Dreyfus Properties: Million Dollar Presentation
Dreyfus and his agents capture macro shots of the odd bits and pieces that make a home luxurious. The close-ups of hand-wrought ironwork and painstakingly chiseled flagstone pathways exude quality. Those shots are pulled into iPhoto, where they’re tagged with keywords for easy retrieval. The Dreyfus team can then use the shots in print materials or send them off to a local web design firm for publication on the Dreyfus website. “All of the consumer applications like iPhoto are friendly in a business context as well,” says Dreyfus. “If we need to do something quickly, we’ll definitely use the Apple applications.”
Macs give Dreyfus speed, but they also provide flexibility. The broker carries his 17-inch MacBook Pro everywhere, which can connect to online Multiple Listing Services (MLS) via an ExpressCard wireless card and Verizon high-speed mobile Internet access. “I take my MacBook Pro with me to open houses and I can search the MLS right there,” he says. “It’s a great presenting machine — it’s a nice thing to show in someone’s home.”
Presentations aren’t just the domain of Dreyfus’ MacBook, however. His office is crammed with iMacs, Power Mac G5s and several Apple Cinema Displays that, together, make an impressive work environment.
Office Essentials
“We have a retail space in a fairly busy area in Palo Alto,” says Dreyfus. “We’ve got two Cinema Displays hanging in the windows, with iPhoto slideshows of current properties running off of a few Mac minis. We also have five new Intel iMacs and an older iMac at a guest bar. Customers can come in and use the machine to search the MLS.”
The setup gives customers easy access to all of the homes available through Dreyfus Properties, but it also gives Dreyfus’ agents the tools they need to make deals, modify marketing materials and communicate effectively. It also helps some new agents make the switch. “The Intel Macs have been a great help,” says Dreyfus. “Using Boot Camp or Parallels, I can run OS X and Windows on the same machine. That way, I can wean the agents off of Windows. And the more they use the Mac, the less they end up using Windows.”
Most brokers find themselves locked into using Windows simply to gain access to PC-only real estate programs. Dreyfus is able to access all his MLS information online using either Safari or Mozilla Firefox running on OS X. “In the past, there were certain real estate programs that weren’t ported to the Mac,” he says. “Today there’s only one hold out, but even that should be ported over soon.”
The MLS is the lifeblood of any real estate brokerage, but so is good communication. All the Macs in the Dreyfus office are linked together via and Airport wireless network and Ethernet. “I set up the first network myself and it was very straightforward,” says Dreyfus. “The current network, which includes a VPN, was set up by Apple Certified Consultant Fred Balin. He was extremely helpful in setting that up.” Now all the Dreyfus agents have access to an OS X server via the VPN. Find a certified consultant near you.
Boutique Brokerage, Big Results
Being a small brokerage used to have its disadvantages. High-quality imagery, video and print design were the exclusive domains of large firms with bottomless pockets. “A lot of the little brokerages were bought up by bigger ones because they thought that they couldn’t afford to produce quality marketing materials,” says Dreyfus. “I couldn’t do this before without a large marketing department behind me. Now Apple and the Mac allow me to make high-quality digital photos, movies and even QuickTime VR tours. And I can do it in house.”
Dreyfus sees a bright future for small brokerages. “There is more pressure on us to be proficient with technology,” he says. “That’s good, because we’ll be able to adopt new technology and techniques much more quickly than large brokerages. We’re small and nimble and we can change easily. With Apple we can compete with and even outperform the big boys. It’s really starting to get rolling for us.”
