Click here to view the embedded video.

I highly encourage you to watch the 20 minute video embedded above before reading the rest of this post, but of course you can keep right on reading if you wish…

There are two primary predictions made by Colony — one I completely agree with (emergence of “post social”) and the other (end of the web) I happen to slightly disagree with.

First, let’s discuss the end of the web. I certainly understand mobile and tablets are growing like wildfire, and agree “apps” are starting to consume an increasing amount of people’s time. That said, I don’t believe the web as we know it is on the way out. Not by a long shot. Last I checked, tablets and smart phones have web browsers that are heavily used. A massive chunk of “app” time is with Facebook, Twitter, and games (please don’t get me started on what a gigantic waste of time games on your mobile devices are). Most websites never reach the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, so it seems a stretch that people will go through the process of downloading and installing an app for a site that is not a mainstay in their daily life. I think games on portable devices are largely taking time away from traditional video game consoles like Xbox and PS3 rather than time that would otherwise have been spent on the web.

But IF — and that’s a BIG IF — the web is on its way out? Then search and SEO is going to make a radical change. It means agents need to rapidly figure out how to appear up high on the list for searches such as “Seattle Real Estate” from within the Apple app search. From within Facebook’s search. From within Android’s app marketplace. From within Amazon Fire. You get the picture. We tried this walled garden approach…it was called AOL. Look how that turned out for them. But, luckily for all of us, I don’t think the extreme view that “the web as we know it is going away” will become a reality.

Second, the emergence of “post social”. Social cannot continue at its current pace. Why? There are only so many hours in the day to spend online being social — at some point we need to actually accomplish something in our day rather than scroll through endless photos of our friend’s kids on Facebook or browse the latest web 2.0 or celebrity gossip on Twitter. We are already spending more time on social sites like Facebook than just about anything else (some people practically live on Facebook), But that’s not going to stop others from trying to get us to adopt and utilize the latest and greatest new social site. The problem is there simply isn’t more time in the day for me to spend another 2 hours on “social site X or Y”. Facebook and Twitter are all I can keep up with  – I don’t even get to Google Plus (remember, you need to focus to succeed with social media) as it is. We’re going to move to a point where a site needs to add real value or it will fall off the radar almost instantaneously. If a website doesn’t help me solve a real life problem I am encountering? I don’t have time to screw around with it. In my mind, there are too many “features”, and not enough “products”.

What does post social mean for agents and brokers? Really, this is not rocket science. It means you need to add value to others lives’ with your time. It means less automation and less crap. It means you need to focus on strengthening real, true relationships. It means more followers, more friends, more likes, more +1′s are not necessarily better — since reach doesn’t guarantee listeners.

Not unlike how it now takes “real” work to sell a home (no longer can you just put a home on the MLS and sell it in a week like you could in 2000). Post social means real work to stand out online. If you can’t handle that? You’ll be lost in the noise.

What do you think? Is the end of the web near? What does “post social” mean to you?

You only need to understand one principal to direct your QR strategy.  Your end-user, or lead, is using a mobile device.  It is paramount the content you deliver, be mobile format friendly.  Relevancy is a nice bonus.

For many agents, this means a single property website solution offered by an online vendor.  A simple, mobile-friendly landing page with property photos, description and contact information.

If you’re a dsSearchAgent Mobile customer, you’ll be leaving those agents in the dust, starting today.

I’m going to show you how to use QR codes to link people to specific sections of your dsSearchAgent Mobile interface:

• Individual, Specific Detailed Property Listings
• Nearby Open Houses
• Property Search
• Featured Listings
• Contact Form
• & Every Other Section!

Then, I’m going to give you some specific examples of how to use these QR codes in your marketplace and become that rock star that we talked about earlier.

While your competitors are serving up their static, mini landing page solutions, you’ll be delivering 100% relevant, requested content in a fully interactive, mobile interface, loaded with lead capture routines.  Sounds exciting, right?

