All Forum Posts by: Brandon Turner

Talk about taking caller ID to a new level!

Visual voicemail has been around for a good amount of time and discussed in great detail on ActiveRain, the real estate social network for agents, loan originators, and brokers. I know many of us here use it like we use our email: it is a staple of our lives.

As one of the greatest inventions since cash-on-cash returns, "visual" voicemail literally means you can read your voicemail messages in addition to listening to them. You know that this was unheard of years ago. On top of simply forwarding your unanswered calls to your voicemail box, visual voicemail lets you choose which individual message to read or listen to without having to run through all of them.

If you know your sender and have assigned a profile image to their address book entry, then, of course, you will see their picture as you read or listen to their message. Time and date stamps are at your fingertips rather than having to choose a menu option to get this information. You can download, share, and email the contents of your voicemail box. You can even create an audio history on your phone of every message left for you by a specific contact. This does take extra effort and depends on the application you use, but when did a record of client, vendor, or colleague communications ever hurt your business? Then again, you may have no use for that or some of these other benefits...which is fine.

If you are unfamiliar, the uniqueness of visual voicemail is that your voice messages are delivered over your carrier's data network as sound files (i.e. mp3). This is where the capabilities of downloading, listening without having to enter your PIN, reading once the message is transcribed, sharing if the message was for an associate in the office and not you, and better call screening are made possible.

Those of you with iPhones have been exposed to this function already. Those of us with Androids, Blackberrys, or Windows phones have access to a variety of solutions in our app stores--assuming visual voicemail was not pre-installed for us.

Special thanks goes to Google Voice, my visual voicemail phone app. As with any piece of software created by humans, nothing works 100% perfectly 100% of the time. It can occasionally take several minutes for a message to be successfully transcribed (turned from voice to text) and there are times when some of the transcribed message reads like gibberish. [Auto-correct issues don't happen only when we're texting]

During this wait, I will see the message "Unable to transcribe" where the name of the contact or number they call from is later displayed. Again, this only happens occasionally. Clearly, I also cannot speak for all visual voicemail applications as I have only personally used a few of them.

This brings me to 3 quick recommendations followed by 3 quick tips.

I would be surprised if you are not already familiar with (if not well-versed in) visual voicemail, its uses, and its benefits. What I do know is that your familiarity--as with any technology you use in your real estate business--depends on if and how it benefits you and helps you meet goals.

3 Recommended Visual Voicemail Apps [Available on both iTunes and Google Play]

1. Youmail: www.youmail.com

2. Google Voice: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

3. Divugle: http://www.divulgeapp.com/Main

*I've gotten the best (and most) feedback from peers, clients, and family & friends about the above 3 suggestions. *

3 Basic Tips for Setting up or Using Visual Voicemail

Note: You're a grown-up, I know. It never hurts, however, to at least mention best practices for reinforcement. Though simple to set up on most apps, being mindful of what can cause issues is helpful.

1. Visual voicemail requires call forwarding. You must allow the visual voicemail application to setup call forwarding on your phone for it to work.

2. Do not change your call forwarding settings after you install visual voicemail. If you need to change the settings, uninstall and reinstall the app.

3. If you attempt to setup visual voicemail and it isn't working, ensure call forwarding is active on your account with your carrier.

Which visual voicemail app, pre-installed or not, is your guilty pleasure? What are your thoughts on the concept of visual voicemail or your experience with it up to this point?

I once worked for a real estate technology company where I sold and serviced real estate appraisal software. The notable difference with that market is appraisers have numerous protocols, government regulations, and processes to follow in the delivery of their appraisal work. Plus, saving time on things as miniscule as keystrokes and digitizing data become huge deals that only quality software can solve.

A few times, I approached the owner (and on separate occasions, the management) of the company suggesting their development of tools for real estate investors since this industry is focused entirely on every other type of real estate professional except investors. The demand was not there. At the time, I did not know of Bigger Pockets or other readily-accessible communities, and was not able to conduct thorough research on the need for investor software. At one point, I decided I would do the research independently and develop tools, myself.

Now, I'm glad I went no further.

Done. Thank you for the very great idea, Karen. I had mine up a couple of weeks ago.

I also know some local investors who would immensely benefit from bigger pockets...not to mention this network!

Great to be here, thank you John and Zach.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good to hear from yet another Oklahoman.

I can speak to this, Tom. My name is Brandon, I'm new to the forum and was browsing and I am in the cellular service business.

If it's a smartphone, then we all know the purpose is to do more than talk and text. So, now we're talking data plans. This could be the neighborhood of $70 to $100 or more per month per phone in the family. Where they get the money to make these payments is another discussion. Knowing how big a chunk of their budget this demands, however, will of course let you know where there priorities lie.

I've seen people in the unemployment lines with iPhones (clearly they purchased it while employed, but still). When I was in financial holes I downgraded not only my plan, but my phone, then returned to what I liked once things cooled off.

Sounds like that phone got you from point A to point B, though, Robert. Nowadays, I'm sure you get from point A to point B in style and with more capabilities.

I clipped my toenails today so people could tell us apart, Brandon. Plus, my middle initial is "K", so that may help! I have to say I'm a bit of a fan of your name as well.

I've downloaded the BiggerPockets guide to my Dropbox directory. If it looks like gold and smells like gold, it's worth getting a shovel to dig for! Thanks a bunch.

Thanks for the reply, James. What took you from Midwest City to Frankfort?

Thanks a lot, Luke. See, it's a small world after all.

Thank you, David and Dennis, for the responses.

No, David. I will invest in re-developing US markets and cities that are on pace to see a boost in their economies. Edmond is already well-developed, with a great economy, and high barrier to entry from what I've seen. The job market in a specific area will have a lot to do with where I want to begin investing.

Hello all,

I'm Brandon Turner, a 30-year-old resident of Edmond, Oklahoma since 2008. I moved from and was born and raised in Georgia around the North Metro Atlanta area. Most of my family is still there.

My exposure to real estate began with my mother, who was a million-dollar Coldwell Banker Realtor for 7 years. Now, some of my best friends have been REI and mentors in their own rights for the past 4 years. This gives me a chance to learn industry jargon and be the fly on the wall when deals are happening and being discussed.

Real estate investing makes me salivate, but I am not yet a direct participant. I own ROYOT Cellular, a low-cost cell phone service vendor for real estate companies. Having an opportunity to serve the industry in which I'll participate in the near future lets me learn before I leap and get a more intimate understanding of an investor's day-to-day challenges and concerns.

I want to invest for income. I want cash-flowing real estate. I've always had my thoughts about apartment buildings and even mobile home investing, but have a ways to go as far as knowledge is concerned.

My specific interest here is in learning from and contributing to the Bigger Pockets community in the capacity of cellular technology and its relationship to REI businesses.

I cannot wait to soak things up here and give and good as I get, too.

Nice to meet you all!