10 Apps Every Real Estate Investor Needs

Discover 10 Apps that every real estate investor should have on their mobile device so that they can be more productive and make better investing decisions while on the go and not directly in front of a computer. These are the 10 Apps that I personally have on my iPhone so that if an opportunity arises while I am out and about, I can still get the information I need to be able make the right decision on that deal. Here are those 10 Apps along with an illustration of why they are so useful:

 

Here is the list of those 10 Apps for your reference:

 

(1) Google Maps
(2) Google Voice
(3) Local MLS
(4) Realtor.com
(5) Zillow Rentals
(6) RealQuest
(7) JotNot Pro
(8) Puffin
(9) YouTube Capture
(10) EverNote

 

The Ten Apps Every Real Estate Investor Needs

 

These are ten apps that I personally use and they can make your life more productive, they can help you make better decisions, they can help make things a little bit more convenient. You now what it's not going to do, these are not going to make you a billionaire overnight.

In fact, technology, internet itself is not going to make you rich or not. If you feel like technology is what's holding you back, you're wrong. Knowing how to do this business is what might be holding you back. These tools, these apps can make things a little bit more efficient, but they're not going to make or break you.

These are ten apps I absolutely must have on me at all times to be a productive real estate investor these days because otherwise, I have to go back to my computer and so often, I'm out and about. I'm with family. I'm with my kids and so sometimes, I have to be able to make intelligent real estate investing decisions from my phone and these apps allow me to do that. Let's take a look.

 

1. Google Maps

 

Google Maps has several different features that make it helpful. The first is obvious that it allows you to navigate to the property, know where it is, but also it gives you property lines. Now, these aren't going to be survey or property lines, but they give you a good indication as to where the property lines might be. That can be helpful.

Also, if you want to, you can change to satellite view and you'd be able to see kind of in relation to other properties. What the terrain is like. I love how some properties have a street view which is amazing. I remember when I first got started in real estate, I had a dream that one day, I can have like a little radio controlled bee or bug that could fly around and show me properties without me having to get out of my seat.

That was a dream fifteen years ago. Today we have it and it's free. It's called Google Street. It's amazing. It shows street views and what traffic is like. That can come in real handy when you're trying to move around and look at the traffic.

It can tell you things like what area a property is in.. If you're picking out properties, you want to make sure you're not in a high traffic area if it's a residential because it's a lot harder to sell those.

Google Maps has several different features and I end up using it all the time. That's in contrast to the other mapping software that the iPhone comes with, which is not nearly as effective. Google Maps, they gives you all these incredible features.

 

2. Google Voice

 

Google Voice is wonderful because it allows you to have both call and text features. What's so nice about that is you don't have to go out and buy a new phone line. You don't have to go out and pay for one of those services like RingCentral or Grasshopper, you could just use Google Voice and it can be your "Business Phone." It's wonderful and often times, sellers are texting a lot these days and it allows you to text, but doesn't give the home owners your actual personal cellphone number. Google Voice can come in handy and I use it all the time.

 

3. Local MLS

 

My MLS system has an app to access all the MLS records, which is absolutely fantastic because having direct MLS access makes such a big difference in your ability to see what's really going on both closed, active, withdrawn, expired and you may not have this feature, but your MLS probably has a mobile version.

I'll get more into this concept of mobile web with Puffin, but you can actually setup a shortcut on your home screen that would be a link to the mobile version of your local MLS. Check into what your area offers. You may not have an actual app, but you still probably have a mobile version.

 

4. Realtor.com

 

Realtor.com, this is really helpful for looking at actives in such a way where it's really easy to view. Let's say you're going the for sale search, well, that gave me location. It's going to show me active ones for sale on a map. Really easy to navigate through and see what's going on.

Now, one of the things that's important to recognize is that realtor.com has the most accurate information. Zillow through court cases recently has lost their feed for direct access to the most up to date information when properties become available for sale. Realtor.com is much better for sale information. It's nice to know what's going on with the property and as far as the competition and that's what actives can be helpful for and realtor.com can be a nice and easy way to access that.

 

5. Zillow Rentals

 

Zillow Rentals, this is another amazing tool that's just recently become available as far as real estate investing is concerned. It allows you to see what other properties are renting for. That is a huge, huge deal because for the longest time, it's been really hard to figure out what properties rent for. It's always been pretty easy to figure out what they're selling for, but this gives you the ability to quickly scan to see what things are renting for.

Now that doesn't mean it's the  exact number your property might rent for, but it'll give you a good ballpark. A lot of these are property manager managed, so the data is pretty accurate on this stuff. Usually, the property managers are the ones that priced them correctly because they're trying to rent them.

Back in the old days, what I used to have to do is call a bunch of property managers and ask them what they'd rent for. These days, I don't have to call anybody. I just jump on the Zillow Rentals app.

 

6. RealQuest

 

Realist is the text version of the property information. If you don't have access to Realist there's a service for the general public called RealQuest. It's the same thing, same company, Core Logic. If you don't have that, you can always go to a website that provides this. This is public records.

The difference is the data on Realist is easier to view for me, but this is the tax records. It's what the government, the local taxing authority thinks of the property. Whether it's square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, all that data. It comes in real handy. If I've got a rental, I want to see what the rental rates are and this is what the taxing authority has as far as their information. That can give me a tremendous amount of data on a property and help me make better decisions much faster.

 

7. JotNotPro

 

JotNotPro is a wonderful app. What it does is it allows you to take a picture of anything that's document wise and it will convert that document into a PDF that you can email. What this allows you to do is take all this documents that the seller has, whether it's there deed and their mortgage information, whether it's a document you just had signed and it allows you to digitize it. Makes a big difference. It's fast and easy.

The only time it's not fast and easy is if we're talking about thirty, or forty, or fifty pages, then you have to take a picture with each individual page and it can be a little bit long and drawn out. For the majority of real estate investors, it can really come in handy to be able to just take a quick few pictures and have a document, digitized you can email to a title company or otherwise.

 

8. Puffin

 

Puffin is a mobile web browser. It makes browsing the web a lot easier on a mobile device. When you press something,  it makes a little circle. It makes it so easy to know what you're touching. It seems to respond really quickly to any website, especially public records where it's government based and it's really clunky otherwise on a mobile device.

I end up using Puffin a lot as my web browser when I'm trying to browse the government websites. Whether it's for property information or things that like recorders office, that kind of data.

 

9. Youtube Capture

 

The Youtube capture app is an app that is used to be able to not only shoot a video, but you can shoot several videos. You can shoot those different shots and then you can combine them together. All in one video if you'd like to and it makes a huge difference.

This app is great if you want to make videos of your properties and you don't have to have a bunch of video editing software, fancy video camera, or anything in the like. You can just do it all right there with the Youtube Capture app. It's fantastic.

 

10. Evernote

 

Lastly we have Evernote. Evernote has been a game changer for me. It's where I keep track of everything. When I go look at properties, I take notes of everything that needs to be done to it. I make notes about everything I see. I take pictures, include those pictures in there. There's so much you can do with Evernote. I have entire videos on this subject to be more productive in real estate. Without Evernote, I wouldn't be nearly as productive as I am.

 

Conclusion

 

I hope you picked up some tips that might allow you to be more productive, help your business be a little bit more convenient so you can be more mobile while you're making decisions on the fly. If you have any questions or you have any thoughts or ideas on some additional apps that might need to be considered, go ahead, put those just below here in the comments and I'd try to take time out of my schedule to comment and  correspond with those that interact with me.