For my examples below, I’m using Nashville mega-agent Stephanie Crawford’s mobile interface.  I’ll also be using Google Chrome, and you should too. The direct link to Stephanie’s mobile interface demo, is http://app.dsmobileidx.com/demo/4439/99

To start, we need to visit your mobile application in Chrome or Safari.  When you load the site, you’ll automatically be directed to a demo of your mobile interface (figure 1).

The demo interface loads your site within a frameset.  By navigating to our desired content within the demo (page or individual listing), and viewing the source code of the frame, we can determine the unique URL of the page.

It is this URL that we need to capture, and use for our QR code.

Within the demo interface, navigate to the individual listing or site section for which you wish to create a QR code.  Find an area on the page that is void of text or graphics (figure 2, 3, 4 & 5). The RED dot illustrates a safe area on the screen to view the frame source.

Using your mouse, right-click this section and select ‘View Frame Source’ from options presented (figure 6). If you’re using a Mac and don’t have right-click enabled, click here for step-by-step instructions to enable.

Copy the URL from the browser window (figure 7) and use this to generate your QR code.  That’s all there is to it.  When scanned with a mobile device, the end-user will be properly directed into specific section of your mobile app from where you obtained the URL. Note: Navigating to this URL in Chrome or Safari will redirect you to the main, dsMobileSearch Agent demo screen. You will only be directed to the proper section of your website when accessing the URL on a mobile device.

Figure 7

Here’s the finished output, these QR codes will take you to specific sections of Stephanie’s site when scanned via your mobile device

There are a few ideas that come to mind right away.  For starters, no listing of mine would hit the market absent of a sign rider with DSMobile QR code that links to the individual listing.  I’d seriously consider adding a DSMobile QR code to my open house directional signs that when scanned, shows all of the open houses in the immediate area.

How do you plan to use QR codes with your dsSearchAgent Mobile interface?

My good friends over at Diverse Solutions released a brand new site design about a week ago (I’m been behind with this blog post). Having just recently gone through our own site redesign for Virtual Results, I know full well the amount of work that goes into redesigning your own corporate site — and a lot of that work is content. Their new site is full of a bunch of fantastic content about their 4 core products – dsSearchAgent, dsIDXpress, dsAgentReach, and dsSearchAgent Mobile (part of dsSearchAgent). I’m thinking Ricardo was pretty busy for awhile pulling this all together

The big news is that their new dsSearchAgent Mobile product (which I blogged about a few months ago) came out of BETA. I’d encourage you to go try their demo; it’s a really slick interface for mobile visitors to your website that they put hundreds of hours of time into building. Have questions? Leave them here in the comments, or you can speak to the staff at Diverse directly.

I’d wager a bet it’s just about everyday.

The team at 1000watt Consulting has a new app going into BETA to help share your knowledge related to that question in the digital world – Howsthemarket.com (great domain BTW).

I’m interesting to see how this and Altos Research, whose focus is also answering the “how’s the market” question, compliment — or not compliment — each other. I’m guessing this won’t be a conflict at all, as I expect this 1000watt beta is going to be very social — and likely include some sort of video component. I don’t expect the howsthemarket.com app from 1000watt to be data heavy. But I could be wrong.

Go sign up for the BETA at howsthemarket.com. First come, first serve.

For more reading, check out FoREM’s post.

Diverse Solutions is excited to announce our new mobile IDX solution!  Combining the search and lead capture features of our IDX products into a portable interface, dsSearchAgent Mobile is a fast and easy IDX you and your buyers will love.

Developed for use on smart phones, our mobile IDX offers the search power and flexibility of a full IDX solution in a compact size built for everyone.

dsSearchAgent Mobile lets buyers see nearby properties and open houses, perform searches, and view favorites in the palm of their hand – and their questions and contact info go straight to you.

Searches, favorite listings and other user data automatically syncs with dsSearchAgent Pro, making it easy to view your listings at your computer or on the go.  Offering the performance of our desktop IDX search in a portable size, dsSearchAgent Mobile is unlike anything you or your buyers have seen before.

