We previewed House Hunter back in August on Tech Savvy Agent and received some great feedback about the app.  However, we heard over and over again that agents wished they could have a branded version of the app.  Jay at Crea8tive Apps took that feedback and ran with it!

Introducing House Hunter MA!  Watch the video and let me know what you think!

Give it out to unlimited prospects and keep your branding front and center as well as the lines of communication open between you and your prospects.

Are you implementing video in your business and using your iPhone or iPad? Have you noticed the audio is absolutely terrible those devices? Want an inexpensive fix that won’t be cumbersome to take with you everywhere? The Brando Mini Capsule Mic is your answer!

Our buddy Mark from HDHat gets to play with a ton of video related products and we trust his opinion. Here he is giving us a review of this nifty little tool that you might want to scoop up for the holidays!

Do you want the inside info to Top Producer’s new mobile application?  Do you want to see if it will easily fit into your lifestyle and daily activities? Want to see what’s missing from the application and learn what’s coming down the pipeline?  I helped in the development of this product when it was just an idea and can give you an insiders view of this cutting edge app that you won’t get anywhere else.

Am I biased, yup. Is it perfect, nope. Do I love it, absolutely. It is a giant step in the right direction in the creation of something special and unique.

This ain’t yo Momma’s Top Producer!

So… Google Calendars Set, I went on a journey of discovery to figure out how I could get my Google Calendars (all of them) to sync with my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro, all with out the help of anything like MobileMe. (I am not a huge MobileMe fan but thats a blog post for a different day)

Step One: Relieving all of your devices of their native calendars.  In order to have everything play nicely together you must pick one platform…Google Calendars it is.  I am a huge fan of Google’s calendar capabilities anyway so this wasn’t too big of a jump for me.  Once you make sure all of your data is migrated onto a Google Calendar (herein referred to as gCal) you are ready to start.  (Note: it is much easier to create several calendars for types of events rather than trying to squeeze everything onto one)

Step Two: Go into the Mail, Contacts, and Calendars settings on your mobile devices.  Make sure to turn off other calendars if you plan to use a gCal for everything. Once that is complete, delete your gmail account from your phone and iPad.  (I know this sounds scary, but dont worry, everything is backed up online)

Step Three: Go to m.google.com/sync on your computer and follow the directions on setting up Gmail using Google Sync. This may take some time, however the directions are super easy to follow. Essentially, you are creating an exchange account for Gmail.   (Hint: When setting up the Google Sync your phone and iPad will more than likely name this account Exchange. If you are super picky how things appear on your phone like I am, make sure to change this to Gmail.)

Step Four: Go to m.google.com/sync on your mobile device. You will be prompted to login using your Google sign in.  From here select the device you are working on.  You will be presented with a list of all of the calendars you own and have access to in your gCal account. Simply select the ones you would like to work with on your device, and just like magic they will appear.

Step Five: Open iCal.  Go to preference and delete your previous gmail account and set up a new gCal using CalDav. Once you have the account set up, click the third tab in the preferences named “Delegation”.  If you have this account properly set up you will see all of the available calendars. Select all of the gCal’s you would like to manage and have synced with your other mobile devices.

COMPLETE!

Make sure to run a few tests and check when adding new calendar entries that they update across all of your devices.  The easiest way to do this is to create a new event in iCal, check and amend it on your iPhone, and finally delete it on your iPad.  Then log in to your gCal online and make sure its gone.  Make sure to check the update/sync times on your devices.  I originally thought I had messed up, however I had the auto-refresh times set to long and as such didn’t get the updates immediately.  This is easily changed in the preferences.

Finally: Enjoy knowing when and where you need to be.  No matter what device you happen to be in front of, you can schedule your time away and know you will have total access when ever and where ever.

Guest Post by Greg Grospitch @greggrospitch.

Note: I originally wrote this post for my other blog, but I wanted to repost on TSA. I hope it makes your life a little bit easier!

HOUSE HUNTER

There are so many variables in comparing homes and House Hunter is a tool to help simplify the home selection process.

Sometimes your client’s can carry a lot of emotion into the home buying process and forget about what’s really important to them. That’s where House Hunter comes in with it’s weighted scoring system. First, your client will set the importance of each aspect of their dream home. If they would really like a nice finished basement. Set that to a 9. Also a large backyard, but maybe it’s not as crucial? Set that to a 6. After they are finished setting up their base scoring system, they are ready to go!

The app does the rest calculating the scores of each home based on the customized rating system that they set up according to their needs/wants. Now if a home does not have a basement or perhaps it’s a little subpar, that will weigh heavily against it! The app also allows your clients to take photos and store them into the record of that home with it’s score. Your client is then presented with a numerical value of each home to help them with their final decision! Cool!

House Hunter is available from Apple’s app store for $3.99. The app will be on sale August 5th, 6th and 7th 2011 ($2.99) for our Tech Savvy readers. This might be a great app to “gift” to a client or download yourself.

GREATSCHOOLS

Another app I want to tell you about is GreatSchools. It’s also going to come in handy for the average real estate consumer. Talking about neighborhoods and schools are really no-no’s as a real estate agent, so why not encourage them to find the school information on their own using a intuitive application? Here is a quick overview of the features.

• Search the latest school information for more than 125,000 K-12 schools in the U.S., including public, public charter, and private schools.
• Map and compare schools for any city, based on your current location.
• Filter schools by public or private, grade level, distance, GreatSchools Rating, Community Rating or, enrollment size.
• Browse parent reviews, recent test scores, and district info.
• Save schools to your personal list of favorites for quick retrieval later.

GreatSchools is absolutely free to download, so make sure you tell all of your clients about it!

HOUZZ

I just learned about the Houzz iPad app at Agent Reboot and it is amazing for a potential home buyer or home owner. It makes finding and organizing ideas for your home simple and dare I say, fun. My wife and I played with this app all night the first day we got it and have really enjoyed “clipping” all of our favorite ideas for our home.

Rather than looking through magazines for design ideas, Houzz has the most comprehensive database of home photos anywhere. Want to search for patio design ideas? The Houzz iPad app makes it simple by allowing you to type in your search and even an area of the country you would like to search for ideas in and then shows you (most likely) hundreds of photos. Like what you see? Tap on the button and you are linked right over to the designers website to get more information. The coolest part is that it makes an Ideabook, for your home, where all of your “clippings” are kept to keep your wish list in order. I already feel broke

If you don’t have an iPad, the Houzz website is pretty cool too and allows you to do similar things, all you need is a free account. Check out this video of all the features on the iPad app.

About Stephen Pacinelli