Last night as I fed my 3-month old twins their bottles, I got a little hungry so I fired up the GrubHub app on my iPhone and ordered some pulled pork from Hecky’s in Evanston, IL (the best around). Awaiting the imminent arrival of smoky goodness, I snuck a quick check of the Brewers score on ESPN’s mobile website, read some emails, and then checked how happy HomeFinder.com’s customers felt by visiting our new customer happiness site, http://thumbs.HomeFinder.com. As the twins finished their bottles, I remembered to record Curious George for my 4-year-old and 2-year-old, so I popped open my ATT UVerse mobile app and did that.
If I could time travel back to when I got my first cellphone in the year 2000 and you would have recapped my night, a couple things would have happened: first, I would have lost my hair even faster than I did knowing that I would have four kids under the age of 5-years-old and second, the incredible power of my cellphone would have blown my mind. You can do far more with a smartphone in your pocket today, than you could have with a desktop computer 12 years ago. A few poignant moments stand out as I ponder my cellphone history:
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2000 – I get my first cellphone. I vividly remember two internal thoughts after getting my first cellphone (a really simple Nokia). The first was, “Holy cow, how did we ever live without these?” The second was, “Oh man, I should not drive while talking on the phone, because I totally just missed my exit.” - •2005 – I get my first BlackBerry. An hour after holding my first BlackBerry, it quickly dawned on me how addictive 24/7 email-in-your-pocket could be. My socially awkward inner geek rejoiced as now I held in my hands the perfect diversion to awkward elevator rides and pre-meeting chatting. As revolutionary as the BlackBerry was, it had a prehistoric Internet experience, one that made surfing the web or getting anything done on it virtually impossible.
- • 2008 – I take the iPhone plunge. Life would never be the same. After I cracked open
the box for my new iPhone and did little else than surf the web and download apps for the rest of the day, the feeling that I had a computer in my pocket overwhelmed me. I. Have. A. Computer. In. My. Pocket. Not a phone with a lame browser, and junky apps that don’t work, but a full fledged computer with incredibly powerful apps, the real Internet, easy email access and everything else I could want. And even better than a computer; I could use it as a phone and it came with Google Maps that knew where I was that exact moment. Wow.
Luckily for me, my fellow HomeFinder.com coworkers share my same smartphone sentiments, and July has been mobile mania here at HomeFinder.com. After much preparation, we are excited to officially announce our new HomeFinder.com Real Estate Android app. Built on the feedback of our consumers, our new Android app offers the fastest way to home search on the go with its advanced GPS, an easy-to-use map interface and auto-syncing capabilities. Visit www.HomeFinder.com/apps for more info, or download in Google Play.
To narrow down the vast vortex of information available on the mobile revolution, we’ve compiled some mobile must haves to help you most efficiently use your mobile device when home selling and buying. We’ve provided articles on the top smartphone features you need as a real estate agent, how to improve your social media presence via your smartphone, the best gadgets you need to sell on the go, must have apps for homebuyers, and the top 10 moving apps for home sellers and buyers. Check out our Pinterest board to see so much more “Real Estate on the Go,” information such as, interesting mobile stats, the Facebook Pages Manager app review, global mobile trends, and more. Lastly, don’t miss out on the latest HomeFinder.com news and events:
- • RISMedia featured HomeFinder.com’s ten-year company evolution, dating back to when we were simply a real estate software provider. With this month’s launch of our second mobile app, we have come a long way!
- • The Morning Call newspaper reaffirmed what we knew, and featured HomeFinder.com in a recent article about the benefits of online house shopping
- • Visit us at SpareFoot.com to check out the top six apps a homebuyer can’t afford to miss when buying a home.
- • We are 30 days away from announcing the HomeFinder.com Agent Makeover Sweepstakes winners. If you’re a real estate agent who needs a makeover, this is your last chance to enter to win a two-night trip to Chicago, business coaching and a style makeover! Make sure to visit us next month when we announce the five winners..
- • Not a real estate agent? No problem! If you want to win an extra $250, encourage any real estate agent you know to enter the HomeFinder.com Agent Makeover Sweepstakes and tell them to enter your email address in the “referred by” field for your chance to win $250.
There’s a great quote that I have no idea who said, but it’s, “ease of use equals use,” and that’s what the smartphone revolution has given us. The mobile revolution is exploding and there is no end in sight; who knows what phones will look like in another 12 years, but I can’t wait to find out!
Dont forget the era of razor :-). I think the future generations(our kids) would look back to these things and wonder how we survived before smartphones.