We’re wrapping up our internal BETA testing on dsSearchAgent Mobile and are just about ready to have some clients try it out.  To be included in our BETA test program and be one of the first to try out dsSearchAgent Mobile, sign up to be on our BETA mailing list.

If you want to be in the beta group, sign up for their mailing list here. NOTE: You have to be a current Diverse Solutions client to participate in the BETA test.

Coming from the team at Diverse Solutions and being good friends with the lead developer of this product, I know it’s going to be an amazing product.

Stay tuned for more details.

QR Codes:

The biggest new trend in mobile marketing is Quick Response Codes, or QR Codes for short. These square barcodes can be scanned by a mobile device and display a website or video on the scanner’s device. QR Codes work best as a way to provide additional information to prospective buyers. They work well on property signs, sales literature you pass out as well as on your business cards. Let’s take a look at some of the dos and don’ts for QR Codes, as well as the steps necessary to get started using these.

The hardest part of using QR Codes is deciding how to generate one. There are two main options, each has it’s tradeoffs that we’ll cover here. QR Codes can be generated for free (a google search for free qr code generator shows many fine choices, bit.ly offers QR Code generation along with URL shortening and is an ideal choice for free QR Codes). The process for free QR Codes is fairy easy, you enter the web address of a mobile friendly page containing the information you’d like to display, and the program generates a QR Code for your site. You save the image file and use it wherever you’d like. The downside is that the code is always linked to that specific page. This technique isn’t recommended for places where the linked information will need to be changed (like property signs). The free methods also require you to have your own mobile friendly page.

Paid QR Code alternatives generally offer more flexibility. You can reuse a QR Code, and change where it points to, or change the content of the mobile page. Some of these paid versions allow you to easily create a mobile friendly webpage (without requiring you to be a web developer). The paid versions generally also offer an easy way to track how many people are scanning your codes.

The choice comes down to free but limited or paid and flexible. You’ll ultimately need to weigh the pros and cons for each method and decide which works best for your needs. There isn’t one “right” solution. We’ll take a look at some of the potential use cases for QR Codes next, so you can make a better, more informed decision.

Property Signs:

This is a good first place to start with QR Codes. The code can point to a mobile website with additional information about the property. Adding options to share the information via email (this is included on several of the paid QR Code generators) and a contact form to collect prospective buyers contact information are great options to include. Including images of the house, or a property walk through video can be effective as well. Walk through videos don’t need to be fancy. Many Real Estate professionals find it easy enough to shoot video on their cell phone or an inexpensive Flip cam. These codes allow you to provide additional property information to anyone who happens to pass by.

Business Cards:

QR Codes can be effective on business cards. These can direct scanners to a list of all your properties, your Facebook or LinkedIn page or a short video of you explaining what you do. There are a lot of possibilities, and it pays to be creative with it. Make sure to keep your audience in mind. Who do you give your cards to? What additional information would you like to make easily available to them?

Sales Literature:

You’re likely already passing out property information to people who visit your properties. This is a great place to add QR Codes to provide even more information. The code can point to a photo tour of the house or give them an easy way to share property info. In general, the use case here is very similar to how you’d use QR Codes for property signs. The key is to figure out what additional information would be valuable to prospective buyers and give them that. Different information works best for different property types. It pays to think through what information a prospective buyer wants. Put yourself in their shoes and use that insight to create an informative mobile page linked to a QR Code on your sales literature.

Conclusion:

These are a few of the easiest and most effective ways to get started with mobile marketing. QR Codes and the free and paid generators, make getting started easy. If you already have a mobile friendly website, you’re ahead of the game, and getting started is really easy. If you don’t have a mobile friendly website, a paid QR Code generator that helps you create a mobile site can get you up and running quickly.

Have you used QR Codes? Do you plan to? Where do you think they’d be most effective? Let me know in the comments below.

I know it is inevitable that I will be asked (perhaps 100′s of times) “What did you learn from Inman Connect SF this week”? or “What was the most interesting thing you learned at Inman Connect SF”? or some variation of that general question. In years past I may have made something up to illicit a response like “That’s Nice” or “Wow, that’s great!”, but NOT this year!

