LocaLoqa User Guide

Sign-Up For LocaLoqa User Account

1. Fill in e-mail address, and click “Used?” to check if the e-mail has already used by existing registered user
2. Fill in a postal address, or a location specification that can be identified (by Google Map) as an exact location with ROOFTOP accuracy. Following two pictures show how to click “Check” and get confirmation on the location accuracy, and the accepted location with latitude longitude information and a map snippet of the given location.
3. Fill in your chosen user/account name, and click “Used?” to check if the given user/account name is already in use by other registered user. Note that user/account name must be at least 6 characters in length.
4. Key in the four letters security code shown at the right, with exact (upper) case.

With all information checked out, you then click the “SIGN UP” button, and LocaLoqa will proceed to process your registration request, with a pull-down section showing confirmation information like:

You should then check the inbox and spams of the e-mail address used in your registration, locate your LocaLoqa registration confirmation e-mail, and click to activate your new LocaLoqa user account.

Login To LocaLoqa

Go to https://localoqa.com and see top portion screen:

Or go to one of the LocaLoqa white label site, e.g. https://localoqa.com/@Traffic%$20Shortcuts (for white label “Traffic Shortcuts”):

and then select the Login menu item, or simply scroll down on the screen to the Login section. Fill in your LocaLoqa user name, or the email address that was used to sign-up your account, and key-in the account password.

And then click the registered user login line, as:

If you’ve forgot your account password, simply click the padlock icon to request for password retrieval:

You may also access LocaLoqa without login as a registered user, instead you can visit LocaLoqa as a guest, by clicking on the guest login line:

Once you’re in LocaLoqa, by default you’ll see the map mode display.

Map Display Mode

1. Expand/Collapse the box to key-in an map address to shift to, or to get the reverse geocoded address of the location pointed to by the location pointer
2. Current white label logo – Link to the LocaLoqa web page of current white label
3. LocaLoqa logo – Link to the default LocaLoqa web page
4. Current login user logo (or “guest” if not login as registered user)
5. List icon – Link to switch to List Mode Display
6. Click to activate the location pointer (i.e. show it on the map)
7. Map icon – Link to the Map Mode Display (i.e. reload Map Mode Display)
8. Reload icon, click to re-scan questions in current scan area
9. User account setting icon, check to display user account setting section
10. “See WLs” checkbox, check to see all the white label base (question) in current scan area
11. “See All” checkbox, check to see all questions in the current scan area, regardless which white label it belongs to, or if it does not belongs to any white label. I.e. see all questions in current scan area.
12. The boundary box of current scan area
13. The label box of a question in current scan area. Click the label box (or the question’s icon) to display the question content panel
14. The location pointer, use it to identify a location for reverse geocoding, or use it to specify the location to for a new question to be placed
15. User base location icon, click to shift map to be centered at the user base location. Unavailable if not under login with registered user account
16. White label base location icon, click to shift map to be centered at the white label base location. Unavailable if not in white label LocaLoqa session
17. GPS location icon, click to shift map to be centered at detected GPS location. Dimmed if GPS information not available
18. Scan radius selection list, select a radius to change the scan area scope
19. Question category selection list, select one category or all categories for the scanning and retrieval of matching questions in current scan area
20. “Add Question” button, click to switch to the new question creation panel

 

Add New Question In Map Mode Display

1. Set location pointer at location to place the new question
2. Select the new question category
3. Set the new question title
4. Set the new question details
5. Set the new question expiry time frame
6. Click “Add The Question” button to create the new question and place it at the given location

 

List Display Mode

 

Multiple Question Title Listing

1. Filter question listing by question age
2. Filter question listing by question’s answer count
3. Set question scan area radius (with scan area center inherited from the Map Mode Display)
4. Show newest question first
5. Show oldest question first
6. Show only Mine questions
7. Show only questions from others
8. Show questions of any owner’s
9. Show questions of selected category or all categories
10. Check to show all questions (when accessing LocaLoqa under a white label scope)
11. Key-in keywrods to filter question listing with
12. Click the map marker icon to show the location of this question on a popup static map snippet
13. Click the location marker icon to move the location marker to the location of this question
14. Click the Follow Question icon to follow/unfollow this question
15. Click the Trash icon to delete this question (owner only)
16. Click the Privacy icon to set the Quiet Period privacy policy of this question
17. Click the Share icon to dispatch and share this question with others
18. Click the Update icon to modify this question (owner only, time limited)
19. Click the Answer icon to open the answer text editing area
20. Click the question owner’s logo to set the question owner as the “Person Of Interest”

1. Logo of the white label under whose scope the questions was originally added. Click on this white label logo will launch a new window/tab to the given white label’s LocaLoqa web site.
2. The question owner’s logo. Click to show the Person Of Interest setting panel (see next)
3. Personal Of Interest setting panel
4. Question listing filter based on Person Of Interest (see the POI’s questions, or the questions the POI has responded on)

 

And finally, you can click on any of the listed question title to switch to the display of “Single Question Full Listing With Answers”

Add New Question In List Mode Display

1. Click the Edit icon to open up the Add Question section in the List Mode Display
2. Set the location marker at the location where the new question is to be placed
3. Set the category, title, details, and expiry time frame of the new question, and then click “Add This Question” button to create the new question

 

Single Question Full Listing With Answers

This is where you get to see all the actual “actions” on one specific question.

