The newly introduced iPad has taken the ideas behind the iPhone and the compact efficiency of a netbook to create what promises to be an essential tool for anyone with their real estate license. Not only does the iPad have everything you could need right there at your fingertips, it also looks really cool.

All of the apps currently available on a real estate agents iPhone are also available on the iPad, and new apps are becoming available every day. One highly anticipated app will have state approved contracts for real estate transactions allowing you to use your iPad to pull up a contract, fill it out, and have that contract signed online. Fully executed contracts can be emailed to all interested parties from right there.

The technology offered by the iPad is quite impressive, especially to potential clients. Touch screens and 3G wireless internet capability from almost anywhere is a fantastic way to knock your clients socks off with the wealth of information available to you with the gentle touch of a finger. Instead of scheduling meetings with clients that may require days to synchronize schedules for can be done on the spot with those clients that are also using the video chat technology. Every successful real estate agent and broker understands that time is money. Having the ability to have that online meeting right now instead of waiting days or weeks translates into faster closings and happier clients.

Something widely underused by many established real estate agents is video on their websites or social media sites. The newest agents that are just receiving their real estate license are going to be using all of the latest technology available to help them stand out in the crowd. Seasoned real estate agents are going to have to get on board as clients become more and more technology savvy. Many potential clients do a great deal of research on the real estate market, and well as the agents themselves, using the internet. If you cannot set yourself apart from the masses marketing yourself, clients will think you cannot effectively market their home.

The price point of the iPad is comparable to many standard laptops and surprisingly significantly less than other notepads with touch screen technology and Wi-Fi capabilities. Even at its introductory price of between $499.00 and $829.00, the iPad is competitively priced, and those prices are likely to go down even further by next year to between $199.00 and $299.00, roughly equal to the current price point of a netbook.

Having answers to every possible client question or concern is urgent in building a solid reputation as a knowledgeable real estate agent. To know everything you need the latest technology at your fingertips to be able to find the most updated information for your clients when they ask the question. The iPad has combined what the iPhone is with what the Netbook should have been to create what is sure to become a necessity to every successful real estate agent.

Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker?

About The Author: Tom Davidson is the acting Director of Sales & Operations for Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.

The last few years in the real estate market have been the worst this country has seen since the great depression.  But we seem to have turned a corner and forecasters are anticipating that 2010 is the year that the rebound in the real estate market will take off once again.  Current financial indicators all support this prediction. As the real estate market is getting ready to re-ignite going into 2010 the need for licensed professional real estate appraisers to facilitate the deals is about to jump. The time to get licensed is now to be ready for the opportunity that is to come. It is a great time to start a career as a real estate appraiser.

As the economy stands on the threshold of its real estate market recovery the need will be greater than ever to have qualified professionals to determine an accurate value of the properties being purchased for the purposes of validating the purchase price on a loan. In order to appropriately determine the selling price the skills of a qualified real estate appraiser will needed. Expertly trained professionals to skillfully and accurately value the properties being bought and sold in the rebounding real estate market will be in great demand.

The recent incentive programs to stimulate the depressed real estate market have done just that. The original tax incentive of up to $7500.00 for first time home buyers was enough to spark the beginning of the real estate market turn around. The subsequent decisions to raise the possible incentive amount to $8000.00 and suspending the deadline to qualify for the program generated significantly more activity in the housing market.

The expansion of the program to include a credit for existing homeowners of up to $6500.00 to purchase a new primary residence created and even more urgent need for properly trained real estate appraisers. The increase in home sales as well as the number of listings for sale anticipated as existing homeowners sell their current residences to cash in on the incentive to purchase a new one will create an overflow of properties in need of proper appraisal and a demand for licensed professionals to meet the need.

Real estate appraisal is a field in which many can work but those that receive quality education will excel. Honest and reliable real estate appraisers are a cornerstone in a successful real estate market. Without professionals to properly value the properties the market will fall apart. In order to become one of these highly regarded professionals potential appraisers must learn what skills are necessary in order to accurately evaluate a property’s value. The details of a property that add value as well as those that may decrease value, the areas the properties are located in, the land and its significance to the overall property value, this is all knowledge that an expert real estate appraiser will have. The importance of a quality education behind the license will be the difference between appraisers that work and those that grow wealth in the reignited real estate market.

In an economy where unemployment is at its highest, finding a field in need of qualified professionals is like finding a nugget of gold in a mine that was thought to be emptied of all value. To find a field that is about to explode with an infinite potential for income generation is like hitting the mother load. Now is the perfect time to begin a career in a field where the possibility of income is only limited by your ability to do the work. Now is a great time to get started in a career as a real estate appraiser.

RealEstateExpress.com offers the best online appraisal licensing course packages available anywhere.  If you’d like more information about how to get licensed or about our course packages, Click on your state below!

Texas Appraisal License
Illinois Appraisal License
Louisiana Appraisal License
Pennsylvania Appraisal License
Virginia Appraisal License
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Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker?

About The Author: David Goldstein is an owner and founding partner of Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.

Look How Far We’ve Come.

When my partner and I launched Activated Multimedia, Inc in the early 1990’s, it took me an hour to load my car for a demo, an hour to set up the demo, and an hour getting my sore back fixed after schlepping all that stuff around town. In those days before the Internet existed,in order to show our Fortune 500 clients the “magic of multimedia” I hauled an entire Mac Quadra with a giant CRT in my trunk, along with enough cables to hang the golden gate bridge. I would arrive at least an hour before the meeting commenced, just to plug everything in, and usually had sweat dripping from my brow for the first 15 minutes of every presentation. To say it was cumbersome would be an understatement.

