At the end of the day, people need a place to live, work, and convene – that’s the lasting appeal of “bricks and mortar”. Even with the ups and downs of economic cycles and the recent housing crisis, real estate is renowned for its ability to bounce back. And yet, real estate is far from being immune to the disruptive force of the internet.
Realtors who clung to their pagers, paper listings, and land lines have already disappeared. A new breed of interconnected web savvy realtors has emerged – are you one of them? The web offers these realtors unparalleled and cost effective access to prospective buyers and available properties – even on a global basis when appropriate.
Here are some of their tips and tools:
• Staying mobile and productive – Without technology this becomes an either or scenario. With technology, you can be productive and on the road. For example, tools like MyFax let you send and receive signed purchase agreements from your email, web, or smart phone. Solutions like my1voice ensure you get your calls, but make your actual location transparent to callers.
• Client nurturing – People are less likely than ever to stay in their first home for their lifetime. So, think once a client, always a client. An email communications tool like Campaigner helps you stay in touch and keep your name top of mind when the time comes to upgrade or downsize. As well, staying in contact can net you those lucrative double-ended transactions where you sell the first home, buy the second.
• Always connected –You can give your clients all your contact information, but how many are likely to give up after the first two tries? Tools like my1voice find you so the client doesn’t have to, and you never miss an important call again.
• Find and communicate with prospective buyers and sellers online – email, social media, web presence... – need I say more?
• Look professional, without the effort and the expense – Tools like Campaigner offer off-the-shelf realtor branded email templates and copy suggestions. my1voice can be your virtual assistant with automated reception and unlimited extensions and voicemail boxes. As an online tool, MyFax ensures you never run out of fax paper or toner or faxed offers again.
So join the real estate revolution. Seize technology tools to broaden your reach, stay connected, and accelerate your real estate business.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
What do Real Estate Agents & Accountants have in common?
On the surface, nothing – with one being naturally gregarious and assertive, the other more reserved and analytical – I’ll let you figure out which for yourself!
The answer to what real estate agents and accountants have in common lies in their paper-based workflows including:
• Need for regulatory compliance - Both professions are paper-heavy by nature – with lots of required regulatory and government documentation along with the need for legally valid signatures.
• Thrift – Paper is costly. Accountants are cost conscious by nature. Agents are money motivated and like to keep as much of their commission check as possible.
• Client communications and confidentiality – Paper is an open loop process and prone to being misplaced or lost. Both accountants and agents deal with sensitive information that if misused could compromise their client’s position or otherwise cause them direct harm.
• Professionalism – Accountants need to project a professional image to attract clients and to build client trust and loyalty. Agents are on the road a lot. Being on the road, being productive and being professional can be mutually exclusive.
• Technical simplicity – With rare exceptions, agents and accountants are not techies – if they were, chances are they would have taken a different career path.
So the answer to what real estate agents and accountants have in common is MyFax!
MyFax lets you send and receive legally valid documents from your email, web, or smart phone and keep an electronic record. MyFax replaces your need for fax machines, in house fax servers and everything that goes with them, like supplies, dedicated lines and long distance charges. MyFax helps ensure client confidential communications. Faxes are sent from and received in a user’s private email inbox or from the password-protected MyFax website. MyFax projects a professional image with business class reliability and 99.9% availability commitment. MyFax never runs out of paper or toner, never jams and a user’s computer doesn’t have to be "on" to receive faxes. MyFax is easy to implement - no installation, no additional hardware or software, no maintenance - and it’s as easy to use as email.
Not surprisingly then, real estate agents and accountants are two of the largest users of MyFax. So if you’re an accountant or real estate agent and haven’t tried MyFax, why not?
And if you’re a mortgage broker, insurance agent, lawyer, or health care provider – the question and answer aren’t a lot different!
Try MyFax today for Free.
The answer to what real estate agents and accountants have in common lies in their paper-based workflows including:
• Need for regulatory compliance - Both professions are paper-heavy by nature – with lots of required regulatory and government documentation along with the need for legally valid signatures.
• Thrift – Paper is costly. Accountants are cost conscious by nature. Agents are money motivated and like to keep as much of their commission check as possible.
