Lakeside Title

Who doesn’t like easy?  I sure do, especially when I want information. Homebuyers today are the same way. They don’t want to wait around for you to respond to their email. They want to be able to access information instantly.

This really pertains to home search. Leaving flyers in a rain filled box are passé!  Savvy buyers of today want to be able to grab info on the go.  They want to be able to just whip out their smart phone, do a quick search and be on their way.  Well, things just got even easier for iPhone users.

Welcome to HomeSnap, one of the coolest new real estate apps I’ve seen. Lets say you are just browsing a neighborhood or a find a house you are interested in.  Even if the home isn’t for sale, you can just take out your iPhone, snap a picture and in less than a minute, you’ll have an estimate of its price, details on square footage, number of bedrooms, and similar homes for sale.  It really works! This app uses the iPhone’s GPS capability and it’s sensors to ID the house and then fetch the data from a server in the cloud.
This amazing feat of technical wizardry, which works all over the U.S., was created by HomeSnap, an app by Sawbuck Realty, an online real-estate firm out of D.C.  The app doesn’t send data to the Realtor, or invite calls or emails.  Only if a consumer requests to be contacted.  It’s a cool way to investigate houses you like and to find out what your neighbor’s house is worth!  You can share your “Snaps”-photo profiles of houses- with HomeSnap with friends via email, text or social networks like Facebook.

The cool thing is, you can also use the app to flip through Snaps taken by others in nearby areas or anywhere.  Also included in the app is Stealth Mode. You can take a picture when you aren’t right in front of a house, even if you were inside another house nearby. It will provide you an aerial map from which you can choose your property. This is helpful when you can’t get a photo or aren’t directly in front of a home.  HomeSnap includes scores of data from third party data vendors that rate the quality of nearby schools. It also rates the relative appreciation and investment value of a home over 10 years. Some of the snaps even show previous sales dates and prices.

Remember this isn’t always going to be 100% accurate. It’s pooling from public records, which as we know, aren’t always up to date. It does however color code the homes, green if for sale, orange if under contract and purple if it’s going to be an open house.  Having access to this data with such an easy process is a winner in my book. Enjoy and happy Snapping.

Chris Baker

Title Guy Tech Tips

Cbaker@lakesidetitle.com

Remember Everything… without using your brain.

Evernote-Your digital memory

Can’t remember where you wrote something down? Need an important document but can’t remember where you stored it?  Have a collection of recipes you just can’t part with?  What to do with it all?  Let me introduce you to Evernote.  It is an all in one ubiquitous, digital notebook that syncs to the web and across all your devices that capture, store and index just about any type of data you throw at it.  Free to use, Evernote is an extension of your brain.  With Evernote, you will always have access to the important data, files, websites and documents anytime you need them.  It’s a wonderful feeling and something you will find you can’t live without.

So, what exactly is Evernote?  Started in 2008, the company had one mission that continues today.  Create a place to store everything in your life to make it easily available and searchable to help you remember.  Understanding the importance of information and in its ubiquity, the geniuses at Evernote knew they had to make it easy. First you need to install the software onto your Mac or PC.  They’ve also made it available on every major smart phone carrier so you’ll have access to your data anytime.  Lastly you want to make sure to install the web clipper into your browser so that anything you come across on the web is easily added to your Evernote database with one click.  Just visit www.Evernote.com and the site will recognize not only your computer you’re working on, but also the browser your using.  This is great since they want to make it as simple as possible to get started.

So what to do next?  How do you use Evernote to help make your life easy?  First, you need to understand that everything starts and ends with a note.  Basically a note is anything you create or send to Evernote.  Be it a photo, a document or a web clipping, Evernote creates a unique instantly searchable file you can access all your devices. The beauty of the software is its simplicity. You can drag and drop files, create notes from within, scan and even email information directly to your account. Anything you can think of can be sent.  Just remember, that as free user you are limited to a file size of 25mb per note and you can only send certain files to Evernote.  As a premium member you are given up to 50mb and not limited to what type of file you send to it.  This is great if you are working with a Word or Excel file that you want to keep synced.  Anything from web clippings, voice recordings and even hand written notes can also be sent.  The magic of the program is that it will actually scan all text within the information you send it for you to be able to search later.  This way when you need to remember something just type it into Evernote and it will automatically search the document and retrieve what you’re looking for instantly.

From now on you can just send it to Evernote and be able to recall it as quickly as you can type it in the search box. For more information visit www.Evernote.com Please feel free to email me with any questions. I will happy to share my Evernote Notebook with you with all the great stuff I come across.  Happy note taking!

Chris Baker