More productivity on-the-go means you can:
Save time
Complete tasks faster
Find ways to do your job better
Real estate agents pack as much into each day as possible — from client meetings to open houses to contracts — all while on the go and from their phones. Every minute made more efficient means more time to spend on lead generation and growth, so anything to help productivity makes a huge difference.
Here are nine ways to help you work smarter every single day — plus the apps that’ll help you get there:
1. Track and focus your time
Despite our best efforts to do it all, a study from Stanford University suggests that trying to multitask actually reduces your efficiency. Your brain can really only focus on one thing at a time — so even though you’re doing five things at once, you aren’t doing them very well.
That’s where Harvest comes in — it’s a time-tracking app that helps you document and see where you’re spending time each day, and where you can improve your productivity. It keeps you focused on a single task at a time, and offers insight into whether you’re putting the most time into what really matters for your growth.
2. Keep the spam calls at bay
Your phone rings off the hook every day, but it’s unfortunately not always clients or leads — much of it is spam calls. That’s why Chris Watters of Watters International Realty loves TrueCaller, an app that screens inbound calls. “My phone is constantly ringing with spammers and I never want to miss a call from a client,” Chris says. “TrueCaller helps me get rid of the trash and make sure I’m only spending my time talking to clients.”
3. Keep track of your expenses
Agents have a ton of personal expenses, so managing your finances well is crucial. That’s where an app like Mint comes in. A beloved app for anyone who needs some help budgeting and seeing where they can save money, you’ll find that having a single place to track expenses and pay your bills is a life-saver and a time-saver.
4. Plan ahead for transportation
“[An app] out there that I love and I think any agent out there would appreciate is called Waze, a great way to get around town and avoid traffic,” Chris says. Anything to help you avoid wasting time stuck in traffic is a productivity win (read below to see how we can help you run ads on Waze, too!).
Then there’s the Parkmobile app, which shows you open parking spots nearby and even allows you to reserve parking in advance and pay right from your phone. This app will keep you from wasting precious time looking for a parking spot while clients wait or while you could be doing other things.
5. Make a to-do list — but don’t do everything (seriously!)
There’s a saying that if everything is important, then nothing is important — so it’s crucial to prioritize your daily tasks.
Wunderlist does all the work of syncing your many devices together in a single place (phone, tablet, laptop, etc.) and lets you share tasks with other people so you can work together to push through those to-dos. “It’s a little more easy for small tasks,” says Brian Hopper, a broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in Kirkland, Washington. “Definitely that’s one we’re using all the time.”
Kim Colaprete, managing broker at Team Diva Real Estate, also uses Evernote to help keep her team on the same page — so even when people are out on vacation or unavailable, everyone knows what’s going on with their clients.“It’s helpful because the way we function as a team, we kind of all work together, no one really works in a bubble, so we need to know what’s going on,” Kim told us.
6. Develop good habits and stick to them
It’s okay to be a creature of habit — if the habits are good ones. Momentum helps you set and track good habits around activities like sleep, exercise and other daily tasks. You’ll set up reminders and also targets so you have goals to reach, and it’ll display on a calendar how successful you’ve been at keeping up.
If This, Then That is another popular app that can help you streamline your life. Jay Stringham, Internet marketing coordinator at Real Tour Vision, says it can help agents remember things like client birthdays or anniversaries. “You can create what they call a recipe where when a notification comes up — hey, it’s someone’s birthday — it will send you a text message,” Jay says. “It will alert you and then you can do something very personal, and it makes a real nice touchpoint for your clients.”
7. Take short mental breaks to refocus
Real estate can be stressful, which is why many agents and professionals have recommended Headspace. “Sometimes it’s hard to even go to bed because your mind just doesn’t stop,” says Ivan Estrada of Ivan Estrada Properties. “Did I return those emails? Was that offer signed?” He says Headspace’s 10-minute guided meditation has worked wonders to reduce stress.
Zvi Band, co-founder and CEO of Contactually, agrees — he says “to just literally have 10 minutes a day — where you take a step back and actually start thinking openly about what you’re going to do that day — is really powerful.” Research has shown time and time again that taking short mental breaks can be unbelievably beneficial to your productivity.
8. Use e-document software
E-document apps make sending and sharing files super easy, and you can actually prepare a document entirely on your phone if you need to, without having to manually scan papers page by page. Brian told us that he loves Sign Easy for signing documents, and GeniusScan for all things PDF: “If a client hands you a document and you need to get it to someone quickly, take a picture of it and convert to a PDF.”
Gitika Kaul, an agent at Wydler Brothers, says the Scannable app “has actually been completely a game-changer for me because we’re always running around, we are always sort of on the road, so it’s a great way to store documents and also store receipts.”
9. Use the Homesnap Pro app
Not to toot our own horn, but the Homesnap Pro app is really a one-stop shop for boosting your productivity. You and your clients can find up-to-date MLS listings by searching or snapping photos of homes in-person, and also use the in-app messenger to share favorite listings and chat.
You can also search for other agents, or set up ads across Google, Facebook, Instagram and Waze to help easily market your work online — and see how every campaign is doing right in the app. Even if you’re checking out a listing alone and want to set a safety timer just in case — the app can do that, too. What’s not to love about an app that was made specifically to make your life easier?
Download the Homesnap app on Google Play or the App Store.
To hear more about this topic, check out Snapshot episodes #74, #71, #66, #64, #58, #50 and #48.
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