RealtyTechBytes.com » Product Reviews

Monkey with your business card for better results

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:00:35 +0000

Ever wondered what happens to those business cards that you pass out to people that you meet? My hopes were that the person would take the card and sooner, rather than later, use it to contact me!

Of course, the reality is much different. Unless someone has an immediate need to get back to me, what most often happens is that the card gets “filed” somewhere. That’s because there is no immediate need for them to get back to me when they take the card. The problem arises when they do want to reach me and can’t find my card. It would be a heck of a lot easier for all concerned if my card could somehow “magically” get into their address book with the click of a button or a tap on the screen.

There are products on the market that allow you to to have an online business card, but they often only offer a download of a VCF format file which very easily imports into Outlook. VCF doesn’t always import easily into the other forms of address books that people use. Also, many of those do not show you tracking statistics, offer QR codes, and give a way for a person to receive automatic updates when you change you contact info.

This is where a Canadian company called Contact Monkey comes into play. Their product takes your contact info and your picture and displays it in an online business card. The magic that they apply is that the person viewing your card has the option to download the information in any of 19 different address book formats. In other words, they make it extremely easy for someone to store your information in the address book that they use every day, be it their Blackberry, Android, Windows or iPhone, as well as their Google, Yahoo, Outlook, Salesforce, ACT!, Goldmine and many more other formats.

After they access and save your info, they are also given the option to receive email updates when you change any of the info on your card!

Once you finish entering your data into your Contact Monkey card, you are given a QR code that links to your online card as well as a link that you can use in your email signature. Here is the email line they suggest that you use:

Add me to your address book – it’s easy! http://contactmonkey.com/jerrykidd

The service is free for individuals and is $3.00 per month for a business. The business does get a few “extras” for that subscription fee, most notably the Contact Monkey branding is removed and replaced with your company branding and colors. Companies can also maintain a directory of employees and staff contact info which can be published on your web site!

A pretty sweet deal all around. And if you haven’t already done so, please click on the link to my card above, and add me to your address book. You never know when you’ll need my services!

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Monkey with your business card for better results

MagicPlan takes the work out of creating a floorplan

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:00:18 +0000

I am constantly amazed by the iPhone apps that keep appearing. The brilliance of the designers and the versatility of the iPhone just blow me away sometimes.

Case in point, I just ran across a FREE iPhone/iPad app (MagicPlan) that will allow me to to create floor plans by just using the iPhone camera. The usage reminds me a bit of taking a panoramic photo. You start by identifying a corner, then another corner, a door, windows etc until you have the entire room “mapped”. You can add hallways, additional rooms, even furniture an appliances.

The finished floor plans can be downloaded as pdf, jpg or files that are compatible with CAD software (Computer Assisted Design). One hitch, the finished floor plans may NOT be used commercially. If you want to use it for your own private use that’s ok. But, if you are an agent wanting to use it in connection with your real estate business, then you need to purchase a license. Fortunately, even the single use license is cheap at $2.49.

Or, you could “like” them on Facebook and get one free floor plan commercial use license. It looks like a great way to build “Likes” on their fan page and give some incentive for doing so.

Go download the free version and noodle around your own house to get a feel for it. It’s actually very intuitive and easy to use, and it produces some very well done floor plans.

HomeSpot just might hit the spot for your sellers

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 02:00:15 +0000

I have heard a few tales of woe lately from agents around the Bay Area about homes that have sold only to fall out of escrow due to what was found during the inspection process.

Many of the homes that appeared to be in excellent condition had thousands of dollars worth of deferred maintenance that wasn’t discovered until the buyer’s home inspector gave the house a thorough going over.

Over course this triggered another round of negotiations and in some case the buyers exercised their right to walk away from the transaction leaving a frustrated seller with huge repair bills to clear up.

My immediate reaction was to have no sympathy for the seller, after all, every home requires some preventative maintenance and if the seller fails to do that, then a day of reckoning comes when they go to sell.