You can click on the Answer icon right under the question itself, to respond directly to the question owner him/herself.

Or you can click on the Answer icon that comes under each listed answer of the question. In this case you are responding to the person who posted the given answer. This can be the question owner him/herself or some other LocaLoqa user.

Each answer shows the answering user, and the “answering to” user if not the question owner him/herself.

All the answer display are governed by the question quiet period privacy policy, and the answering user’s choice of revealing/hiding of the answer, and also on the user blockage status. And the answer display is also based on the visibility of a given answer as set by the answer’s owner, and the visibility of the 1-to-1 Q&A sub-thread of the answer as set by the owner.  So the listing of answers to a given question can be different for different users, and/or at different point of time. All for the best of user privacy and communication flexibility.

Here’s the main elements seen on an answer page:

1. The answering user (answer’s owner)
2. The receiving user (the user that the answer is targeted for). This user and the answering user together form a 1-to-1 Q&A sub-thread with the full Q&A thread of the given question.
3. Icon indicating a hidden answer, from all others except the receiving user.
4. Icon indicating a non-private 1-to-1 Q&A sub-thread.
5. Icon indicating a non-hidden answer.
6. Icon indicating a private 1-to-1 sub-thread, i.e. all the Q&As for the given question between this user and the receiving user are hidden from all others.
7. Click this icon to rate the given answer.
8. Click this icon to flag the given answer.
9. Click this icon to block the given answering user.

 

User Account Setting

The user account setting section is display by checking on the User Account Setting icon at the lower right corner in Map Display Mode.

 

 

Once the icon is clicked on, the User Account Setting section will be displayed below the Map section (picture below). You can toggle the User Account Setting section display, i.e. click the icon again to hide the section display.

Here you can check your account settings displayed at the left portion of, or use the right portion fields to update your account name, e-mail, password. You can also activate/de-activate the new question alert, and set up the alert trigger filters such as the question categories, the scan range, and also the question’s associated white label.

LocaLoqa White Label Brand Setup

LocaLoqa white label brand is the easiest and quickest way for businesses, organizations, and entrepreneurs to add an online map/location-based Q&A facility that carries the biz/org/entrepreneur’s brand name and logo. Each LocaLoqa white label brand has its own unique web site address in the form of “https://localoqa.com/@ABC” where ABC is the name of the given white label brand.

It takes just 2 minutes to create and own your LocaLoqa white label brand. You can upload your brand logo which will be displayed right on your LocaLoqa white label web site entry screen along with your brand name.

Unregistered visitors or registered LocaLoqa users arriving at a given LocaLoqa white label web site will be set to be under the scope of the given white label, i.e. users will by default see only the questions/answers that were associated with the given white label. This is the way the LocaLoqa white label owners can deploy his/her LocaLoqa white label web site to build up the brand’s own Q&A community. It is a niche online territory easily created yet does require the cultivation and caring by the white label owner him/herself.

Even though the above description of LocaLoqa white label may make it sound like a walled garden”, in reality the users are NOT totally confined to be white label scope. User can check the “See WLs” checkbox to find out other white label brands in the scan area, or user can check the “See All” to get all (any white label, or non white label associated) questions/answers in the scan area. The flexibility is practical and necessary, while the white labels still have the advantage of being the default scope upon initial arrival at the white label’s LocaLoqa web site.

The white label brand owners are encouraged to promote their own LocaLoqa white brand (web site) in order to populate their own LocaLoqa community for marketing or social networking purposes. All white label brands are welcome to refer to the LocaLOqa reference materials available online, such as this blog article.

Adding White Label Brand

User can create and own a LocaLoqa white label brand by setting the white label name, category, and descriptions, then click the “Add & Own White Label” button to create and own the new LocaLoqa white label brand.

User can then click on the “Refresh” button to see the result of the new white label brand addition. The new white label information will be displayed in green fonts. The new white label brand LocaLoqa web site link is displayed and can be clicked to open up the white label’s LocaLoqa web page for verification.

There is also the HTML code that functions to display the white label’s logo (if ready) which can be clicked to show the white label’s LocaLoqa web page. The white label owner can copy/paste this HTML code to places where he/she wants to deploy this LocaLoqa white label logo/link.

The white label information also include the statistics of questions/answers that come under the given white label scope, so that the owner can see the activity status of his/her  white label LocaLoqa community.