Today it’s easy to fit your entire office, if not your life, into one carry-on size bag.

The examples are almost infinite. You can take an entire library with you on a Kindle;you can take your “computer” with you in a hand-held device like an iPhone or a Blackberry, which also serves as your movie theater and concert hall to go. As our tools and technology have successfully evolved into true portability (smaller and lighter packages that fit in your pocket), the economics and viability of having that big office loaded with bulky hardware starts to look more and more obsolete.

Many New Professionals Are Investing in Technology Instead of Rent, for Virtual Office Freedom

Today’s smart professionals in the age of connectivity are realizing that by “going portable” the costs and carrying weight of a large fully-equipped office are often mitigated.Like me, they have learned to downsize their physical office, in favor of taking their “virtual office” with them wherever they go.

That’s not to say there isn’t a place for physical offices, especially in real estate. But if you just have to have a formal “street presence,” try going for less square footage, for a shorter term. Or even better, tap into the many offices around the world that rent “by the day”. (For more about that read this summary “How Virtual Offices Work.”)

I have an office that I rarely visit based in St. Louis, and three separate tiny offices in different towns in Chile. But my “main office” is essentially an oversized briefcase. That’s what I use most as my office.

Currently, I live outside the USA more than in it, and travel on flights and connections that often are measured in days rather than hours. Accordingly, I have learned to fit (i.e “cram”) all my clothes, and my office, into one overstuffed carry-on bag.  Yes, even with my laptop, camera, iPhone, and cables, I can fit a weeks worth of clothes in there as well! The only thing I can’t seem to fit in this bag is my secretary.

Here are the key items that give me my office on wheels:

Hardware:

iPhone or Smartphone- I have a chip for the USA and a chip for South America – which is invaluable to avoid roaming charges. I have an original iPhone, and had a friend “jailbreak” or “unbrick” it, to allow for the different carriers in different countries. Sure, Blackberry and Palm Pre work also. In terms of apps, there are way too many to list here, but suffice to say the Zillow and Trulia Apps are great for real estate agents. They geo-target your location and bring up what’s for sale where you are and they give you comps too.  “Around Me” is a great one if you travel in the US because it tells you where they closest “anything” is to where you are (based on the internal GPS). Coffee, hospital, grocery store, resturaunts, hotels etc. But there are over 1.5 million apps out there, so search using Google for the ones that help you the most.

Canon Powershot- Because for business I need high-quality, high-res photos, and phonecams just don’t cut it in terms of pixel size. The all time favorite camera in the world, and easy to download your pictures to your computer or a variety of devices. I have a Powershot 630, but there are other models available.

Plug Converters- Most electronic devices today come with a plug/transformer set for International use. If it says 110-240volts, then you won’t fry your US-made device (110volts) when plugging it in to a South American or European socket (220-240volts). All you need is a converter to make the “prongs” match. Extra batteries for your devices is always a good idea as well.

Laptop- I’ve got 20 years of Mac-love and 15 years with Dell, but after having 2 expensive laptops fry in Airport XRay machines, my techno-gurus gave me a “made in China” IBM stepchild called a “Lenovo”that turned out to perform just as well as the better known brands.Much less painful if something goes wrong- but this little Chevy Nova suits me fine at half the price. Because I travel, my office has our troubleshooting tech Michele hooked up by virtue of an “agent” program, so she can fix anything remotely for me, no matter where in the world I may be.

Software:

TweetGrid- Track 9 or more Twitter accounts or terms at once. For monitoring subjects of interest and keywords like “real estate” “housing” “foreclosures” “realtor” and other business-centric terms, I use the 3 x3 array to also follow updates and tweets from other real estate professionals.

TweetDeck- For coordinating your Twitter accounts, following friends, as well as a one-stop shop for Retweeting, posting Twitpics, 12sec videos, and following Social Media trends. Works with Facebook and iPhones in most countries.

Twhirl- Cute little widget that is like a mini-version of Tweetdeck. Boasts a really fast URL-shortener tool as well. I keep this running on my desktop.

AlertThingy- To view and operate both your Facebook and Twitter accounts at once, in harmony. Efficient little app that saves you time.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager- I love Photoshop but this is the most efficient way to size images for quick placement in my blog, TwitPicor websites.Not a huge Microsoft fan but this little tool is fast, and easy to use, and usually is included with Office. Selecting “Edit Pictures” can give me my shot color corrected, cropped, resized and more in less time than it takes Photoshop to open.

FreeTranslations- Remember, even in the prosaic USA, over 20% of your customers speak another lengua materna. May make you sound like a gradeschooler, but 95% of the translations aren’t bad!

Airline WiFi- Most airlines today are equipping their larger wide-body aircraft with Internet Connectivity via Wifi. I usually fly American, because they have my gazillion miles stored since 1981 – and they are retrofitting most of it’s 767 fleet with WiFi for a fee.  But I get it at no charge during this promotion season using this coupon code. Feel free to try it: AAWiFi80208A2

Google Voice- 3 cents a minute and you’re talking worldwide with high-fidelity.

Air Card- For Internet Connectivity anywhere you may be.

Thanks to space and time-saving devices like these, and the proclivity of Internet-based applications, I can literally take my office with me wherever I go, and stay connected in  virtual real time. I can reduce the size of my physical office, lower my rent costs, and probably end up more efficient as a result.

True, there were a few things the old Mac Quadra could do that I still miss.

What I don’t miss is my sore back or the sweat. Today I can easily lift my entire office and put it in the airline overhead compartment, no sweat.

Now, if I can only figure out how to fit my secretary in the same small space!

Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker?

About The Author: Geoffrey Thompson is an owner and founding partner of Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.