• GMAIL/GOOGLE Everything - If you’re not already using Google as your default mail client or calendar…START! It’s FREE!!! It does a great job of organizing emails into threaded conversations, similar to a series of chats. The calendar is fantastic, and been a life saver for me many times over. It even allows you to create text message reminders for events on your calendar! Google Docs has been great for sharing and group editing, but I must admit, I’m still not utilizing it as much as I should. Google Chat has a built in feature that allows me to post a widget on my blog and let clients chat with me in real time on my phone. I also recommend Google Voice, but I’m going to write that into it’s own bullet point. Back to Gmail…one of the best features is the ability to send your Gmail as if you’re sending an email from another address (e.g. yourname@remax.net). This gives a much more professional look to your business. If you are looking for more tips and tricks, I recommend THIS POST by TechSavyAgent.

• Jott.com- Jott is a reminder service and integrates very well with my Google Calendar. It allows me to dial Jott (saved into my phone book), and add an appointment, note,  or reminder by voice. This is especially handy while driving, so that I’m not trying to filter through my calendar.

• Facebook.com- Create yourself a fanpage already! It’s super easy to do and can create quite a buzz around your business. You can even use it to think outside the box and farm neighborhoods! Make sure to join my next webinar on utilizing Facebook for real estate!

• Twitter.com- Think of Twitter as your Facebook helper. You only get 140 characters, so you need to make sure you’re grabbing the consumer’s attention. As with any social media site, make sure you’re linking back to your site. The key to getting leads is getting them to YOUR site!

• isNowListed- A centerpiece for your entire business plan! isNowListed will syndicate your listings to tons of sites, create you single property websites indexable by Google, create custom brochures, and even create a YouTube video slideshow for each home you have listed. It also has single post to Facebook and Craigslist.com which is a fantastic lead generation tool, but I wouldn’t recommend using on it’s own, unless you know what you’re doing! isNowListed does all the HTML grunt work for you, and once again, drives them back to your site!

• Google Voice- Best Voicemail product…period. Rings multiple numbers at once, transcribes voicemails to text or email and has a ton of other features that I can’t even describe! If you’re in real estate, this is a must have! Especially great if you’re working across two different area codes (you can have two numbers ring the same line).

I think that pretty much rounds up my list (for now). I’m not listing some the the “no-brainers” like an iFax or your IDX site…I’ll leave those to you. Another big one is a blog. WordPress.org (not .com) by far has more options and will function more like a website, but Blogger.com is much easier.

One other thing I did want to mention are the sites that I visit daily. The following sites keep me up to date on what’s going on:

• Engadget.com -Tech everything
• Mashable.com -Social Media everything
• TechSavyAgent.com -Better real estate blog than mine (Unless you want tech walk thru’s)
• ReTechulous.com -Great Walk Thru’s and crazy real estate geek site (not for the feint of heart)

-not sure what happened to the formatting on this post, but I’m working to fix it!

I teach social media classes and am amazed by how fast real estate is changing. Instead of farming neighborhoods, Realtors are using Facebook to create neighborhood fan pages. Realtors are creating Twitter accounts for individual properties and advertising that there’s a party this weekend (Open House)…brilliant.

I recently posted a blog about Listing Syndication, and was even more amazed by IsNowLisited.com/beta this week when one of my agents said he signed up, used it and got two listings from friends that saw him post his listings with a YouTube video on Facebook. He also got a buyer call a few days later. The possibilities are endless, and you never know who’s looking to buy or sell!

I’ve also dabbled with a flip-style video camera, and posted those videos to my blog. My traffic (after posting to Craigslist) trippled. (PS. Isnowlisted.com/beta just added a free Craigslist Post Service- it’s like they’re reading my mind

When I was talking to one of my agents about doing this type of thing. He said that $150 investment into a Flip camera has paid for itself more than anything else he’s purchased. He had out of town clients call, went out within a few hours, took a video of the house they were looking at and posted the video for them to see. Those clients are his FOR LIFE! It’s that easy folks!

I also stumbled upon a really cool app for my iPad/iPhone called Knocking Live. This may be the absolute future of real estate! No more open houses, no more showings until they’ve seen the house via live streaming video. What if your clients just don’t feel like looking at homes one day, that’s OK. Tell them to sit at home, grab some snacks, and you’ll go through a few homes for them. It will even save you the time of them aimlessly wondering around a single house for an hour!

I know this isn’t going to happen overnight. But it is happening now. Be an early adopter, catch a few extra buyers and sellers. The industry is changing, in a good way

Anyway, I know many of you use Facebook, and less of you have become accustomed to tweeting on Twitter, but now there is a new “big kid” on the block as Google enters the Social Media game with Google Buzz. While I don’t think this will become your everyday replacement for either of those two powerhouses, I do believe that Google Buzz will have it’s place in the real estate game.

For those of you that didn’t or don’t know already, Google Base (formerly a real estate search) is now integrated into Google Maps under search options on the right hand side. Try it out for yourself!

So…how will this help you in real estate?

Well, and I know this may be a stretch, but I think it’s the ultimate goal for Google to integrate EVERYTHING. So when you have a property on Google For Sale, it will be identifiable on Google Maps. With the recent addition (after only a day) to mobile phones getting Buzz support to their Google Maps. This could mean that when people are searching for real estate on their phones, which is already happening. They are going to see reviews from others that have already been through that home. Seller’s beware, you may get more than you bargained for with the ultimate feedback forum!

As always, I’ll keep you posted as to how this pans out!

The Ultimate Cell Phone Plans Comparison
Posted By Tony Adam On January 18, 2010 (2:05 pm)

On Friday, Verizon Wireless announced pricing plan restructuring that would reduce the cost of voice usage. AT&T Wireless quickly followed suit and unveiled their updated cell phone plans as well. Today is the day that those changes go into effect.

While both carriers announced these changes as efforts to simplify plans, the real truth behind the story is that the profits are in the data: Verizon’s revenue is now up 24% (they reported $15.8 billion in Q309), with 17% coming from data services.

I think that there is still a long way to go before it gets to a point where picking a cell phone plan is simple, even after these various many attempts by the carriers in 2009. There are still way too many plan combination.

This is our best attempt to simplify all of the plan combination and it was painful, but here it is, The Ultimate Cell Phone Plans Comparison:

Find the best cell phone plans and more graphics at BillShrink.com