On the right hand side portion, with green background, are the fields where white label owner can update the white label related account information.

User can upload the user profile picture, and the white label brand logo, and additional pictures that can be attached to questions/answers. There’s a limit to the number of additional pictures allowed for each user. Recycled usage of the limited picture quota is recommended.

 

And You Ask : What and Why LocaLoqa?

Hi, a big welcome from YJ – builder of the LocaLoqa.

First of all, much thanks for arriving at this page!  In here I will tell you about the LocaLoqa, and hope that it will be enough to bring you over to the actual LocaLoqa site afterwards for a real checkout.

So let’s start…

What LocaLoqa Is

LocaLoqa is the location based (with Google Map) Q&A that differentiates itself from the others online Q&As by:

• Varieties of interactive map location based usages
• Unique Q&A privacy DIY policy control, ranging from
  • One-to-one pair closed Q&A, to
  • Public open thread Q&A
  • Q&A Quiet period control
  • Answer visibility control
  • Thread visibility control
  • Questions flagging
  • User blocking
• New question/response notification trigger with scan radius + personalized filters
• 2-minutes to start business/organization’s own global white label LocaLoqa brand

Why LocaLoqa

“I Have A Question!”

Approximately six months ago I took up interest in searching for listed vacant lands in the New England area, and soon came upon one particular property near Schenectady, NY.

This piece of land is quite interesting from my perspective: upscale neighborhood, easy freeway accesses, large acreage, varieties of terrain features, plus partial waterfront! The asking price is not unreasonable, and the tax is “just” that standard New York state high property tax rate. Did my county/city tax and zoning checking, also checked off the flood zone on FEMA! All seemed good.

Still, the property had been on market for more than 5 months by that time, and had twice price reduction more than 10% already. The property listing carried hundreds of views and was the favorite of many users, as shown on Redfin and Zillow, yet it was STILL WAITING FOR A BUYER after almost one year by now.

As a potential property buyer, you’d wonder what is stopping this property from being sold quickly? Something’s wrong then? And what is it?  Guess work and questions – need to talk to somebody about this property…

Who Has A Good Answer?

There are many questions that I’d wanted to ask about this land, and yes I did ask. I did start emailing with agents via Redfin and Zillow, plus agents from local brokerages. But I wasn’t quite sure if I was communicating with the best agents for this particular property, plus most agents were not too “hot” on emails – without qualifying me first as a real potential lead.

Soon I realized that I need to get to communicate with people who know well about this land first-hand, not just the agents. Perhaps people who’d been living nearby the location over the years. Perhaps I can get them to share some insights on this property. Even better, what if I can find a way to have my questions “reach” the seller, and to get some answers per the seller’s discretion? That will be great for sure! I needed some questions answered before moving further in my decision process on this property and I need to find a way to achieve this.

Reaching Those With Answers

Of course all these thinking was just what it was – wishful thinking. There’s no easy way for me to get to the property seller directly, nor any easy way for me to reach local folks that can and may kindly share their insights on the property. The only thing specifically available and common in this matter, between myself and the parties that I wished to connect with is – the property location – its latitude + longitude, not even the MLS number.

Now you can guess well why the LocaLoqa map based Q&A has come into existence.

From my wishful thinking I decided to move ahead to build a facility where questions may be placed on specific locations on map, and to open up for responses with practical privacy control. LocaLoqa was designed from day one to work as a new niche tool for the real estate industry – buyers, sellers, brokers, agents, and local gurus all included.

And going beyond the real estate industry, LocaLoqa will serve as effectively to many other industries/purposes as well!

Click this link of LocaLoqa User Guide : for sign-up, login, and usage of LocaLoqa

 

How LocaLoqa Makes The Difference

By True Location

When people talk about online Q&A, the famous ones come to mind are the Quora ,the Reddit, and the Nextdoor. Quora and Reddit do not provide features with location-specific support, while Nextdoor verifies your postal address and confines you to Q&A of your hyperlocal community boundary.

All these services go with traditional text mode Q&A, with minimal map location support. With these services, conveying the exactness of non-postal-address location via the text mode is rather ineffective and inconvenient (that people have to go over to a map to figure out the non-postal-address location that you’re trying to tell about, even if you did give the location latitude/longitude).

Surely you can ask about questions about Yosemite national park in general, but how about questions on one specific creek curve, a stretch of a trail, the slope of a road segment with icy condition, or even a climbing rock in that park? The example may be overly simplified, but you get the point.

Of course I do concede that, LOTS of questions on Q&A services are not location related. Also LOTS of questions can go by with postal address, thus may not require a map or latitude/longitude for exact location specification. Given that, there are still LOTS of questions that NEED to get to the non-postal-address locations exactly, and there’s no facility so far addressing such needs.

