Entegral Blog

It might not seem like an important aspect of your homepage but compelling introductions are quite pivotal in hooking a potential client. For many visitors to your FLEX website , the first page they will land on is your homepage, and as the saying goes - first impressions last. Consider your homepage and what you are trying to do - as a real estate agency, it is not just about selling property, you have to sell yourself and your business to build those lasting relationships that turn into profit. How do you do this with a homepage? By introducing yourself as the leading expert that you are through a well-written introduction. How to write winning introductions Writing effective homepage copy doesn’t need to be complicated and these tips will help you not only introduce your business to visitors but also move them to action. Be concise Everyone visiting your website already knows that you are a real estate agent or agency, they don’t need an explanation on what you do. What they do need...

Dear Clients, There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic is putting a damper on economic activity and have now resulted in a national lockdown in South Africa to help save lives. This will undoubtedly have a direct impact on the real estate market and agents specifically. Business as usual has been disrupted and working from home is the new normal for everyone in the next few weeks. At Entegral business operations continue as normal. We've been operating a remote work force for the past 5 years so there is no disruption in our service to you. Our team is actively busy working on new features and tweaking existing systems as usual. Recently, our South African partner portals have stepped up to assist agents as follows: Property24 will not charge for services for the month of April; Private Property will reduced subscription fees by 25% for 3 months; Property360 has recently partnered with Entegral to offer a reduced subscription fee for a new account; Although Entegr...

Working remotely from home is the new normal for now. At Entegral we've been working remotely for the past 5 years and understand the challenges and opportunities this presents. For a start, you need systems that promote the work-from-home environment, and this is how we've designed Base. Let's look at how the system can help your agents work remotely: 1. Secure access to unlimited file storage from anywhere There are many great solutions like Google Drive that provides file-sharing capabilities. But what if you are looking for something simple, that is secure, doesn't cost you extra, is integrated into your existing systems and available from your web browser? Base has a nifty document library that provides unlimited storage of office files . You can create folders and upload templates, marketing material, OTP's and more. The office document library provides access to files for all your agents from any device. Users with administrator access have full access ...

We've introduced a great way for estate agents to promote themselves through the MyProperty channels via our neighbourhood expert profiles as can be seen below: Neighbourhood expert profiles on MyProperty South Africa You can now also showcase neighbourhood videos at no additional cost, which is a first for a South African property portal.  You simple need to create a great YouTube video where you give an overview of your neighbourhood and send the link to us for evaluation. This offer is only open to estate agents that already have neighbourhood expert profiles on MyProperty (We will open for new submissions again later). As can be seen in the example below, we will include it as part of your neighbourhood overview, which will give you some awesome exposure. Now that's not all, great area overviews will be promoted on our social channels, including the MyProperty Facebook and Twitter channels at no additional cost to you.  see how the Raptors View nei...

Price freeze As part of our standard offering, Entegral provides a 15% discount on any accounts paid 12 months upfront. With price increases introduced from March 2020, you still have this week to pay 2019 prices 12 months upfront and save an additional 15%.. February also signals the end of the tax season for most companies, so further tax savings is possible for the current financial year as an added benefit. You have until Friday 28 February 2020 to take up this offer so please contact us on  support@entegral.net  if you are interested. Get your Flex website upgrade in now We are experiencing high volumes of new website orders and will subsequently increase setup prices for any new websites from March 2020. If you don't have a Flex real estate website yet or thinking of an upgrade, get into contact with us before the March price increase. If you are not an Entegral client yet, you can generate an online quote here:  https://www.entegral.net/order/

Attract fresh new real estate talent with our real estate job board You can now advertise your real estate vacancies on MyProperty's Job Board  from only R99 for 3 months of exposure. Our Real Estate Job Board is also integrated with Google's job search, which provides excellent exposure for your office. Your vacancy is highlighted with your logo which really stands out above the crowd as can be seen in this example below: To place your ad, simply visit the real estate job placement page here , fill in the details and pay via credit card. Our team will review and approve the ad. An added benefit is that it provides you with great brand exposure on the portal and a link to your website as shown below: MyProperty is owned and operated by Entegral as a 100% independent and self-funded property portal. Read more about our mission and DNA here.

Slow speeds are continuing this week for South African users due to undersea cable breaks: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/335752-bad-news-for-south-africas-slow-internet.html If your real estate website is hosted on our latest generation Flex websites , you are however covered with our industry 1st Cloudfront feature which replicates your real etstate website locally and over 100 locations worldwide, more here .  The result is a quicker and more stable website. Technical details With the Flex solution, visitors to your website will be routed to the nearest hosting location to browse your website for super quick response times. For South African users, this will be  Johannesburg or Cape Town . If your website is only hosted in one location, e.g. US or EU, it will be served slower to users and the slow experience will be elevated through the current heavily congested and problematic international undersea link . If  your website is only hosted in South A...

While businesses of all shapes and sizes can benefit from social media - the real estate industry is uniquely suited to the community-driven platforms that make up this digital space. To ensure you kick off 2020 on the right footing online we take a look at three platforms that will help you gain more eyes on your business and more importantly your listings. Facebook Last year the National Association of Realtors released a study that revealed that a whopping 99% of millennials - and 90% of baby boomers - begin their home search online (as opposed to in-person referrals.) This statistic can be seen in action in the various community groups on Facebook where users regularly ask for referrals for estate agents active in their area or asking for rental properties that might suit their needs. Simply put, if you are not active on Facebook you are missing out on a large slice of the pie. Get a Facebook Business Page Instagram What makes this platform so great for real ...