• Client communications and confidentiality – Paper is an open loop process and prone to being misplaced or lost. Both accountants and agents deal with sensitive information that if misused could compromise their client’s position or otherwise cause them direct harm.
• Professionalism – Accountants need to project a professional image to attract clients and to build client trust and loyalty. Agents are on the road a lot. Being on the road, being productive and being professional can be mutually exclusive.
• Technical simplicity – With rare exceptions, agents and accountants are not techies – if they were, chances are they would have taken a different career path.
So the answer to what real estate agents and accountants have in common is MyFax!
MyFax lets you send and receive legally valid documents from your email, web, or smart phone and keep an electronic record. MyFax replaces your need for fax machines, in house fax servers and everything that goes with them, like supplies, dedicated lines and long distance charges. MyFax helps ensure client confidential communications. Faxes are sent from and received in a user’s private email inbox or from the password-protected MyFax website. MyFax projects a professional image with business class reliability and 99.9% availability commitment. MyFax never runs out of paper or toner, never jams and a user’s computer doesn’t have to be "on" to receive faxes. MyFax is easy to implement - no installation, no additional hardware or software, no maintenance - and it’s as easy to use as email.
Not surprisingly then, real estate agents and accountants are two of the largest users of MyFax. So if you’re an accountant or real estate agent and haven’t tried MyFax, why not?
And if you’re a mortgage broker, insurance agent, lawyer, or health care provider – the question and answer aren’t a lot different!
Try MyFax today for Free.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Faxing still a factor in schools
Saw this article today from Tufts University’s student newspaper and thought it was worth passing along. The article interviews a number of Tufts students to get their thoughts about faxing and fax machines. Keep in mind that these students have never known a world without email and instant messaging, and most probably take texting for granted as well.
The general consensus at Tufts seems to be faxing is still used a lot for business, although many of the students aren’t sure why.
One student working in the Treasurer’s office gets it, though. He points out that often faxes are sent instead of email due to security and privacy reasons. If you’re talking about personal and private information, it actually has to be faxed by Massachusetts law.
What’s interesting is it seems this institute of higher learning is still relying on fax machines rather than an Internet fax service such as MyFax. A MyFax account would solve many of the issues the students see while still following the legal mandates for privacy.
What has your experience been? How much does the business office at the colleges or universities you deal with rely on faxing versus other forms of communication?
The general consensus at Tufts seems to be faxing is still used a lot for business, although many of the students aren’t sure why.
One student working in the Treasurer’s office gets it, though. He points out that often faxes are sent instead of email due to security and privacy reasons. If you’re talking about personal and private information, it actually has to be faxed by Massachusetts law.
What’s interesting is it seems this institute of higher learning is still relying on fax machines rather than an Internet fax service such as MyFax. A MyFax account would solve many of the issues the students see while still following the legal mandates for privacy.
What has your experience been? How much does the business office at the colleges or universities you deal with rely on faxing versus other forms of communication?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Get your paper organized and searchable
Ever lose your car keys, glasses, purse or wallet? You’re not human if you haven’t. This is the challenge with tangible, yet inert objects – there’s no way to find what you’re looking for, short of a random search. If you average 5 minutes a day in collective random searches, that’s more than half an hour a week, two plus hours per month, and so on. Before summing up your lifetime average and getting depressed, think about the challenge of finding missing paperwork in the office. Then, think about the opportunity for an extra 30 minutes or more of productive time per employee per week. Along with saving the environment, a real time searchable electronic archive is the true promise of the “paperless office”. But going paperless just isn’t an option if your occupation is real estate, law, insurance, or finance, among others. Paper is part of your everyday workflow and as such a “necessary evil”.
The question becomes how to keep your paperwork organized and searchable to be able to realize these efficiency and effectiveness gains. Your best bet is to look for points where paper either touches or could touch an electronic workflow – sending up the equivalent of an emergency flare to say, “Hey look, I’m over here”. Take faxing as an example. Cloud computing services like MyFax let you keep your paper based workflow (aka fax), but also provide end-to-end electronic tracking with an electronic record to file away. As well, with MyFax those efficiency gains and associated savings aren’t whittled away by additional hardware or software costs. Plus, with the ability to fax via email, smart phone, or the web, you’re more efficient and effective.