Recently Google Map started to provide Q&A for Google Place businesses (those verified with business identity and postal address location). This is great for those registered Google Place businesses, but it certainly DOES NOT cover the rest huge domain of no-postal-address locations. Put it simply – what if you’ve got a question about a location where there’s no registered Google Place business? Or if you’re NOT asking about the Google Place business, rather your question is about something else “at that location”? The Google Map Q&A won’t help in many these cases.

A true location is defined in the simplest form of latitude + longitude, NOT by its occupying entity’s public identity, NOR should be limited by the postal address specification. We need a Q&A service where people can ask questions and get answers about non-postal-address true locations!

 

Meaningfully Local And Practical Privacy

Q&As and forums such as Quora or Reddit are open and global, i.e. they do NOT let you define/confine your questions’ “reach” in terms of physical distance AND privacy (visibility). A local question does not find its suitable place easily on Quora or Reddit. These Q&A services may imitate the Craigslist to split their discussions into hundreds, if not thousands, of cities across the states. And still a 100 meter resolution sort of questions won’t find a good fit nor a quick “descending on” using the location directory of text mode Q&As.

“A true local and location based Q&A needs to avoid using artificial location partitioning. Instead it needs to “leave the ground open” for exploration by the users themselves in their own terms – spanning across the map with their own scan radius range.

LocaLoqa lets you explore and focus on questions within your selected scan range, along with filters such as questions categories, keywords, white labels, ages, popularity, and etc.  New question alerts are also similarly managed.

In terms of privacy, LocaLoqa lets you set the quiet period for the correspondence between you and any responding person, such that you two’s conversations remain invisible to third party during the quiet period – so as to keep the conversations private with disturbance. There are lots of good reasons or preferences for the quiet period, and you can always DIY to set/change it to be no-quite-period, or forever-quite-period, or anything in-between. In addition to the quiet period, LocaLoqa users can also control the visibility of their specific answers, and the visibility of any 1-to-1 Q&A sub-thread. This means that you can hide/reveal any specific answer of yours, and you can also hide/reveal all the Q&A between you and another specific user within a given question’s Q&A full thread.

LocaLoqa White Label Brands

Obviously the type of questions that can benefit most by using LocaLoqa are those that are highly location relevant, or those that are hard to associate with business/organization identities and/or postal addresses.

There are many industries, businesses, organizations, groups, that need to provide such a true location-based Q&A facility for their users, clients, or members. They need the LocaLoqa Q&A for their various relevant topics, situations, events, activities, and etc. LocaLoqa provides the LocaLoqa White Label Brand for businesses, organizations, and groups with such need. You can read more about the White Label Brand in the LocaLoqa User Guide.

Other than accepting businesses, organizations, groups registration for LocaLoqa white label brand, we’ve also pre-created an extensive list of LocaLoqa white labels without specific biz/org/group branding that any registered LocaLoqa user can readily start to utilize in raising his/her questions with the question category of those pre-created LocaLoqa white labels. See the current pre-created LocaLoqa white label directory here.

Click this link to see how “LocaLoqa Rewires Property Business Connectivity”

LocaLoqa Rewires Property Business Connectivity

First of all, if this is your first time looking into LocaLoqa, you may want to read a little bit about the “What And Why LocaLoqa” and then continue here.

And for those who want to start with assurance that this is something that’s going to work – for you – instead of a waste of time, please click here for that two minutes pitch.

Now have you heard people saying that “Real estate agents are about to go away like the travel agents”?  I myself have heard it (too) often, and I’d like to declare my position once for all that I don’t believe the realtors are going away, at all! Real estate properties are not as standardized nor as simplified merchandise like airline tickets that carry minimal subjective value. The purchase of a real estate property is simply too big a personal lifetime investment decision that cannot, and should not be fully and brutally automated (out) without human realtors involvement.

All the new and loud technology players on real estate business are onto the sexy domain of AI, Big Data or Online Listing. The daily agent/buyer/seller human interaction domain seems to be rather non-algorithmic and thus has been skipped by the avant-garde, although in reality this human interaction field has much room waiting for technology enhancement and renovation. And we are here to take a look at what can be done, and how.

Let’s start with recapping some of the real estate industry recent trends that are relevant to our current topic:

 

Arrival Of The New Species Real Estate Business Players

If you’re in the real estate business, you are surely aware of Zillow, Redfin, the new species online real estate listing aggregator sites. You may also have heard about the “Stop Zillow” movement which is a recent reaction on the rising tide of these online real estate listing online aggregators.

The present shifting toward online access and browsing of property lists by the property buyers is obviously a natural and irreversible trend that’s only growing stronger on the daily basis, with the continuing arrival of new players with new service features. The overall real estate business landscape is being re-partitioned and re-developed dramatically by these online players.