This year something very accidental, yet incredibly enlightening happened and it all began with me accidentally walking into the wrong “MeetUp”…

It was like a Bad episode of “Reality TV”

Wednesday at ICSF was jam packed! Stuff happening from the morning bell to the 5pm cocktail call. I was constantly looking at my playbook, trying to decide where I was going…What topic? What room? What subject? It was crazy! So right after lunch I knew I wanted to go to a “MeetUp” of Real Estate Tech Vendors in Continental Parlor #2, that started at 1:00pm. Now the MeetUps were not necessarily open to the public, though they were not marked “Private” or anything, but they were designed for the Vendors to congregate and talk amongst themselves regarding what they were experiencing in the market. This MeetUp was Facilitated by a friend of mine, Greg Robertson from W&R Studios (Cloud CMA), so I knew he would let me “Sit in” on it. After all, I am a Techy!

So off I went on my merry way at about 1:10pm, feverishly typing away at Twitter on my phone, into Continental Parlor #1 ( for those of you who have had your morning Starbucks you probably got it, but for those who have not…I said Parlor #1!). Now in Parlor #1, I was not sitting in on my intended MeetUp, Real Estate Tech Vendors, but instead I was “Transported” to some unknown geographical location somewhere in the 1950′s … It was titled “MLS Operators, Vendors, and Staff” DA DA DUMB! (Cue the music from the 1950′s classic TV show, Dragnet!)

“Son-of-a-bitch!” I thought, I gotta get outta here! but I couldn’t. Something was mysteriously keeping me from moving, it was as if I were paralyzed. The conversation was about the “Consumers” (Keep this meaningless term in mind, it will come up again) perception of our Industry. Specifically, at that moment, about how when they see Listing data in multiple sources (MLS, Trulia, Broker Sites, Agent Sites ect…) that is not the same (different price, Sold vs Active ect…) they say “How stupid is this?”

That’s when it got interesting ….

Think Hatfield’s & McCoy’s, Shark’s & Jet’s, Snoop Dawg & Puffy!

Ok, so I will be the 1st to admit, I have a limited knowledge of the inter-workings of the MLS’s. I am however a keen observer of human behavior, and the overall atmosphere in this room was … hmmmm … What’s the right word? Depressing? no Frustrating? no oh wait… I’ve got it! EMBARRASSING!

Though the Facilitator, Marilyn Wilson a Partner at WAV Group (@marilynwilson), did her best to mediate, like a Beverly Hills divorce case, this was no small task. Don’t get me wrong, there were no punches thrown, no “F” bombs were dropped, nothing uncivilized, Though two MLS operators (one who resembled that Scottish Guy from Austin Powers movies & one who looked a bit like Santa Claus in the off season, ya know, beard was trimmed dropped a few pounds, but the whole grey thing was working for him) felt it was an appropriate venue to make off-color remarks regarding their sex lives. Then there was the MLS guy (who looked a bit like a character from The Sopranos) who felt very comfortable stating that “Brokers are the REAL problem, they refuse to fire the 53% of their REALTORS (c) who are a bunch of Morons and haven’t done a single transaction in over a year” that was kinda weird, being it had seemingly nothing to do with the conversation…other than that…oh wait…

The reason we are headed for Government regulation of our Data

… The room also had a number of bright young minds, from Tech start-ups, some Exec’s from 3rd Party Aggregators, and a few representatives of the Broker/Agent community. These folks were asking for some cooporation in areas like:

• Sharing of Data in more Open fashion
• Involvement by the MLS’s in a Rating system for Agents/Brokers/Affiliates/Aggregators
• More “Open-Mindedness” to new Technologies & Ideas
• An Intranet for the MLS’s to communicate with each other about questionable Vendors
• A more “Open” forum for New Vendors to present ideas

Ya know, Stupid stuff like that!

