroom on the recent upgrades to the LogicLeads component of our Sequoia Real Estate Web Sites.

Join us to learn how to utilize the new features and CRM functionality of LogicLeads to help you convert leads into deals! The LogicLeads system is the most effective way to stay organized, manage your time, and monitor your pipeline- and we've just made it more powerful and even easier to use!

We'll be discussing the new components of the CRM, launched just a few weeks ago - including Task Creation and Management, Lead Management, Event Creation, and more in this 30-minute class.

We recommend any clients currently using the Sequoia system attend this LogicClassroom on Tuesday, January 11th at 5pm.

Don't have a Sequoia real estate website by Boston Logic? This class is your chance to see how easy the Sequoia Dashboard is to navigate and to see a live demo of an exciting component of the software and all of its capabilities!

This LogicClassroom is a great opportunity to learn how to make the most out of your Sequoia website, to more effectively captures and manage leads. Don't miss out, sign up today!

You are welcome to attend at the Boston Logic Office (view map) or participate through an online webinar. The class begins at 5pm on January 11th. Don't be late!

To register for the event, please contact Angela at 617.266.9166 or by email at adavis@bostonlogic.com. Please specify whether you will attend the class at our office or online.

We look forward to seeing you there!

New Sequoia Features: 4/15/2011

Related Links:

Make More Money with These Lead Management and Sequoia CRM System Tips!

Related Links:

New Site Launch: Cabot & Company

Related Links:

How Do We Decide Which New Features to Add to the Sequoia System?

Related Links:

New Sequoia Feature Launches: 3/7/2011

Related Links:

New Sequoia Real Estate Agent Site Launch: Christine Lacava

Related Links:

New Sequoia Website Feature Launches: 2/7/2011

Related Links:

New Sequoia Features and Upgrades! 1/21/2011

Related Links:

New Sequoia Site Launch: Maxfield Real Estate 1/14/11

Related Links:

Learn the New Sequoia CRM! Sign up for 1/11 LogicClassroom NOW!

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