13 DEC 2017

30 NOV 2017

It’s the festive season and we’re sure that you will all be taking a little time off for some much needed R&R. While you’re out of the office it’s good to let potential clients and others know you’re not in and when you’ll be back. To put an “Out of Office” on for your emails just follow these easy steps:

1. Login to your webmail account - webmail.yourdomain.co.za

Fill out as above

6. It’s always good to send a test email on the day the autoresponder is due to start just to double check that you get a response.

09 NOV 2017

Link to view Quick Notes on admin Properties page

20 SEP 2017

“With over 11 years in the South African market, a strong online brand, and 2.5 million visitors PriceCheck has evolved into a comprehensive shopping destination for the consumer.”

The website presents the properties beautifully and as they are a very strong brand in South Africa having your properties there will generate you leads and also impress your sellers - don’t forget to let them know their property is listed there by sending them an “owner email” (let us know if you want help).

PriceCheck will be charging for property listings in the future, but are currently on a free trial. They will give you advance notice before they start charging.

15 AUG 2017

As usual, web-box have been working on quality portal partnerships for you and we’re excited to tell you that the properties on your web-box website are now also being automatically fed through to HomeHunt. 

The team who created HomeHunt are from HomeTimes. HomeTimes provides “unbiased and independent knowledge, advice and guidance on all facets of your home”. They have built up South Africa’s largest residential-focused property group on Facebook, which has over 311 000 followers.

HomeHunt will only include a property if they have its location. So in order for your property to appear you must select ‘mark gps coordinates’ or ‘mark address on the map’ in the upload/edit screen in your web-box admin console.




We hope you gain tremendous exposure from our new addition! And if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

27 JUL 2017

We have just completed a major update to the web-box admin console Properties page. You can now search, sort by column, download to excel/pdf or print. You can even choose which columns are displayed and change their order.

We know these changes will be of great value enabling you to quickly find properties, easily see the information you need and print reports.

We also know all these changes can be confusing, so at the top of the page (in your admin console) is a link to further help. Or please (as always) just call us and we will very happily talk you through any issues you might have.

07 JUL 2017

We want to remind you of our ongoing refer-a-friend policy.

If you send a friend our way and they sign up with web-box, both you and the friend you referred will get a 50% discount off your subscription fees for 3 months. All your friend needs to do, for you both to benefit from this amazing offer is to let us know that you were the one who recommended us.

We hope that this perk will help you boldly share your love of web-box!

29 MAY 2017

For almost fifteen  years, web-box has been a market leader in providing websites to estate agents, exclusively. Over this time, we have gained a lot of experience about the most effective ways of marketing your business and, in particular, how to attract sellers and buyers online.

As you know, in the estate agent industry, having a strong online presence is absolutely critical. Most sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants use the internet as their first port of call - and while having your own website is an essential starting point, social media is a powerful and cost-effective way of getting your business and your well-maintained website in front of the right people.

Facebook, in particular, is the social media network of choice for estate agents – and with internet users spending more time on Facebook than any other site, it has gone from a ‘nice to have’ to an essential part of marketing your properties.

Facebook gives you an opportunity to build your credibility and create brand awareness by providing your followers with interesting and relevant information about your industry, business and local area. It ensures that you are ‘top of mind’ for both sellers (which will increase your mandates) and buyers (which will increase your sales), as well as for landlords and tenants. 

As with our websites, our exclusive focus on estate agencies means we are able to deliver exceptional value, at the lowest possible prices. Our dedicated social media team’s in-depth understanding of the industry allows them to produce the best possible content to generate client interest and engagement.

We are very excited to show you our social media offering and think that you will love the added attention it can bring to your business.The same rules that apply to building a real-life relationship apply to Facebook. The more good interactions you have with your Facebook followers, the stronger that relationship becomes. That said, we know that you, our clients, have a range of budgets, social media skills and marketing needs, so we have developed 3 options to accommodate this, all offering unbeatable value. Click through to our website for the pricing schedule and more info.

13 APR 2017

You might have noticed when you log in to your web-box admin that the URL (website address) looks slightly different.

New URL for your web-box admin section

Instead of http at the beginning it now says https, with the ‘s’ standing for secure site. This is because the information travelling between your web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera etc) and our server is now encrypted (converted into a code especially to prevent unauthorized access) with the same type of encryption used by banks.

You will also see the Comodo Secure logo at the bottom left of your screen while you are in the admin section. If you click on this logo a pop-up box will appear with our security credentials and some info on just what security this provides.

Comodo Secure Logo

We take your security seriously. Please contact us if you have any questions.

