First-time homebuyer Jessica Fonseca uses Bento for iPhone to track potential properties.
Jessica Fonseca
It's easy to get overwhelmed when you're buying your first home. There are dozens of factors to consider: Neighborhood, price, square footage, year built, lot size, repair issues, landscaping—the list goes on and on. That's why first-time homebuyer Jessica Fonseca turned to Bento for iPhone to organize it all. “There are just so many things to keep track of when you're looking at homes,” she says. “With Bento for iPhone, I can have all the information in one place. When my husband or Realtor talks to me about a house we've looked at, all the information is right there on my iPhone. It makes the whole process a lot easier to deal with and it was extremely simple to set up.”
Bills and Bento 2
Fonseca runs the intranet at a government agency in Southern Florida, the information backbone that facilitates communication between staff members. She studied computer programming and analysis in college and is no stranger to databases. When she needed a database application to sort out her home life, she knew exactly what to look for.
“I needed something simple, but good enough to track a lot of information. And I didn't want to spend a lot of time just getting it to work,” she says. “Bento is the best solution for me. It's simple to set up and you can do almost anything you want with it. You can just launch the application and start working.”
With Bento 2 on hand, Fonseca started organizing her home life. She began by linking her Address Book and iCal events to her Bento 2 database. “I was looking for a way to manage my bills,” she says. “So I started with a subset of iCal. I already had the due dates on the calendar and I was able to pull them into Bento right away. Then I added some extra fields—phone numbers and payment addresses. When it's time to pay bills, I don't have to look through all the paperwork on my desk. It's all in one place.”
Real estate to go
When Fonseca spied the Bento for iPhone application in the iTunes store, she downloaded immediately. “I saw the app and knew right away that I wanted to try it out,” she says. “It seemed like the perfect way to keep track of our home search—When we look at homes, the computer is at home on the desk. I always have my iPhone with me, so it's perfect for logging all the information when we're out shopping around. I installed the app and started creating the database right there on my iPhone.”
Fonseca started with one of the many built-in Bento for iPhone database templates and customized it to track the specifics of every house on her list. “I was a little skeptical because I didn't know how the interface would work,” she says, “but it was really, really easy. It can't get any easier. The icons are all self explanatory and it all just comes together. I never had to look at any manuals or help documents to get my iPhone Bento database up and running. I just picked a template and started modifying it.”
The dream home, quantified
The home-search database is extensive—Fonseca has included every piece of pertinent information about the possible properties. “I have square footage, year built, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, every detail,” she says. “There's even a web link to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) listing and each address links to the Maps application. I also take photos of the property with my phone and include them in the database.”
Fonseca synced the Bento for iPhone database with Bento 2 on her Mac wirelessly. The database ported to the desktop platform seamlessly. “It was exactly what I expected,” says Fonseca. “All the information is there, just like it is on my iPhone. I made a few changes to the layout to take advantage of the computer's larger screen and it was perfect. Now I can sync the database with Bento on my Mac whenever I want.”
For Fonseca, there's simply no other practical way to keep track of the home buying process. “It's nearly impossible to correlate everything—pictures, prices, features—on paper,” she says. “With Bento on my iPhone, we can make comparisons and make the right decision when we buy. I couldn't imagine going through this process without it.”
