Successful real estate investors are mobile people. Even if you are wholesaling or flipping virtually, there are times you need to run your business while travelling, running errands or even sometimes at the beach having fun. Having the flexibility to run your real estate empire while on the go often means using your smartphone.
Today, we want to show you some great accessories for iPhones and Android devices that will make your investing more productive and easier. In other words, we want to help you maximize the Return on Investment (ROI) for the money you put into your phone.
Without further ado, here are some cool accessories, apps and gadgets that might make things much easier on you as an investor.
Extra Power and So Much More
Running out of battery while you’re on the road or on an important call stinks! We’ve all been there at some point, right?
Well, how about using a battery pack that lasts longer and can be taken with you? Once charged up, we could go much longer without a charge. Even the super-organized people could spend more time doing real estate and less time charging (and worrying about!) their battery with longer life.
Battery packs make you more mobile and flexible, so you’ll be able to find and snatch up the good deals faster.
Here are some options to consider that can help power your smartphone and even have some surprise extras thrown in:
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Bracketron Smart Lantern – Doubles as a lantern or flashlight that you can use for 48 hours – great for talking to contractors while you are evaluating repairs.
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Battstation Optimus – A ton of juice! Holds enough power to charge a tablet twice and an iPhone about 10 times. You could go about a week of hard work investing without a charge.
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Mophie Space Pack – A little more expensive, but can also extend memory storage to your iPhone up to 32GB. That way you can store tons of videos or other files on your cell without having to buy a new, more expensive model. If you want to extend storage on your Android, you will have to buy a separate storage pack. Mophie doesn’t work for Android, but here is a good alternative.
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Tenergy Arc 5200 – One of the cheapest power packs, but will still give you lots of backup power. It has two cords – one to connect to Apple devices and one for Android. Both cords can be used at the same time to powering two devices.
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HooToo TripMate – Not just a powerful charger, but can also act as a router. It can convert a cable internet signal to a wireless connection for you while you are on the go.
Video Sharing
“Hey take a video of that and send it to me.” Ever hear that expression? Ever said it? We sure have while we’ve been investing…
From a homeowner telling you about his house, to a handyman who found some unexpected problem, to taking a video of a property you are about to put up for rent, video sharing can be very productive in saving you time.
The trouble is that there are soooo many video formats out there. Of course your phone or other device can’t read all the different formats that your real estate contacts might send you. You need some way to be able to view and edit all these formats. You don’t want to miss out on a great deal because you are experiencing technical difficulties.
Of course there is an app for that…
The folks at a company called VideoLan have put together video players for both Apple and Android systems that can play pretty much every video format out there. You can download the Apple Version here or the Android version here.
So the next time you want to:
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View a video of a house for sale that is in a weird format;
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Watch an instructional video (maybe from Real Estate Mogul);
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Waste time watching a video waiting for a tenant/contractor/potential buyer to show up; or
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Play a video of a house you own and want to advertise..
You no longer have to worry about the format – Videolan should be able to cover them all. From the CNET website:
“VLC is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, and OGG, as well as for DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It also can be used as a server for unicast or multicast streams in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.”
Translation for us non-techies – it hits pretty much all the major formats. It can also record streaming video so you can keep it on your computer and helps you set up video for your blog or website.
And best of all – it’s FREE! They ask for small contributions, but the contributions are voluntary.
More Cool Stuff
While we are showing you some apps and gadgets that make your smartphone a more powerful investing tool, we thought we would round out this lesson with a few that don’t fall into a specific category.
Let’s start with some smartphone holders for your car. They really make it easy to go hands-free so you can drive safely and keep your real estate business running:
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Kensington Ultra Mount – Has a strong suction cup to position your smartphone where you want it, and a long arm to turn the phone to just the right angle. Plus, you only need one hand to remove the phone or put it back in the mount.
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Aduro U-Grip – Has a very sticky suction cup that can mount on a textured dashboard. Nice and compact, one-hand operation and can hold all phones – even ones as big as the Samsung S4.
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iMagnet Cradleless Mount – No more fussing with brackets that have to be secured around your cell. Once you mount this on the dash or windshield, just slap whatever phone you have onto the super strong magnet and away you go.
Another cool gadget is a tripod for your phone that fits on your keychain. When you want to take pictures of your property, say for a rental ad, or get a video of you describing parts of a property, you can use this handy tripod. Smartphones easily mount in it, and you won’t have to carry a big clunky one in the back of your car.
Lastly, we really liked this smart lock. It’s brand new to the market and expensive ($199). But if you just buy one, it would be really helpful for showing houses or rental properties…
Say you have a wholesale deal. You can put this lock on the door, and then when buyers come over to the property, they can get in touch with you and you can unlock the door from your smartphone.
Or maybe you have a rehab project in one of your rentals. You can unlock the door remotely when a contractor comes over or just give them permission to unlock the door. Then when they leave, they can’t get back in. It would also be very appealing to buyers of one of your flips to see it on the front door. Your flip would have a lot of curb appeal if the buyers walked up to the house and could unlock it from their smart phone.
Break it Down
Look, real estate investors have to be very mobile these days. Cell phones make it very possible to run your whole business practically from wherever you want to be: a coffee shop, the beach, sitting watching your kid’s school play...
And the technology just keeps getting better. We embrace all this technology at REM and hope you are too.
Holla at us
If you have any other neat gadgets or apps for your phone, we’d love to hear about them. Please let us know in the comments section below.
Learn, Learn, Learn – Be a perpetual student always learning new ways to improve your business. Don’t stay still. Real Estate Mogul is a great resource, but seek out others as well.
Seek Out Other Technologies – Laptops, tablets, tools, software, you name it, there are all sorts of technologies out there. Search google, talk to other investors, even learn from your kids about the latest. Then think about how you can use it to be more successful.
Research Your Competition – Being one step ahead of your competition in running your business is ideal, but it pays to at least keep up with them. See how your competition is using technology, and then think about how you can use it even better.
Attend Meetings – Every state has lots of investor meetings that you can attend. Many of them will put on presentations about technology. These meetings can be great for both networking and improving your technological education. Don’t be a hermit – Go Forth and Conquer!
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.