Top Mobile Apps for Real Estate: Tried, Tested & True & The New Kids on the Block

It is that time again - time to review the most popular mobile apps for real estate. Those apps that have come out on top as the best for research, time management, marketing, organization or communication. Some of the ones on this list are old faves - faves that seem to make it to the top of the list time and time again. Others are new to the stage, but are full of promise!

Research Apps

1. Google Maps – this is a great app that can be used as a GPS. You can view street view and aerial imagery of different neighbourhoods and use the GPS feature to navigate from property to property. Looking at an overhead view of a neighbourhood can enable you to plan routes where you can pass amenities that your client would be interested in.

2. GeoWarehouse – Access the GeoWarehouse application from your tablet to research a property, generate sales comparables, view sales history, verify legal owners and legal descriptions, financial encumbrances, neighbourhood demographics, request instrument images, condo certificates, surveys and more…

Marketing Apps

3. Mail Chimp – This is a platform that enables you to create your own branded emails and newsletters and market them to your email lists.

4. Social media – Make sure you have downloaded apps for the social media sites you use frequently. This is important because some sites like Facebook require that you download a secondary app to manage your business page.

5. Communication Apps – Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, and/or Facebook Messenger all offer apps that make it effortless to have free video and telephone calls with your customers.

6. LightTrac – This app enables you to be more aware and have more control over lighting conditions so that you can plan to take your photos at optimal times - not to mention plan showings around the optimal times of day.

7. Majic Plan – This mobile app enables you to create floor plans quickly and easily using the camera on your mobile device.

8. Create your Own Mobile App - Use this service to create your own mobile app: http://www.biznessapps.com/realtor-iphone-app.php.

9. Netfirms – You can use this site to host, create and market your own website affordably.

Apps that Make Calculations

10. Mortgage calculator app – there are tons of them and it is a huge benefit to have one downloaded. Clients may want your help to crunch numbers to see what price points of homes they can afford.

11. Land transfer tax calculator – RateHub has a really great land transfer tax calculator that you can use to quickly estimate municipal and provincial land transfer taxes: https://www.ratehub.ca/land-transfer-tax-ontario .

Organizational/Document Management Apps

12. Dropbox – This a crucial app that makes storing files securely in the cloud easy. Using Dropbox enables you to access documents from anywhere. You can also email your clients links to documents and even the ability for them to upload documents to your Dropbox.

13. Evernote – This is another app that enables you to organize and store documents and notes. They offer a number of industry specific products including real estate.

All-in-one Apps

14. ViMO – this is a real estate specific app that is really an all-in-one app because it does many things under the above categories in the same app. You can: 

• Market your listings – through CRM functionality, market insight reports and through posting your   listings

• Research properties – check sales comps, registered owners, encumbrances, sales history and more

• Research areas – pull demographics, view neighbourhood trends and sales

• Administer documents – create and sign documents electronically

• Communicate – send messages and documents to other ViMO users and more

When it comes to doing things on the go, this list of the top mobile apps for real estate is a great way to have everything in one place, there when you need it. In the competitive industry that is real estate, the only way to compete it to be the best.

These apps help. Visit www.myvimo.ca today. 

The Paperless Acquisition, Interview and New Client Engagement

This is the story of Steve. Steve is a real estate sales professional in Mississauga, Ontario. Steve has gone paperless by transforming his marketing from conventional marketing to 100% digital, and has made the interview and process of engagement completely paperless! Here is Steve’s Story.

Part of Steve’s new digital plan was to create a presence on Facebook and focus on developing that presence including marketing his listings using paid advertising. After starting this marketing, Steve was contacted by a client via Facebook message.

The client was interested in listing their home and buying another one. They asked Steve to come out and meet with them. Steve requested some preliminary information from the client and set up a time to meet.

At the meeting Steve dazzled the client, showing them a selection of properties on his tablet using his ViMO app.

·        The client indicated which properties they wanted to Steve and so Steve sent messages to the real estate sales professionals on the other side to make appointments to see the properties.

·         Next, Steve and the client looked at comparable properties that had sold in the area to come up with a good list price for the client’s home they wanted to sell.

·         Steve did a walk around of the property, snapping photos throughout for the listing.

·         Steve prepared the listing and representation agreement on his tablet and had the client sign using their finger, electronically.

The following day, Steve heard back from all the other real estate sales professionals representing clients who were selling properties that Steve’s client had wanted to see. Steve followed up with his client and took them out to see some homes.

On the road, Steve and his client passed a property that appeared to have just come up for sale. Steve pulled over, and using his tablet and ViMO app again, scanned the property using the camera on his tablet and generated all of the property’s information for the client.

Later that day, the client found a property that they liked and wanted to make an offer on. Steve pulled out his tablet and again checked his ViMO app to see sales comparables in the area relevant to the property his client was interested him and noted that this listing was $30k over value.

At the local Tim Hortons, Steve and his client had lunch and Steve prepared the offer electronically to sign up with the client again, electronically.

And so the story goes….

