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Natalie White, FN Collective (Taranaki), has launched a sweet new marketing initiative! When you contact her to book an appraisal, vendors will receive a special chocolate treat in their appraisal box.

Newsletters February

Your FEBRUARY newsletters are now available in FN Central and VaultRE.

Tips on how to use

Send to your customer database

Top and tail individual articles to localise for your website's blog and office details then promote on social media

Print copies for your reception area

Share individual articles to LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram

Click on the image to download from FN Central, or send them out directly from VaultRE.

Social Media Update

Recently Instagram has changed the way images are viewed on its platform, opting to switch from the traditional square 1:1 format, to a taller 4:5 format.

While this change requires an adjustment for future content, it also affects all current, premade content.

Instead of deleting square posts, a simple resize is needed to ensure usability.

You don't need to go back and change your past content. Just remember to produce your future content in portrait.

Checking Your Voicemail Settings - iPhone

With iOS 17 & later, Apple introduced a Live Voicemail feature that transcribes messages in real time as they’re being left. While this is a handy tool, many don’t realise that when it’s enabled, your phone no longer uses your carrier’s (One NZ / Spark) voicemail system. Instead, it switches to Apple’s voicemail service, which may not play your usual greeting.

If you’d prefer to stick with your mobile carrier’s voicemail and keep your standard greeting, you can easily turn off Live Voicemail in your iPhone settings.

If you’d like to use Live Voicemail and ensure callers hear a professional greeting, you’ll need to record a message on your phone:

Make sure Live Voicemail is toggled on in your settings.
Open the Phone app.
Tap Voicemail at the bottom right.
Follow the prompts to record your greeting.

In short, if you want live message transcripts, your greeting must be recorded on your phone. If not, it will default to your mobile provider’s voicemail system (Spark or One NZ).

If you have any issues, please get in touch with Scott Bentley, he is happy to talk you through the process - scott.bentley@firstnational.co.nz

Does NotebookLM Make The Grade For Real Estate?

Every First National agent knows that time is money. If there’s one thing we could all use more of, it’s time - preferably spent sealing deals rather than drowning in admin. Enter NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered note-taking and research assistant, which promises to sift through mountains of information and deliver easy-to-digest insights. Sounds good, right? But does it pass the test in the property game?

What is NotebookLM?

Google’s NotebookLM is a tool that lets users upload various content - web pages, PDFs, YouTube videos, and even audio files - before magically (or algorithmically) generating summaries, insights, and key takeaways. Unlike the chatbots of the world, NotebookLM only works with the content you provide, making it less prone to fabricating facts or just hallucinating. We love this, and you will too!

In short, it’s designed to make sense of complicated material without making things up. For real estate agents, that means less time trawling through reports and more time engaging with clients.

How Can Real Estate Agents Use It?

Property Reports Without the Pain

Tired of skimming through suburb reports, market analyses, or economic outlooks? Upload them to NotebookLM and ask for a summary. It will highlight trends and key data, saving you precious hours.

Deciphering Legislative Legalese

Contracts, disclosure documents, tenancy legislation - agents often have to navigate a minefield of legal jargon. NotebookLM acts as your personal interpreter, offering plain-English explanations of key clauses. (It’s still not a lawyer, but it does provide attribution to specific parts of legislation when it answers your questions.)

Client FAQs on Demand

How many times have you typed the same response to, ‘What’s the market doing?’ NotebookLM compiles a personalised Q&A document using your uploaded resources, so you have quick, consistent answers ready to go.

Social Media & Content Ideas

Run out of blog ideas? Upload a few industry reports or trending articles, and let NotebookLM suggest topics, captions, or even rough drafts for you. Content marketing, made easy!

Where It Falls Short

Data Input Dependency

Unlike some AI tools that scour the internet for answers, NotebookLM can only work with what you give it. That means you’ll still need to find and upload your sources.

Formatting Fumbles

If your PDFs have complex layouts (think spreadsheets in property valuation reports), the AI may struggle to extract the right information. Remember the old Russian proverb – trust but verify!

No Real-Time Market Updates

If you're after the latest sales data or property price trends, you’re better off sticking with CoreLogic, or REA. It works really well with those.

What Do We Think?

For ease of use - B+

It’s relatively straightforward but requires good source material to work effectively. Great for admin and content but doesn’t replace industry-specific tools. The user interface seems a little clunky at first.

On time-saving potential it’s a straight A

Ideal for summarising long reports and documents quickly.

On accuracy and reliability, another straight A

It sticks exactly to the content provided - no hallucinations or made-up facts.

Final Verdict

For real estate professionals drowning in documents, NotebookLM is like a diligent PA - quick, reliable, and helpful, but only as good as the information it is given.

While it won’t replace property data platforms or CRM systems, it can certainly streamline admin, content creation, and research.

We LOVE its ability to answer questions reliably about rental legislation, property law, and privacy legislation. The ‘Deep Dive’ AI hosted chat is also an interesting, if somewhat porous, feature that enables agents to listen to avatars chatting about the content of your uploaded document.

Worth trying? Absolutely. Just don’t expect it to do your prospecting for you.

Performance Partners

The people supporting our network and adding value to your agency