I saw this article in USA Today that refers to a little known requirement passed as part of the health care reform law. Click here for the full article.
It will require YOU to issue Form 1099’s to anyone you buy $600 or more from in a year! Doesn’t matter what you buy for your business, or from whom…. Previously, this Form 1099 requirement only applied if you paid $600 or more to contractors that worked for you. So, if you buy a $700 computer from OfficeDepot, you are going to have to issue a Form 1099.
WHAT IS CONGRESS THINKING?
In my option, this is going to be next to impossible to implement. As a small business owner, I have enough to deal with, yet alone creating and issuing hundreds of Form 1099’s. I already do this today for the different service providers and other services I buy…but now for anything I buy? Come on.
This will impact real estate agents….and if you do not have Quickbooks….I suggest you get it…because you are going to need it.
The New FloorPlanOnline FPO 2.0 Product launch has generated interest from Jacksonville to Chicago, From Tech Forums to Green Living Groups! Here are some of the most recent News Articles and blogs that talk about FloorPlanOnline Real Estate Marketing.
Thanks to these respected publications for helping share the FloorPlan Online growth and development story.
FloorplanOnline® version 2.0 provides Buyer, Seller and Agent valuable resources
ISSAQUAH, WA –FloorPlanOnline® (FPO), an interactive floorplan website that offers buyers and real estate agents the ability to virtually tour properties online announces the launch of FPO 2.0, a redesigned and upgraded version of its interactive online floorplan tour.
The new version includes a more user-friendly integrated website that consists of upgraded navigation with different property content and multiple tour customization options. The advanced site presents the consumer with a myriad of Media options; including a Floor Plan Viewer with zoom-ability and full screen, Photo Viewer with large, high quality photos, WalkThruTM Video, and the new RoomPlanner that allows the user to drag and drop furniture onto the floorplan to experiment with furniture placement and design. The site also allows the listing agent to perform search engine optimization (SEO) on individual properties and do their own tracking via Google Analytics (or other tracking programs).
“FPO 2.0 brings a new, high level of information to the home buyer about a listing. Our goal is to provide the most robust content platform for properties online,” said Kris Cone, CEO of FloorPlanOnline®. “To be able to see the floorplan of a home, click on a room and see the photo of that room – it’s a powerful tool. To then further make it your own with the RoomPlanner gets the buyer interested and engaged. We are taking great care to offer this premium service affordably and efficiently through full or self service options.”
FloorPlanOnline® launched in 2005 to provide home buyers with an accurate depiction of property online including big crisp photos, video, disclosures and floorplans. The new and upgraded version of the original floorplan website builds upon the success that FPO has already established, including being mentioned by real estate guru, Barbara Corcoran on the Today Show in 2009.
Research completed in 2009 by the California Association of Realtors showed that 20 or more photos online reduced the time a home is on the market up to 50 percent. Other independent research has shown that floorplans were second to photos when buyers were asked what they wanted to see when looking for a home online. FPO provides both.
Top agents and companies like Shea Homes know how important statistics like these are and have called upon FloorPlanOnline to help them market their homes. Recently, universities like UCLA have also asked FloorPlanOnline to build interactive campus and building maps for new and prospective students.
About FloorplanOnline
FloorPlanOnline created the Interactive FloorPlan Tour to fill the gap in the market created by traditional virtual tour services – namely, the inability to see the property layout before an actual site visit. FPOs products can save the Buyer, Seller and the Real Estate Agent valuable time while providing them key information that has been requested for years. FPO can be used for residential or commercial real estate listings, leases, retail centers and land development.
Well, the dust has settled from our weekend release of the new tour. The release went surprisingly well….probably one of the best releases we have ever done in terms of few issues and the issues getting fixed quickly. I did want to point out a few things that have come up today regarding the new tour and tour conversion.
1. Portrait vs Wide-screen View. Depending on your screen resolution, you may see a little different content view for photos, video and the floor plan. If you have a screen resolution of 1024 pixels wide or less, you should see the “Portrait” version of the tour, which has photos in a 4:3 aspect ratio (similar to the old TV size before we had wide-screen TVs) and the Floor Plan View is the embedded floor plan vs the side by side floor plan view. We have set it up this way because the content would have to be very small or it will run off the page to the right. So to provide users with these screen resolutions the best view, we alter what they see to the Portrait view. Users with screen resolutions larger than 1024 will see the Wide-screen view which has photos in a 3:2 aspect ratio (what most digital SLRs shoot today) and 16:9 photos will be supported with an ability to mouse around the photo. In addition, the Floor Plan View will have the photos (here they are in a 4:3 aspect ratio) side by side with the floor plan, similar to the old tour view. You can always change a Portrait version to a wide-screen by adding &ws=1 to the end of the tour lnk, such as www.seetheproperty.com/presentation_v2/presentation.php?order_id=61383&mode=branded&ws=1 ….so if you do see the portrait version, you can see how the Wide-screen will look.
