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Text File | 1992-11-09 | 19.8 KB | 390 lines

----------------------------------------------------------------------- What we do- and how you can benefit from our service ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR THE HOMEOWNER: (first things first) If you're concerned about crank calls and/or letters, you needn't be! REALTY SHOWCASE will serve as your clearing house for you. Simply choose three letters of the alphabet (your initials perhaps?) and your five (5) digit Zip code and use that combination as your Ad code. If anyone calls or writes to REALTY SHOWCASE inquiring about your home, REALTY SHOWCASE will contact you and give you the information so that YOU can contact the interested party. In this way, you will be in control of whom you will be talking to. We will still need your name, address and phone number of course on the Ad copy form, but they will absolutely not appear in your Ad. Only your city, Ad code and of course, your asking price will be in your Ad. FOR THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: Call [517] 529-4701 or write and include your name, phone number and the Ad code of the home you're interested in. REALTY SHOWCASE will then contact the seller & give them the information to contact you. This is the ONLY way that REALTY SHOWCASE will bring buyer & seller together. WHAT WE DO: We do an Ad workup using both your home photo and your Ad copy, and incorporate them into our computer graphical data base that is menu driven, to allow someone to locate a home by state and city. This system is a national "home for sale" graphical data base and we welcome anyone in the 50 states with an exclusive home to sell, to use our service. All we need from you is a good quality high-contrast (glossy) black & white or color photo that we can use to overlay onto our format. The photo needs to be a standard format such as a 3 1/2" x 5" or 5" x 7" size and the Ad copy that you want to appear in your Ad. No 8" x 10" photos will be accepted. Try framing your home in your view finder in such a way, so that the photo has some "margin" around your home. Your photo shouldn't be "all home." Move cars and other items out of the photo for a nice clean and interesting photo. We use a 256 gray scale scanned image (B/W), even if you send in a color photo, mainly to keep the image files as small as possible. Color scanned photos require a lot of memory & disk space to handle the large amount of color information processing by the computer & file storage. Color images of homes would be nice and may be used in the future when technology permits smaller files, but for now, gray scale scanned images give just as much information on a home in terms of detail, than do color images and allows for excellent "curb appeal" photo overlays. Just as well, we could have used some very fancy display boarders to possibly enhance the appearance of each home being displayed for a lot of "oohs and aahs" but again, in the interest of keeping the files as small as possible, we chose the format that we are using now. We have a standard Ad/photo layout format that we use. We will type in your Ad copy provided by you and then overlay your photo onto our format. We then categorize each photo/Ad using the state and city menus, and use the same menu driven program that you're using right now, allowing people to choose any one of the 50 states and subsequently city, that they're interested in. There are currently 450 cities that we have chosen to cover all 50 states. We cannot of course, list every city in the U.S. What we have done instead, is to choose cities based on their location in a state, to try and cover as much of each state as possible. As you look at each city submenu, you will notice that one city in the group has an asterisk (*) following that city's name. This is the capitol for the state selected. Chances are, you probably live somewhat near a city listed in the city submenu of your state, if not in a city already listed. Since our system will be a constantly updated graphical data base, we may be deleting and adding cities here and there, depending on that city's activity. Located just before the Ad copy area of the Ad form that is provided, are the words >>> VERY IMPORTANT <<<. This space is for writing in the city that you live nearest to, that is on the city submenu. We NEED to have that city's name. We CANNOT run your Ad without a selected city. Even if you live two hundred, three hundred or more miles from the nearest city on the menu, we will still need the name of the nearest city on the city submenu. This will help people to know in what part of the state you live in. Your Ad will be classified in the city nearest you, with your Ad showing the actual city that you live in. When a state is chosen, you have the option of going through all of the homes that are listed in the selected state and city file, or going on to another city or going back to the main menu for another state. All of the homes in all 50 states will have the identical Ad layout. The Ads will also be placed price-wise in ascending order for each city much like in the multiple listing books in a Realtor's office. Since we plan on a monthly upload of homes either added or deleted, we have devised a code for each state module. For instance, AK1101 will stand for the state of ALASKA November 1 (11/01). Each month, the code will change. For example, in December, Alaska's code will be: AK1201. Meaning that Alaska's module has been updated for the month of December and so on, for each state module. Only the state modules, routing modules and the actual home graphic file Ads that actually have been updated, will be uploaded on a monthly basis. Our initial program, will always be "out there." VERY IMPORTANT: The whole idea to make this work smoothly then, is