.KEYWORD pocket
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Get your real estate data to go with Pocket Real Estate
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Imagine how great it would be if you could pull out your trusty Palm handheld and have the latest Multiple Listing Service information downloaded to your device. You can do just that with HAND e CORP’s Pocket Real Estate. Heather McDaniel reviews this powerful piece of software for realtors.
.AUTHOR Heather McDaniel
You’re a real estate agent at a cocktail party talking to someone interested in buying a very large house (which means a very large commission for you). So you ask them if they’re currently working with another agent. They’re not.
The person asks you if you know of any large properties in the area. What do you do? One option is to invite them to your office to check out the latest listings available. That might not go over too well, however, as it might look like you’re doing a hard sell. Another option might be to carry those big, heavy MLS (Multiple Listing Service) books with you all of the time, but that’s not exactly casual.
What if you could pull out your trusty Palm handheld with the latest MLS information downloaded to your device? Now that’s cool, and with Pocket Real Estate (at http://www.pocketrealestate.com), it’s possible.
Pocket Real Estate is a program for handheld devices that allows you to keep the latest MLS data on your Palm handheld. The Multiple Listing Service is a list of properties on the market, and these listings contain information about the property such as price, location, TMK (Tax Map Key), square footage, etc.
Pocket Real Estate is put out by a company called HAND e CORP, a Honolulu, Hawaii based-company that develops and markets handheld solutions for vertical markets, with a primary focus on the real estate industry.
Pocket Real Estate is a great tool for any real estate agent because you can access the most current MLS information each time you perform a HotSync operation. As you can see in Figure A, there are many functions in Pocket Real Estate.
.FIG A Pocket Real Estate has quite a number of functions.
PocketRealEstate includes several types of calculators, which are shown in Figure B.
.FIG B You can make your calculations quickly with Pocket Real Estate.
There are calculators to calculate loan payments, the amount of equity in a home, or information on whether it would be better for someone to rent or own.
There’s also a mortgage calculator, which is shown in Figure C.
.FIG C A good real estate agent always keeps a mortgage calculator handy.
These are great to have if your client wants to know how much the monthly payments would be on a mortgage. Of course, as an agent, you’d have to have the latest interest rates to enter into the equation, but if you’re on top of things you already have that information.
The major functions of Pocket Real Estate are the search functions, QuickSearch and Properties. QuickSearch, shown in Figure D, has limited search capabilities.
.FIG D QuickSearch is good to use if you know what you’re searching for.
If you know the MLS number, TMK, or address, the QuickSearch option would be good to use. QuickSearch is also good to use if you wanted just general information, such as all of the single-family units that were for sale.
Properties is also a good tool to use because it allows you to search according to a client’s specifications. For instance, if the person at the cocktail party wanted to know what three or four bedroom single family houses were available, you can tap on Properties, and you’ll get a screen like the one shown in Figure E.
.FIG E There are a few types of properties to search for.
You can search for single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, and vacant land. There’s also an option to take you to QuickSearch.
So, you tap on single family, and you’ll come to the screen shown in Figure F.
.FIG F Here’s how you can search for a property.
As you can see, there are many options to choose from. You can search based on zip code, the name of the neighborhood, square footage of the house, the amount of bedrooms, bathrooms, or a combination of them all. All you have to do is check the boxes and specify the number. You can also narrow your search down to bring up only the listings that are currently for sale, properties that are pending, or properties that are already sold. So you enter three or four bedrooms, since that’s all the client wanted, and you tap on the arrow at the bottom of the screen.
You’ll get a list of properties that fits those specifications. If you tap on one of the properties, then you’ll get more detailed information, as shown in Figure G.
.FIG G You can bring up more detailed information of a property.
Along the bottom of the screen, you’ll notice a series of icons. The calendar is to schedule appointments, the phone is for contact information, and the memo icon will even put that property’s information into the Memo Pad. Now here’s the real value of Pocket Real Estate: it integrates wonderfully with the basic Palm OS applications, such as Memo Pad, and Date Book. For example, if you were to tap on the calendar icon, you would be taken to the screen shown in Figure H.
.FIG H It’s easy to schedule an appointment.
You can enter the time and the type of appointment, and then you’re given the opportunity to include the items that will appear as a note with your appointment in your Date Book. You can include items such as the property details or the listing agent’s contact information.
Once you add the appointment, it will appear in your Palm OS Date Book as illustrated in Figure I.
.FIG I This is how the appointment will appear in your Palm calendar.
This is a very useful function because it simplifies your appointment calendar. You don’t have to look for another program that has that information. It’s all right there.
Another neat add-on in Pocket Real Estate is Mapopolis, which is included with Pocket Real Estate. This comes in very handy when you’re going to take a client to a property. Once you’ve made the appointment to show the prospective client a property, you have to know how to get there. With Pocket Real Estate, it’s very easy. All you have to do is tap on the arrow at the bottom of your screen, which indicates that there’s an outside program installed on your device. You open up Mapopolis, which will search for that particular property, as shown in Figure J.
.FIG J Mapopolis is integrated into PocketRealEstate.
If you don’t have the appropriate map installed, don’t worry. You can download maps for free at Pocket Real Estate’s Web site.
If you want the latest MLS information on your device, just perform a HotSync operation. If you’re like me, you like to put the Palm handheld on the cradle, hit the HotSync button, and walk away to do something else. That’s a little tricky, though, using Pocket Real Estate because there’s a screen that will appear in the middle of the HotSync operation asking you if you would like to update with the latest information. It’s just something to be aware of before you walk away from your computer. It could be a big deal because of the potential battery drain if you’re using a battery-powered Palm handheld, such as a HandEra 330.
.H1 Conclusion
So it turns out that the person you were talking to at the cocktail party was so impressed, they decided right then and there that they want you as their agent. Pocket Real Estate is available at http://www.pocketrealestate.com for a one-time fee of $199. There are no monthly charges to use Pocket Real Estate. HAND e CORP has contracts with most Multiple Listing Service systems in the United States and several in Canada. Finally, check out PocketRealEstate.com to make sure the program will work with your MLS system.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Pocket Real Estate, visit http://www.pocketrealestate.com.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
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.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
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