As you can see by Steve’s story, going paperless is not so difficult and just really depends on what tools you have to get the job done. Steve’s use of his tablet and mobile app made him significantly more efficient and streamlined the process making it more time efficient for him and his client.

Going paperless doesn’t have to mean more work, but it can mean more sales for you. Visit www.myvimo.ca today to find out more.

How to Help Your Client Avoid a Bad Morning After

There are definite reasons why spring is a hot time in the real estate business. The weather is usually nice, it is easy to view properties and you can see everything than may have been hidden for the last few months. Clients may opt to wait out of concern that it can be difficult to see what is under the cover of snow, and not just as it relates to the property your client wants to look at but also as it relates to adjacent properties.

One way to overcome the objection that a client wants to wait until spring to buy is to point out that you can show them what is under the cover of snow.

There are many ways that you can do this but the real estate tools in your arsenal are important.

Google Street View – You can Google the address, click maps and then drop the little man icon onto the street to do a virtual walk down the street and look at the property in question from the street and also adjacent properties.

Another thing you can do on Google is just perform a general search of the property address. 

The beauty of social media is that the owners may have posted photos of the property in different seasons. Additionally, it may have been listed in the past and if the other real estate sales professionals didn’t delete the listings everywhere they listed, there may still be photos available online – photos you don’t have. A quick check can sometimes yield a goldmine.

Skip a step - Online tools like GeoWarehouse and mobile apps like ViMO enable you to instantly generate exterior imagery of the subject property and also aerial imagery. Some of this imagery comes from Google so you can actually skip the step of looking at the property on Google because you can access the same imagery here.

Aesthetic issues such as landscaping aren’t as concerning because they can be changed by the new homeowner. However, issues such as what the deck looks like and things/structures that may exist that are below the snow may be more concerning.

The last thing you want your client to do is purchase a home, take possession and once the snow melts, discover some unsightly attribute of the property which is costly to resolve. Or worse, something that exists on an adjacent property that presents major issues.

On the sell side, you can show your client things they may not be able to see, such as a ravine or golf course that a property backs onto, which may just look like a wall of white in the winter. Or maybe a driveway is larger than it looks because some of it is under snow.

The more you can do for/show your customer, the more value you provide. Being able to access imagery and show your clients everything they need to know about a potential property, sets the stage for a buying decision!

Don’t let concerns about snow coverage convince a buyer they need to wait. Give them the info they want and need to make a purchase no matter the season. For more information, visit www.myvimo.ca today.

Real Estate Marketing 101: Make Sure Your Properties Are Listed Everywhere

It’s difficult to refute that marketing by far is one of the most important aspects of a real estate sales professional’s business. Marketing both to generate leads from the public directly and from referral sources will make or break your success. After all, without clients there is no business.

One very important aspect of real estate marketing is ensuring that your listings get the maximum exposure possible!

This means more than just ensuring that your listings appear on your website and the MLS. Promoting listings doesn’t just promote the property being sold but also promotes you! Your goal should be to ensure that your listing appears everywhere. Everywhere doesn’t just mean in local newspapers and using conventional marketing. Everywhere means taking advantage of digital media and real estate specific mobile apps to market your listings to the highest number of people and referral sources possible.

Here are some tips to affordably market your listings:

·         Social Media – Share your listings in your social networks and on other social networks, real estate groups on Facebook as an example

·         E-Newsletters – E-alert your contacts each and every time you have a new listing. This can be achieved through mobile apps like ViMO and to your email lists using mailer applications like MailChimp

·         Real estate mobile apps – Ensure that your property is listed on mobile apps like ViMO. Many real estate sales professionals that represent buyers don’t just peruse the MLS systems anymore. They also look for listings on their real estate apps to find out about hot opportunities for their clients.

·         Pay-per-click marketing – Historically this type of marketing has been facilitated by Google. The challenge for smaller real estate sales professionals is that this can be expensive because real estate is so competitive which can drive up the cost per click. In recent years Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have all launched pay-per-click marketing programs that are far less expensive than Google. Also, you can target by area and prospect characteristics - so for example you can ensure that your ad or listing only shows to particular people, in particular ages, in a particular area. Here are some links for more information about social PPC marketing:

o   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/business 

o   Twitter: https://biz.twitter.com/ad-products 

o   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/ads/

Online and mobile app marketing has really leveled the playing field, making it easier for real estate professionals to market more cost effectively than traditional conventional marketing. Leveraging digital marketing platforms, social media and mobile apps the sky is the limit and you have complete control over how much exposure your listings get.

Want more information on how an app like ViMO can help you market more effectively? Visit us at www.myvimo.ca.  If you’d like information about how to list a property in ViMO, here is a user guide to help you get started: http://myvimo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Add%20Listing%20in%20CREA%20DDF-4%20-%20updated%2011172014_Agent.pdf. 

Training time: How to Use Augmented Reality in ViMO

Hey ViMO users - Its training time!! By now you are likely getting your feed wet learning about how to use all the powerful and amazing functionality offered by the ViMO mobile app!

