I saw a tweet with this message and couldn’t help but click. 99% of the time the suggestions are silly and ridiculous. As soon as I saw the link went to an about.com page I knew this was going to be one of those times. According to this article, every agent needs 1) Smartphone, 2) Social Media, 3) Online Videos, 4) Bluetooth, and 5) GPS. I’m honestly hoping that this article was written 5 years ago and someone only just now found it and tweeted it. But regardless, someone in 2014 thought this was something worthwhile to tweet.
This got me thinking….I work with a lot of real estate professionals, if one of them asked what 5 tools they should absolutely be using for their business what should I say? Here’s my list:
1. Task Management App. I’m going to assume that everyone has a smartphone of some sort. Therefore we need to start with setting it up correctly to make yourself efficient. I personally use any.do and their Cal applications. I know others that use Wunderlist or GTD. This is the new planner – never forget something you promised, preplan future events, coordinate across devices.
2. File Management App. This goes as its own technology separate from apps. The reason is that it is too important to lump in with everything else. You must be using DropBox, Google Docs, Box, or some other system to sync documents between your computer, phone and tablet. Being on the move an not able to pull up the newest files is no longer acceptable. This includes automatically backing up files from your phone to your service of choice.
3. Tablet with Screensharing application. Meetings are visual now. It’s no longer possible to get away with presenting and not doing it electronically. You should be able to connect your tablet to a screen where ever you go through either join.me, WebEx, gotomeeting or another service of your choice. Also feel free to use a Chromecast as they will soon be enabling screencasting for Android devices.
4. LinkedIn. This should be a no brainer but there are too many real estate professionals that don’t understand this service and how to use it. If you are in CRE you must use LinkedIn (residential should focus on Facebook). That’s where your clients are, that’s where you can find relationships, that’s where you can see what your competition is up to. It is a treasure trove of information that too few leverage. It even released CRM features recently to make it something you can and should be using daily!
5. Knowledge of how to use your apps and devices. This one is critical. If your phone has a wireless hotspot and you don’t know how to use it you will end up looking bad at some point. There are too many times when someone needs a wifi connection that you could provide if only you knew how to work it. Same for using the built-in browsing, search and calendar apps. You must knowledge of how to use your phone beyond just phone, messages and email.