We recently met with a small group of sales associates, here at the Central office, that have incorporated an Apple iPad into their real estate business. We wanted to see how these agents were using their iPads, what they were doing and what apps they were using.
We discovered that agents are using their iPads to manage their schedules, for property searches and accessing public records while out with a client, accessing the MLS, accessing and managing email, for listing presentations, showing clients property slide shows and videos, accessing and even signing documents on Zipforms.
I’ve added a list of the apps that came up during our discussion to the bottom of this post for any of you that have recently purchased an iPad or that plan on purchasing one soon.
From a real estate sales perspective, the iPad and tablet type computers have solved the sales associate’s problem of having to show their clients information on the small screens of their smart phones. Smart phones are great for accessing information on the go but if you need to run a quick search for properties and share the results with a couple of buyers or share an example of your online marketing skills during a listing presentation, a larger screen is a necessity.
The iPad is light and thin and much easier to carry around than a traditional laptop computer but it operates more like a large smart phone than a laptop. It runs the same operating system as the iPhone so everything is app based and not the traditional Windows type interface. It was designed as a middle device between a laptop and a smart phone.
The pads use a solid state drive instead of the traditional power hungry and heavy spinning disc based hard drives so they have a considerably smaller amount of storage space than most laptops. Don’t let that discourage you at all. Most apps are very small and using email and apps like Dropbox, LogMeIn and other cloud based solutions allow you to access everything that you need, when you need it. The lack of a large hard drive is also the main reason that the battery lasts a solid 10 hours on a charge, compared to the traditional 2 or 3 hours on a charge with a laptop battery.
They come in both Wi-Fi only (only connect to the internet where Wi-Fi is available) and Wi-Fi + 3G configurations (can connect to the internet any where a cell phone can). The consensus from all of the agents that we spoke with was, for the real estate sales associate, the Wi-Fi + 3G is a must. It allows you to connect to the internet wherever you are as long as you have a cell or 3G connection. If your phone has the ability to create a Wi-Fi hot spot, then you may get away with the Wi-Fi only model (the new iPhone OS update will allow iPhone users to create a wi-fi hotspot but additional charges may apply)
Apple released the first iPad in April 2010 and sold 3 million devices in 80 days. They sold 14.8 million iPads worldwide in 2010 representing 75 percent of tablet PC sales at the end of 2010. They announced the release of the new iPad 2 last week. It’s faster with a new dual core chip, thinner and now has a front and back camera for Apple’s FaceTime video chat. Click here to view the new iPad specs and pricing.
There are other pads available now too. Samsung, Motorolla, and Blackberry currently have products on the market just to name a few and there are more surfacing every week it seems.
Apps List
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