Ginger Wilcox and Amy Chorew Top Mobile and iPad Apps and Trends

These are the notes from the session at Nar Annual at Anaheim in November 2011. The presenters were  Ginger Wilcox and Amy Chorew speaking to a crowd of several thousand Realtors.

Ginger Wilcox took the stage first.

Ginger is a 3^rd generation realtor

Currently a home buyer. Getting a look at the business from the other side. Has the power of new tech at her finger tips now.

As a buyer she uses lots of tech tools while on the road. Welcome to the new consumer.  We need too understand the new consumer and the power they have in their hands. People want their information and they want it NOW!  If they can’t get the info from you now, they’ll just find someone else.

Supporting this trend are the stats of 300,000 apps available which have been downloaded a massive 10.8 Billion Times

½ of searches are now done on a mobile device. 93% of people have searched for local info on a mobile device.  61% ended  up making a phone call after researching online.  Still a mix of old and new.

“Mobile is without doubt changing the way real estate service is delivered”

Gingers thoughts when dealing with the mobile consumer.

Firstly. You don’t need your own app. 1 in 4 apps downloaded are never used.

Avoid ‘Shiny App Syndrome’

Just make your own website super mobile friendly.

Some tips 

Can I see text on your mobile website with without ‘pinch and zoom’?

Can I find your contact info easily?

Can I click on links and buttons with my fingertips?  Leave space  (Some of us have fat fingers)

REFERENCE howtogomo.com to assess your website for mobile. This will give a great report on what your mobile website looks like from a mobile device.

Tip Make your email mobile friendly.

Bling is bad. You don;t need to pepper your email stationery with lots of Bling. A high volume of people are viewing it from mobile devices. Get to the point. Make it simple  Say NO to ‘images’ in emails.

Space your clickable links far enough apart to allow my fat fingers to click

Grammar rules don’t go away just because you are on a mobile. SPELL CHECK and be aware of AUTOCORRECT. Ginger referenced a recent Autocorrect fail where she concluded an email with ‘Big Hugs, Ginger’ which ended up being ‘Big Jugs’ Fingers’

Gingers App tips.

Evernote:  Take and store notes in any format

Voice: Dictation App. Eg: Siri on iPhone 4s or Dragon dictation

Skype:  Face to face calling, Can add Skype button to your website. (I like this) Save $$’s on out of town clients

 Expensify:  Easily categorise, tag and add comments to expenses. Saves you keeping receipts on the road

Milebug:  Simple and IRS friendly tracking of mileage for (FBT in Australia)

Magic Plan: Create Floor plans using iPhone. Just hold in the air and take a spin. Creates a plan

My measures:  Take a photo and add dimensions to a room pic

Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com Apps for USA Agents:  Its what your consumers are using. Learn to use these products

Ginger concluded with a very relevant point that “The best feature on the smart phone is…  The Phone itself”  Use it. Don’t get lost in App world. Real Estate is an emotional business. Lets make sure we connect person to person.  Its still the original social network.

Nice presentation Ginger! Thank You!

 Next up was Amy Chorew

Amy is also now a home buyer right now. Amy talked about choosing and using mobile devices as a Realtor.

 

 

First step.  Search for Tablets on Google. Keep search to last two days. Things are changing quickly. Amy has a personal bios to the iPad. It just works.

Consider what you need. Extra storage?  Need wireless? Battery life?  Do your research. You’ll probably need a device with a camera.

What software do you need in your office that is compatible with your tablet ?  Make sure you’re going to be compatible.

Running a business using Mobile Apps

Keep an eye on Amy and Gingers Twitter account over coming weeks for a list of some crowd sourced Apps. @gingerw @amychorew

Amy says. You need to be working ‘in the cloud’.

Cloud is defined as : Internet based computing where you can put all your info in the ‘cloud’ and access the info from anywhere on any device. You can share any files you want from the ‘cloud’ with clients or colleagues.

Start with Dropbox.  Dropbox.com Download the mobile versions/apps to all your devices. You can use a ‘public folder’ to share big files with a client.

Be sure that you’re delivering the information to your clients the way your clients want to be communicated with..

Put your listing presentation into a slide show like keynote on the iPad.  Amy prefers Keynote over Power Point. Check its compatible. But be ready to present from your iPad or tablet.

Skype for mobile. Use it for absentee clients or even local clients that are tough to get to.  Use the camera as much as possible to get the face to face communication.  Face to face helps to read the body language and facial impressions of the other party.

In all but  3 states of the USA Electronic signatures are acceptable.  Amy Suggests:  Iannotate and ‘signmypad’ for electronic docs from iPad.

 Working with buyers she suggests:

Crumbtracks

Tournarrator App 1.99 from Alamode

Realtor. Trulia.Zillow.Hotpads

Property Evaluator for selling investment property

Real Alert  A system for Team Safety

 Working with sellers Amy suggests

For Editing Files: Documents to go QuickOffice OR pages, keynote, numbers etc

DocuSign: allows you to be home instead of being out chasing signatures all night.  In all but  3 states of the USA Electronic signatures are acceptable. Still coming in Australia to my knowledge.

SoundNote: allows you to record and write at events. Call up the word and the app finds the place in the voice capture where the word was used.

Open Home Pro for logging details at Open Homes. Can add up to 13 questions to log with a buyer at an open home.

CRM to manage business on the road: Realty juggler, Top Producer, or check with your current supplier to see what they have to et you mobile.

Go to  amychorew.com/handout It was offered as a great resource for more information and handouts for this and previous sessions Amy has run.

This was a great session, highly informative, and should be taken on board by all Realtors. Time’s and Consumer behaviour is changing and they need to be ready to change with it.