5 real estate tech time-savers

Simplify day with e-sign, passwords, screen sharing

Are you looking for some simple new Web tools that will definitely help your business and won’t break the bank? Here are some great suggestions.

Evernote and Dropbox are the two relatively new tools that I use constantly. Evernote allows me to take notes anywhere on my smart phone or iPad. It then syncs those notes so they appear on all my devices, including my laptop.

I have complete accessibility to my notes at all times. Best of all, I can quickly search my notes to locate keywords. Evernote aggregates each document containing those keywords as well as highlighting the position of the keywords within the document.

Dropbox saves me tremendous amounts of time by avoiding the hassle of downloading and uploading files. Normally it would take three to five minutes to upload a 6MB video. I recently moved my presentations folder, which occupied 672MB of disk space, using Dropbox.

I dragged and dropped the file in my Dropbox folder. It took three minutes for the entire file to reach my assistant. For agents uploading videos and other large files, this system is terrific time-saver.

Here are five other tools that you may want to add to your toolbox.

1. Join.me
How many times have you wished that there were a simple way to share your screen with someone else? Until recently, the best option was to sign up for a service such as GoToMeeting or WebEx. Both systems take time to load and also require the user to upload the application.

Join.me is fast and simple. The first time you use the system, it will take a few seconds to upload the application to your computer. After that, all you have to do is to click on the icon that says, “Share my screen with others.” The system then generates a code that appears at the top of your screen.

Give the code to the person with whom you would like to share your screen. When they visit Join.me and enter the code in the appropriate box, the system automatically shares your screen.

Another great feature of Join.me is that you can also hand off control to the person with whom you are sharing. For example, assume that you have a new software program and you’re having issues with it. Your assistant has figured out how to use it, but you also need to know. Your assistant can screen-share with you. You can give her control and she could actually install the program and demo it for you. This can be a huge time-saver that eliminates a considerable amount of frustration as well.

2. Zosh.com — sign with your finger
If you own an iPhone, iPod touch or an iPad, you can save yourself and your clients time with a great little tool from Zosh.com. Suppose that your clients forgot to initial one of the pages of a disclosure statement and the lender can’t fund their loan without a signature. If they have Zosh, all you have to do is send them the document. They then initial it using the Zosh application and send it back. You can even sign documents using your finger. This is a great application that can save you a long trip across town to get a signature.

3. Never wait on hold again
Let’s face it. Most agents are busy and don’t have time to sit around on hold. If you have ever called customer service and waited forever to be connected somewhere overseas, LucyPhone.com is a free service that makes the wait disappear. With LucyPhone.com you enter the number you want to call. The company completes the call and rings you back once the other party is off hold.

Best of all, the company that made you wait actually has to wait a few seconds for you to connect, rather than vice versa.

4. Make your website mobile-phone friendly
Even if you own the latest smart phone, website and blog, load times can be extremely slow. If you want to make your blog site load super fast and fit perfectly to the screen size of mobile devices, you need WPtouch Pro. At $29, WPtouch Pro automatically makes your blog fit the small screens of mobile devices and also speeds up the load time by up to 500 percent. This is a great way to keep mobile visitors to your blog happy and coming back.

5. 1Password and Last Pass
Are you tired of trying to remember all those passwords for all the sites you visit? Have you taken to storing them on a sheet of paper or in your address book? If so, 1Password.com provides a great way to manage all your passwords if you’re running an iPhone, iPad, Android or Mac platform. The price is $39.95. 1Password works with file sharing systems such as Dropbox.

If you’re running a PC, another great product is LastPass.com. This stores your passwords on their secure servers. LastPass.com is only $12 per year and has received some rave reviews.

Each of these applications is relatively inexpensive, makes it a lot easier to conduct your business, and will save you plenty of time.

Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, trainer and author of the National Association of Realtors’ No. 1 best-seller, “Real Estate Dough: Your Recipe for Real Estate Success.” Hear Bernice’s five-minute daily real estate show, just named “new and notable” by iTunes, at www.RealEstateCoachRadio.com. You can contact her at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com or @BRoss on Twitter.