But, as was pointed out to me by more than one listing agent recently, often times the sellers just don’t know what to do to prevent those huge remediation bills. A point that I hadn’t considered. That reminded me that I had heard of a free web service for homeowners called Homespot. The service offers a homeowner a way to record and organize home information; choose and prioritize projects and home maintenance tasks; schedule automated maintenance reminders; plan the weekend; create project specific shopping lists and find deals for products online.

I thought that you could tell your farm areas about this and give the owners a chance to take better care of their most valuable asset. But, while I was researching the site for this article I saw a link that asked if I was a real estate professional, so I clicked it and was taken to Homespot AgentPro.

While Homespot is free for sellers, Homespot AgentPro is a subscription service that you can purchase on a monthly or annual plan that will give you the following benefits:

Subscribing to HomeSpot AgentPro allows you to offer a free HomeSpot home maintenance service to an unlimited number of your valuable clients.

Whenever your clients use the free HomeSpot service, they’ll see your picture, brand, contact information and social media links. Your clients will also receive newsletters and maintenance reminders with your information prominently displayed.

This sounds like a pretty good deal to me…you get to help your prospective clients take better care of their homes and you get to stay top of mind while doing so. All for $8.95 a month or $74.95 a year.

It would be nice if all homeowners were on such a system. And if they were maybe those horrible inspection reports would be a thing of the past.

Go check it out and see if it makes sense for you. And no, I am not being compensated to write this. The owners of Homespot will find out about this article about the same time as you do!

Mosec Mobile Secretary for Android Phones

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:00:26 +0000

iPhone and Blackberry users can sit this one out, as it’s all about a cool new Android app.

For the past few months I have been in an email dialogue with Bernard Huang who is the CEO of Mosec, a startup based in Providence, Rhode Island.

We’ve been discussing his app that is aimed at real estate professionals and seeks to provide a tool that will help agents get a better handle on their communications with prospects, clients and others.

The latest version of Mosec hit the Android App Store early last week and is available for downloading now. It’s a free app and you can get it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.getmosec

In Bernard’s email to me that told me about the launch he said, “Mosec’s goal is now to help REALTORS® communicate and follow up better by letting them take notes, schedule appointments or remind them to call back later after calls.” More information is available on the Android site.

Given that it is free and it seems to provide a useful service, I think that if you are an Android user you’d be missing the boat if you didn’t go get it now!

Disclaimer: I don’t have an Android phone as I am a died in the wool Apple fanboy! So, that means that I haven’t tested it out. However, you could test it and report back! I am sure that Bernard and his team would love to hear constructive suggestions as to how to make this product even better. And if he hit a home run on this one I know he’d like to hear that too! You could leave your comment here, or at Mosec’s blog at http://blog.getmosec.com/

Simple email reminder system

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:00:56 +0000

My day usually starts at 6 AM with a cup of coffee and my email. From there I move to reading my RSS feeds which are the equivalent of the morning newspaper of yesteryear. Then I switch to Tweetdeck to see what is going on with the Twitterverse. From there I switch over to LinkedIn and check my groups. Finally I log in to Facebook and handle any friend requests, updates, clear my newsfeed lists and wish happy birthday to any of my friends who have completed another orbit around the sun that day.

That is a lot to do, but oddly enough, the biggest time sink is the email. I typically get over 80 emails during the night. Some are junk and are easily dispatched to the Trash or Junk folders. Some are informational and a quick read can get rid of them. Others require some action on my part. The easy ones I handle right away, the more complex ones get flagged for later in the day. For the most part my system works. But often my inbox is full of flagged messages. Some of which should be higher priority than others. The problem is that a flag can’t show me which message should be dealt with first at that later time. The best solution for me would be a system that lets me get a message out of my inbox and have it magically re-appear at a later time or date.

As it turns out, a new service can do just that and so much more! It’s called FollowUpThen. And guess what? The basic service is free! It’s all pretty simple, you just forward the email you want to see later to the time and date @followupthen.com. (The first time you do this you’ll have to confirm your email address and time zone). That’s it! At the appointed time and date you get an email from them with whatever you forwarded. In the meantime you can can archive the original or delete it to get it out of your inbox. That really helps to reduce the clutter and minimize the possibility of overlooking an important action item.

