Welcome to the first technique article on running your RE business with a smartphone!  My first topic is using Text Replacement. First, you need to forget about BTW or OMW and all the other text shortcuts and start thinking business.  I will be covering both Apple products and Android as both have Text Replacement. I will also cover a program available for Windows 10 that also provides Text Replacement, and I believe no matter your device this could help you work smarter rather than harder!

So, what is Text Replacement? 

You can write a quick message or even a few paragraphs and simply enter a shortcut and, boom, you message is available with a single tap.  Example: I wrote the following message, “Thank you for contacting me to work together to find a new home for you and your family!  I believe working together we will achieve the goals you seek!”  All of that by just typing nhb in a multitude of programs and apps.  

Hopefully you have already read my first introduction article in this series, “Can You Run your Real Estate Business with a Smartphone, YES!”  If not please take a moment and read how I plan on helping you get the most out of your smartphone. Text Replacement will become a major piece in running your business on your smartphone, all my following articles will be making reference to Text Replacement.

Apple users let’s start with you.

On your iPhone go to Settings, General, Keyboard and select Text Replacement.  You might have one entry omw which is the shortcut for “On My Way”, hit the + sign and add your own, make it an easy short entry like btw which is a shortcut “By The Way”.  Next be sure all your Apple products are logged in to the same iCloud account. Now open up your Mac go to System Preferences, Keyboard and open the Text tab and you should see what you added to your iPhone.  On your iPad follow the same directions for the iPhone.

Let’s talk Android.

Start with Settings, Language and input, Google Keyboard, Text correction, Personal Dictionary and find the + Add Button.  Just like Apple add a shortcut, make it simple and remember what you added.

Now let’s see where we can use our shortcuts on our phones, text, Facebook including Messenger, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Calendar and the list goes on.  Basically, anytime the text box opens for typing the shortcut will work. On your Mac try it you might need to adjust a few settings on programs, when I did mine it worked in all the places I tested.

For Windows 10 do a web search for shortcut software for Windows.  I found a few which do what I described above, I do not have a Windows computer so can’t say which 3rd party program is best.

Set up your own system, it has to make sense and easy to remember, don’t get carried away it takes you longer to find the shortcut than if you just typed it.  Few ideas for you, nhb (new home buyer), nhl (new home listing), tg (Thanksgiving message). Everybody should do this one right now, @@ make it your email address, pick a number I used 77 for my phone number, db for my name, love those, how many times do you enter your contact information?  

Again, this is article One in my “Run Your RE Business with a Smartphone” series, stay tuned for many more articles as we help you build a complete system!