Players like Redfin and Zillow have their priorities set with emphases in:

• User (the property browser/buyers) base growth
• Niche listing features and technologies
• Representation of affiliated agents
• Growth of the affiliated broker/agent member base
• Innovative property sales handling/processing

Their reach is growing on the nationwide scale, and along the way signing up thousands of  agents from traditional brokerage as affiliated members. Based on these on-the-ground forces, equipped with niche online facilities and innovative sales handling/incentives, Redfin and Zillow are often viewed by the non-affiliated realtors/agents as an realistic threat on their traditional business model and practice, and the revenue distribution. Such perceived threatening situation has prompted the arising of the reactions like the “Stop Zillow” movement.

Interesting enough though, the “Stop Zillow” movement itself is fundraising to set up its own  online facility as well, aiming for the whole community of realtors/agents, in order to fight against the (recognized by the movement) inequality brought by Redfin and Zillow, and the like. In a sense the “Stop Zillow” movement seems to be actually confirming the irreversible trend of real estate business going online direction. The “Stop Zillow” movement will certainly have to provide something unconventional in order to prove itself to be “equal” for all realtors/agents, not just another Zillow or Redfin with a justified righteousness. The “Stop Zillow” will need to able to grow and sustain a critical mass in order to prove its points. This will take time to tell, say by mid of 2018.

 

New Bottle Old Wine – New Site Old Mindset

With all these competition and development on going, if you look and consider carefully, you’ll find that all the existing broker web sites, and all the Zillow, Redfin and Zillow-like biggies, are all driven by their property list as the core of their operation, regardless however it’s originally crawled, sourced, and aggregated. The most recent advanced feature probably is simply the throw-in of the online map for listed proper locations. Other than that, Zillow or Redfin or the others, are all built on the same core element – the property list, just like the same old good brokers’ web sites which had dated 10+ years back.

Of course photo quality are great now, and site storage not a constraint anymore, videos are definitely in, plus some 360° viewing with virtual walk-thru, etc. But it’s still the traditional pipeline of “list, view, compare, and click to email the agents behind all these” that has been there for the property buyers ever since properties appeared on online listing.

It doesn’t matter which real estate site the consumers are on for the property list browsing, when coming down to be ready to reach out to an agent for further questions, the consumers always end up facing an e-mail list of the (affiliated) agents behind the given site.

 

You (Agents) Have Been Undercut By Your Tool

Lots of consumers actually would like refrain from e-mailing with unacquainted agents much as possible. Human nature. For a consumer, e-mailing an unacquainted agent means that you’re proactively giving away your e-mailing address, exposing yourself online, and still you’re not sure if your question will be well taken by the agent. What happens if the agent becomes overly persistent? These concerns constitute the fundamental dilemma of taking part in the online world when you feel the need to reach out while also fear about the risk of revealing yourself.

On the other hand, for an agent, replying to say 30%+ of his/her daily e-mails that are from new unknown “potential” property buyers can prove to be a real productivity issue. Not that the agent does not want to engage with the new contacts, but that the ending result many times proved to be minimally productive. An agent needs to be engaging and courteous, but there’s a limit to the resulting productivity deprivation.

The worst part of the emailing mechanism is that, it’s one-to-one, it’s NOT group social nor public. However much the agent put into the message writing and attachment compilation for these replying e-mails, the efforts simply go in vain once the communication is over only with a big “Thanks”. And which is perhaps more than half of the cases? E-mail simply does not help you enhance your online portfolio nor add on to your online networking reputation.

And then with e-mail you’re only getting connected to those potential buyers who come to your affiliated site(s). You’re invisible and non-existent to those potential property buyers who’d never visited your affiliated site(s)! This is the whole reason why agents are flocking over to Redfin and Zillow and pay to get listed next to properties, so that they are there when buyers want to ask a question via e-mail. Fishermen are always in search of the next big pool flocked with fish.

There you have it: agents are driven to be “every where” for “every buyer” if e-mail is the only online connection channel to the potential buyers out there. Agents are driven to continue in the chase of next greenest online pasture, and to learn to adapt to the new online real estate business practice instituted by the next famous real estate site. Beyond the agents’ own sphere, once into the online world agents are at mercy of the online real estate sites and the limited connectivity they provide.

 

You Need To Go Beyond The E-mail

Thus the existing e-mailing channel as deployed by the property sites individually is, and has been, the unidentified weak point for ALL existing property sites. I’m not here to denounce e-mail itself, rather I’m referring to to the way it’s being used as the sole online communication channel by the property sites. Agents certainly should not, and cannot stop using e-mails. But there has to be some better ways to mitigate the situation and to open up an open, leveled, and safe communication ground for property buyers and agents, and perhaps even for the sellers, AND anyone else who are NOT in the property buy/sell loop yet has good reason and/or relevant information to share with the buyers.

