How Can The iPad 3 Help Real Estate Agents Sell More Listings?

We spotted this article on the Showing Suite blog.

Rumors have been swirling ever since Apple announced the release of the new iPad, unofficially dubbed the “iPad 3”, which will be available for delivery March 16th. If you’ve been curious but still on the fence about purchasing an iPad, with the new iPad coming out, is it finally time to give in and utilize the iPad as a tool for real estate? Technology is changing faster than you change your clothes, is it a good idea for real estate agents to invest in the new iPad, and can it really help you sell more listings?

High Resolution Display
The new iPad will have a 2048 x 1536 resolution Retina screen, which means the pixels on the tablet’s screen will be virtually indistinguishable to the human eye. Basically, the iPad will have 1,000,000 more pixels than your 1080p living room TV. But how can the new display help you sell more listings? This allows you to show your clients beautiful, visually stunning pictures of your listings from the MLS. Clients will also love the idea of home video tours being displayed on the new, ultra high resolution screen.

4G LTE
Previous versions of the iPad were only available on wifi or 3G, but for the first time, the new iPad will include 4G LTE which is 10x faster than anything out there today. What can this be a useful tool for real estate, and how can this help you sell more listings? Rumor has it that FaceTime will no longer be confined to a wifi signal. Depending on your carrier, FaceTime will be available over the 4G LTE network. This would be especially revolutionary for real estate agents who do business with long distance clients. You will be able to do live video-chats and home walk throughs anywhere a 4G signal is available (which is limited right now, but expanding rapidly).

200,000+ Apps
Currently, a lot of the apps available to download in the iPad app store have only been optimized for the iPhone. This means the app will appear in much lower resolution and will not fit properly to the screen size of the iPad. Along with the release of the new iPad, more apps that can help you sell more listings are becoming available and specifically optimized for the iPad. Apps like iPhoto allows you to easily retouch, organize, share, and edit all of your listing photos. Another app real estate agents love is iWork. This is a great tool for real estate professionals to create beautiful documents, presentations, and spreadsheets to share with and really impress your clients, and it’s much more efficient than print-outs or lugging around your computer. With the iPad gaining popularity, even more real estate apps are sure to be popping up in the app store.

There are still a lot of questions and rumors about what the new iPad will actually include, and Apple does a pretty good job keeping it on the down low until the official launch date becomes closer. The bottom line is, in the real world in any business or profession, the iPad is the future of computing. Soon enough, it will almost become necessary to own an iPad (or an alternative tablet) to sell more listings and make performing most of your basic job duties faster and easier.

Do you find that buyers/sellers typically prefer a more tech savvy agent?

To view the original article, visit the Showing Suite blog.