Each and every time a bright young mind in the Vendor community, or a Consumer Advocate, or a Forward thinking Broker offered a suggestion (some of which, to me of course, were awesome) they were met with the same response from The MLS Boys…”Good Luck with That!” and then came the round of “Belly Laughs” (led by Scottish Guy, Santa, & Soprano Guy)…at first I was amused by them myself. then when I realized that they came from a deeply rooted “Arrogance”, rather than a playful sense of “Humor”, I was faced with the realization that our Industry was “doomed” to be regulated. No one, and I am convinced, No one will be able to get these two opposing sides (Old School & New School) to join together and bring our industry into the 21st century.

The “Straw” that broke the “Consumers” back

It was all made so incredibly clear by a comment from “Soprano Guy”, in response to the statement from Marilyn Wilson “it’s abundantly clear, from all the polls, that the Consumer overwhelmingly wants the Rating System”!

Soprano Guy then blurted out “Who”? “The Consumer”? “That’s not my Customer, The Brokers are my Customers. They pay my bills, not the Consumers”.

In Closing…

You never know what life has in store for you. One minute everything’s all “peaches & cream”. You’re minding your own business, happily “Tweeting” about that nights cocktail parties, or the crazy new Technologies you just heard some Geek talk about on stage and then …. BAM! … Your visions of your industry’s future are shattered by a room full of “Closed Minds”…though it was “riveting” and certainly more interesting than the “Meet The Leaders” segment downstairs, it was then and will forever be my most disappointing “Wrong Turn”

I don’t know how this gets fixed. I just know somebody with the “Schwag” to do it needs to get involved and fix it!

If not, Obama (or the next elected leader of our country) will!

Stay Blogging My Friends!

@TheRECoach

Primary Features (Check out Apple.com/ipad for more information):

• Safari Web Browser
• Mac Mail E-Mail
• Calendar (not i-cal but a very cool planner style calendar)
• Contacts (looks like a traditional contact book, nifty)
• Photos (very elegant way of handling photos and albums)
• iPod
• iTunes (interface is different than standard OSX)
• iBooks (new Apple bookstore. Can you say Ouch Amazon, Sony and B&N?)
• Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
• Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
• Weight:
• 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model
• 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

You can purchase an iPad starting at $499 for a Wi-Fi only model, or you can combine 3G and larger capacity models that run as high as $829. AT&T is offering data plans with no contract starting at $14,99 per month with free access to any AT&T wireless hotspot. The tablet is powered by custom silicon A4 chipset (aka proprietary). Apple touts 10 hour battery life, which in Apple battery hours is probably more like 4 or 5 (just my opinion).

The Ultimate Presentation Tool
Should real estate professionals rush out and by an iPad? The smart business professionals will. Apple has developed a mobile specific version of it’s popular iWork software suite. The suite includes Keynote for creating slide presentations, Pages for word processing and desktop publishing and Numbers for Spread Sheets. Listing presentations never looked so good and the learning curve for creating stunning documents using these tools will have you using your MS Office tools for the mundane business communication that everyone else does. Before you allow someone to tell you that your MLS won’t work on Safari, check it first, that’s usually a myth.

Stunning Visuals / Teeny Learning Curve
Presenting photos, videos, virtual tours and listing presentations take on a whole new dimension of quality with the iPad. There really isn’t much of a learning curve with a device like this and since most of the content real estate professionals present exist in the cloud, opening Safari or using a finger to flip through content is about all it takes. Apple has already taken that into consideration with accessories: a keyboard dock that holds the iPad upright and a nifty notebook style holder that flips over to hold the iPad at a presentation angle. If your video is in iTunes or an HD version on YouTube, you’ll be able to present it in all of it’s Hi Def, full screen glory.

This device and its interfaces were designed to look and be used like traditional tools. Just look at the appointment planner and address books. Otherwise it includes the tools that most people use computers for. E-Mail, web access, solitaire, facebook, twitter, foursquare, farmville, episodes of lost and the occasional romance novel. What else could a super busy professional ask for in a computer?