Now LocaLoqa is NOT here to “Stop Zillow” or stop anyone else, or to stop e-mailing. Instead LocaLoqa looks to be the new facility to complement all these existing (and upcoming?) online real estate sites, namely facilitating a leveled open play field of communication for all agents in their awareness and responding to location specific property questions from potential buyers in the agents’ own territory. Highly flexible and practical DIY privacy control of the conversations is another major emphasis for LocaLoqa, so that communication goes open yet can be practically private when necessary. Yes, we’re talking about open field public access, while allowing one-to-one communication privacy control. The best combination ever possible.

Let’s see how.

 

 

Property Buyers Using LocaLoqa

LocaLoqa is NOT going to replace brokers’ property listing web sites, or Zillow Redfin, and etc. LocaLoqa is the place where the property buyers come to AFTER going through his/her choices of property listing sites first, with specific properties and relevant questions in mind, and seek to raise their questions via LocaLoqa. The buyer would then have the property location and details already, perhaps available in another browser window/tab for standby usage.

Once logged in LocaLoqa as a registered LocaLoqa user, a property buyer navigates to the given property’s location on the LocaLoqa (Google) map and places his/her question on the relevant spot. The question placement position does not have to be the property’s exact location, as the question may be related to nearby neighborhood, traffic, school, park, grocery, and can be placed away from the property’s postal address location.

This is what’s great about a truly free position Q&A in that you can literally place a question on a mountain tip – if that is relevant!

Once placed on the LocaLoqa map, the question becomes visible to anyone visiting LocaLoqa, either registered users or unregistered guest visitors. You only need to sign-up for LocaLoqa user account if you’re to raise questions, or you want to respond to questions.

 

Your New Radar On Property Buyers

The creation of the new question may trigger some e-mail notification to other LocaLoqa users who had the notification trigger installed to catch new questions matching the filters of the trigger. Most likely your new property questions will trigger notification e-mails to brokers/agents in the area, and also to some local property gurus nearby the given property location in question. In this way a new LocaLoqa question automatically finds its way to the parties that can and are interested in responding to the new question, and accordingly initiates one or more one-to-one Q&A conversation threads.

LocaLoqa questions can be created and placed in either the map display mode or the list display mode. The map display mode is best to navigate, zoom, scan, and explore for others questions that the buyer may also be interested in. Visually oriented map exploration can ease the finding of questions, and stimulate your imagination in a different and creative way, as compared to when browsing a text based property/question list.

For buyers who are used to traditional Q&A format, switching from the LocaLoqa map display mode to the LocaLoqa list display mode will do the trick. In the list display mode the property buyer can (simplified small map) navigate to list questions, based on query filters such as question category, title/content keywords, sorting order, question response count, question age, and etc. The query is effective in helping buyers narrow down to matching questions in relevant area.

Buyers can even set up his/her alert triggers of any new questions (from other users) that fall into the query scope (area, keyword, categories, and etc.), so that the buyers get notified on questions of interest coming online. But, of course, the buyer is primarily interested in getting responses to his/her question that had been placed on the map. LocaLoqa does notify the question owner via e-mail upon any new responses on the given question. This is done just like most traditional Q&A services. The notification can be de-activated (unsubscribed) and re-activated per the user’s decision anytime.

 

Private Q&A In The Most Flexible Way

As an real estate agent do you share your buyers inquiry e-mails with other agents? That’s an absurd question, right? Not that the agent says bad things about the other agents in the e-mail, rather it’s a normal practice of business ethics to respect and give each other the privacy, confidentiality and free space.

How about the Q&A between the agent and the question asking property buyer?

The LocaLoqa lets the question owner determine the new question conversation “quiet period”. For example if the quiet period is set to two days, then any response in any thread (based on the conversation-parties) are invisible to all others for the first two days. After the first two days quiet period, the responses will become visible to the others, such that the others may “respond on the response”, i.e. join that particular Q&A thread conversation- as seen on traditional Q&A services.

The quiet period policy can be changed by the question owner anytime, and can range from zero days (i.e. answers are publicly visible immediately) to Quiet Forever (i.e. the answers remain private forever between the question owner and the one responding user).

Beyond the quiet period, LocaLoqa users can hide/reveal a specific answer (to users other than the owner of the given question), and also can hide/reveal the 1-to-1 Q&A discussion sub-thread between him/herself and another user on a given question. Combinations of these DIY control usages provide the truly flexible and practical one-to-one LocaLoqa Q&A conversation privacy.

LocaLoqa also lets user raise flag on specific questions, or block a particular user (from responding to your questions or your answers). The flagging and blocking mechanism are designed to take their incremental effects, i.e. it’s based on the “??? counts and you’re out” approach.

In the question list display mode, each question comes with its own unique public access link with encoded parameters for security purpose. The question owner (or anyone) can use/send this link of the question to others in order to raise the awareness to his/her question in his/her networking circle, e.g. via e-mail, twitter, blog, Facebook, linkedIn, and etc.

