Mobile devices that are important in my real estate business

Mobile devices that are important in my real estate business

Real estate professionals are much more productive when they take advantage of the mobile devices and tools that are currently available.  Some agents are as comfortable working from their automobile as in their office.

For several years, all of my real estate business has been referral oriented.  This means that other agents are involved in all of the listing and sales efforts.  My productivity counts heavily on the productivity of others.

Our office, RE/MAX Realty Group, in Gaithersburg, Maryland has been paperless for some time.  That has forced all of the 120+ real estate professionals in the office to update their systems for daily use.  Maryland real estate contracts tend to be over 40 pages long so going paperless has really saved a lot of paper and made filing much easier.  It also means that emailing contracts, DocuSign, and computer storage of all of the data has become standard.

Our office phone system has a feature that I really like.  When a message is left on my office phone, I automatically receive an email that notes the phone number of the caller and provides a recording of the message.  When I am working from my home office, the calls are also forwarded to my home office phone and I receive an email if I am not available.  Since my associate agents are the ones that should respond to many of the messages, it is very convenient to be able to forward the emailed message recordings to them.

Since most of my time is spent in front of a computer, smart phones are not as important to me as they are to my associate agents.  When my associates are in the field, I want to be sure that they receive important messages and are able to respond with the information they need.

We use Top Producer as our database to maintain contact records on our prospective home buyers and home sellers as well as our past clients.  One of the benefits is that we are able to email complete contact records to our associate agents and to the mortgage loan officers that are assisting with the financing.  We add to the database records as we receive feedback from our associate and the loan officers.

Normally, I do not give my cell phone number to clients.  So, the calls I do receive come from my office and my associate agents.  I am always available for those calls.  Dolores and I frequently travel and having a wireless connection with a portable computer has provided the comfort of knowing that I will not miss important communications.

For me, the ability to be responsive from anywhere I might be located is very important.  I am writing this blog from the comfort of my home office and know that I will not miss any important contacts.  In fact, I just received an emailed phone message from a Montgomery County home owners association that asked for permission to distribute one of my ActiveRain blogs to their 200+ owners.  That is the kind of message that gets an immediate affirmative response.

Each real estate professional works differently and I encourage all to make sure that you are using the tools that will make you the most productive.

I am going to be personally mobile for a while as I take a photowalk through the Kentlands community with camera in hand.  The flowers are blooming and life is good in Maryland.  Working smart allows us time to do many things that add to the quality of our lives.

My digital camera, along with photo editing software, makes me a very productive hobby photographer.

Jethro Tull Coreopsis, Kentlands, Spring Flowers IMG_0667 A

Photograph by Roy Kelley using a Canon PowerShot G11 camera.

Roy and Dolores Kelley Photographs