See attached PDF for a comparison chart of changes.  

Thanks to Dave for finding this gem!

A few of us got together and watched Dave on WTTW talk about the market.  Stay tuned for the high quality video!

UPDATE: The high quality video can be found here

Face it people, smart phones are here for good.  You can not argue that.  This video shows a 4-year old using the new Zillow iphone app for finding homes.  Buyers no longer will need a website search to see what is available in an area.  They can simply open their phone and ask to see nearest homes for sale based on location.  Who would like to place wagers that this will become the primary way people search and find homes?  I do.  Not today, not next year, but soon.  You can call me out on it if I end up being wrong.   What does this mean?

First: "Why didn't realtor.com create this first?" 
Ask the people at your local board and state boards, or call NAR
yourself, I am as curious as you are.  

Second:

If a 4-year old can do it, so can any consumer in any demographic you cater to.  

With that said, be sure your presence on zillow, trulia, and the other big RE sites exists.  Make sure your pictures are all there and consider enhancing them.  Realtor.com isn't the end-all and be-all for consumers searching for real estate.  

Recently I have noticed a surge of realtors in our company who have
created twitter accounts.  First, to those of you who have, let me
start by saying that I am excited you have taken that step. It can
serve many uses and I hope you get the most out of it.   My inbox is
always open to any advice you may need, just email me with your
questions.

With that said, twitter is not the yellow pages.  You can not just
create an account, tweet something about real estate, and let it sit
like bait on a hook.  It is a social community, keyword being social. 
The only way to get any sort of benefit from twitter is by being
social.  I bring this point up because I have seen several tweets where
people proceed to advertise they are a realtor in their first tweet and
comment in a way that is clearly fishing for leads.  This is not the
best strategy.  Liken that scenario to walking into a stranger's
backyard BBQ party (a social setting), and announcing to everyone that
you would like to sell them real estate.  No one knows who you are, so
why would they pick you for their needs?

Hi everyone,

Using our listing feeds, you can create your own customized newsletters.  See the attached for an example.  They are nicely laid out and contain active links that you can click on. Email me with any questions you may have!

Have a great day!

If you own an iPone, and use google for your contact management and calendar scheduling, then your prayers have been answered!

I will enable this for our domain so that you can use it with your work emails!

From the original blog post: 

"Google have just announced the launch of “Google Sync” for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones, this follows last years Calendar and Contact Sync for the Blackberry.

For both devices, Google Sync will let you sync your Gmail Contacts
AND Google Calendar events to your phone - this is then
done continuously over the air, in the background. What’s even more
beautiful is that the sync works both ways - make changes on your phone
or in your google account - you’ll have up to date info everywhere."

Looks like Yahoo did a study of the best and worst places to live and we are 9.  I wonder how this will be affected in the future now that we are the president's hometown?  Either way, if you didn't already know, apparently it's good to be a Chicagoan!

interesting side note: New York was voted the best and worse in the U.S.  Odd, but I guess that is the definition of love-hate.  And yes, we did rank on the 'worse list', at 5!  But did I mention we were ranked at as the ninth best city to inhabit in the U.S.??

There have been some changes made over at yahoo real estate, be sure to check them out at:

http://realestate.yahoo.com/

Apparently, there are new changes geared towards realtors, be the first in your market to utilize these changes!  Here is a good blog about this subject.  Thanks to Joel Burslem!