You can also use this to set reminders to yourself, send documents to clients (In order to send attachments or SMSs you will need to upgrade to the paid version for $24.00 a year) and when you get a reminder, you can also hit the “snooze” button. Not really a snooze button, but you can tell the reminder to come back later if you wish.

There are a lot of ways that I can see using this, so I went ahead and bought the upgrade. Give it a try and tell me what you think! http://www.FollowUpThen.com

The best external battery for your portable gadgets, ever!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:00:34 +0000

I will freely admit that I am addicted to my gadgets. My iPhone and my iPad have become so integrated with my life that they are never too far from me. I’ve even been known to drive back home from my office when I have gone off and forgotten one or the other. And that’s a 30 minute round trip!

Since having these devices ready to go when I need them is important to me, I have chargers at home, my office and my car. I don’t ever want them to be dead because they ran out of power.

So, when I was faced with a 14 and 1/2 hour flight to Australia in December I realized that I needed to come up with a portable battery solution. After much research, I found a little company in Fremont, CA (New Trent) that offered the perfect solution.

They offer a variety of batteries that will charge almost any phone or tablet. The one I chose was the most powerful they offered, the New Trent iCruiser IMP1000, as it would recharge my iPad completely one time, or recharge my phone 6 times.

Here is a partial list of what it is compatible with from their website:

New Trent iCruiser IMP1000 ~ 11000mAh External Battery Pack and Charger for iPad 2, iPad, iPhone (4S 4 3Gs 3G for both AT&T and Verizon phones), iPod Touch (1G 2G 3G 4G 5G), HTC Android EVO, Blackberry, Samsung Galaxy Tablet, Samsung Galaxy S, Droid, Nintendo, Sony PSP and much more!

I paid $99.95 for mine, but I see that it is currently being offered (as of 2-5-12) for $76.95. Here is the link: http://www.newtrent.com/Best-iPad-Battery-Pack-iPhone-Battery-Extender-p/imp1000.htm

This battery gets my highest endorsement as it performed flawlessly in my tests. After all, I was able to use my iPad on the plane for the entire trip!

San Francisco startup is poised to revolutionize broker tours

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:00:44 +0000

I’ve been writing this blog for nearly 4 years now and I have tried to keep it focused on technology tools that are available now for real estate professionals no matter where they may live. And aside from a few excursions into sales techniques (and the occasional rant) I have been pretty good about staying focused.

Today’s post is a definite departure though. For two reasons. First, the tool is not quite available yet, and when it does become available, it will only be for San Francisco agents, and more specifically, members of the San Francisco Association of REALTORS®.

So why am I talking about it here? For a couple of reasons. To start with, I know the principals behind the idea and the product. We worked at the same real estate company (different offices) together for a couple of years, so I know that they are all agents who have been in the trenches and know what they are doing…and more importantly, they know what active agents need in the way of technology tools.

And that brings me to my second reason for writing about the tool. This is an IOS app developed by practicing agents for practicing agents. Gil Fleitas and his team took a look at the way that they were doing business and asked themselves “what do we need in the way of tech tools that aren’t commercially available”, and then went and built the tools.

First out of the gate is Theo Tour (or tTour as it is known). tTour is an app for the iPhone (it will also run on the iPad) that organizes and makes sense of the San Francisco Broker Tour on an agent’s iPhone. (Although I am not a member of SFAR, I have been a beta tester for this app and will attest to it’s usefulness). Next up is ProtoTheo for the iPad (still in beta) which is a suite of integrated applications and services that dramatically improves the ability of Agents – indeed any real estate professional – to deliver an enhanced value-add service and experience to Buyers and Sellers.

tTour has been approved by Apple to be added as an AppStore download and Theo is finalizing details with SFAR as I write this, so it should be available to SFAR members in the near future. ProtoTheo is still in development and is expected to arrive sometime in 2012.

More information on both products is available in a brochure that Theo made available to me and which you can get by clicking on this link: http://RealtyTechBytes.com/theo.pdf.

