7 real estate apps every real estate professional must have.
Did you know that 40% of the workforce today falls into the Millennial age group? And by 2025, it could be as high as 75%. If you’re on the south side of 40 (or 50) that thought could make your thumbs go numb. Some future-focused realtors think that within the next five years, we’ll all be doing business with nothing but our smart phones.
So that’s the market of the future and if you’re going to succeed in it, you need to keep your tech savvy-ness up to date. Here are three reasons why you need to stay current with the latest and greatest real estate apps:
- Learning new technology stimulates the brain.
- A few good apps will simplify your record-keeping.
- You can work where you are. Stop running back and forth to the office or keeping your clients waiting.
Of course we can’t possibly cover everything that’s out there. You already know all the big players—Zillow, Trulia, Bankrate.com, Realtor.com—so we will skip right over those and highlight a few of the niche apps, which may provide some innovative possibilities for you.
- What it’s good for: listings and detailed comps.
- Best features: updates data every 15 minutes. Data is available for 83 different markets nationwide.
- Lists all associated property costs, including HOA dues, maintenance, even PMI if you put down less than 20%!
- Free to download and available for both Apple and Android products.
- Provides Realtors and clients with a simple way to legally sign and return documents from anywhere, anytime, on any device.
- Signing is free.
- Eliminates scanning, emailing, faxing, and other cumbersome communications methods.
- Offers a free trial, after which plans start at $10 per month and go to $40, depending on usage.
- Available for all devices.
- You become instantly street-smart, no matter where you are.
- Uses your current location to provide detailed community data, such as average income, median home value, racial mix, and education levels.
- $.99, available for iOS only.
- Uses your smart phone camera to scan any document to a PDF file.
- Has auto-enhancing and cropping features to make documents crystal clear.
- No need to keep clients waiting to get their documents until you get back to the office.
- OCR lets you edit text.
- Basic account is free and provides 200 MB of cloud space.
- Premium account is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year and provides 10 G of cloud space.
- You can auto upload docs to Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, OneDrive, or OneNote.
- Available for iOS and Android.
- Use it to run estimates on the spot for both buyers and sellers.
- Pre-loaded with location-specific closing costs, title rates, lender fees, and property tax rates.
- You can customize your estimates, and brand your printouts and emails with your photo and company logo.
- Company provides substantial training in how to use it.
- Available for all Apple products, also Kindle and Nook tablets.
- This app can find the sun, even when it’s raining!
- Helps buyers understand natural light exposure on any property
- Useful for planning days and times for photo shoots
- Makes renovation planning easier for architects, contractors, and landscapers
- Available for iOS and Android
- Costs $9.99 to download
- Organizes specific property data
- Retrieves public records, mortgage history, school data
- Add your own notes and photos
- Brand with your photo or logo before sending to your client
- Available only to National Association of Realtor Members
Need we say this is just the tip of the iceberg? Keep up to date on new apps and updates by searching the Internet, comparing notes with colleagues, or signing up for new product info with your favorite app providers.
And don’t go app-crazy! Download one at a time, learn to use it, and move on to the next one. In no time, you will be saving time and money. You’ll have less deadline stress, and you’ll be impressing your clients, Millennial and otherwise.
Leave a Reply