to save this pro- gram and then download what ever state that your interested in only and simply copy the new month's files over the files that you now have. In this way, our program will be updated and you can simply select the state and city looking for a home, as each month goes by. STEP-BY-STEP: a- You discover our initial program on your favorite bulletin board service, read all of the material and hopefully, you keep it. b- If you or anyone else you know are interested in advertising a home, you merely send in a photo, Ad copy and payment. We do the rest. c- If you are someone looking for a home in a particular state (even your own, of course) all you have to do is a search on the same BBS that you found our program on for the state module that you are in- terested in. Using the above example (Alaska): search for AK1101 for the month of November, AK1201 for the month of December and AK0101 if it is in January of next year etc. d- Decompress the monthly module into the same directory that you al- ready have our program in, and our program will be automatically updated, ready for your use. That's all there is to it! In this way, you can keep your download costs to a minimum by only downloading the state module that you're interested in. We suggest that you download our main program every three months or so, for updated material in our program itself. The list immediately following, are the abbreviations for each of our country's states (and our state module ID's): AK Alaska HI Hawaii ME Maine NJ New Jersey AL Alabama IA Iowa MI Michigan NM New Mexico AR Arkansas ID Idaho MN Minnesota NV Nevada AZ Arizona IL Illinois MO Missouri NY New York CA California IN Indiana MS Mississippi OH Ohio CO Colorado KS Kansas MT Montana OK Oklahoma CT Connecticut KY Kentucky NC N. Carolina OR Oregon DE Delaware LA Louisiana ND N. Dakota PA Pennsylvania FL Florida MA Massachusetts NE Nebraska RI Rhode Island GA Georgia MD Maryland NH New Hampshire SC S. Carolina -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SD S. Dakota | All of the states will have the appropriate month code TN Tennessee | added, following each state's ID. As mentioned, each TX Texas | month will be four (4) digits. For example: VA which UT Utah | is Virginia's state ID & the month of August will be: VA Virginia | VA0801. VT Vermont | WA Washington | VA0801 is the code that you will want to search for if WI Wisconsin | you are looking for homes in the state of Virginia in WV W. Virginia | August of next year, for instance. We have strived to WY Wyoming | make this process as easy as possible for you. SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: Think of the computer diskette as a book. The diskette is the book's binding and covers, the states as individual chapters, the cities are the pages and the home Ads as the contents of each page. Only now, a prospective buyer can browse through all of the ads at their leisure in the privacy of their own home or office. And even better, the pictures will be larger and of much higher quality. As you know, most real estate sales companies have what is known as a MLS service. MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service. This means that when one agent lists a property on the market, EVERYBODY on the MLS program in the area knows that that home is available. What we are offering is a NMLS service (to coin a term?) which stands for: National Multiple Listing Service (to coin a phrase?) which will let the ENTIRE COUNTRY know, that your home is available. Once we have all of this information compiled in the photo files for the month, we will upload (send) it to a BBS uploading service that we have access to, who will inturn upload the Ad files with our program to many BBS centers around the country (currently about 140). In this way, you will have country-wide coverage for your home Ad. Also, your photo and Ad copy will be up-to-date advertisement for your home, because it will be totally up-to-date, when uploaded to bulletin board services. Our service costs a little more than it would, to run a 5-line Ad in your local classifieds for one month, with NO photo. Check it out! If you really want an eye opener, ask your local paper what it would cost to run say, a 2 inch Ad with some Ad copy in your paper for a 30 day run. Keep in mind that both fiqures, will be for local coverage. By the way, when you send your photo in, please sandwich your photo between two pieces of heavy cardboard i.e., from a cardboard box so that your photo will arrive undamaged. * Sorry, no photos can be returned* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- So, how much WILL this cost!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- That's the surprising part! Our fee is minimal for what you get when you use our approach for marketing homes. Since you are sending in your photo and Ad copy, our fee schedule is the same, no matter where you live in the 50 states. This is our service fee: ======================================================================= Our service fee is $175.00 to do an Ad workup, uploading your Ad to an bulletin board uploading service and to act as your screening agent for only allowing YOU, to contact interested parties. ======================================================================= You can run your Ad for a month, two months, three or as often as you like. INCENTIVE NOTE: A little incentive folks: the first 100th subscriber gets an extra month for FREE! A $175.00 value. It's like purchasing 2 months for the price of one. The winner will be notified by mail and notice will be posted in their second month's Ad, for all to see (again, no name or address will be shown). When you consider, that it will cost you or a broker approximately $145.00 to run a simple five line local Ad with NO photo for 30 days, our fee for nation-wide coverage WITH