Mobile Apps That Improve Photos and Presentations

Great visuals help sell homes; Real Estate 101, right? How often to you list a home with a grand staircase or beautiful ceilings and your photos just don’t do the space justice? Today we’re featuring a couple of mobile apps that can help improve your visuals, both photos and presentations.

With the Photosynth smart phone app, you’ll be able to create beautiful photo panoramas by stitching together multiple photos of a space, and provide an interactive 3 dimensional view for your listing that will truly highlight all the listing has to offer. To date, Microsoft has only produced an iPhone version of this app, but plans on releasing a Windows based app soon.

The Keynote app allows you to create and present beautiful presentations for your clients and colleagues straight from your phone, iPad, or even iPod touch. You may also connect to an HDTV for larger presentations while previewing your slides and notes from your device with the Presenter Display feature. Choose from design templates with choices for animated charts, tables, transitions, fonts, plenty of style options and the ability to easily import photos. You can also easily share you presentation by exporting it as a Keynote ’09, Microsoft Power Point or PDF file. This app will take your presentations to a whole new level! Compatible with iPhone, the app will cost you $9.99, but it’s worth the small investment!

Calling All Raving Fans! Vote For Fidelity Phoenix For Ranking AZ

Ranking Arizona Magazine has become the largest business opinion poll in the state. Each year, we have the opportunity to broadcast our opinions on who the best companies are in the Valley through online voting! This year, our goal is to lead the state’s title company industry by taking top rank in the 2013 edition of this magazine. Please help us reach this honor by casting your vote today!

Click here to access the voting link: http://ranking.aznow.biz/

Instructions to vote:

1. Click the “to vote search by category”

2. Select “Real Estate-Residential”

3. Select “Title Companies”

4. Select “Fidelity National Title”

5. Enter in your email address

6. Click cast my vote

Use Mortgage Calculator Apps To Help Buyers Stay Within Budget

Today in our continuing series about real estate apps we feature the benefits of a mobile mortgage calculator app.

Staying in budget is everything for buyers and that’s why a Mortgage Calculator smart phone app is a great tool for agents. With a mobile Mortgage Calculator, you’ll be able to easily graph, chart and calculate mortgage payments for your buyers right from your phone.

There are a variety of mortgage calculators on the web – Karl’s Mortgage Calculator has become very popular because it is easy to use and goes beyond simple calculations.

Karl’s Mortgage Calculator allows you to compute the following:

Fixed Loan Data, i.e. principal, interest rate, years, annual insurance, monthly payment amount, total interest, real interest, start date, end date, etc.

Prepayment Data, i.e. monthly prepayment, annual prepayment, one time prepayment, total savings, etc.
Extra Payments Data, i.e. months and amounts of additional payments.

Interest Rates Data, i.e. varying interest rates, interest-only payments, etc.

ARM Data, i.e. fixed ARM duration, interest cap percentage, minimum and maximum interest, total payments, total interest, etc.

It also graphs and charts very useful data – such as amortization, repayment time lines, balance, interest, annual table, monthly table, payments and a summary.

This particular Mortgage Calculator is free and available for Droid phones. The iPhone app store has many to choose from as well.

Sharon Terhune Named February 2012 Fidelity National Title Agency Employee in the Spotlight

A great big “ball of energy” is the way I must describe this month’s Employee in the Spotlight. As it is for so many of our working mom’s, it’s got to be a plateful for this wife, mother of four daughters, and our full-time Fidelity National Title AVP and Director of Broker Relations, Sharon Terhune.

“I am almost an Arizona native,” says Sharon. She moved with her family (Italian on both sides-her grandparents came over from Italy) from New Jersey when she was around four years old. “Jersey Girl” Sharon has one brother who lives in Surprise, Arizona, and two sisters who live close by in the neighborhood. Actually, a lower level living area was designed and built especially for Sharon’s parents in the Terhune home, so they truly are a “close” family.

Sharon went to Horizon High School and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from ASU. While working in the hospitality industry at the Thunderbird Inn at the Scottsdale Air Park, Sharon met Steve Terhune, who was also from the East Coast – New York State to be exact. Together for 24 years, Sharon and Steve will be celebrating their 20^th Wedding Anniversary this year! Their four daughters (yes, possibly four weddings are in their future) complete the Terhune Family – Paige, who is 16, Kenzie and Kayla, who are seven-year-old twins, and Amber, who is four years old.

Sharon loves to cook – she makes a “killer” pizza, but her expertise in the kitchen isn’t limited to Italian fare. She likes to try her hand at different dishes, even sushi. Sharon loves to shop for bargains, a skill I am sure she makes sure she shares with her four daughters. Their family enjoys entertaining and just loves hanging out together at their home. Their backyard is an “at-home” playground, and the girls like to work on art and craft projects, as well. The family just loves being together. Now that Paige is old enough to babysit, Sharon and Steve do enjoy a date night every once in a while. “Truthfully,” says Sharon, “the real secret to my success is my wonderful husband.”