If you haven’t played with the feature yet, Augmented Reality enables you to stand in front of a property and using the camera in your tablet scan the front of the property to perform a real-time search that will produce an abundance of information about the property that you can share with your client.

Here is a quick training video that explains step-by-step how to use the Augmented Reality feature in ViMO. After watching the video if you still have questions feel free to each out to us at vimo.training@teranet.ca or call 1-855-999-8466 ext. 2224.

    

Electronic Document Signing in 1-2-3…

As of July of this year you can sign your real estate documents electronically! This is an exciting advancement in the real estate biz because it stands to dramatically increase the efficiency of real estate sales professionals.

Now that you can sign documents electronically – how will you do it?

You may be thinking – yay, now I can email documents to clients to be signed… but let’s also think about face-to-face interactions with clients and how we can leverage electronic document signing to enhance their experience.

Our first piece of advice: get a tablet! This will make you be able to do far more on the go and you can incorporate this very useful mobile device into your client meetings – even as it relates to signing your documents electronically.

Depending on the document and the circumstances, in some instances you will need to meet the client, not only to negotiate initial agreements but also to verify their identity, interview them and perhaps view their home or take them out to see other homes.

This is your first opportunity to impress. Now you can pull out your tablet and use ViMO (which by the way can also be used to verify identification) and create listing and representation agreements with the client. With a swipe of a finger, the client can sign them and then you can email the client a copy.

Effortless – no more reams of papers, having to scribble changes on pre-prepared forms at meetings, no more sorting out copies for your clients.

Now you have landed the client! In the case of a buyer, you take them out on the road to see properties. Using your ViMO app you can research listings in the area that match your client’s criteria and contact the other agent electronically through the app to arrange the appointment.

First house, bam – your client wants to make an offer.

Now you can use your ViMO app to create the offer. Again, your client can sign with the swipe of their finger and again you can transmit the documents through ViMO to the other real estate sales professional (assuming they are a ViMO user).

There are different tools that you can use to sign real estate documents electronically. Looking at different apps and what they offer and using them with other apps that perform various functions that you have to complete over the course of your job can streamline and reduce the number of apps you need on your tablet.

If you would like more information about how to sign real estate documents electronically in ViMO here is an e-book that walks you through, step by step, including print screens illustrating how you can create and sign your documents right on your tablet http://myvimo.ca/free-e-book-electronic-documents-in-real-estate/.

Not a ViMO user? Find out more about this revolutionary mobile app for real estate at www.myvimo.ca.

Tablets to Replace Laptops in Real Estate?

When we look at how technology has evolved over the past 20 years – real estate professionals have gone from an entirely paper-based process, to having computers in their offices, to having laptops, to today, where smartphones and tablets are small, lightweight devices that can fit in one’s purse or briefcase and are a convenient way to work on the go.

Professionals have slowly moved towards this technology – but as with anything there is a learning curve so some have taken some time to be swayed over to the mobile device “dark side” - although it is far brighter than that!

Gartner Inc. is one of the world’s leading IT research and advisory companies. They routinely release data with respect to the use of devices. In 2013, they issued a press release that looked at the previous 2 years of device usage and also forecast based on their trends and data, what device usage would look like over the next few years. Here is what they found:

Device Type	2012	2013	2014	2017
PC (Desk-Based and Notebook)	341263	315229	302315	271612
Ultramobile	9822	23592	38687	96350
Tablet	116113	197202	265731	467951
Mobile Phone	1746176	1875774	1949722	2128871

Source: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2408515

As you can see, tablet use quadrupled over the last few years

In real estate the above trends echo what we see and hear at shows and from clients – many real estate professionals are now using tablets like their iPad to facilitate their mobile office while on the road. Gone are the days of driving back and forth to the office performing research and signing documents because using a tablet, all work functions can be performed from anywhere there is an internet connection.

Are you one of those individuals who is slightly overwhelmed by the thought of trying to do more on your tablet or simply would like some tips on how to choose and use different mobile apps? Here are some tips for getting started using a tablet in real estate.

Choose the right tablet. Training should be a consideration. For example – if you buy an Apple iPad you can go to any Apple store and receive help setting up your tablet and understanding its basic functionality.

Download industry specific apps. In real estate there are many service providers that have come out with mobile apps to make their services more accessible.

Some must have apps and why:

·         Evernote with Penultimate – this will enable you to make freehand notes on your tablet and keep documents organized

·         Dropbox – this will help you send and receive large files and store this data

·         ViMO – this app is only available to GeoWarehouse customers and enables you to research properties, market to clients and administer documents and other functions electronically

·         Social media – if you market actively on social media make sure you have all social site apps added to the phone to keep on top of your connections’ questions and comments. Where Facebook is concerned, make sure you have downloaded the Page Manager app to manage your business pages from your smartphone (this is different from the main Facebook app download)

·         House preview apps – there are many great apps for recording properties and loading up virtual tours of your listings

Mobile is here to stay. The faster you learn how to leverage mobile technology the faster you can adapt and become more competitive. For more about ViMO please visit www.myvimo.ca.