Capital Area Realtor®
Serving the Business Needs of OUR Professionals
2012 September - October
T echnology Three Tech Trends to Watch for Your Real Estate Business By Amy Chorew, The Tech Byte
The diverse job that a real estate agent performs has remained basically the same over time. What has changed is how information is delivered and exchanged. The following three tools – iPad, cloud computing and mobile apps – have the potential to transform how we communicate with clients today and in the future, and here is how. iPad The iPad, a tablet computer which is operated by touch, has a promising future in the real estate industry. For all the reasons we bought a laptop and never really used it to its full potential, we will find ourselves using the iPad more often. This portable device is perfect for real estate. Following are a few possibilities. Open Houses: • Instead of having people sign in on a paper roster, create an electronic sign-in for visitors. Be sure to collect their e-mail addresses for future communications. • After the open house, send an e-mail thanking them for attending with pertinent links. What a nice surprise to your potential buyer client. • Have your virtual tour and photos display on the iPad for viewing. • Use this great visual device to show visitors the neighborhood via an interactive map or your blog. Listing Presentations: • I have always advocated the use of visuals during a listing presentation. Create a simple presentation to share your key marketing points. • Don’t forget the power of video. Include a short video with the reasons they should work with you. • Make sure you e-mail all of this to clients before you leave.
We don’t just rely on e-mail. We are now comfortable visiting Web sites to interact, retrieve data and communicate. This makes the move easy. Local applications on your computer will become passé, and computers will become just gateways to the “cloud” where the work is actually done. The browser will connect to all the software that you will need. Google has a free set of cloud computing tools. Try Google Docs to collaborate on Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets. Visit www.google.com/docs to set up an account. DropBox is a great back-up solution. It works in the background, continued on page 12
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Cloud Computing Social media sites, such as Facebook, have created a shift in the way we retrieve communications from our friends and business associates. We go to the Web. To me, this is a real “Move the Cheese” movement — a paradigm shift.
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Buyer Tours/ Showings: • Buyers can never remember one house from another. Put all the listing sheets, complete with pictures, in with pictures, an electronic folder on the iPad for the buyer client. • Use the iPad to take notes for them on the features they liked on each home. • Search for other properties on the Web in the car between showings. • Look for posts about all the great iPad apps that will make your life easier. Make sure to download a mortgage calculator and some sort of app that shows all of the listings in your area.
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