8 productivity boosting tools for real estate agents

Agents are masters of multi tasking, prioritising and wearing a number of different hats to run their business smoothly. However, at busier and more stressful times of year sometimes for even the most successful agents the to-do lists, emails, voicemails and paperwork can start to pile up.

So, we’ve put together a short list of eight of the best tools to get onto, if you’re not already, to boost productivity and increase your organisation at work.

LastPass

Do you ever lose track of or mix up your passwords? If you do, LastPass is here to help. Once set up it securely stores all your passwords in one convenient location where you can automatically log in to any site you’ve saved at the click of the mouse. You’ll never have to reset and remember multiple passwords or enter your login details over and over again when switching between different devices. Set LastPass to your homepage or favourites menu and you’re good to go. From today, there’s only one password you need to remember, the master password to your LastPass account!

Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking app that conveniently syncs your notes across all your devices, so you’ll never lose track of a to-do list or notes from meetings with clients again. You can also upload images from your computer or phone, record voice memos and make the content of PDF files searchable, so you can easily take snaps of property features clients don’t like during a walkthrough and refer back to them and alongside your notes later.

Google Apps for Work

What a lot of people don’t realise is that Google Apps provides its users with a whole suite of online tools for working collaboratively, to store information and communicating more effectively. Google Apps for Work gives you the ability to store, access and share different types of documents instantly from the cloud, share calendars with colleagues and even hold video meetings with Goggle Hangouts. Think of the time you’ll save by switching from offline programs like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word emailing draft files back and forth to clients and colleagues, to Google docs, slides and sheets, where you can work collaboratively on files at the same time and easily review changes.

Trello

Trello is a project management tool for individual or collaborative projects that uses a virtual bulletin board format. If you’re a big list maker and a visual learner Trello will become your new best friend. Using to-do cards on different boards users can add comments to each project, upload files, make checklists, assign team members to tasks, be notified of changes and set due dates. 

Use Trello to track your progress on personal projects, your social media strategy, marketing plans and follow ups with different clients or to collaborate and communicate with buyers and sellers. The program is also a great motivator as you can get satisfaction from clearly tracking everything you’ve achieved that day, week or month and so on, and importantly see what still needs to be done.

Slack

Slack is an internal messaging tool that streamlines interoffice communication. It reduces the need for lengthy email threads, text messages, meetings and even face-to-face desk side discussions, giving you more time to focus on getting the important things done. You can access it anytime anywhere, with compatibility for mobile, desktop apps and the web. 

The great thing about Slack is that it archives all your team messages, shared documents and private discussions into the one searchable platform. Best of all, you can also integrate services you already use (such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Drive and Trello) into Slack, giving you notifications and updates from them, putting all your internal and external communication in one convenient place.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a great social media management and scheduling tool for time poor agents. You can manage, compose and schedule posts for all your different business social sites (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, WordPress, Foursquare and LinkedIn) all in the one dashboard. You no longer have to waste time manually updating all your social media accounts throughout each day. Boost your productivity by setting aside an hour or two weekly to write and schedule all your updates for the coming week. It has an easy to use all-in-one tab interface where you can monitor your posts, scheduled posts, mentions, messages and more by adding in different streams.

Boomerang

Similar to Hootsuite but with emails, Boomerang for Gmail saves you time by allowing you to draft and schedule emails to be sent at the perfect time. There’s also a great reminder tool that lets you know if you haven’t heard back from a particular client or contact. It also can remind you to make sure you follow up again within a specific time frame, so no messages or hot leads slip through the cracks.

Snapseed

This is the app you need for all those listing photos you take on the go, and you don’t have time to go back to the office and crop and edit them on your computer before uploading them to your website. Snapseed allows you to easily edit photos from your iPhone or Android device and export them as high res images within minutes.

These handy tools will help to increase your organisation skills and time efficiency throughout your working day. For more time saving tech, check out these seven handy apps for agents. What other productivity boosting tools do you find useful? Please let us know in the comments below.