Technology Safety Lessons

Something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

GPS 

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium, and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it.. Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

Cell Phones

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc...was stolen.

20 minutes later when she called her "hubby" from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.' When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Moral of the lesson

Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.  Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc. When sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came fromthem. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet family and friends' who text you.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON 

As of now, I no longer have 'home' listed on my cell phone. 

Even if this does not pertain to you....pass it on to your family & friends.

Using QR Codes

As interactive and social media are being used at an increasing rate, more and more options are available to real estate agents who want to be up to date with technology. The newest thing being used at RE/MAX Fine Homes are QR codes.

A QR code is a barcode that can be read by cameras on cell phones. They look like the barcode on any product bought in stores, a black design on a white background. While the information encoded on product bar codes is usually product and price information, it can be encoded with any text or link to an outside URL. The Canaday Group with RE/MAX Fine Homes will be utilizing QR codes on the back of Homes & Land Magazine to provides links to their home video tours.

Once a cell phone scans the QR code, tracking and monitoring the views from the codes is easy to obtain, making it useful for marketing. One way to use this in real estate is to place the QR codes on for sale lawn signs. Once a potential client scans the code, they will be able to access price, pictures, features, and community information immediately, before they have even toured the home. The codes can be placed on business cards, with a link to an agent page or video. You can include them on direct mail that is sent out, and again, these codes are simple to track views and ROI.

As a new age of technologically-savvy consumers are dipping into the housing market, new marketing ideas such as QR codes might be the edge that they are looking for.