For those of you who are interested in getting your hands on these products, go ahead and download the brochure…all of the contact info that you need will be there. Feel free to let Gil and his team know of your interest. Who knows, you may get to be a beta tester! And if you are not a member of SFAR, let them know that you’d like this tool to be made available in your area.

It’s refreshing to see tools created by the very people who use them every day! Hat’s off to the Theo team!

Dynamic duo of keyboard and case protect and serve my iPad in one device

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:00:27 +0000

As much as I love my iPad 2, I haven’t really adapted to the on screen “keyboard” that Apple thinks we should use to enter data! Even though I am a two fingered typist, and shouldn’t be bothered by the lack of tactile feedback, I am.

I really like the idea of using a keyboard when I send email, or type a letter or do any sort of text data entry, so the lack of a keyboard was a real bummer for me (cue cheesy 60s music here).

My track record on gadget abuse is also really high. I am just plain rough on my gear. Dropping things or banging things around is just part of the process for me.

So, you can imagine my delight when I happened upon the Logitech Keyboard Case by ZAGG. I first ran into ZAGG when I installed one of their screen protectors on my iPhone. That got me on their mailing list and it was one of their emails that brought the device to my attention.

At $99.00 plus tax and shipping, it’s definitely spendy, but it has paid for itself any number of times! The keyboard connects to the iPad via Bluetooth and the pairing process is very simple and straightforward. The iPad remembers the settings so all you have to do is set it up once and it auto connects each time you turn it on going forward. There is a little plastic angled rest that holds the iPad against the walls of a small channel so that it is tilted at just the right angle. It works in portrait or landscape mode and works up to a few feet away from the iPad.

The keys feel good, but the pitch is slightly less than a full sized keyboard, so you high speed touch typists will probably have to spend some time getting used to it. For two finger typists like me it’s a dream to use.

Your iPad fits snuggly in the case and is protected by the sturdy aluminum base that the keyboard is made from. It adds very little weight to the iPad, but it does increase the thickness to about that of the original iPad. The keyboard holds a charge for an amazingly long time…even longer if you remember to turn it off in between uses!

So, the combination of a Bluetooth keyboard coupled with a sturdy aluminum case to protect the glass of the iPad is an unbeatable system in my book. They also make a version for the original iPad in case you have one of them So, if you have an iPad you NEED this. Here is the page on their site to learn more: http://www.zagg.com/accessories/logitech-ipad-2-keyboard-case

7 Must have iPad apps for real estate agents

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 02:00:46 +0000

^{When the iPad 1 came out I picked one up to evaluate. I returned it to the Apple store 14 days later because it wasn’t capable of doing some of the things that I needed it to do. You can imagine the surprise on the faces of the Apple Store employees when they got my request for a refund! This was shortly after it’s launch and people were having a hard time getting their hands on an iPad.}

Even though I returned it, I still wanted one. So, when the iPad 2 came out I again purchased one. This time it didn’t go back. In fact it gets more daily use that my MacBook Pro which I dearly love.

I am often asked by the real estate agents that I work with my opinion as to whether they should get one. My answer is always “it depends”. The dependency is the agent’s Multiple Listing Service. If their MLS could not be properly displayed on the iPad’s Safari browser, the iPad was not for them. The MLS that I used to belong to FINALLY got it right when they brought out Paragon 5 a few weeks ago. So, for agents in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the dawning of the age of iPad has finally come to you. (The rest of the San Francisco Bay Are has long had that capability!)

But MLS is not the only thing that an agent could use the iPad for in their business. The ability to send email, browse the web, schedule things in a calendar app and manage contacts are all native to the iPad with the Mail, Safari, Calendar and Contacts apps that come with the iPad. And these are daily activities for all busy agents.

But, the iPad is capable of much more than that. Here is a list of the 7 non-native apps that I have on my iPad that I find indispensable.

These are the iPad (and iPhone) version of Apple’s very popular office suite of products. Keynote is an extremely easy to use app that creates stunning PowerPoint like presentations. Pages can create word processing documents, flyers, brochures and almost any kind of publishing document. Numbers is spreadsheet program.

They are $9.99 each, can be bought separately and you DO need at least Keynote and Pages. If you have a Mac you can create files on the Mac and show them on the iPad and vice versa. They are not 100% compatible with each other depending on the fonts used and a few other issues. This is not a deal killer though.