We are proud to welcome a seasoned property professional with over two decades of sales, training and consulting expertise to Entegral. Gavin Kelsey will be heading up a new Real Estate Training division that takes advantage of his experience as an agent, business owner, franchisee, management executive and trainer across many real estate platforms to deliver a refreshing and practical alternative to agents and agencies.   His passion for training and consulting is underpinned by ‘simplicity’ and ‘application’. Increased sales and improving results is the goal but it relies on three key ingredients; 1. The individual or company needs to have a need for change; 2. They reach for a solution; 3. Follow the process (exactly) until the results are achieved. Real estate is a ‘game’ in which everyone can win.  The 1st training program "Sold in 6 weeks" is now available for booking and has already received very positive feedback ( view the testimo...

New MyProperty Namibia logo Our MyProperty Namibia home search portal has received a few updates including a fresh new logo, that reflects the recent MyProperty South Africa brand updates done. The new logo follows a more simplistic design: Header update Namibia is such a beautiful country so it was difficult to decide on a new header image. We've opted for the world famous  Spitzkoppe . Great choice isn't it? Ranking algorithm When someone searches for properties for sale or rent, we now rank the latest listings first. We will introduce other ranking algorithms to showcase the best listings 1st, including number and quality of photos, length of the property description and how complete the listing details are. Catch us at Namibia's first Property Expo! You can catch our team at Namibia's 1st Property Expo this weekend. We'd love to meet you so please come and say hi! You can catch MyProperty founder, Adriaan Grové in action this...

Entegral provides a complete mobile real estate solution for estate agents , from listing & contacts & document management using Base , to it's  100% uptime, serverless responsive real estate websites, Flex . We recently got our hands on the latest Samsung Galaxy S5e tablet . One of the best Android tablets you can buy at around R10,000: a slim design, awesome battery life and incredible display. The keyboard cover is what makes this tablet the perfect companion for estate agents who are always on the move and need quick access to listings, contacts or office files. Combine with a Rain mobile unlimited data deal (R250/month) and you are empowering your agents with a true mobile office solution. Here is what Base looks like on the Samsung S5e, editing a property listing: With the keyboard folded away (and in portrait mode), you can still access all the features, here we are capturing a new property listing: Even when you only have access to your phone,...

Entegral offers a unique set of products for estate agencies, that are designed with pricing structures that scale with the size of your agency. These products can be used in combination for a complete solution, or used individually. It is perfectly suited for existing agencies, new startups or national franchise groups. Base : A mobile friendly listing, contacts and document management. Sync : Listing syndication to more local portals than any other service providers. Flex :  Responsive real estate websites. To calculate your once-off setup and monthly hosting fees simply use our realtime quote generator: http://www.entegral.net/order . (Have a look at the cost savings when you opt for debit order or 12 month upfront payments). If you order a website, a setup fee of 50% is payable upfront, with the rest due on launch. We don't tie you into any 24 month contract and we offer a full refund if you are not happy with the end result. Entegral is an accredited domain registrar ,...

The word “marketing” conjure up images of complicated strategies and pricey campaigns - however, there is a way you can market your real estate business without spending a dime! We take a look at our top choices in our latest blog post. Video marketing You would be losing out on a large audience if you ignore the proliferation of video over the past few years. Jump on the bandwagon and start engaging in some video marketing. Begin by setting up a YouTube channel. You don’t have to create Hollywood-esque movies – just a simple video blog will do. If you’ve got something useful to say, then say it on video. It also makes for highly shareable, marketable content – put it on your website, push it out on social, and include it in your emails (more about email marketing later) Post to Facebook It goes without saying that social media is one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. And it’s free. This doesn’t mean you should sign up for every platform but rather focus on ...

Having a multitude of lead conversion strategies and systems in place might seem like the right approach to converting leads - however, all your efforts might be moot if there is no accountability. We take a deeper look at how you can make sure accountability is a part of your real estate agency culture. Setting goals You cannot grow a culture of accountability without having a set of clearly defined goals. Lead conversion will fail every single time if agents do not know what they are working towards - are you trying to grow your business in a new area? Launching a new property management division? These plans and corresponding goals for your real estate team will serve as the backbone of your culture of accountability. If you or a member of your team falls short of a goal, it’s much easier to pivot and address problems if you have a strong foundation in place. Increasing productivity with management tools  This is not about policing your agents - after all, micromanag...

As reported earlier Facebook is shaking up their Facebook Feeds with an aim to create “more meaningful social interactions.” To further support this change, local news will now enjoy priority so that you can see topics that have a direct impact on you and your community and discover what’s happening in your local area. What does this mean for you? For real estate agents using Facebook as a marketing tool, taking advantage of this new algorithm is vital if you want to get ahead of the curve. Taking charge of your news section on your Flex website is the first step. You need to take a look at the frequency you post, as well as the topics you cover. Having features of the areas you work in, as well as local events, will not only help cement your reputation as an area specialist, it will also help with your search engine optimisation (SEO). Remember that only posting about real estate won’t increase your chances of being seen as a source of local news - you will have to ...

Mobile traffic is not new and in years gone by a mobile version of a desktop website would have been enough, however, in the age of smartphones, tablets and an agile society that wants information right now responsive design is the only way forward. You can argue that a mobi-site is suffice for your business but you would be wrong. Not only is responsive design a key element in a strong SEO strategy, it is also a deciding factor for many consumers on whether or not they will make use of your services. Here are the latest statistics that prove that you can no longer wait to switch your site over to a responsive website: As mentioned before - mobile traffic is not new, in fact  Statista has found that it has been ahead since 2015, however with the technology behind smartphones improving turning mobile phones into mini laptops and the increase in mobile traffic, websites that aren’t responsive are losing progressively larger portions of their audience each year. The ...