Realty Agents

My job as Director of Education for my office and my love for technology keeps me on the lookout for anything that can be used in the real estate business.  I attend at least two real estate related conventions each year and I always come back with the same problem… I bring back stacks of handouts that I want to keep.  I use a lot of the materials I find for new classes.  I’ve always thought it would be nice to scan these handouts while I was at the convention and bring them home in PDF format.  Neat Receipts is the perfect solution! 

First, let me describe what Neat Receipts is and what it’s advertised intention is.  Neat Receipts is a portable scanner that is powered by a USB cable connected to your laptop or desktop computer.  Now when I say portable, I mean PORTABLE!  Measuring in at 10 1/2 inches long and approximately 1 1/2 inches x 1 1/2 inches, it reminds of a really long candybar!  Neat Receipts slogan is “Organize Your Paper, Simplify Your Life”.  The average purchaser would use this scanner to organize business receipts.  Here’s a typical scenario.. You travel for your business and have an expense account.  At the end of your business trip, instead of standing at the photocopier and copying all of your receipts, then transferring your expenses into a handwritten log that will be turned in to your employer, now you simply connect Neat Receipts scanner to your computer via USB cable, insert your receipts into the scanner and press the scan button.  As each receipt is scanned, Neat Receipts optical character recognition not only recognizes the amount and records it within the program, it also determines what category your receipt fits in.  Of course you also have a PDF image of your receipt stored in the program.  Your expenses are dropped into a spreadsheet making the process of turning in your expenses a breeze!  What about business cards that you pick up at business meetings?  This same scanner allows you to scan business cards and just like your receipts, a PDF image is stored plus the contact information is converted and automatically entered into a database!  You can transfer the new contacts to your favorite contact management program or simply access them right from the Neat Receipts program.

But what about my initial problem of bringing back stacks of handouts from conventions?  Not a problem with Neat Receipts.  The scanner can scan any document from 1 inch by 1 inch up to 8 1/2 inches wide and 30 inches in length!  It scans in color, grayscale or B&W at up to 600 dpi.  Scanned images can be saved in either PDF or JPG format.  Priced on the website at $229.95 I’ve seen it at retail stores for under $200.

Let’s look at some of the Pros & Cons of Neat Receipts

PRO’s: Extremely portable.  Fits into a brief case or computer backpack easily.  Powered completely from USB port.  USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 compatible.  Lightweight at just 10.6 ounces.  Automatically recognizes numbers & text and auto applies receipts to preset categories.  Ability to run extensive reports within Neat Receipts or export directly to your favorite programs such as Quicken, Quickbooks, MS Money or Excel.

CONS’s: I installed mine on a Windows Vista Business edition computer.  Additional installation drivers were required to be downloaded to properly install the software.  Tech support was a little slow to reply via an online support system but in the end my problems were solved and everything now works like it is supposed to.  I have to think that a Windows XP install wouldn’t have had these issues.  Scanning speed, compared to a flatbed scanner is going to seem slower.

Overall, I LOVE my Neat Receipts scanner! Lastly, let’s apply this piece of technology to the real estate business.  When was the last time you were at a sellers home and just completed the listing paperwork when the seller hands you their last mortgage statement for you to collect their mortgage contact information?  You would either need to write down the information and hope that you didn’t transpose a number in the mortgage account OR take the document with you back to the office and copy it, then mail or bring it back to your seller. 

With Neat Receipts, you can take every single document that your seller signs at the listing and scan them as you go along.  When you are finished with your listing appointment, you have a PDF document of your sellers documents.  You can copy them to a Thumb Drive and transfer them directly to the sellers personal computer, drop them into an email and send them a copy via email or simply print the signed docs back at the office and mail them.  Working with a buyer, you can complete any documents by hand, scan them directly into your laptop and within minutes email your offer to the listing agent or listing company.  Have you ever been in negotiations over a home inspection and need to get a document to a seller or buyer immediately?  With Neat Receipts you can expedite delivery of time sensitive documents. 

When Time is of the essence, Neat Receipts is the answer!

http://www.neatreceipts.com/ (View the demo video right on the home page)
http://www.neatreceipts.com/products/tech-specs/

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