 

Property Brokers Using LocaLoqa

Get your brokerage a White Lable LocaLoqa for your own brokerage brand NOW! It is free. Your brokerage gets your white label LocaLoqa web page with your brokerage title and logo, and everyone coming thru your white label LocaLoqa web site into the LocaLoqa Q&A will be placed by default under your brokerage’s white label scope, so that you can start to build your own white label LocaLoqa online territory, expand your online Q&A community population, and you should know all the rest of how to benefit from this new niche online Q&A territory ownership!

 

Property Agents Using LocaLoqa

The LocaLoqa adopting logic is simple for agents – I’m referring to both the buyer agent AND the listing agent here. If LocaLoqa proves to be an open ground fertile with local property questions from the buyers who have low probabilities of reaching the agents via e-mail directly with these questions, then the agents must check out these Q&A and start to participate the discussion, in order to “be there” and “get a fair chance”.

I know that at this point some of you are going to ask if LocaLoqa is trying to monopolize the real estate Q&A domain? I will postpone my response for now, and just to say that LocaLoqa is an open leveled play field day one. Common good is what we’re going for, not to replacing anyone, stopping anyone.

Let’s get back to the agents –

An agent can sign up for a LocaLoqa user account and then proceeds to scan for property related questions in his/her business area. The agent can also set up new question alerts with personalized categories and scan radius around his/her base location. Once a new matching question raised by potential buyer is placed in the agent’s (new question alert) scan area, new question alert e-mail is dispatched to the agent. The agent can go directly to the given new question by clicking the question link provided within the alert e-mail.

Once arrived at the new question page, the agent can review the on-going public Q&As the buyer already had with others, if revealed. The agent can choose to start his/her own Q&A thread directly with the buyer on the one-to-one basis. Based on the “quiet period” policy of the given question, this new one-to-one Q&A thread may be public, or stay private for certain period or forever. The agent as the responding party also has the authority to force his/her specific answers to be invisible to all others except the buyer.

There are often situations where an agent does NOT want to reveal his/her conversation with the buyer to 3rd parties, and the quiet period and invisible answer mechanism can be deployed to practically serve the business purpose. And this is one of the major differentiators of LocaLoqa versus other traditional Q&A services such as Quora or Reddit. LocaLoqa’s privacy DIY leaves the control in the hands of the question asking buyer and the agent with great flexibility.

The (White Label LocaLoqa) Worlds In The (LocaLoqa) World

Now some of you may ask how can LocaLoqa become the fertile ground of Q&A from property buyers to start with? Part of answer to this is that, LocaLoqa provides ways to enable brokers/agents as the catalyst in boosting the market awareness for LocaLoqa among the property buyers. Essentially LocaLoqa will open up the LocaLoqa White Label Brand option to all brokerage firms such that each participating brokerage firm will own its LocaLoqa white label brand, e.g. “LocaLoqa of SuperHome Real Estate Company”.

Assuming that the superficial “SuperHome Real Estate” will first register for itself a LocaLoqa account, and then turn on the white label brand option, set its white label title, and upload the SuperHome business logo as the white label logo. With all these done, the SuperHome will immediately own the link ” https://localoqa.com/@SuperHome ” for its own unique LocaLoqa web page.

This customized web page carries the “SuperHome Real Estate” title and business logo. Any online visitor arriving at this SuperHome web page and proceeding to browse the LocaLoqa map and question list, will by default be placed within the SuperHome white label scope. And how does a white label scope matter?

 

How Brokerage Firm And Agents Benefit From Its LocaLoqa White Label Brand

When accessing LocaLoqa within the SuperHome white label scope, visitors see only questions previously raised (and responded) within the SuperHome white label scope. The white label thus essentially provides a carved-out separate online Q&A territory for SuperHome Real Estate. And naturally SuperHome should nurture its white label Q&A territory by bringing visitors or influencers from the sphere to the SuperHome white label LocaLoqa web site as many and often as possible, and encouraging the questions and answers as many and often as well.

SuperHome should put out words in its sphere about the availability of its new SuperHome white label LocaLoqa web site by deploying the unique web page link all over its online media and communications, e.g. brokerage’s own web site, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail signature, and etc.. The brokerage firm should as well coordinate all agents to tell about the white label LocaLoqa web site to their clients.

There is minimal resource required in promoting the brokerage’s own white label LocaLoqa as the whole online facility has been furnished and operated by LocaLoqa directly. Brokerage firms such as SuperHome benefits directly and immediately by acquiring the ownership of its own dedicated property Q&A ground, which provides unconventional leads to potential buyers, plus the boosted online image and reputation for the given brokerage firm and all its brokers and agents.

