10 Great uses for the non-essential iPad

I may have to start another blog so that I don’t have to pollute the real estate weenie with actual information presented without snark.  My apologies to both of my readers who come here now and then to read the blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.

Joel Burslem wrote an article on the 1000 watt blog about the 10 essential iPad apps for real estate professionals.   Now we all know that the iPad itself is not essential for anyone and he made some interesting choices.  As a Realtor myself, who is a real estate professional most of the time I would like to share some apps that I consider essential for working with clients if I am using my iPad.

1. Keynote – Joel and I both agree on that one.  My listing presentation and some informational presentations are now in keynote so I can show them when I am out and about.
2. Realtor.com – it is location based and shows all of the local listings.  When a home buyer points I can find it fast and show the buyer some details.
3. Safari – Safari is just the standard web browser that comes with the ipad but I have a link to our MLS, the county tax records and the city property permit records.  Information from all three can be very useful while showing houses.
4. My Local – a free location based app that shows what is nearby.  (One of the many reasons I held out for the 3G iPad)
5. Walkscore – a free location based map that shows how walkable an area is and what is nearby. 
6. Urban spoon – it helps me promote the wonderful local restaurants and give buyers, especially out of town buyers, a more in depth look at the culinary opportunities in St. Paul, not to mention the many small independently owned coffee shops.
7. Drop box – drop box allows me to store documents in the cloud and I can assess them from any computer or from my ipad.  I guess it is more for me than for my clients it keeps me organized and I have everything I need when I meet with clients without having to search for it.
8. PaperDesk – a note taking application.  I can set up as many notebooks as I want and they can be drawn on so I can quickly draw the foundation of a house and note my measurements.  I can keep a separate notebook for each client.  When the gig is up I can store a copy of the notebook in the client’s electronic file on my PC.  I have other notebooks, one is for ideas for my real estate blog and others are places where I can keep to-do lists.  My camera has it’s own notebook with places to shoot and ideas for photography.
9. Jumbo calculator – a free app.  It is a calculator that takes up the whole screen.  I always hand my buyers or sellers their own calculator when I am working with numbers and we are always working with numbers.  I have one on my phone too but this one is more fun.
10. Mortgage calculator – another free app.  Clean, simple and easy to use.  I use it with both buyers and sellers. 

While the iPad is not essential and I still can’t write a real estate contract on it, take a picture or even write a blog post on it I can show them things like never before on that big beautiful screen.  It may not multitask but it is instantly on and it takes seconds to go from one thing to another.  The rest of the apps I have are more for personal enjoyment, creating child like drawings or for keeping up with social networks or the news. I have been know to watch movies and listen to music on it too but not at the same time.

There are probably a hundred more apps I could use and it is likely that there are other apps in each category that would serve me as well.  I test apps and choose the apps that work best for me.  I don’t think the iPad will ever become the tool that does it all.  I like to see what it does best and exploit it rather then try to figure out how to use it for everything.

Any of these apps can be easily found in the app store and most are free.