Condo Media - February 2013 - 14

by Jack Carr, P.E., RS, LEED-AP

C A I

R e g i o n a l

N e w s

MAINE

This App’s 4 U
Smartphone Tools for Real Estate Professionals
ot that long ago my cell
phone had a rotary dial. It
was that old. It made calls.
What else would I need? And
then it happened. My phone died and
I was introduced to the 21st century.
Suddenly I had a smartphone.
Of course I knew it could take photos and videos but I was not interested in tweeting, music, gaming or
other social uses for the phone. I
knew it would find a new restaurant
or what was playing at the local theatres, but what I really was interested
in was how could it organize my
business life and do my job better.
Of course the phone came with builtin apps for getting weather and stock
reports. Using the calendar app to sync
with my office schedule and the ability
to use Skype or Tango to make video
conference calls was certainly useful.
What really opened my eyes were all
the apps out there that could be used
for engineering, property management
and general real estate industry needs.
So I thought I would share some of
the apps I have used or come across
that could be used in the condominium and homeowners association
world. Of course, an entire magazine
could be devoted to the subject, as
property management and real estate
software has developed to generate a
new approach to providing important
information to its users even when
outside the office. But this article will
focus on the more personal use of apps
in the management of condos, keeping
in mind that for each app I mention
there may be many apps of a similar
nature, and each individual needs to
determine which works best for themselves, their client and/or co-workers
and the type of smartphone they have.

CONDO MEDIA • FEBRUARY 2013

I am on the road a lot and it is very
handy to not miss important meetings
by using an app such as
GoToMeeting. The smartphone is
also very useful to minimize the
amount of equipment and tools I carry
around. As an example, I always had a
four-foot level in my truck, should I
ever need to determine the plumbness
of a wall or the levelness of a floor.
Now I use Plumb with its plumb bob
app, whose graphic measures tenths of
a degree in the X and Y axis. Or I use
the Handy Level or Angle apps to
determine the steepness of a roof or
slope of a drainpipe in degrees.
We all use the camera features on our
phones, but it can now be used for
making more than just pretty pictures.
Try the My Measures app for an extra
feature. With this app, you can not
only take a photograph of a room, but
the dimensions of the room can be
placed on the photograph with notation and the app will calculate the
square footage of the walls, floor and
ceiling. It will even determine the volume of the room. And then you can
email this to your office computer to
be put into your files for other uses.
This brings up an important aspect
of how to move data around usefully.
Often we have large documents such
as building drawings, contracts,
bylaws, etc. that will not fit in a normal email attachment, much less be
able to carry around with us on the
job site. Use the Dropbox app. Once
you set up a Dropbox account you
can load large data files from any of
your devices or your presentation
apps, such as Keynote or Prezi, and
then provide your client or co-workers an access code to review these files
on their own computer or phone.

To capture information for future
use such as photographs, audio notes,
magazine articles, etc., try the
Evernote app. This app can be used
with Jot Agent and the LiveScribe
pen to record both script and audio
from your field observations and save
to Evernote or Dropbox. Also, when
you need to copy a document in the
field, use My Scan to turn your
phone into a copy machine.
For those property managers who
need to organize their field work for
rental or other kinds of unit inspections, try the SnapInspect app. With
this app you can create portfolio files
of all your properties, with unit owners’ addresses, phone numbers,
emails, alarm codes and map locations
for route planning. This allows you to
list unit rooms, components, conditions, etc. for future use and syncing
to your office computer.
To communicate with your team try
the Voxer app turning your phone into
a walkie-talkie. And if you are having a
hard time communicating with the
German janitor at your newest property
try Itranslate or Dragon apps. I particularly like the Dragon dictation feature
which not only allows you to dictate
into the phone and see your words on
the screen, but you can also edit your
words like a word document and email
it to your office for incorporation into a
report. You can even ask it to translate
your words into German and show the
written German words to the janitor to
let you into the building. CM
Jack Carr, P.E., RS, LEED-AP, is
senior vice president with CriteriumEngineers in Portland, Maine. He is a
member of the Condo Media board
and a frequent author and speaker.

Condo Media - February 2013

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