Looking Further Into The Future
Kidding aside. I think there exists the potential to use this device and the Apple developer platform to bring together self published information in a very meaningful way. In fact, self publishing provider Lulu is already promoting their service as “iPad ready”.

The gates of broadcasting have been crashed by video and audio podcasters that are creating and distributing top notch content without the convoluted, old guard processes of the past. Authors may see the rise of new publishing platforms in which to expose their content to the world via App store like outlets. Take it a step further and you could see really creative folks mashing up video podcasting content along with publishing content using some sort of development tool. Then it becomes a matter of distribution via outlets like Lulu and Vook.

Sin of Omission
O.K. – I’m a Mac sucker, I have been for 15 years. I know the routine. Release a whip ass new product that everyone has to have and leave out one big feature so that the folks that resisted the urge to be early adopters will rush out for the next gen version and those that have the 1st gen just won’t be able to live without it either. The fact that the iPad held out on a built-in web cam is just ludicrous. Web cams are embedded in everything but the kitchen sink these days. Apple, if you wanted to grab a big slice of the advanced market of gadget people, you would have included it. I was speaking to David Gibbons about the iPad shortly after the event. “Until they add a camera the iPad will remain scratched off of my wish list. I use Skype too much” I’m sure someone will have a 3rd party solution to this problem before they even ship, but that’s not the elegant solution. I want something to give my parents to keep up with the Grand Kids. Close but no cigar.

I’ve listed several applications which you can download and start using today to become a better mobile real estate professional.  I’ve recommended  applications I’m using for real estate purposes which aren’t necessarily built specifically for real estate.  Once you’ve downloaded the App World Application from Blackberry’s mobile site, you can quickly access these.

#1 Google App Suite – The Google App Suite is a must for any real estate user of Blackberry.  It provides you quick access to Google Maps (life saving), Google Reader (for reading your real estate blogs, including GeekEstate, of course), Mobile Search, Gmail (or Google Apps for you corporate users), Calendar, Photos, and Notebook (great for notes on the fly when you realize you forgot your pen).   These are quick to access, load fast, and are extremely dependable on your Blackberry.

#2 Smarter Agent – Smarter Agent seems to be the only major real estate centric application on the market right now.  I’ve found it useful for accessing MLS data on the go.  Since it is pulling from the MLS you get tons of data although it loads incredibly slowly.  It is especially useful in scheduling showings, looking up seller agent data, finding comparable sale, and as an overall tool for buyer reps.  The cost is free and I’d strongly recommend every real estate professional with a Blackberry download it.

#3 UberTwitter – I’ve tried many Blackberry Twitter apps only to have settled, for now, on UberTwitter for Blackberry.  The distinct advantage UberTwitter offers over its main Twitter for Blackberry rival is that UberTwitter offers is the ability to search and to do it well by geography.  This allows me to quickly access hashtags, search for users, key phrases, and more.  I can also narrow the search by the number of miles from location and enable geotagging on my Tweets.  Until something better replaces UberTwitter, I feel like it wins on ease of use and features.  UbertTwitter is free.

#4 Yammer- Real estate is still very much a people business and effective communication in within companies is more important than ever.  Twitter for business comes most easily the shape of Yammer.  Yammer allows teams and groups to easily communicate without having to create email distribution lists.  The Blackberry app is sweet because after a showing an agent can send a quick update back to their team, or allows a team leader to easily distribute a lead to an agents phone.  My company has become Yammer addicts facilitating more team communication.  The Blackberry App for Yammer takes this completely mobile.  Cost is free.

Bonus Item:  Your CRM – If you use a CRM tool or are evaluating one, make sure they have a mobile version of the software.  I personally use SalesForce.com and they have an excellent application for Blackberry which lets me search for contacts, update contacts, add tasks, and much more.

Of course these are just a sample of the many useful Blackberry applications for real estate.  There are certainly many more such as mortgage calculators, flashlights, voice-to-text translating, and everything in between. Despite the buzz surrounding Google’s Nexus, the Android operating system, and iPhones, Blackberry is holding its place in the enterprise and with many in the real estate industry. The Blackberry App World gives those of us clinging to our Blackberrys hope in creating a mobile tool box for real estate.

