Blackberries Help Real Estate Agents on the Move

When technological advances combine with the mortgage world, real estate agents have a chance to simplify and organize their occupations. First, it was podcasting. Now, it’s the use of Blackberries.

Gayle Brandt is a Las Vegas Realtor who no longer has to worry about getting caught outside the office without her files. She has the escrow numbers, names of escrow officers and closing dates for all her properties stored on her Blackberry device.

“You can’t have all that information in your head and you can’t carry it all around in your car,” said Brandt, a Blackberry owner for almost two years. “This way, if I have to have some information quick and I don’t have my files with me, I can access it right away.”

Real estate agents are depending more and more on mobile technology. Thanks to these devices, agents can:

• Take and make phone calls on the run
• Respond to leads while they’re out in the field
• Pull up home listings data while driving clients around
• Store reams of information, such as names of escrow officers and other contacts, among other things.

Brandt also stores the serial numbers, shackle codes to her 15 key boxes and clients’ names and information on her Blackberry.

While Blackberries have been around for a while, Brandt’s approach is unique. Most commonly, the mobile device, which has a small keyboard that replicates that of a PC, is used for sending leads to agents in the field. More and more, however, it’s now also being used to stay in close touch with clients.

Brandt isn’t the only Realtor who takes advantage of her Blackberry for this purpose. Eric Stewart, who works with Llewellyn Realtors in Rockville, Md., and has been a realtor for 18 years, has more than 770 addresses and names stored on his device.

“The address capacity is phenomenal,” said Stewart, who also hosts a radio show, Pointing You Home, on 630 WMEL on Sundays.

As far as learning the Blackberry, Stewart acknowledged, “there is a learning curve.” He said at first the obstacle was “learning how to do symbols, how to capitalize names. With Blackberry, you don’t delete or shift in the same way.” Once he “got” the system, though, Stewart said it was useful.

Stewart also uses the system for listings.

“When I go on a listing appointment, instead of taking the notes with handwriting, I tell the client I am using this device,” he said. “I take notes for the fact sheet, then copy the notes, paste them into an e-mail and shoot the information for the fact sheet to my staff using the Blackberry.”

Due to how spread out The Sunshine State is, these devices certainly come in handy for Florida home loan brokers that can’t spend too much time in the office. Now they can meet clients across the state and never be without vital information to close a deal.