We have noticed that on some computers, the widescreen version is not showing up as the default view when it should be…the Portrait version is, so that is something we are working to fix.
2. FloorPlan/Photo Icon issue for tours created between April 15th and April 30th. For tours produced between April 15th and April 30th, we have done some work to ready the floor plan for the new tour by making a version of it in Flash, so it can be zoomed in if it is used in the new tour. Right now, if you convert a tour produced during this time frame to the new FPO 2.0 format, the floorplan on the tour is automatically changing to this flash version. This causes all of the photo icons on the floor plan to be mis-placed because it is a different size and file type. Therefore, be aware that if we convert the tour, the photos may need to be repositioned. You can do this for free or we can do this for the $20 conversion fee – if this issue was brought up to you before the conversion. We are working on a fix here.
3. Content Area View-ability. On some computers you may not be able to see the complete content area without scrolling. We are aware of this issue and are working on a fix to adjust the size of the content window if your vertical screen resolution is 900 pixels or less. We will make the content area a little smaller so it fits on the screen without scrolling.
4. Some Internet Explorer Issues. On some computers, the Photos and Video may not load…you may get a blank area. It appears to be an issue with Adobe Flash. The simple fix is go to www.adobe.com and download the most recent version of Flash. Install the update, close out your browser window, and then open it up again and try the tour. This seems to fix the problem. We are investigating what changed, as it was fine last week….this could have been caused by a recent Windows Update. The tour works in Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Go figure…another issue with Microsoft software???
We have had some great comments so far. Please send us comments, testimonials, complaints and more!
FloorPlanOnline is excited to give you a glimpse at FPO 2.0 with a cool new floor plan tool – the Room Planner! The Room Planner allows buyers to move furniture and other items into your FloorPlanOnline Virtual Tour. And the best part – for the Spring Listing Season, Room Planner is FREE for any tour produced and approved on or after March 15, 2010. That is a $20 value provided at no additional cost! To learn more, watch the Room Planner Video below or click here to see a sample tour. Just click the icon in the floor plan area to open the Room Plan tool.
How to order. The Room Planner will automatically be added to all tours produced AND approved, on or after March 15, 2010. There is no need to do anything! You should expect to be Planning rooms on your tour within 1 business day after your tour approval.
If you would like the Room Planner added to an existing tour created before March 15th, call or email us and we can add it to your tour for only $10. (50% off the retail price!) Just call 866-810-3816 option 3 or use the form below and select the Room Planner option.
Floor Plan Online is proud to offer Premium Marketing tools for top of the line Real Estate Agents. Our Products are Simple to use, Effective with buyers and Affordable – feature rich with out a long term contract.
If you do not want this tool on a specific tour, its easy to remove. You can elect to not have it created for your tour as you place the order, under Tour Upgrades – see the Tour Upgrades box right after you confirm your tour to remove it from your order. Alternatively, the Room Planner can be removed if it has been added to your tour by going to Manage Orders>then Edit Tour>then Edit Photos on FloorPlan – just drag the RoomPlanner icon to the right under Pictures Library and save.
I have talked to a lot of customers recently about situations where they have multiple accounts and need access to those account. So I wanted to let you know we support what we call a Corporate/Sub Account structure. Normally, when you register with us, you create an individual account. However, you can create a corporate account, and then once you have a corporate account, you can create sub accounts (this is done in the corporate account under the Manage Sub Accounts on the right when you are logged in), or with the corporate account info, an agent can create a sub account underneath your corporate account. All they need is the Company customer ID and the company password. The option to register as a sub account is located on our registration page, or click here.
With the Corporate/Sub account structure, you can have one person manage the office tours, for example, but each agent can get access into their own account. The corporate account sees all tours for each sub account. You can also place tour orders out of the corporate account for any sub-account. Just select the drop-down on page 2 as you are placing an order. This account structure is quite handy for companies that do some of the work for agents.
We can also set things up so the corporate account pays for all sub account tours. Please call us at 866-810-3816, option 3 if you would like to set up a corporate/sub account structure or you can always send us an email. Just use the form below.
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