Alexa: Your new real estate personal assistant

What if you could hire a virtual real estate assistant who is never late, doesn’t need sick days, is always cheerful, highly qualified and works for free? The good news is that you can – and her name is Alexa.

Sure, she’s handy around the house, turning on and off the lights, keeping track of your shopping list and helping your kids with their homework, but she can also be extremely helpful in your real estate business.

In case you haven’t met Alexa

Alexa is the brains and the voice inside Amazon’s Echo speaker. There are a variety of Echo devices, from the basic to the advanced. Check out PCMagazine.com’s rundown of the differences between the models.

Once you own an Echo, you open your real estate business to a virtual real estate assistant who can take on some of the small tasks and help keep you focused.

Alexa helps keep track of your time

Of course, you can start your day with Alexa, allowing her to wake you up in the morning and even let you snooze for an extra 15 minutes.

We know a writer (who shall remain unnamed) who asks Alexa to remind her to stop procrastinating every hour, on the hour. You can use this same “skill” in a number of ways.

Cold calling? Ask her to remind you when you can stop. Working on Facebook marketing? Devote a certain amount of time to the task and have her let you know when to move on to something else.

Connect your calendar with Alexa and your virtual real estate assistant can help you keep track of your entire day. Supported calendars include:

• iCloud calendar (Apple)
• Gmail or G Suite calendars (Google)
• Office 365 (Microsoft)
• Outlook (Microsoft)
• Microsoft Exchange

Then, all you need to do is say “Alexa, what’s on my calendar for today?”

Alexa, the virtual real estate assistant & admin guru

There are several ways Alexa can help with basic admin tasks.

• Definitions and synonyms: Writing a blog post and need a better word? Ask Alexa for a synonym. Not sure of the real meaning of a word? Ask Alexa and she’ll look it up in the dictionary.
• Research: From reminding you how many square feet are in an acre to looking up information on the Great Recession (or anything else), you won’t need to stop what you’re working on to perform research.
• Create lists: Alexa can help you create a to-do list that you can add to throughout the day or week, with a mere call out.
• Send text messages:  Dictate text messages to Alexa and she’ll send them. Check out how to do it, here.
• Use Echo as an intercom to other users: You can intercom someone in another room (as long as there’s an Echo device in the room) or in another building. Learn how at CNET.com.

Other cool stuff

• If you’re a fan of podcasts, you’ll love hanging out with Alexa. Just say the name of the podcast you want to hear and she’ll play it.
• Start your day informed. Set up a flash briefing and ask Alexa for it every morning.
• Drown out the neighbor’s noisy dog when you need to concentrate by asking Alexa to play “rain sounds,” “crashing waves,” “nature sounds” or “white noise.”
• Can’t find your phone? Alexa can, just ask her.
• Take Alexa along in the car and she’ll direct you to the homes you need to preview.

Organizing a team meeting can be challenging, but coordinating and launching one is something at which Alexa for Business excels.

“You can simply say “Alexa, start the meeting.” Alexa then “turns on the video conferencing equipment, dials into your conference call, and gets the meeting going,” according to Amazon’s Tara Walker.

Finally, consider creating your own Alexa skill for your real estate business. We show you how, right here at Easy Agent Pro.

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