Tools of the Month
We are constantly looking for and checking out the latest real estate tools- especially those free or inexpensive ones that can boost productivity in some way and we can utilize on a daily basis.
These are our Top 13 Picks in Real Estate Tools & Technology:
- Create and share your online documents, presentations and spreadsheets
The first thing you’ll need to decide is whether you’d like to use the full version of Google Voice with a brand new phone number, or add some Google Voice features (like voicemail) to your existing mobile phone number.
The basic differences between these options are:
Google Voice with a Google number
- Use one number to manage all your phones; your Google Voice number is tied to you, not to a particular device or location.
- Voicemail like email: Save voicemail messages for as long as you’d like, star important ones, and search through them
- Voicemail transcription: Voicemail messages will be automatically transcribed to text and sent to you via email and/or SMS.
- Customize your callers’ experience (custom voicemail greetings, decide which of your phones ring based on who’s calling, send some callers straight to voicemail, etc.)
- Define which phones ring, based on who’s calling, and even ListenInTM on voicemail before answering the call. We use smart technology to route your calls. So, if you’re already on a Google Voice call, we’ll recognize it and use call waiting to reach you on the phone you’re on.
- Works with mobile phones, desk phones, and work phones. There’s nothing to download, upload, or install, and you don’t have to make or take calls using a computer.
- International calling: Make low priced international calls from the web or from your phone.
Google Voice with your non-Google phone number: With this option you won’t get some features (i.e. call forwarding, screening, and call recording), but you’ll still get plenty of others, including:
- Voicemail like email: Save voicemail messages for as long as you’d like, star important ones, and search through them
- Voicemail transcription: Voicemail messages will be automatically transcribed to text and sent to you via email and/or SMS.
- Custom voicemail greetings: Customize your voicemail greeting based on who is calling.
- International calling: Make low priced international calls from the web or from your phone.
3. Dreaminder- Goal Setting- Start working toward your dreams.
This is a free tool that helps you remember what you want from your life. Reflect on your life, write down your dream and set the date when you want to be reminded of it and Send it to yourself in the future.
Samples of Top 10 Daily Goals-
- Exercise
- Stop Eating Out
- Read More
- Drink Water
- Floss
- Run
- Meditate / Pray
- Eat Breakfast
- Take Vitamins
- Update Blog
Free tool
4. Gmail - A Potential Foundation To Manage and Track All Transactions
• All of your business email, and Gmail checks multiple POP email accounts so that you can use your domain email addresses.
• Filing and easy retrieval of all email, now more than 30,000 of them.
• Integrates with your Calendar and Tasking.
• Provides simplified contact management capabilities.
• Replies with email address to which email was sent, keeping that branding.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Online for anytime anywhere access.
- Huge storage allowance.
- Add-ons and Features available from third party vendors.
- Will check your other branded email accounts.
- Labels are better than folders for archiving
Gmail is free as of this posting.
- Integration with Gmail, including ability to add events from an email, and display upcoming events and appointments next to your email.
- Takes voice appointments from Jott, which I’ll talk about in this group of tools.
- Lets you set up custom reminder systems for text messages, email and popups
Google Calendar is free now as well.
It can be used for transaction task management because:
- It integrates with Gmail and displays your tasks in Gmail’s screen.
- With calendar appointments, email and tasks all on one screen, you may be more organized.
- It allows you to import via email an entire list of dated tasks when you start a new transaction.
- RTM tasks can also be picked up in Google Calendar, so the one calendar view tells all for the day, week or month.
- Alarms via text or email for tasks deadlines.
The free level of RTM should work for most people.
