After using Diigo for a split second to track apartments that I might be interested in, I realized that I need something a bit more sophisticated. At just about the same time, I started sending out lots of e-mails about these apartments, and I decided to just try copying all my useful information into e-mails and storing them in an nycAPT tag within gmail. It worked like a charm.
1) Copy the link of the apartment listing that is in question into the body of the e-mail, and populate the subject with any distinguishing information you have about the apartment. I also tried to get the brokers name and number somewhere in the e-mail. E-mail this information to yourself.
2) I typically setup some filters in my gmail account to automatically label all my emails with “nycAPT” in the subject with the same label, so that I could just click on that label to access all of the properties that I was currently researching.
3) Any follow up information you learn during subsequent calls or e-mails, you can just hit reply to your first message, add the notes to the body, and gmail threads the messages together for you.
4) Anytime you wanted to share this information with your roommates, or collaborate with them on obtaining information about properties from the broker, you could just add their e-mail to the list, and remember to hit “Reply All” on all subsequent emails and notes. Now they are fully “integrated” into your CRM.
5) The best part of this whole process, is its not portable, and you can access it from anywhere through gmail mobile. With the ability to add data and retrieve data from anywhere, you end up with a system flexible and rugged enough to make it through the NYC apartment search.
