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Your clients expect you to be up on the latest technology, and in this competitive climate, that can easily impact your bottom line. As David Marine, senior vice president of marketing at Coldwell Banker, said at CES 2018 in Las Vegas this past January, “Technology has helped the real estate industry better compete and to justify to consumers why they still need to pay a commission to an agent.”
So are you ready to use technology to justify your commission to current and future clients? Here are a few ways you can do just that.
1. Introduce Your Personal Assistant
Follow-up and follow-through are big problems for real estate professionals. But if you’re already using Windows products, you really have no excuse for forgetting to reply to that email or missing that appointment. Cortana is the virtual audio assistant that Microsoft built into Windows 10 to “remember” everything on your system—from your schedule and emails to your documents and folders. Cortana can find information online, make appointments, pull up documents, and more.
All it takes to get started with Cortana is a bit of conversation so the system learns your voice. After that, Cortana can hear you from several feet away, making it easy to dictate notes and schedule follow-ups from your car, listing, or office.
2. Take Notes Like a Human and Share Them Like a Machine
Using voice technology to find what you’re looking for does feel a bit like magic. But you need to make sure all your materials end up in a digital format that your “personal assistant” can search, and some real estate professionals find it hard to get everything on their systems in the first place. Let’s face it, when you’re talking to clients or touring a potential listing for the first time, lugging your laptop around to take notes digitally or hunching over your tiny phone keyboard isn’t convenient and can distance you from potential clients. Thankfully, digital styluses have come a long way from the PDAs of old. Smart pens, which look and feel just like ballpoints, are activated, or “opened,” with a click that releases a thin penlike tip to allow for thinner line drawing and writing. This way, you can take notes in your own handwriting that can easily be translated to sharable text.
While there are a few different smart pens on the market, the Lenovo Active Pen 2 delivers pinpoint accuracy by sensing more than 2,000 areas of the screen, translating your handwriting into text almost instantaneously. The clicker at the top of the pen can even be programmed to open a specific application, like Windows OneNote or Microsoft Word, so you’re ready to write instantly.
3. Show, Don’t Tell
How many times have you been giving a listing presentation or showing the latest offerings on the MLS to buyers and found you had to keep flipping your laptop back and forth or passing your phone over to clients so they could see what you’re talking about? Thankfully, screen technology has come a long way to solving this sharing problem.
If you’re ready to upgrade, check out the options available in laptop hinge technology. For example, Lenovo’s new YOGA PC is available as a 2-in-1 laptop-tablet with a 360-degree hinge. The YOGA’s secret is that it uses the same design found in luxury metal watchbands to flex its display to any angle you need. A favorite option for open houses, the YOGA Tab 3 Pro features a hinge that functions as a stand or wall hanger and includes a projector lens for displaying video and images with incredible clarity.
Did you know that in addition to regular deals on laptops and tech accessories, Lenovo offers exclusive discounts on its entire product line to members of the National Association of REALTORS® through the REALTOR Benefits® Program? Learn more or start shopping now at nar.realtor/realtorbenefits/lenovo.
Editor's note: The National Association of REALTORS® does not endorse or evaluate the product, service, or company, nor any of the claims or representations made in this sponsored content article. The sponsor company making claims or representations is expected to have research data that substantiates these claims and the research or citation is to be made available on the company's website or, where proprietary interests exist, be made available upon request.
