Do you remember when everyone was saying it would be a paperless world? We really wouldn’t need documents anymore? How’s that working out for you?
Yeah – us neither.
Despite the momentum of paperless, digitalized transactions, we still love our paperwork. And as long as the world doesn’t go fully digital, real estate will continue to stick with the classics:
-
Penning down notes
-
Keeping tons of receipts
-
Sketches on paper
-
Piles and piles of important documents (closing docs for instance)
I’m all for a paperless world, trust me. But I’m also all for convenience and efficiency. Which is why apps that can take pictures, do text recognition, scan documents on the go, save them in a cloud for future reference and integrate with other apps are of huge help.
Phone = Scanner
The days when you manually connect a scanner to your PC, place documents facedown, preview scans, save it to your desktop, etc., are starting to disappear. Real estate investors spend a lot of time in ‘the field.’ They can’t just sit in their office all day scanning documents.
That’s why they could use a scanner that travels with them.
Camscanner is a freemium app (you can download it for free but has in-app purchases) for iOS, Windows and Android. Users can scan any document and convert it into PDF. It’s also equipped with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology that enables you to turn scanned documents into editable text files.
If you need to scan multiple pages of a single document, Camscanner makes it easier for you through their batch scanning feature. Your scanned documents can also be annotated with notes and highlights. And, you can store all your documents in the cloud so you can get a hold of it using other devices.
As I’ve mentioned, Camscanner is freemium. For $4.99/month or $6.99/month, you can enjoy additional features such as more storage space on the cloud, automatically sync your scans, password protection and an editable OCR.
For many real estate investors, the free version will be more than enough. It satisfies your needs and works seamlessly with the platforms you’re working with.
While a watermark is added to your scans in the free version, if you’re scanning documents for your own records, you won’t be too concerned with it.
It’s pretty straightforward and very useful.
3 Ways You Can Use Camscanner
Here’s how you can use Camscanner in your real estate business (aside from obvious scanning and sending important documents):
1. Buying Properties
When buying your properties, you may be walking through a building with a contractor and taking notes. Or the building may be pretty old, and not all the documents were created electronically…
Camscanner can make everything electronic. You can attach notes to each scan and file them in your cloud drive for future reference.
2. Keep Track of Your Competition
Suppose you are walking through a neighborhood and notice other investors have been there before you. You can grab their door hangers, letters taped to the door or other promotional material and scan it into your files. As you collect more and more of these files, you will have a great database to use for your own marketing.
3. Immediately Find the Document You Need
Camscanner helps you quickly find the needed documents by searching for the keywords. The OCR of their software can search the PDF document text and pinpoint the document right away. You don’t have to worry about naming the document right for retrieval.
Not only can you save yourself from the hassle of looking through piles of documents, but also you can impress your prospects and increase the chance of sealing your deal by cutting down waiting time.
The amount of time saved by eliminating the hassle of having to find a scanner when a client or prospect asks for documents is very convenient. It’s easy to use as well…
You won’t have to rush into the office to scan and send documents to a client—you can do it anytime, anywhere. The recipient will be impressed that you scanned it using your phone.
If you’re content with scanning documents, saving them to your phone and manually uploading your documents to OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, GoogleDrive, or Evernote, then the free version would work without a problem.
Tell Us
Do you love paper or are you on the paperless train? Tell us why below.
Make a habit of scanning documents – Keeping track of records is very important. Scanning them in and storing in your cloud drive is an easy way to do it.
Back up your documents - Store your documents in multiple locations, just in case.
Keep the desktop scanner – Camscanner is very helpful on the go, but may not be the best solution for scanning large amounts of documents at once.
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.