5 Tools for the 21st Century Real Estate Pro
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Jay OHare in Getting Things Done, Tech
Over just the past few years, the growth in productivity, management & communication tools has been amazing. Sometimes (often) it seems a bit too much. Here’s a short collection of tools I use extensively that will help you do your job better & make your life easier while adding value to your clients. All the tools are either free or very, very low-cost for what they do.
(Disclaimer: While I use these tools I have no financial relationship with any of these companies.)
1. Basecamp (starts at $24/mo with free 30-day trial)
We’ve been using Basecamp for years and are a big fan. Essentially Basecamp is an online project management tool that’s super powerful & easy to use. Basecamp allows you to set up, manage & collaborate with others in a secure & easy to use online account. Why is this good for real estate? Well, Basecamp could be the perfect environment to work with clients on a sale or purchase. You can add multiple parties such as the lender, interior designer, contractor, etc and keep everyone in the loop. It allows for document sharing & storage, milestones, communications and what might be best of all, templated To-Do lists.
To-Do lists can be setup in advance & rolled out on a project-by-project basis. For example, set up a to-do list for the 50 things needed to do before closing, or the 10 things needed to do before an open house. Your client stays in the loop, can track progress and I guarantee will appreciate the added level of service & communication.
Basecamp Screens(click to zoom)
Basecamp Dashboard
Basecamp To-Do
2. Gist (Free)
Gist is a new service that’s a hybrid contact manager & customer relationship manager but does so much more. With almost zero setup time, Gist is a powerful tool that will help you stay on top of your communications & relationships with those who matter most. Gist works by scanning your email & creating a database of contacts within your account. Then, for each contact, Gist will scour the web to find any available information about your contacts. Twitter, Linked-in, Facebook, company news, websites, etc, Gist finds it all. But then it does one better; Gist can rank your contacts & companies based on importance while giving you visual cues on who you need to contact.
Haven’t talked to that hot prospect in 2 weeks?
Gist will display a red icon in your list of names next to that contact signaling you should get in touch.
Having a big meeting with a client?
Gist will create a really nice dossier for you. Print this before the meeting and you’ll have a nice profile piece complete with your recent communications, meetings and any news or google results Gist finds.
Why Real Estate?
So much of success in real estate is predicated upon maintaining excellent communications & growing relationships. But a growing list of contacts can quickly become difficult to manage. Gist is invaluable in staying in touch with and on top of information of those who matter most.
Gist Screens (click to zoom)
Gist Profile
Gist Contacts
3. Evernote (Free & paid premium versions)
Evernote is a catch-all for all kinds of information you collect. You can use it for research projects, client information, article storage, document & file storage. While you can create separate notebooks for specific projects EverNote goes way beyond that. You see all your data syncs up with your online account so anything you save is searchable & available from any computer. And, if you have a compatible phone, like an iPhone, the Evernote app gives you access to your information anywhere. The search function is truly amazing and it will even do OCR on images you add to Evernote. For example, you see a product in a store or a yard sign that you need to remember. Snap a pic with your camera phone, send it to Evernote and you’ll be able to find it later just by typing in a few words from the photo.
Why Real Estate?
The amount of data we need to keep up with, remember or store keeps increasing. Evernote is a solid solution to not only keeping all that info organized but available where ever you are. Helping a client find a home? Create a notebook in Evernote to capture all the possible solutions you find during the project. You can even share all the contents of that notebook with the client.
Evernote Screens (click to zoom)
Everenote Desktop Application
EverNote Online Screen
EverNote iPhone App
4. Jott (Free & paid plans)
Jott is an invaluable tool for capturing, communicating & scheduling. Essentially Jott is a voice-to-text service that allows you to do so many things just by speaking into your phone. How often have you been driving down the road and you suddenly remember something urgent? Jott it. You use your phone to call a toll-free number & record your voice note. A few minutes later, you’ll get an email with the voice note transcribed into text. Cool!
But there’s so much more. Do the same thing (or use the iPhone app) and you can send a text message to anyone on your contact list or a group of people. With Google calendar integration you can Jott an appointment. Just call the service (or use the iPhone app), speak the day, time and name of the appointment and you’ve got a new entry on your calendar. You can Jott to social networks like Twitter & Facebook and you can schedule your Jott to appear (text message or email) at a later date & time (like a reminder).
Why Real Estate?
When you’ve got a million things going on you need help communicating & juggling all the info flowing around. Jott allows for hands free communication, scheduling & reminders and is a tool we use extensively. Give it a try.
Jott Screen (click to zoom):
Jott Screen
5. Rezora (Paid Service)
Email is such a huge part of real estate marketing & communications. The number 2 question I get asked is “What’s the best way to create an email newsletter?” Until Rezora systems like Constant Contact were the only options. And while they are fine for generic, one-size-fits-all newsletters, they don’t fit the personal nature of real estate. It makes no sense to send an email promoting a $2mm property to someone whose budget is $500k. That’s where Rezora comes in. You can easily create customized newsletters from your MLS with drag-&-drop ease. You can segment your database so the right properties go to the right prospects. Add to that you can easily add local & national news of interest & you have one killer tool that directly addresses the needs of real estate professionals. One of the coolest features is the option for your brokerage to send newsletters on your behalf. Your database is not accessible by the brokerage but they create the content & send the newsletter for all their brokers but the from the recipient’s point of view, it looks like the newsletter came from you.
Rezora Screen (click to zoom):
Rezora Screen
I recently did an interview with Paul Reinarz, co-founder of Rezora. Give it a listen:
Press the green button to play:
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download (Duration: 25:31 — 11.7MB)
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8 Responses to “5 Tools for the 21st Century Real Estate Pro”
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Jay O’Hare is the founder and principal of Altera Performance Group, a marketing and technology company in Steamboat Springs, CO. Jay has fifteen years of experience in the internet world beginning with a tiny start up ISP before consulting for some of the largest companies in the world, including HP, OnStar, FedEx and Service Master. Currently, Jay focuses on helping businesses improve through innovative marketing that adds value to both the company and client relationships.
In addition, his passion for photography has translated into an asset he provides clients as well as editorial publications like DCD Home magazine and local businesses in Steamboat, CO.
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Thanks – I need to try some of these. I looked at basecamp a while back but didn’t see how it could help. I get it now.
This was a great interview with Paul Reinarz. I walked away knowing exactly how I could deploy Rezora to improve my business.
Cool – Thanks Brian, they do have a great service!
I looked into Gist but can’t figure out how to get it to work with my email account. I have a POP email.
David, it won’t work with a POP account – it needs to be an exchange or Gmail account. Gist needs access to the email messages to work and a POP account removes the messages from the server. You can set up a gmail account to pull in your POP mail. The only problem is that Gist won’t see any of your sent messages.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for sharing your list.
For those who need an advanced project management solution, I would like to recommend http://www.seavusprojectplanner.com.
Hey Jay,
I’m a little late in reading this, but great info. Can I use gist with a godaddy email account?
Also, doesn’t seem like Jott has a free version anymore.
PS – Happy Father’s day
Thanks Joanne,
Gist requires access to your email account so it needs something like an exchange server or gmail. if you can set up a godaddy IMAP email you can use that (messages stay on the server with IMAP).
Looks like you’re right about Jott. But they do offer a free trial.