Free Online Tools to Increase Productivity

Jun22
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Free Online Tools to Increase Productivity

I would like to give a very special thank you to Leslie Kilpatrick and her team at Willis Allen Real Estate in Coronado for inviting me to speak to her office this past Wednesday for their ongoing seminars to educate and share information. Today’s presentation was much different than some of my previous presentations at the Realtor Caravans which I attend each week. Rather than focusing on becoming everyone’s preferred mortgage lender, I was there to deliver a presentation on Free Online Tools to Increase Productivity, that our team currently utilizes.

Here is a little recap of the tools I spoke about and these tools are beneficial for business.

Google Voice

Google Voice allows anyone with a Google account to set up one number that can forward to one or multiple phones. It kills me when I get someone’s business card and they have their direct number, their cell number ,home number, 800 number, cat’s phone number all on their card – which one should I call? Wouldn’t it be easier if you had one phone number that forwarded to all those phones?

A few other features included with Google voice worth mentioning:

  • Voicemail transcription
  • Personalized greeting for callers – Allows you to set up different voicemail for different callers. For example, you can set up one greeting for your boss, and another greeting for your wife, and yet another greeting for your buddies.
  • Screen phone calls – Remember the days of the answering machine, where you could listen to a caller leaving a message and pick up the phone if you wanted to? Ever since people started to use cell phones, we lost this simple luxury. Google has brought it back and it is possible to listen to your voicemail and cut into the call if you feel like taking it.
  • Unlimited text messages, with the capability to send text messages directly from your PC
  • Conference call capability

Google Apps

While Google Voice is a part of Google Apps, I find it to be so useful and take advantage of its features that I like to focus a little deeper on that one. However, Google Apps is one of the greatest cloud based online collaboration tools available anywhere. Here are a few tools available free of charge from Google that can make your life a little easier:

GMail

The majority of people these days are using gmail, and if you’re not, consider this recent study, Gmail users consume less electricity than Yahoo! Mail users. But I digress; Gmail is a simple email program with what seems like unlimited storage. Google Apps for Business Gmail users are allotted 25 GB of space – plenty of storage for business use. One of my favorite features of Gmail is the search capability as well. And, if you’re an Outlook user, you can read all your gmail in Outlook but also access your email anywhere you go.

Calendar

Google’s Calendar feature is a great online calendar that is accessible from anywhere. In a business setting, Google Calendar gives members of the same organization access to each other’s calendars. Administrators can set the permissions for each user to allow view access or grant permission to modify others’ calendars. One of the most useful features is the appointment suggestion tool. The Calendar will suggest times where all meeting attendees are available which can save time searching for an available appointment slot.

Drive

Drive is the newest addition to the Google Apps family. Drive is Google’s answer to Dropbox. Both are online storage drives that give the user the ability to store files in the cloud. One of Drive’s greatest features is the ability to open and read files on the user’s PC regardless if the user has the software to read the file on their PC.

WordPress

http://wordpress.com | http://www.wordpress.org

Simply put, WordPress is the most popular and user friendly content management system. As a matter of fact, 16 percent of the web is powered by WordPress. Most people think abo0ut blogging when they think about WordPress, when in fact, a lot of people use it as their main website. WordPress gives the user the ability to choose from hundreds of free themes and also some templates with more pizzazz for a premium. One of the more popular features in WordPress is the plugins. Plugins are tools for WordPress sites that give the user the ability to add different functionality to their site, such as SEO tools, email subscription tools, and many other features.

There are two types of WordPress sites: WordPress hosted sites (available at WordPress.com) or self hosted websites (available at WordPress.org). The main difference is the flexibility in the self hosted sites and search engine benefits. Additionally, self hosted sites give the user the ability to use more custom themes and utilize the plugins. With a self hosted site, the user must have a little knowledge of FTP, and pay for their web hosting.

There are tons of tools out there that can help increase productivity, and these are a few free/low cost tools that are readily available. With a little time to set these programs up, these will help streamline your business.

Bidding Wars and Shadow Inventory

Jun08
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Prices remain steadily low, rates have been at unseen lows lately – it’s a buyer’s market these days. You would think this is great news for buyers, rather than the stressful sentiment my clients and I have been feeling. We’re now seeing a series of bidding wars. With the inventory over 20 percent less during the first quarter than last year and prices that seem too good to be true, demand is high, resulting in many properties getting multiple offers and counter-offers. Don’t be fooled, this lack of inventory is not expected to last very long and the market crisis isn’t over quite yet.

In a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, Walter Molony, a public affairs officer at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) stated shadow inventory (homes about to go into foreclosure) “is projected at 2.1 million, down from 2.5 million two years ago.” Others disagree and think this projection is low. In the same article, Roger Staiger, an adjunct faculty member of the John Hopkins Carey Business School predicts that the number is closer to “3 million homes close to foreclosure or in distress, meaning owners are 90 days delinquent on payments.”

However, banks are holding on to these properties, not just putting them back on the market. This is creating a surge in home values. By holding back inventory, homes are receiving multiple bids causing home prices to rise, creating a perception of an active market. To me, this is a smokescreen. Banks are controlling market trends. At the same they have to keep spending money to maintain these vacant properties. Pretty soon the banks are going to have to open the gates and let more homes reach the market. What will happen when the banks release the rest of the inventory? When these 2-3 million homes hit the market, the bidding wars will come to an end. Naturally with a flood of inventory on the market, prices will decline again. Will we have an encore presentation of the same problems we had before – buyers going underwater and more foreclosures? We will find out as soon as banks start loosening up and shedding some of their aging properties.

HARP Refinances Surging – Are You Eligible?

Jun04
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Friday that HARP Refinances have surged in the first quarter, helping more underwater borrowers. This is great news for everyone, especially with rates as low as they have been this past week.

We are swimming in refi’s right now and due to HARP 2.0 and the new rules, more people are eligible than ever before. A lot of condo owners that I couldn’t help last year are now eligible to refinance their loans, especially those that are upside down. For example, I worked with a condo owner that was 75% upside down and we were able to refinance their loan.

So, bottom line – it’s worth talking again. These rule changes are making a lot of “no’s” into “yes’s.” With so many people taking advantage of these low rates, expect a little longer for the transaction to take place – it used to be around 30 days, now be ready for 45 days, but as always, we deliver.

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