Residential Properties Blog » Tom Flanagan

Selling Your Property in a Tough Market Part Two

Bill — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:48:27 +0000

Getting your property in front of serious buyers and generating lots of interest in it is the way to sell your home. A good agent will work to get as many people to view your home as possible. And since most buyers start their search on the internet these days, standing out in the crowd will help develop traffic. Engaging video is one of those tools which can help create the buzz. That’s where the marketing and technology departments enter.

For the past two years, Residential Properties Ltd. has been making property videos and posting them online. We like the media primarily because of the flexibility and creative aspects. Combining the talent from the two departments to film, write, record, and edit, we’ve found that we can work off of each other to fine tune the product into something that will attract, inform, and make viewers want to visit the property.

Our videos have been viewed over 22,000 times on the ResProp YouTube channel, and we’d like to think this is not a fluke. We are thrilled to have some very talented individuals who make it their business to deliver an interesting and effective product to our clients. Working on other projects besides our own movies helps bring creativity to them. For instance, IT Director Tom Flanagan was recently on an award-winning 48 Hour Film Project team. Their video, entitled “The Lip Dub” had to be written, shot, edited, and scored in only a weekend. The team rose to the occasion, adjusting their “creative process” to succeed in this high pressure environment. They were awarded Best Cast Ensemble, Best Choreography, and Viewers Choice.

Out With the Type And In With the Tech

Sally — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:33:37 +0000

One of the traditions that has lasted in this era of modern travel is the distribution of wet towels to passengers who want to clean their hands. Of course, the train porter only does this in the first class car. I suspect this tradition began when travelers with newspapers needed to clean the print off of their hands. The question is, “How long will THIS last?”

I don’t often take a train for business travel. But living in New England with easy access to Amtrak, it can sometimes be a treat to hop on in Providence and three hours later, hop off in New York. I recently did this for a meeting in New Jersey, and my colleague, Tom Flanagan, director of IT at Residential Properties Ltd., brought to my attention the lack of newspapers present on the train. I looked around the car and every single passenger was either reading on an IPad, a computer, or a mobile device. There was not a newspaper in sight. People were getting up-to-date stock quotes, reading national and international news, and checking the latest information on the fallout of the Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the US government debt. Technology is addictive when you can get accurate information on demand.

This inevitably got me thinking about the real estate business. The consumer is on-line getting information on the marketplace every hour of the day. They expect instant access and demand instant answers. To be successful in today’s real estate market, professionals and companies need to adapt to this new technology, and embrace the new ways we receive and provide information.

I am extremely proud of the technology services we provide at Residential Properties Ltd. Since we are always looking for areas of innovation, we are constantly improving our methods to help you buy or sell your home. For instance, we are the only independent Real Estate company in the state to provide clients with Lifestyle Search. This new feature helps to streamline the home buying process by focusing your research on neighborhoods that are ideal for the way you live. Even more, there are website applications which allow us to track our online traffic, giving us the ability to see how many people have even evaluated the properties. In olden times, people would place an ad in the newspaper, and there was no way to tell if anyone even looked at it. Nowadays, we can even tell from what part of the country the people are viewing the listings. This helps us figure out where we can get the most bang for our buck, and how we can get the most exposure to benefit our sellers.

I am truly grateful to work with some great movers and shakers in the field of real estate technology. Sometimes, I do miss the feel and smell of that old grimy newspaper, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this post.

30th Anniversary Celebration

Tom — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:47:23 +0000

Residential Properties Ltd. continued its 30th anniversary celebration in style at the Chace Center Gallery of the RISD Museum of Art on the East Side of Providence. This most recent event, held on June 7, 2011, featured a private viewing of the current exhibit, “Cocktail Culture”, and a performance by Los Angeles based comedian Beth Lapides of her show “100% Happy 88% of the Time.” Beth is a cousin of our owner, Sally Lapides.

In 1981, Sally and her friend, Liz Chace, had an idea to develop a real estate company that would re-define how business was conducted in Rhode Island. Over the past 30 years, Residential Properties’ commitment to building a top-notch, service oriented business has grown because of our real estate professionals, a full-time relocation department and continual investment in technology.

During the evening, we also premiered the following short video which tells our story – We hope you enjoy it!

Our Facebook Page

Tom — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:52:48 +0000

We recently made some really cool changes to our Facebook page. If you haven’t seen it lately, check it out.

We’ve uploaded some great photo sets including several spectacular shots of Block Island photographed by our own Chris Whirlow. We also have some beautiful photography of our Capital City and the East Side of Providence. The photos of Providence showcase all four seasons and show many popular landmarks including, Historic College Hill.

