When I first started to use Gmail as my main email provider, I was saddened to learn that I could not put my signature below every email I sent out. My email signature is used to provide my contact information to recipients, and also as a constant reminder for referrals. Having my email at the bottom of all messages was not the way I wanted my emails structured, so I migrated over to using Outlook. Greasemonkey has brought me back to using Gmail.
Today, Chris McKeever over at the NAR Center for Technology Blog gave insight into how to use your cell phone’s email address to become a more efficient real estate agent in the field. He hit on a great tip; every cell phone provider has it’s own email address. I really like his approach to using email on your cell phone. He doesn’t use it to check messages. Rather, he uses filters in his main email account system to forward important emails from specific clients/persons to his cell phone so that he has an instant notification of an urgent message.
Great idea indeed, Chris! Read up here.
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I’m surprised when touring many new, experienced, and veteran real estate agent offices just how rudimentary and out-dated their email systems are. I think it’s necessary to shed a little light on just how nice Gmail is for real estate agents, and how using it can improve your day-to-day business.
First off, let me explain that just because your email may be johndoe@kw.com doesn’t mean that by using gmail you lose your email address. Gmail is advanced in the aspect that you can send emails from any account that you can verify ownership of using gmail’s software backend. What does this mean? You can log in to gmail and send emails as if they were coming from johndoe@kw.com.
As a real estate agent, I can attest to one FANTASTIC feature of gmail. Searching for lost emails is by far the easiest I’ve ever experienced. I don’t know why other email providers haven’t gotten it right just yet, but gmail sure has. Simply enter in a search and gmail will find emails using your search phrase in a split second. Can’t find that email from the title company you sent last week but you remember the topic in the email? Easy; enter the topic in the search field of gmail and voila! Out populates emails that use that phrase somewhere in the email.
If you have some spare time in your busy real estate schedules, take some time and familiarize yourself with what gmail can do for your stress levels. Head over to gmail.com and create a new account and play around with it a bit. I can almost guarantee that you’ll love it.
By the way, how does 2+ Gigabytes of storage sound? This is another gmail feature, and it’s growing every day.
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Though this can be a direct testament to my inability to read an instruction manual, I have finally learned how to enable multiple stops along a home tour using the Mio C310x. It’s actually quite simple. Using the “Edit Route” feature, you can add stops to your route by searching for a new address, using past searched properties through your history, even by coordinates.
I’ve used this feature in the field and can attest to it’s usefulness. How was I searching for homes prior to placing the multiple stops in the C310x? I was entering each address one by one. After getting in the car after touring a property, I would check the next stop on the list and begin a GPS search using the C310x. I would use the multi-stop feature of Mapquest to find out the most efficient route from property to property on the day’s tour.
You never know when a GPS device such as the Mio C310x will come in handy. In one particular case, I was able to show my client the area in relation to the property we were touring. This quick overview of the nearby streets allowed him to gain his bearings on where he was exactly, and helped him understand that the home was actually quite close to the highway and other major thoroughfares.
A GPS device is, in my opinion, a worthwhile investment for any real estate agent. Though I don’t feel it’s absolutely necessary to sell real estate, it sure does come in handy in those parts of town you are not 100% familiar with.
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HP has released two new models for their point-and-shoot cameras, the M537 and M437. As a real estate agent, we must be sure to invest in technologies that help us do business from day-to-day. A digital camera is just that; without it, how else do we plan on taking pictures of our client’s home that we put up for sale? Or perhaps of a neighborhood that we’d like to learn more about?
HP has been steadily releasing new cameras to the market, and these two units are prices attractively for the entry level photographer. What mosts interests me is the tagging features that will come included.
“One of the highlights offered on the HP M537 and M437 is a built-in tagging system that allows users to select images which will be marked for sharing during the upload process. Coupled with the Photosmart software, the HP photo tagging system promises to make organization even easier, according to a company press release today.” - DigitalCameraInfo.com
Another neat feature is that these models include “anti-shake” technology to help those of us with shaky hands. Personally, I’m guilty of the shaky hand syndrome. The M537 will be released at $129.99 and the M437 at $109.99. These two cameras are definitely worth a look if you are planning to purchase a digital camera to add to your real estate tools.
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