We are pleased to announce that Realogy Services Group, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, parent of the CENTURY 21®, ERA®, COLDWELL BANKER® and BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS® REAL ESTATE residential real estate brokerage franchise systems, has selected Holdcom to provide Message-On-Hold and other audio marketing services to its franchisees and sales associates. Holdcom’s suite of audio marketing solutions will be offered to more than 315,000 sales associates and 15,000 offices throughout the network of franchises.

In addition to “brick and mortar” sales channels, Holdcom has developed individually branded online audio production "click and order" stores for CENTURY 21®, ERA® and COLDWELL BANKER®. Each offers full project customization, including selectable voice talent, music, script submission, instant quotes and three business-day fulfillment. Now, agents and brokers can go online and order professionally produced Voice Mail Greetings for their cell phones and office phone systems, Message On Hold programs and equipment, and audio for Virtual Tours, Talking Properties and Training presentations.

Holdcom has been providing audio marketing and Message-On-Hold services to the real estate industry and businesses since 1987, and today proudly serves thousands of clients, including The Corcoran Group, CitiHabitats and PHH Mortgage.

Be As Green As Your Tree…

Maintain your green state of mind while you spend your hard-earned green cash this holiday season with these few simple tips:

1. Don’t take a bag from every store where you make a purchase – load a few items into one.
2. Use 100% recycled wrapping paper.
3. Recycle wrapping paper after gifts are open or don’t rip through the paper so you can reuse it next year.
4. Consider using the Sunday comics or brown paper bags that can be decorated as wrapping paper.
5. Call your town to find out how your tree can be recycled.
6. Invest in an artificial tree – many are now pre-lit. Imagine that: not having to struggle with tangled strands of lights!
7. How about purchasing a balled tree to be planted outside? Evergreens planted on the north side of a house help reduce heating costs by cutting down the effects of a cold northern wind when the trees mature.
8. Think lasting, not disposable when it comes to your decorations and party supply goods. Invest in cloth napkins and tablecloths that perhaps could become family heirlooms.
9. Remember, baking is THE best air freshener – much more rewarding than aerosol sprays and non-edible candles!

Holiday shopping always offers up a series of challenges…the crowds, the sales, the malls, the traffic, the parking and this year, the economy. With such dire financial news, how can you make the most of your dollar this holiday season?

Retailers are hoping for a good season, especially since they started their “Black Friday” sales a week before Thanksgiving.

I’m not a financial whiz kid, but here are some simple rules I follow when I execute my holiday shopping game plan.

1. Research EVERYTHING you plan on buying. Don’t buy at the first price you see. Do some comparison-shopping, especially for big-ticket items, like electronics. Keep in mind that prices may drop, as you get closer to the holidays.

2. Save on shipping! Online retailers offer shipping specials for bundled items. Check their web sites for specials or announcements.

3. For Video Games fanatics and their parents, check with specialty stores for used games. While Store A may have a brand new game, Store B may have the same game, gently used and at a lower price. Your local Video Rental Stores also carry video games, so check there as well.

4. Coupons are a great recipe for your holiday feast. Clip away and save some extra “dough” this year.

5. Another shopping tip: If you LIVE near a retailer, check to see if the item is in stock. Purchase it online and arrange to pick it up at the store. You may need to maneuver through some traffic, but it’ll save you some cash, especially for electronics like televisions or computers.

6. Don’t spend over your means and try to use cash as much as possible. Once this financial crisis ends, you’ll have one of your own to deal with if credit card bills are mounting, due to holiday purchases.

After all is said and done, the holidays are much more than shopping and money and credit and traffic and the economy. It’s a time for family and friends, and you can’t put a price tag on that. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Did you ever purchase something and the more you used it, the happier you were that you bought it? That’s exactly how we felt this summer when we upgraded to our new copier. Now a copier sounds like a minor piece of office equipment. Almost antiquated, by today’s standards. But our new Xerox just keeps getting better and better.

Let me take you back in time before digital copiers were the de facto standard. About 12 years ago, we had a few different copiers that seemed to be broken more often than they worked. Our copier repairman was a fixture in our office. He was like Norm on Cheers. (I think he even had his own coffee cup in our kitchenette cupboard.) At that time, we were using our copier quite a bit for printing price lists and direct mailings. Our frustration was growing and somewhere along the way, someone suggested we check out Xerox. A call to an 800 number in the phone book (yeah remember those) led us to a local reseller (Liz Perillo with Integrated Document Technologies) who was number one in sales for our area. I’ll spare you the details of our “honeymoon” with Liz, but she analyzed our needs, and got us on track with our first digital copier.

Now tens of thousands of copies, and several copier models later, fast forward to the end of this summer and it was time to upgrade our copier. How much could this technology have changed in the last 12 years? We’d been totally satisfied with all the models we’ve had. We didn’t even recognize the repairman when he came in to do a complimentary cleaning and service call. We’ve been so busy pounding our chests about the internet and email, what could possible get us excited about this device from the digital stone age?

Like so many things we all buy, we were only utilizing about one tenth of the features that existed on the current system. So we brought in the IT guys and let them go under the hood to see what we could do with our new copier. It didn’t take long before they had networked it as a printer, set it up to send and receive faxes as digital emails, and were scanning contracts for archiving into pdf files.

Now users can even reduce or enlarge documents they want to print right from their desktop. Or choose to print a brochure as a booklet and the copier will figure it all out. With multiple users sending “jobs” to the copier at the same time via the network interface, the copier simply prioritizes the tasks and completes them in the most efficient order. The copier even emails weekly status reports as to how it is operating.

We would all like to send our sincere thanks to Liz and her team at Integrated Document Technologies (also, a loyal HOLDCOM customer since 1998). Check them out on line at www.idtofficesolutions.com or call them at 973-237-1200.