Classic – The hardest about switching to the Pre is losing my old Palm OS apps, and Classic is a paid application ($29.99) that allows you to keep all your old favorites, including the Task manager, Memos, calender, etc., and most importantly, to sync with your old Palm Desktop application. Palm OS has thousands of applications, way more than the iPhone does, though not as pretty. Classic will run them all, so if there is any hesitation to let go of your 10 year old Treo and the Palm Desktop, there is no more excuse.

Sprint Navigation – The Pre comes preloaded with the best phone based GPS navigation I have ever seen, which is miles better than the iPhone’s Google Maps app.  This GPS is actually better than my car’s factory installed GPS!  The Sprint Navigation application finds your location within 5 seconds and has voice prompted turn-by-turn navigation with 3-D mapping, so you can keep your eyes on the road or view the map as you’re driving.  It comes fully loaded with maps, and the GPS has been perfectly accurate even deep within downtown, fully surrounded by buildings.  You can enter addresses is or navigate to your Contacts lists or businesses nearby.  Set favorites, memorize locations, anything that a $500 GPS system can do, this baby can do it! This app alone makes the Palm Pre worth every penny of the $99 Sprint asks for it.

Palmbook – It’s free, it’s fast, it’s way better than the preloaded Facebook app in the Pre.  Palmbook has several features that preloaded app doesn’t, including the ability to take photos and upload them directly to your wall, comment on people’s posts, look up friends, switch between your newsfeed and your wall.  The preloaded version only allows you to update your status, view your newsfeed, and nothing else.  Palmbook is great for live Facebooking your real estate activity. In just a few seconds you can take a picture of a house you’re showing, add a caption, and post it to your wall.  So all your 500 Facebook friends can see that you’re out there selling homes!

Twee – The simple yet effective Twitter app for Pre. It does one thing only, but isn’t that the beauty of Twitter? If you want people to stay up to date on your activity by Twitter, this is the quickest way.  You can easily include a picture, and with a 3 megapixel camera and built in flash, Pre pictures turn out pretty nice.

REPayment – A free Loan payment calculator that works on the old Palm OS, so simple it’s beautiful.  No need to carry a financial calculator, REPayment does one thing and does it well. It calculates the Principal and Interest (P&I) on a loan amount with a specific number of payments.  Runs on Classic only, so you’ll need to buy that app first.

PDF Viewer – Does exactly what it says.  Put your contracts, listing sheets, and whatever documents you might need onto your Pre via the USB drive mode, and you can view all your files while on the road. Pros – you can key in page numbers easily and zoom in pretty far, so there is problem seeing tiny contract wording or moving about within a long document.   Cons – There is no landscape mode, and the search feature is just about useless.

Trapster – A popular traffic advanced warning app, which works pretty well and relies on social aggregation of traffic camera, speed traps, and other traffic events. Trapster will warn you in advance about speed traps, traffic cameras, and checkpoints ahead.  Mapping is fully integrated, so you’ll see all the interesting points marked on a GPS guided map. Warnings are given based on distance from current location as well as the intersection names.  You can’t use Trapster while using the Sprint GPS, as the phone just can’t handle 2 GPS apps at once.

Evernote – the note taking and information app to put down anything from notes and photos to webpages and business cards. More than just note taking, you can include photos, set reminders, capture thoughts while showing properties, and set bookmarks. Clients often ask questions while viewing a property, and Evernote is the place to write it down.  Evernote synchronizes your accounts between your desktop, online, and Pre. It’s easy-to-use and lets you search from any screen. Evernote also lets you take a photo of a business card and it will automatically add the right fields to your address book!  It doesn’t always work, but when it doesn’t, it’s easy to change the fields.  It can also convert handwritten text so your notes are instantly searchable, though if you have chicken scratch like I do, you might have some problems with it. Basically if you have information that you would normally put on a scratch paper, Evernote is the digital alternative.