Were ready for step two of the series on how to effectively use a tablet PC to run your day to day real estate tasks. I’m including a screencast to actually give you some visualization on how I actually use my tablet PC for working with buyers in the field. Warning: Please turn down volume on screencast prior to starting.
Using a tablet PC when out in the field
The basic premise of what I do with buyers out in the field is extremely simple but very effective for organization, having a go-to information source, and being looked to at a whole new light in your clients eyes.
What I do when working with buyers using my tablet PC:
- Fire up my MLS and find the homes that I will be showing to my buyer
- Go to File Print and select the Print labeled “One Note 2007”
- Once the spec sheet is in One Note I move it into a pre-created notebook for my specific client for organizational reasons
- You can also print specific tax bills or anything relevant to that specific house you can think of that maybe handy and impressive to show in-front buyers. The most relevant thing that I have added into my showings is the listing history/price change sheet. (We all know they ask they questions almost every time no more fumbling, time to be the expert we really are!)
- Next I go show the house and take notes on each property that we see so I can give relevant feedback to the listing agent. Taking notes on every house is also a great way to remind buyers about the prior homes.
As you can see what I’m presenting here is really simple and should not intimidate anyone that is afraid of technology. It’s as simple as Print/Move to a Notebook this is a good start of what we will be building in on future posts.
The real reason I’ve decided to take on this Tablet PC for Real Estate blog journey is to communicate with other people who share similiar interest’s and can share new ways of working with a tablet PC to become more efficient and profitable. Time is money!
James Boyer says:
Very nice presentation, Though I do find that the buyers I work with, though tech savvy, seem to get a certain satisfaction out of having something printed in their hand. Many of the come to showings with printed copies of what i have e-mailed them.
In any event, I always show up with printed materials for each house we are looking at, just so they are not so tempted to take the listing agents materials with his/her contact info printed all over it. Not that it is a big risk but it is better if they don’t take that stuff.
October 7, 2009 — 7:37 am
Robert Worthington says:
Hi Greg, I do agree with your presentation of the tablet pc and how you wow your buyers with that. James, I have personally found that buyers really only want a spec sheet so they can see a picture of the house and the price. The only other reason is to make sure they (the buyers) get to see all the homes they printed off without forgetting. Otherwise, why not let the Realtor take all your notes and have the Realtor email the packet.
October 7, 2009 — 7:47 am
Greg Dallaire says:
James and Robert,
Thanks for the kind words. I completely agree with not wanting them to take other agents printed materials. I do ask the question prior to us going out if they would like paper copies and I do supply them if they’d like. It seems like a small percentage want them but it really varies.
I don’t care if I print stuff for my clients I personally don’t want any paper.
October 7, 2009 — 11:27 am
Joshua Hanoud says:
I tried the Tablet PC thing for a while – I was all sorts of excited by the prospect of never having any paper to deal with and not having to scan things and etc… but then I found that most of my customers were reluctant to sign things on the tablet because it was a new concept to them…so the time that was saved by not scanning paper into electronic format was taken up by explaining the process to the customer…kind of defeated the purpose and became “neat for the sake of being neat” not because it actually saved time/effort…
The way that you’re using it to access property info via the MLS while out on Showings is something that I do using my Palm Pre and Evernote. I run my searches in the MLS beforehand, then print the MLS report to Evernote and can access it on my Pre exactly the same way you access it on your tablet. I can even access the full MLS thru the Pre if I need to pull up more property information. Of course I have a bit more scrolling to do with my screen than you would with a tablet…but it also fits in my pocket :).
Love the “idea” of using the tablet to streamline processes…but I found that it’s an ideal that is difficult to achieve with the vast majority of buyers & sellers in my marketplace (mostly retirees here in FL).
October 8, 2009 — 7:08 am