By Matt Fetick, associate, Keller Williams Brandywine Valley market center

In our fast paced, technology driven world, we are bombarded on a daily basis with the latest and greatest tech tools. It can be simply overwhelming trying to keep up with all of the options. Not to mention the cool-factor that goes along with being the first to roll out a sleek, new app.

When I’m tempted to try out or implement a new app, fresh out of the box, I give it my Technology Gut Check: First, will that technology save me time? And second, will it save me money? If it does one or the other, or more importantly both, then I’m inclined to give it a try. Here are my Top 5 Mobile Apps that have passed my Technology Gut Check:

1. Drop box: Used as a cloud-based filing cabinet for all of our team’s documents. Whether I’m on my mobile phone, iPad or desktop, I have access to every agreement of sale, disclosure and appraisal.  (https://www.dropbox.com/) – Available on iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry

2. Evernote: The best place to take notes, save web clips and manage prospects in progress. You can share a unique notebook with each prospect and track their home buying or selling progress. (http://www.evernote.com/) Available on iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry

3. Fax burner: This mobile app allows you to shoot a photo of any document with your mobile phone, converts it to a PDF and can fax it directly from your mobile phone or iPad. (http://www.faxburner.com/) – Available on iPhone only.

4. Shoeboxed: This awesome app manages your receipts. Simply take a photo with your mobile phone of the receipt and email it to Shoeboxed. You’ll have a digital copy and using Optical Character Recognition or OCR for short,  it will file it and create an expense report. (https://www.shoeboxed.com/) – Available on iPhone and Android.

5. Dragon Dictation: A voice-to-text free, mobile software. This app lets you dictate emails, texts and documents and then transcribes them for you. This app is great for realtors on-the-go, because we can talk much faster than we type. (http://www.nuancemobilelife.com/) – Available on iPhone.

Next time you think of technology, choose an app that isn’t only fun and cool, but rewards you with more freedom, time and money.

By Brenda Marshall, KWU Course Writer, Keller Williams Realty International Support Center

Have you taken your business mobile? If not, it’s time to get on the train! Attendees of Mega Technology Camp were treated to a smorgasbord of tips and tricks for leveraging the latest trends in technology meet the demands of the highly mobile consumer population, and ultimately to generate more business.

Clad in a “Geeky Girl” t-shirt, Dianna Kokoszka, President of KW MAPS Coaching, kicked off this session and insisted that attendees leave with at least three ideas to incorporate into their businesses. Among the presenters were three of Inman’s 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders in 2011—Cary Sylvester, Executive Director of Technology, KWRI, Ben Kinney, CEO and President of Home4Investment, Chris Smith of Inman Next and Sue Adler, CEO of the Sue Adler Team.

Cary and Ben revealed that today’s consumers browse on their mobile devices at home as much as “on the go.” More and more, we are using our smartphones in place of our desktops. We use our phones and tablets to watch TV, browse the web, play games, read books, listen to music, send emails and texts, pay bills, so it’s only logical that consumers would expect to conduct real estate business the same way.

So, what does it mean to take one’s business mobile? Largely, it’s about responsive design—ensuring your website is designed to adapt to the user’s mobile device in terms of screen size, platform, and orientation.

A parade of the savviest of the tech-savvy proceeded to educate and amaze attendees with best practices in leveraging technology in real estate. Some highlights include:

• Matt Fetick, Mega Agent and KWU International Master Faculty, decided six years ago that on weekends, his deals would be conducted from the beach, and today, he has truly taken his business mobile. Some of Matt’s favorite resources: virtual assistants, VoIP,  Dropbox, Shoebox, and Dragon Dictation.
• Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist, Inman News, delivered his presentation on his iPad and highly recommended Sliderocket for presentations and Roambi for interactive graphs. Get his entire presentation here: http://bit.ly/mobile-tools-inman-next
• Seychelle Van Poole, Team Leader of Van Poole Properties, shared 5 Tips to Rock Referrals. Among these were using LinkedIn to build relationships with companies and joining national referral groups on Facebook, such as the KW Referral Group.
• Continue reading ‘Taking your Business Mobile – Mega Technology Camp @ Family Reunion’

Does video marketing generate actual leads? As marketing budgets decrease, and easy-to-use video editing tools pop up, it’s a question many agents are asking. Tackling that topic early Sunday morning was Adam Hergenrother, associate with the Green Mountain (Vt.) market center, Kevin Kauffman, associate with the Tempe – Scottsdale market center and Seychelle Van Poole, associate with the Dallas Preston Road market center, who all agree that video is worth the time and small upfront investment.

“The results are impressive,” says Kauffman, who’s been blogging with his 46:10 business partner Fred Weaver since 2009. “The system we’ve set up has paid for itself over and over again.” Here are their top tips for using video to generate a solid pipeline of business.

Set Goals

Kauffman: Our goal is a fairly simple. We collaborate with our marketing firm to define a variety of mediums to attract short sale sellers to our videos. Then, we identify with the viewer and demonstrate to them why we are short sale experts and finish with a strong call to action, trading information that the seller values for their contact information. Currently, our Short or Stay calculator is the strongest call to action we have. That has basically turned our video blogging from a good source of seller leads to a good source of motivated seller leads that are HOT.

Hergenrother: Our lead generation systems with video encompass everything. We use video for informational services to blast to larger audiences on social media, news, YouTube and site we can attach our content. We send a pre-listing video to every client prior to them coming into the office. We use video to fully leverage our listing and buyer video’s to ensure every buyer/seller understand the full services of our team. This can also be emailed/drop box to clients outside of the state which is extremely helpful. We use video for price reductions, FSBO and expired campaigns. It’s the best leverage tool.

Leverage yourself

Hergenrother: We use Animoto for quick videos, professional editing for anything that will be mass produced, Window’s Movie Maker, and Comf5. Many of my videos, however, are shot without editing on a Logitech HD camera.

Kauffman: We just do the “turn on camera, talk, turn off camera” part (learned this from Gary Vaynerchuck in the book Crush it) and hand the video off our marketing firm. Our time is better spent on other tasks once the video has been shot and Direct Business Marketing is better at the techy stuff than us. We have an agreement with them. We won’t tinker with the websites and the videos if they promise not to negotiate short sales. It’s a good task to delegate to someone else.

Van Poole gave three simple tips for making sure your videos generate action from your clients. We got her on video!
Continue reading ‘HOT Breakout: Using Video to Generate Leads’

Emerging Technologies with Chris Smith of Inman Next and Tech Savvy Agent

It’s an all too-familiar tale. The minute you think you’ve got a hold of the latest, greatest, ground-breaking technology another one comes out! Or the minute you have your Business Page just right, Zuckerberg decides it’s time for a change. Keeping up with the Facebook’s, Twitter’s and Google’s of the world in an effort to reach more clients online often becomes all-encompassing and sometimes overwhelming. Where are my current and prospective clients?  how much time should I spend getting to know the new technologies, and what will my return on investment (ROI) be?

Thankfully Chris Smith, chief evangelist for Inman News, co-creator of Inman NEXT and author of the popular blog Tech Savvy Agent, took the stage at Mega Technology Camp to present his vision for the future of technology and its impact on the day-to-day business of real estate professionals. Here he is giving his two-cents (worth so much more!) on what’s to come and how smart agents can tap in and effectively leverage technology in their business.