In offering us words of encouragement, Sharon says that she believes in Karma. “What you give will come back in three-fold return. Be Positive – Be Happy”! In the 17 years that I, Mary Lou, have worked with Sharon, I can say that she tries every day to live up to her words.

What an example you are, Sharon, to all of us. Along with all of your family responsibilities, your company loyalty and commitment to your work at Fidelity National Title is so admirable. You work hard at maintaining your focus and bring a special vitality and spirit to our Team. We are grateful for all you do. Congratulations on being the February 2012 Fidelity National Title Agency Employee in the Spotlight.

Sincerely,

Mary Lou Paulk

Mary Garcia Appointed to Assistant Manager of Fidelity Phoenix NTS Office

Congratulations to Mary Garcia, our newly appointed Assistant Manager for our Phoenix NTS Office!

Mary can honestly say that she has “grown up in title” having worked in the industry since she was just 18 years old. Growing up as the proverbial “military brat”, Mary grew up overseas in England, returning to the states to at 18 to finish high school in Las Vegas, where her father retired. The only problem was that in the UK, no one can drive until 18. Having never held that oh so important license in her teenage hands, Mary was forced to find a job that she could walk to everyday. She found a nearby company that she worked for after school. As fate had planned, Mary’s boss sold the company, but he promised to find her another job. Luckily for her, he made a call to the title company that had closed their sale thinking that her background in her summer military jobs may appeal to their needs with of all things “microfiche”- remember that? Back in the day when you went to the library instead of Google? Mary was able to sweet talk her way into rides to and from work everyday and said that her office team taught her to drive; in her words- “it took a village!”

It was 1985 when Mary took her first job in the title business and she spent 11 years as a Title Officer. She says that learning title in Vegas was a great opportunity to learn all of the things not to do and was exposed to some “questionable” goings on that allowed her to hone her title instincts!

In 1996 Mary moved to Denver because “it was a nice place to visit” where she was hired by Lawyers Title, she then relocated to Phoenix two years later to her current NTS home.

Mary says that her Fidelity Phoenix team is her true family and she looks forward to seeing them every day. When not working, Mary claims Sedona is her sanctuary where she enjoys hiking and being outdoors. She has two pooches, Duke who is a Lab and a stray mutt, Katie that she rescued from a busy street.

Mary looks forward to many more years in the industry and the challenges presented by the changing environment of our time.

You can reach Mary by phone at 602.343.7571 and by email at mary.garcia@fnf.com.

Join Our TweetUp To Learn About Chase Bank's Short Sales, REOs and Foreclosure Process

We are pleased to announce our very first TweetUp! During our road show with Chase Bank, on Tuesday March 13 from 11:30-12:00 we will be tweeting the latest information on Chase processes and programs with Chase's VP Western Regional Relationship Manager, Deanna Murphy. Posts will include the most pertinent updates on Chase Short Sales, REOs and Foreclosure Process.

Topics include:

*Chase Foreclosure Review Process-details on how decisions are made
*Chase Accelerator Program ¡V portfolio product
*Issues to avoid with your Short Sale Package
*How to Escalate and Contacts
*How Realtors benefit from the Homeownership Centers
*Foreclosure Avoidance Program-helping homeowner¡¦s reach their ultimate goal
*Chase REO & Realtors

Understanding the inside track on Chase's processes and programs will help you better determine the best opportunities to pursue, make your time more efficiently spent and help grow your business!

Join the TweetUp! We will be answering questions and responding to comments on both Twitter and Facebook. Post your questions and comments on Facebook, or tweet them using #shortsaleescalation.

BONUS: We will be holding a contest for this event! Each Tweet or Facebook post will be entered into a drawing to 4 Suns tickets for April 18th Suns vs. Oklahoma City game.

You won't want to miss this unique event. We look forward to chatting with you online!

Apps That Give Buyers A Vision of Their Home

Continuing our series on mobile apps that can help real estate agents out in the trenches, here are a couple that are especially helpful when working with buyers.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses… and not all buyers have the ability to see past rooms of a home as they exist, to what they have the potential to actually BE. The iLiving app can help your clients visualize a space in a different light. It allows you to take a photo of a room and place furniture into the room to see what the space looks like with new furniture and layouts. It’s currently available for iPhone^®, though rumor has it an Anroid^® version is in the works.

Or if you’ve ever struggled with helping your buyer get past a horrible paint color, the ColorSmart by BEHR^® app will be your new favorite tool. Simply take a photo of a room and the app will virtually paint the walls for you. No more trying to imagine; this app will allow your buyers to see a room in colors THEY love, providing you the capability to decorate a room image digitally with touch-and-tap technology and preview color on walls, trim and accents.

The ColorSmart by BEHR Mobile application is available as a free download in both the Android Market and Apple iTunes^® App Store.

Both apps can help you overcome buyers reluctance about a potentially great home for them, by providing them a glimpse of it as “their” home.