a photo, is a real bargin! Our modest fee is insignificant compared to the hundreds or thousands of dollars you can save, by selling your home yourself. Especially when you take into consideration, that all of your work is done for you in terms of your Ad workup, your Ad being uploaded around the country and that we act as your clearing house for you. Not to mention the fact that we ask for no commission from you, if you sell your home. Custom Ads are available for an additional: $35.00 each. You may have up to 100 words** of Ad copy for the standard Ad format ======================================================================= *** Ad deadline is the fifteenth (15th) of each month *** We go online officially November 15 to begin receiving Ads for January 1992. We've given a long lead time in the beginning to give time for our program to travel around the country. December 15, 1992 is the deadline for January's upload. From then on, the Ad deadline will be the 15th of each month. Our office is open from 9am until 5pm Eastern Time Monday - Friday After hours, please leave a message on our answering machine with your name, day/evening phone number and the Ad code that you're interested in. Checks: please allow ten days for processing. In other words, mail everything in at least 10 days before the Ad deadline. Money orders are welcome. Please do NOT send cash **We will consider custom Ad workups as well, such as two photos in your Ad (i.e., a smaller, different view overlay in the Ad copy area perhaps). However, custom Ads will necessarily reduce your word count when overlaying a photo in the Ad copy area. And of course, you will need to send in two photos (front and back for instance) of your home. Keep all of this in mind, if you want a custom Ad. FOR YOUR AD COPY: The Ad copy form (AD COPY FORM TO PRINT OUT) can be printed on most any IBM compatible printer. Send in your Ad copy with your photo and payment. Simply set up your printer & choose AD COPY FORM- TO PRINT OUT with the cursor bar on the main menu, press <Enter> and then follow the instructions. VERIFICATION: and information needed for a computer store How will you know if your Ad is actually "floating" around the entire country? BBS upload services provide upload lists of the bulletin board services that they upload their customer's programs to. We will obtain a copy of the upload lists and mail one to you. Then, you or someone you know or a computer store, can download our program with your Ad, for verification. Or simply, when we call you to give you information on an interested party, so that you can contact them. IF YOUR AD ISN'T RIGHT: If for some reason your Ad copy has something wrong with it, and it is OUR FAULT, you will have until the following Ad deadline, to correct it either by letter or by phone. We will rerun your Ad for the follow- ing month for free. If your Ad is incorrect as a result of an error on YOUR PART, we will rerun it if you wish, for our standard fee. As in any classified Ad placed by you in your local paper for example it is YOUR responsibility to check your Ad for errors. COMMERCIAL AND/OR INDUSTRIAL: No commercial or industrial advertising is planned at this time. If however, enough people voice a positive opinion on this matter, we will look into it. So, write to us (no calls please) & give us your thoughts on this. ON YOUR SYSTEM'S CONFIGURATION: 1- Our program should work on IBM's or IBM compatibles that have a SVGA monitor & a video adapter board, that is capable of displaying at least 640x400 256 color gray scale scanned images. For fastest operation, the program should run from a hard disk. 2- Here is a list of display (monitor) boards and/or chip sets, that should be capable of displaying the images (with 1MB of display memory) Ahead, Chips and Technology, Everex, Oak Technologies, Genoa, Orchid Pro II Panacea, Paradise, Speedstar, Trident, Tseng 4000, Video7. Probably others. The images from this program may work on a 16 color system, but they will either look some what like a water color painting, or the actual image itself may be scrambled. It depends on your system configuration. Most computer stores will be happy to help you. Give them the infor- mation just described in paragraphs 1 and 2 above. THE LAST WORD(S): We hope that you are as convinced as we are that with today's economy the way it is, the competitiveness abounds when you list your home on the market. Can you imagine someone being interested in your home from hundreds or even thousands of miles away? It can happen! Millions of people are on the move each year. Wouldn't you like to be in someone's path, that needs to purchase a home? In the future and depending on what direction our service takes us, we have plans for expansion in the works. IF we do expand like we hope we will, we will have a unique system to service our subscribers. DISCLAIMER: REALTY SHOWCASE will not knowingly accept any advertisement for real estate which is in violation of the law. All Ads are subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. REALTY SHOWCASE and its distributors will not be held responsible or liable for misinformation supplied to REALTY SHOWCASE, for Ad workups. REALTY SHOWCASE and its distributors will not be held responsible or liable for any activity between you and any party(s) interested in your property, following REALTY SHOWCASE's process of introducing your Ad to the general public and your responce(s) to any interested parties. REALTY SHOWCASE reserves the right to change the format and contents of this program at any time, following market and marketing conditions. REALTY SHOWCASE reserves the right to reject and/or edit any advert- isement based upon REALTY SHOWCASE's responsibility to its readers. Added contents herein, are protected by Copyright 1992. All rights reserved. Copyright (C) 1992 REALTY SHOWCASE