^{Here are the links:}http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keynote/id361285480?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pages/id361309726?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/numbers/id361304891?mt=8

Dropbox is a free service that allows you to bring all of your photos, docs and videos anywhere. After you install it on your computer and iPad, any files saved to Dropbox will automatically be synchronized between the devices and will also be stored on the Dropbox website. You can have everything with you for free up to 2 GB total!

Here is the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8

Call, video call or instant message any one on Skype for free! Plus call anyone at Skype’s low rates if they are not a member.

Here is the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skype/id304878510?mt=8

^{Dragon Dictation is a free and easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.}

^{Here is the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764?mt=8}

GoodReader is a super-robust PDF reader for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. (It costs $4.99) With GoodReader on your iPad, you can read virtually anything, anywhere: books, movies, maps, pictures. It can read doc, ppt, xls, keynote, pages, numbers, pdf, images, audio, video and Safari archives as well as html. It syncs with DropBox, Google Docs, SugarSync, iDisk and WebDav and FTP servers. But maybe the most important feature is that it will let you annotate PDF files. Can you say “Sign here”? Yes, you can pull up a PDF of a contract and have some one sign right on the iPad. From there the pdf could be saved back to Dropbox and emailed on to who ever needs to get it!

^{Here is the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goodreader-for-ipad/id363448914?mt=8}

As real estate agents, you might also want to have the Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow apps installed. They are all free and they all give you different views of real estate that is for sale or that has sold.

^{Here are those links:}

^{http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/realtor.com-real-estate-search/id336698281?mt=8}
^{http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trulia-real-estate-search/id425585109?mt=8}^{http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id310738695?mt=8}

Don’t forget to check with your association or MLS to see if they have iPad apps that you could get as well.

^{A quick search of the app store on iTunes showed 60 results for the word Realtor, so this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but it does comprise my favorite apps … the ones that I use nearly every day! What are your favorite iPad apps?}

10 Ways to learn about and put Google+ to work for you!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:00:17 +0000

By now you have heard of Google+. If you haven’t, it must mean that you have been under a rock since June 28th when Google announced its new social network. It’s been on the evening news, been in the newspapers and has even been the butt of parodies.

It seem like everyone and their brother is talking about it online and it’s truly surprising how many ”experts” have surfaced in the few short weeks since it launched!

Dubbed the “Facebook killer” by some, and called “Trojan Horse” by others, it’s the latest “new thing” to be coming down the pike.

What exactly is Google+? According to Google it’s Real-life sharing, rethought for the web.

That tells us a lot doesn’t it? Because I am not altogether certain what it is and how to use it, I went on a search for the best info that I could find.

Here are 10 articles, lists and essays on Google+ that I found to be helpful and I hope that you will too. If you know of a great Google+ resource that I missed, please share it in the comments below so that we can all learn.

In the meantime, I am going to wait for Google to bring out their business version. I am quite happy with my social interaction on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, so I really don’t need yet another place to spend my time.

What is your take on Google+?

Website Magazine on what others are saying
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/07/15/what-the-web-s-saying-about-google-plus.aspx

Vertical Response Marketing blog on what is it and what does it mean for my business?
http://blog.verticalresponse.com/verticalresponse_blog/

Mashable on 19 Essential resources for Google+
http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-resources/

TechCrunch with a warning!
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/15/google-one-hell-of-a-trojan-horse/

ReadWriteWeb on how to use Google+
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_start_with_google_plus.php

All things Digital on how this may be the biggest social media launch … evah!
http://allthingsd.com/20110715/by-the-numbers-google-the-biggest-social-network-launch-ever/

Google on getting started!
http://www.google.com/support/profiles/?p=help_center&hl=en

Chris Brogan on 50 ways that you might want to use Google+
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ad-free-google-plus-50/

Lifehacker with a cheat sheet
http://lifehacker.com/5820794/the-google%252B-cheatsheet-is-a-quick-reference-to-using-google%252B

Mashable with a “complete guide” to using Google+
http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/