 

Get The Best Of Both (White Label and Non White Label) Worlds

There are property buyers who came to LocaLoqa directly instead of via any white label web site. These visitors may place questions in locations near a brokerage firm that owns its white label LocaLoqa. Such questions do not belong to any white label and do not show up within any white label scope. Thus the agents when browsing the LocaLoqa for buyers’ questions, should from time to time switch in-between the white label and non white label scopes in order to get to see ALL questions in the area without any miss.

The way to switch between the scopes are using the “See All” option. You can find details about this mechanism in the LocaLoqa User Guide.

 

Listing Agents Need To Get On LocaLoqa Too!

By checking out the buyers’ questions and responding to the relevant ones, a real estate agent gains the extended leads towards wining an opportunity of becoming a buyer’s agent. And in similar way a listing agent can also browse the potential buyers’ questions on some properties, and accordingly find opportunities to introduce alternatives (i.e. his/her own listing properties) to the potential buyers.

For agents in any role, the LocaLoqa Q&A ground opens up the safe and selective one-to-one private conversations or public discussions, which conveys a niche pool of highly potential property buyer leads. Remember that the most potential clients are those who do ask questions! Silent many be the majority, but the asking minority are good enough, that is if you can reach them.

Thus! Brokerage firms and agents can now own their own new dimension in reaching the potential buyers!

 

Local Property Gurus Joining LocaLoqa

Remember your last “I wish I knew” moment? There are situations and actions that we regret about, and we wish there were someone there to tell us otherwise. Most of the property buyers definitely carry such cautious thinking,  and they take it as a real blessing when some of their hard-to-(find)-answer questions get responded on!

And, if you don’t mind my saying here, the property buyers appreciate the insights from the local folks more than those from the real estate agents, at least in their intuition by the personal nature. This is understandable and should be accepted as a fact of life.

And LocaLoqa as an open Q&A space with flexible DIY privacy control, can be a promising ground for those local gurus who are willing to share their local property insights by answering the property buyers’ questions under well-designed and well-deployed one-to-one conversation mutual privacy control.

“Agents, bring on your sphere of influencers!”

It is NOT practicable to expect the early stage active participation of LocaLoqa Q&A from the local property gurus, or from those who happen to carry applicable neighborhood relevant experience for particular property questions. This level of Q&A participation is only expected to be a secondary wave, to be led and enlightened by the first wave of property Q&A activeness on LocaLoqa among the property buyers and the local real estate brokers/agents.

It’s actually beneficial for brokers/agents to source and encourage those influencers and local gurus in the agent’s sphere to join the LocaLoqa, with the aim to bring more quality conversations to the local LocaLoqa scene, for better appreciation from the local property buyers, and to boost the liveliness of the overall local LocaLoqa play field. The property buyers benefit surely, and the agents benefit commercially.

 

(Anxious) Property Sellers Using LocaLoqa

A property seller leads an edgy life during the period starting when the property comes on the market, and up to when the property is sold. There are many “I wish I knew” moments with property sellers during this edgy period, especially about the way the property is being represented and how it garners responses in the market.

Parents love dearly their own children and are the only ones who can see their kids’ greatness, which may not always be readily obvious to the others. Property sellers are just like parents toward their property, hate to see that the others don’t see what they can see. Property sellers really love to hear what the others have to say about their property, and are ready to come on defense for their property anytime!

Even though property sellers are highly anxious to know about the market acceptance of their properties as listed, there is simply no way for them to obtain that sort of market information, not to mention any channel that they can use to provide their “positive” feedbacks. Not until LocaLoqa, that is.

Sellers Want To Talk And Now They Can

With LocaLoqa, the property seller gets to see exactly all the questions raised on his/her listed property, and should choose cautiously, responsibly, and ethically to respond to the questions, ideally with the disclosure of his/her seller role. This unique never-before seller to potential buyers direct communication channel of LocaLoqa is bound to exert a major impact on the dynamics among the property sellers and and his/her listing agents, the buyers’ agents, and the potential buyers themselves.

The seller should make it clear to the listing agent about the seller’s participation of LocaLoqa Q&A conversations on the given property, and perhaps to get the clarification/clearance ready with the listing agent prior to the actual Q&A takes place.

Never-Before Seller-Buyer Dynamics

This new LocaLoqa seller- buyer communication dynamics shifting is to be observed carefully and intently, in order to maintain the LocaLoqa Q&A as an effective and positive real estate communication ground without inflicting negative side effects. Hopefully with LocaLoqa’s flexible DIY one-to-one conversation mutual privacy control, plus the question flagging and user blocking mechanisms, there are sufficient safety guards in place for handling special scenarios.

We would of course love to hear your opinions on this perceived new shifting of property seller-buyer dynamics under LocaLoqa. Let’s hear them please.

 

Click this link of LocaLoqa User Guide : for sign-up, login, and usage of LocaLoqa