23 MAR 2017

Take a look at www.midteam.co.za on your phone, tablet, laptop etc to see their responsive website in action

Your buyers and sellers are on the move - literally, which means that they are looking at your website on every type of electronic device available (desktop, tablet, mobile, etc). Currently the best way to make your website look good and work well on all the options is a “responsive” website design.

Responsive website design is the practice of building a website suitable to work on every device and every screen size, no matter how large or small, mobile or desktop. It involves programming the website to resize, hide, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen. Responsive web design is focused around providing an intuitive and gratifying experience for everyone.

We’re proud to let you know that web-box now offer a responsive website design package that will allow your website to be a viewing pleasure no matter the client device.

If you’ve got beautiful property pictures and you want to maximise their selling power then this is definitely the upgrade for you. Pictures say more than 1000 words and everyone loves seeing lovely homes fill their screen. Even if you are just wanting your website to stand out from the crowd this is worth looking at. To see more of our responsive designs look through our portfolio.

In line with our focus on optimal value the cost is only R3000 + VAT setup (once-off fee) and R895 + VAT per month. The setup fee is discounted down from R5000, for you our existing clients.

We look forward to hearing your feedback and of course if you would like to upgrade to a responsive website just let us know!

09 MAR 2017

There has been a worrying increase in fraudsters posing as known clients or regular service providers in various property transactions and, as you can imagine, the losses can be substantial.

This email fraud takes many forms but one of the the most common and easily overlooked is when you (or a client) receive an email that looks exactly like it comes from a known party in one of your deals, whether buyer, seller or conveyancing attorneys, requesting payment to a specific account or “confirming” bank details for the payment. This is called spoofing, and unfortunately, it is actually pretty easy to do: displaying a name in the sender line that is different to the actual address is not hard if you know a little about it. Following the instructions in this email will result in you paying the fraudsters directly into their bank account. Bye-bye funds!

A while back fraudsters did this with an email account belonging to one of SA’s leading estate agents. Despite appearing to have been sent from the agent’s official Seeff address, it was fake and contained bank details of the fraudster, not the appointed conveyancer. This resulted in the buyer being defrauded by close to R1m.

So, what’s the bottom line? Do not let your guard down. Rather start from the assumption that any email in your inbox regarding payments could be a targeted attack from a criminal.

These situations can be well managed simply by having protocols in place in your office (and for your clients) for whenever bank details are involved or money is transferred to a new beneficiary. We strongly recommend putting these protocol into place immediately! 

• Make it part of every sale/rental routine to contact all parties involved to inform them of the possibility of this fraud. Attorneys, conveyancers, buyers, sellers, real estate agents, etc have all been targeted in these scams 
• If possible, do not send sensitive information via email  
• Immediately prior to paying any money, ensure that the payer calls the recipient to verify the details.
• Call the recipient on a well known telephone number (legitimate number)  
• Ask them to verify the amount AND the bank details  
• Only load the recipient onto your banking system and make payment if all is well  
• Trust your instincts. Tell everyone involved that if an e-mail or a telephone call ever seems suspicious or not quite right, that they should stop until the communication has been independently verified.

These general protocols will also help:

• Clean out your e-mail account on a regular basis. Your e-mails may establish patterns in your business practice over time that fraudsters can use against you. 
• Change your email usernames and passwords on a regular basis.  
• Never use usernames or passwords that are easy to guess, like the password “password.”

Please be aware that these emails can be extremely convincing.  Many intelligent, well informed people have been duped. No one should assume that they are “too savvy” and no one should assume that they are “too small a target” to be defrauded.

Why not talk it through as key role players in your agency and ask yourselves what you can do to foolproof your system?

This information is very important. For some it will be a useful reminder and for some it will be the first time you have thought to double check. Either way, we hope that you will make sure the people responsible for making payments in your transactions are 100% sure the instruction is legitimate each time.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can help you with any of this.

21 FEB 2017

As you know, we’re always looking to partner with reputable and well-managed property portals to give your properties optimal exposure. It is not always easy to find portals that we believe will add real value to your website, so it’s very exciting when we can introduce you to a new one. Meet immoafrica….

/iˈmo/ af•ri•ca/ˈafrikə/ (noun) Refers to immovable property in Africa

The immoafrica website is well designed and easy to navigate. They cater for sales and rentals of both residential and commercial properties.

Your listings are automatically fed through to immoafrica from your web-box website - no need for you to do anything extra. In your web-box Admin Console you’ll now see the new link (next to each property) to view that property on the immoafrica website.

 

immoafrica property link in the Admin Console

We think that you’ll get great benefit from this bonus feature. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need us.