Our YouTube channel is now streamlined to our page and visitors can watch property tours and other video content directly on our page.

As stated on our site, “There’s nothing better than the feeling of a great neighborhood” so we’ve added community information to our Facebook page. Utilizing the community drop-down menu, users can choose the different counties in Rhode Island to learn more about our wonderful little State. Want to learn more about the East Bay and Bristol County? Give it a try!

Best of all, we’ve added our Home Search! Visitors can now access our property search right from Facebook. Just select the “Home Search” tab and click “Search Properties” to get started. As an added bonus, we’ve included our weekly featured properties.

If you’re a mobile power user and love using Facebook on your device, be sure to check out our mobile site. Just launch your browser and enter ResidentialProperties.com!

Don’t Let Inexperience Stop You

Bill — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:07:38 +0000

On January 6th our CEO, Sally Lapides, was featured as a guest speaker for the incoming class of students at Year Up Providence. She was joined by our Director of Information Technology, Tom Flanagan, and Steve Tetzner, Vice President of Homestar Mortgage. Year Up is a work force development program that gives 18 to 24 year olds the tools they need to succeed in the business world. Sally became acquainted with the organization when Executive Director, Meghan Hughes, asked her to mentor a student in the program.

Year Up Providence teaches business writing, professional development and IT skills, with their students earning an internship in the IT Field during the second half of the program. Sally asked Tom and Steve to speak on a variety of subjects, including their own unique path to success and some words of wisdom, followed by a question and answer session.

Here are some highlights from the talk:

Inman is Listening to Us

Bill — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:37:57 +0000

It is sometimes fortunate to sit near someone, for someday they may be famous. So it is for me to be near our Information Technology guru here at Residential Properties. Tom Flanagan is now writing articles on Real Estate Technology for Inman News. Inman is an independent online news and information source for the Real Estate community and is based in Alameda, CA.

Tom published an article a couple of weeks ago on their site and has since been asked to write as a technology columnist. So, look for Tom’s articles on the Inman site. His latest product is 5 recession-proof tech strategies just posted on the site and if you read it today you will see the whole article. After 24 hours, you will only get the teaser, unless you have their premium subscription.

You can sign up for an email alert on their news headlines and for a RSS feed at the top of their page.

Property with Great Water View

Tom — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:10:57 +0000

Recently we visited the property at 164 Charlotte Drive in the Potowomut section of Warwick. It is an interesting community with the Potowomut Golf Club and Goddard State Park nearby. It also has a beautiful stretch of beach on the Narragansett Bay. Check out the video:

Looking for a Valentine’s Day Alternative – Go no further than Wickenden Street

Bill — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:06:54 +0000

There is always the traditional flowers or chocolates for the Valentine, but what do you do if you’ve done that for years and need something different. Well, here on Wickenden Street, we have just the place to help you out.

The Curatorium, with Chief Curator Matt Bird, is located between the Coffee Exchange and Adler’s Hardware and has those very unusual items. Or as a customer exclaimed to Matt, “I get it, it’s a store full of things that YOU like.”

Here’s our Video.

Murals Come Back to Life

Bill — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:03:39 +0000

Almost all Rhode Islanders have been affected by the Iway Construction Project, which has moved the intersection of I-195 and I-95 further south. Sometimes it has been painful, but the results seem to make traffic flow better.

Recently, outside our corporate and Providence office, demolition work has begun during the evening to remove the old sections of I-195. This has started at the intersection of Wickenden, South Main, and South Water Streets.

If you had driven under the old highway, you would have noticed steel beams constructed to reinforce the overpass supports. This partially obscured the view of the brightly colored murals painted onto the concrete support structure.

Most of the overpass is now gone, revealing the murals once again. But now they are visible in full daylight. So, we sent out our media team and recorded the following film for history and for those who may not travel over the Point Street bridge onto Wickenden Street. Enjoy.

2009 REALTOR Party Video Contest

Tom — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:33:35 +0000

I’m excited to say that we have entered a film into the 2009 REALTOR Party Video Contest! The contest was created to raise awareness in hopes to expand and extend the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. The contest is being held on YouTube and ends October 16th. The winning video will be featured at NAR’s Annual meeting this November in San Diego.

Our two-minute video tells the story of local first time homebuyer, Andrea Larocque, and Kathy Vaillancourt of the Narragansett office. Andrea’s story is inspiring. She is a single mom who worked her way through school to become a radiology technician and struggled to get herself out of debt from her earlier full-time college days. She had spent the last couple of years looking for a home where she could raise her nine-year-old son, Isaiah.

Learn more about extending the Home Buyer Tax Credit.

Here’s our video: