Oyé! Oyé! Once again, ByTheOwner.com innovates!

A meeting of the masterminds behind your favorite real estate website has given rise to a revolutionary idea!

This new feature is in the login page “Your Account”. A small checkbox labeled “Remember me on this computer” has appeared just below the password field. When you click this box and you log on, a Hi-Tech-Technology ensures that you to stay connected to the website for the next 30 days without having to re-enter your username and password.

However, if you click the “disconnect”, you will then “disconnect”…

We got a new cool tool online this week that will allow our clients to market their home by email to all of their contacts. This new feature is available to Gmail and MSN hotmail users only for now.

This tool allows you to retrieve your email contacts from your email account. A list of all your contacts will then be displayed before the message is sent. You’ll then be able to select the email addresses to whom you’d like to send your message.

Note that we do not keep copy of your mailbox login information.

If you use this option to market your home, don’t forget to ask your friends to pass the email along to their own contacts. This is a great way to increase the visits to listing!

The page is also available to all visitors going to the website if they wish to share their interest in a home they are dreaming of.

When you’re looking for a new home, you are searching for a house. But you’re also searching for a place where you’ll feel great and which will correspond to your lifestyle. So we’ve decided to develop a new tool that will allow our customers to “sell their neighborhood” to potential buyers!

In their online account, our clients have access to a new web page where they’ll be able to describe places of interest around their home. Schools, restaurants, parks, hospitals… It can be anything, as long as you feel like it is part of the reason why you love your area. You can see below for instructions on how to use this new tool.

The items saved by the private home sellers will be displayed to the website’s visitors in the map search interface. Arrow markers will show up next to the other markers. Clicking on those markers will open an info window with all the information entered by the home owner.

How to add my places of interest on the map ?

Here’s a little tutorial guiding you through the basic steps of adding neighborhood markers on the map :

1. Take a walk down the street and take some pictures of the cool places around; (640×480 would be perfect);
2. In your ByTheOwner account, click on the Your Neighborhood button;
3. Optional : Fill in the address fields, the map will then position a marker automatically;
4. Click on the map to make sure the marker is on the right spot;
5. Type in a brief description that will communicate your passion for your neighborhood to potential buyers;
6. Click the “Add” button. Voilà!

Note that you’ll be able to complete and modify the description later. Now, let’s see how to add your pictures :

1. Click on the “Browse” button;
2. Go get the picture on your computer and click “Open”;
3. Press the “Go” button;
4. You can select your pictures order by dragging them (if you have more than one, eh!);

So… where is Canada’s coolest city?

At the request of our customers, a new statistic was added in the Your Account section. Home owners can from now on see the number of times that their property was placed in the favourites by the visitors searching for a property. This meter is accessible on top of the graph showing the consultation statistics. The visitors who have a property in their favourites receive an email whenever the description of the property is modified by its owner.

The new Download my pictures link, now available into the Your account section of ByTheOwner’s sellers allows them to save a copy of their home’s pictures onto their personal computer. This new page is usefull for the ones who wish to keep those photos in their files or use them in another advertisement on the free classifieds websites.

In order to download your pictures :

1. Right-click on the picture;
2. Select the Save picture as option;
3. Choose an easy to remind folder on your local computer;
4. Rename the picture as you wish;
5. Click on the Save button!