7. Xpenser – Bookkeeping Made Easy
Take care of simple accounting tasks using Xpenser
- Allows you to end each day with all records up-to-date
- Takes less than 10 minutes each day
- Ends up in a database with little or no typing
- Because it’s easy and fast, you don’t miss anything
Create Categories and Sub-categories such as
- Commission Income
- Real Estate Fees and Dues Expenses
- Real Estate Education Expense
- Office Expenses
- Marketing and Advertising
- Vehicle Mileage
8. Sugarsync – Simple and Easy Backup + File Sharing Across Computers & With Clients
Sugarsync Provides Easy Off-site Backup of Your Real Estate Files
The Sugarsync service to backup up folders and files on your hard drive as you work in them. But, there’s a lot more as well. You can share folders & files securely with clients, so large transaction files can be downloaded by clients. Still more, you can access your files on any computer, including the iPad with the Sugarsync app
$24.99 per year for a 10 GB account
9.PrinterShare
- Printing from your iPad, or iPhone on the Web
Once you’ve installed the PrinterShare software on your computer, any printer connected to it becomes available to those you allow to print on it over the Internet. It’s not just about using an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. You can also have people in offices across the country able to print documents directly on your printer. Better quality is achieved without emailing or faxing.
With PrinterShare™ you can print directly from your phone (selected models only) to anywhere in the world including your own printer. Install their mobile software on your Android phone or iPhone through Android Market or Google App Store correspondingly and Have a Good Print!
I found something with more power, though not just for floor plans. Intaglio Sketchpad is a vector drawing application for the iPad, and it will allow you to draw all sorts of things, make designs, save them as images and more.
This is a Business Card Reader that offers to bring order to the chaos of business card collection. This is an Apple App for iPhone/iPad use.
- Scan and add contacts to your address book and it enables web access to your cards via cloud sync. Add to Outlook as well.
- Send email automatically using the card display
- Forward contact to another person or colleague
- Organize and Categorize your contacts.
- Calendar integration/ adds reminders to follow-up with new contact on a certain date.
- Export contacts to Excel.
The Full Version of this app is $6.99 and a Lite Version offered for Free.
12. ZIP REALTY- Real Estate App for iPhone/iPad use
This app allows you to discover which houses near you are for sale (or recently sold) with their HomeScan program. You’ll be able to Tap the screen to easily view details of any home you see.
Will give you asking or sold price, photos, distance from you and more.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- See MLS Listed homes for sale with photos
- Daily mobile updates with newly listed, price reductions and foreclosure properties.
- Uses HomeGain’s Homevalue esitmator from e-appraisal to estimate value.
- Access by zip code, price, location, size and more.
This is a Free itunes App
13. RoboForm Password Manager & Synchronizer
Put your passwords on speed dial and log into websites with a single click using RoboForm it’s like having bookmarks on steroids and you’ll only need to remember one master password. Enter your address, phone, email, etc. into your RoboForm Identity one time. Click on your Identity to completely fill long registration and checkout forms. Allow multiple users to use the same computer while securely keeping their RoboForm data separate. Great for family members or roommates.
Access From Anywhere
- Access your RoboForm Logins and Identities on all your computers and devices. They also have apps for most popular mobile phones including the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
- View your Logins, Identities, and Safenotes locally from your device.
- Perform 1-Click Logins using the “Login” button while viewing a RoboForm Login.
- Fill forms on the fly using “Matching Passcards” functionality in the built-in browser.
- Synchronize between your RoboForm Online Account and the RoboForm on your device on the fly.
- PIN Entry – Added PIN Code for the Application Itself, required to get into RoboForm for iPhone, You can change the PIN at any time.
The FULL Version is $30 and there’s a Lite version that offers you a Free Trial.
This is a Free App that is available for all RoboForm Online users
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Book of the Month is…
Most people just laugh when they hear that the secret to success is giving…Then again, most people are nowhere near as successful as they wish they were.” The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success.
Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from the enigmatic Pindar, a legendary consultant referred to by his many devotees simply as the Chairman. Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of “go-givers:” a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the “Connector,” who brought them all together.
Pindar’s friends share with Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and teach him how to open himself up to the power of giving. Joe learns that changing his focus from getting to giving-putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives-ultimately leads to unexpected returns.
Imparted with wit and grace, The Go-Giver is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb “Give and you shall receive.”
Audio Book Version
