Technology Needed in Real Estate

[Steven Valencia]

Hey, good evening everyone I was hoping I could get a bit of an insight on what worked well for all of you. I get my license this coming week and wanted to know what technology is most useful for real estate. This is more so aimed at realtors and where they work versus independent home investors but the advice would be useful all the same. I’ve been debating eating a MacBook but I don’t know if it’s better to just get something like a two in one computer. Thank you all ahead of time, excited to actually start out by the beginning of the new year.

[Charlie MacPherson]

@Steven Valencia  I don't recommend eating a MacBook.  Much too crunchy and tough on your teeth!

All kidding aside, I use a MacBook Pro at my desk with a big LCD TV as a second monitor.  That really helps my productivity.  One of the things that I find most useful is using the "Sticky Notes" application to keep my To-Do list up in front of my face.  

It also helps when running comps - I can have the listings on one screen and the spreadsheet I use for comps on the other.

On the road I use an iPad.  I mostly use that to pull up listings while I visit the with clients, so I can answer questions they bring up.

I really like the full size keypad and mousing functions of the MacBook vs the iPad, but that has probably changed by now.

One of the items I want to figure out is how to go completely paperless for writing offers on the spot.  I suspect that there's an app that will allow us to edit a blank PDF or Word offer form and then to sign it with an Apple Pen, touch-sensitive pen or fingertip.  I just haven't put the time in to research that yet.

I try to stay completely within the Apple ecosystem so that things work better.  I did finally capitulate with Pages and Numbers, converting to Word and Excel so that I can better interface with others in my company and with Docusign. 

Overall, I find Apple tech support (Genius Bar) to be very good.