Another website frequented by Froelich when on the go
is LoopNet.
“I use an iPhone 4, iPad, and laptop depending on the context of
the situation,” adds Steve Kapp, SIOR, industrial and office spe-
cialist with Cornish and Carey Commercial/Newmark Knight Frank
in Hayward, Calif. “I haven’t give up my laptop because it has the
ability to do much more complex tasks and documents.”
However, Kapp adds, “my primary technology is my iPhone
because I can access all my e-mail, and with the Microsoft Exchange
server, I can get into file folders. I have my entire contact data base
synced with the device. I find on my iPad, Google Earth Maps are
extremely useful because if I’m touring with a developer-type client,
I can drive down a particular street and pull up aerial maps, look at
railroad easements and power lines.”He adds, “historically, in our
business, property management operations have been a necessary
evil. All of a sudden, the tail moved around to the front of the dog
and became the key for us getting business.”
Today, nearly everything is immediately accessible with this
new technology.
“From a business perspective,” Kapp notes, “I have the Wall
Street Journal app which I can use to search for information on a
company I’m planning to visit. In addition, I have Google Alerts for
certain companies so anytime there is a news story, I can get a copy.
I have color-coded traffic apps that allow me to check on traffic flow
so I’m not late for meetings, and I use a flight tracker app to see if my
flights are on time. I use the torch app to see where the light switches
are when I go into a deserted industrial building.”
The next step for Kapp is iPad Power Point.
“I’m experimenting with portable projectors for my iPad, so I
will be able to project data from my iPad onto a wall,” he says. “The
new projectors are the size of a deck of cards. If I’m with a group of
five or six people, rather than everyone looking at the iPad, I’ll just
shoot a projection to the wall. The only issue is, not all software that
is on the iPad is video projectable.”
Waters says he knows many brokers who use the iPad for power-
point presentations.
Another popular app is the relatively new CoStar Go.
“Recently, I switched to the iPhone and also acquired an iPad,”
notes Christopher Sheehan, SIOR, a senior vice president for
Colliers International in Torrance, Calif., “and the CoStar Go app is
cutting edge, using the GPS technology to pull up everything within
whatever parameters you choose, within two miles or two blocks.
It’s pretty cool to be sitting in front of a client’s office, hit a few but-
tons to show aerials and layouts.”
Sheehan tells this story of working with a client: after generat-
ing a couple of property reports, he and the client got into his car to
look at properties. “Using the CoStar Go app we were able to pull
up everything that was on the market in the size property we were
looking for,” he recalls. “Then based on my knowledge of specific
buildings we eliminated certain structures on the spot. We were able
to narrow the search to a manageable number of buildings that we
could browse through on the iPad prior to doing any heavy lifting.”
Although Gary Joel Schacker, SIOR, a principal with United
Realty Inc. in Jericho, N. Y., has an iPad, he still gets great use out of
the iPhone 4.
“If I go to a meeting, I bring my iPhone and take all the notes on
it,” he says. “I tell people at the meeting I’m not texting or e-mailing,
but taking notes. Then I have these notes forever and I can refer back
to them.”
Schacker adds, “now when I see people who have pens and pads,
I wonder where those pieces of paper will be in six months. Once that
person brings the paper back to the office, even if he transcribes it to
