Can your fax machine do this? #1

Maybe it’s just the latest round of snow making me realize how far away spring really is. Maybe it was watching that pet tricks show the other night. Whatever it is, I had an idea for a new series of posts. I’m calling it “Can your fax machine do this?” In each one, I’m going to lay out something you can do with an Internet fax service, and then ask the title question. Seems like it should be fun. Let me know what you think.

While it’s usually only one person who gets his/her face plastered on the billboards, the sides of cars, and the sign holder in shopping carts, real estate agents often work in teams. While that’s good in a lot of ways, it also presents a challenge: How do you keep everyone on the team up to speed with the latest developments on a transaction? Especially when a fair percentage of the information is being faxed?

If you’re using an Internet fax service such as MyFax, it’s not that difficult because you can usually have several email addresses receive the same fax at the same time. MyFax, for example, allows you to have the same fax sent to five email addresses.

So let’s say you’re a real estate agent and you have a partner and an assistant. If you receive a fax on a machine while you’re out of the office, hopefully your assistant will see it and let you know. But depending on the contents, it still may have to wait until you can get back and see it, or you may have to have your assistant re-fax it to you, which will basically turn it into hieroglyphics. You may then also have to get it in the hands of your partner, creating more potential delays and confusion.

With a MyFax account, however, all three of you can receive the same fax at the same time, even if all three of you are out of the office. As long as you can get an Internet connection you can check your email or log in to MyFaxCentral to see your latest faxes, no matter where you are. You can even forward a fax to someone else if needed. It’s all so clean and simple!

Which begs the title question: Can your fax machine do this? I don’t think so. It’s just one of the many reasons why it’s time to ditch the fax machine and get yourself an Internet fax service account.