Technology is the word of the century, and embracing it is a must for any real estate professional looking to grow and expand.
As a real estate professional, I have used a wide range of tools – apps, widgets, and plugins galore – to both make my job easier and make the process more attractive and convenient for my customers. I use them for my own professional use, but also make them available for visitors to my websites to play with and utilize in the search for the perfect home. The advent of the foreclosure market has made these e-gadgets particularly useful.
If you want to do the same for your customer base, you can use the five best tools to use when working with foreclosures for your own real estate blog or website.
1. dsIDXpress IDX Plugin for WordPress
Many real estate pros use WordPress to run either their website or blog (or both). It is incredibly customizable and can support nifty plugins like the IDX plugin provided by dsIDXpress.
This tool can be added to your WordPress and basically allows you to embed live listings from your MLS into your blog quickly and easily. It uses WP shortcodes to place live data and property information into your posts and sidebar of your blog/site for your audience’s viewing pleasure, with fully customizable options showing what you want to reveal.
2. Mortgage Rate Widgets
I’ve found that many prospective clients love tracking mortgage rates, often checking them daily online. I’ve also found that seeing the ultra-low interest rates on a daily basis reinforces the drive to buy and invest – which is nothing but good news for Realtors! Mortgage rate widgets, then, are very useful and can even help move your audience one step closer to a buying decision.
3. FastFigures App
Do you hate math, yet need a way to quickly and easily present figures and amounts to your clients? If so, the FastFigures app by Infinity Softworks could be your lifesaver. You can use templates already created to quickly calculate mortgage costs, monthly payments, and even the time value of money for real estate entrepreneurs.
4. Recently Added Properties Widget
Now this widget is a very attractive tool for your readers! Prospective buyers want the latest, up-to-date listing information available on the market today. That is why I always recommend a widget that displays the most recently-added properties on the market in a given area. Several major online listing databases offer these widgets for free.
Buyers who particularly enjoy this type of widget usually, in my experience, tend to be investors who want to get a jump on other buyers in a market and find out more about the latest additions to an area.
5. Mortgage Loan Calculator
Finally, a great tool to have (and one that perfectly complements the mortgage rate widget above) is the Mortgage Loan Calculator widget that fits in a WordPress website. This slick widget offers your customers an attractive and fully-functional mortgage loan calculator that tells your customers all they need to know about the overall cost of a home loan – complete with nice amortization schedules and charts.
As you can see, there is a wide variety of handy techie tools available online to spruce up your real estate blog or website and make life easier for your viewers. The great thing about these apps, widgets, and plugins is that Realtors themselves can also benefit enormously. If you want to not only keep your readers coming back for more, but also help persuade them to enter into a mutually-beneficial relationship with you, use this technology every chance you get. Add these simple yet powerful tools to your toolbox today and help your real estate business grow.
