What gadgets does a real estate agent really need?
I was honored to present yesterday to many of my fellow RE/MAX agents at a class aptly named SMART TECHNOLOGY FOR YOU!. Steve Alcorn put this together and invited me to present my thoughts and field questions about technology and its effective use in real estate. I thought it might be nice to summarize the top three devices agents wanted to know about.
Gadget #1: Do I need a smart phone?
In my opionion YES, being connected is very important. A smart phone typically supports the following attributes:
- Full phone capabilities; even 3 way calling and visual email.
- A suite of helpful apps and syncs to your computer.
- Offers a wide variety of 3rd party applications.
- Supports bluetooth devices, mainly a bluetooth headset.
There are 4 primary types of smart phones:
- iPhone from Apple
- Phones that run on the Google Android OS
- Blackberry
- Windows Mobile based phones
A smart phone requires a data plan from your wireless carrier. This usually costs more money and based on your plan it can run $30.00 or so and many plans have limits on the amount of data you can consume. Read the fine print!
Gadget #2: Do I need an iPad or a laptop?
The short answer is, no to both. In my opionion a laptop or iPad makes life easier and allows you to better service your clients in the field, but they are not a requirement.
Laptops are very powerful mobile computers that can do almost anything a desktop can do. Prices range all over the board from a few hundred dollars to a many thousands.
The iPad is an amazing device and is truely elegant when compared to a laptop. Its not as powerfull or robust, but it offers so many advantages: instant on, lightweight, long battery life, easy of use and so on. I would recommend doing some research on this device before purchasing and reading some great posts like this one by Jared Crecelius to see how others are using and benefiting from the technology.
*I would not currently recommend a REALTOR attempt to use an iPad as their only or primary computing device.
** I would also recommend buying a battery powered mobile printer/scanner for use with your laptop or iPad. It creates a truely mobile field office for you.
Gadget #3: What computer do I need?
I think this question is more volitile than politics or religion. To many individuals its a passion/religion/cult. I personally love Macs, but I developed Windows software for years, so I see the benefit of both.
Some local MLS systems won't work with the native Mac browser. I stumbled upon an elegant solution to this, please see my post; running problem MLS sites via IE6 under the Mac OS.
Go visit the websites for HP, Dell, Apple and any other manufacture you like. Once you have picked the products you like, go put your hands on them. Do not buy the product till you have laid your hands on it. BestBuy is now carrying most major brands.
I would recommend if you buy a Mac to take advantage of the Mac Genius Bar and let them setup and transfer you data to your new Mac. It makes life very sweet and they offer one on one training if you so desire.
Well that was the was the top three gadgets everyone was interested in. I hope this helps some of you and please leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite gadget.
Note: All images are licensed and acquired from Flicker.com in the creative commons section.
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