Just imagine, paper with an electronic trail in one searchable archive. Simple, convenient, effective, and best of all organized!During the month of May, MyFax joins QuickBooks in the Intuit App Center in a special promotion to Get Organized. Promoting the need to improve document management and reduce paper in the office, QuickBooks customers can try MyFax risk free by visiting http://bit.ly/MyFaxGetOrganized. As an added bonus, each use of this service in May includes an automatic submission to win a Kindle. For complete terms and conditions, visit http://bit.ly/IntuitKindle
The question becomes how to keep your paperwork organized and searchable to be able to realize these efficiency and effectiveness gains. Your best bet is to look for points where paper either touches or could touch an electronic workflow – sending up the equivalent of an emergency flare to say, “Hey look, I’m over here”. Take faxing as an example. Cloud computing services like MyFax let you keep your paper based workflow (aka fax), but also provide end-to-end electronic tracking with an electronic record to file away. As well, with MyFax those efficiency gains and associated savings aren’t whittled away by additional hardware or software costs. Plus, with the ability to fax via email, smart phone, or the web, you’re more efficient and effective.
Just imagine, paper with an electronic trail in one searchable archive. Simple, convenient, effective, and best of all organized!During the month of May, MyFax joins QuickBooks in the Intuit App Center in a special promotion to Get Organized. Promoting the need to improve document management and reduce paper in the office, QuickBooks customers can try MyFax risk free by visiting http://bit.ly/MyFaxGetOrganized. As an added bonus, each use of this service in May includes an automatic submission to win a Kindle. For complete terms and conditions, visit http://bit.ly/IntuitKindle
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
The trouble with paper is you can’t get organized
Are you the type of person who double-checks the mailbox slot? Checks and rechecks an address (physical or electronic) before sending? Prints fax confirmation pages? … Well, I am! You may call me a worry-wart, but the more important the communication is, the greater the likelihood I’ll wake up at 2am in a cold sweat. So why is it, whenever there’s a life altering communication like mortgage papers, license registration, or releasing a lien, it’s still paper?
Within a business context, you may be the most organized business person in the world with regular client communications, just-in-time operations, and timely billing and collections. What about the person you’re communicating with? How can you ensure that he or she received the required information at the right time (and can find it again)? As well, how do you know if the information was disseminated to other parties as needed on a timely basis? Quite, simply who received what, when is a relative unknown. This is the trouble with paper! It is by very definition an open loop that conspires against getting and staying organized. Of course, there are some interrupt driven processes to help address the paper gap like requiring signatures, but who cares if the receptionist got your letter or package if that becomes its final destination?
The business world has taken a few tentative steps away from paper, but there’s a long way to go. Faxes have long been considered legal documents, but they’re still the only electronic type communication that is! Even with the convenience of faxing compared to “snail mail”, there are still lots of annoying little details to address like, “Did the right person receive it?”, “Was it timely?”, “Was the information shared appropriately?”
Today’s technologies can help you bridge the paper gap efficiently and effectively. Continuing with the fax example, cloud computing services like MyFax bring faxing to your email, smart phone, home, and literally anywhere that’s connected to the web; requires no hardware and software; provides end-to-end electronic tracking, and gives you an electronic record to file away. Paper with an electronic trail in one workflow. Simple, convenient, effective, and best of all organized!
During the month of May, MyFax joins QuickBooks in the Intuit App Center in a special promotion to Get Organized. Promoting the need to improve document management and reduce paper in the office, QuickBooks customers can try MyFax risk free by visiting http://bit.ly/MyFaxGetOrganized. As an added bonus, each use of this service in May includes an automatic submission to win a Kindle. For complete terms and conditions, visit http://bit.ly/IntuitKindle.
Within a business context, you may be the most organized business person in the world with regular client communications, just-in-time operations, and timely billing and collections. What about the person you’re communicating with? How can you ensure that he or she received the required information at the right time (and can find it again)? As well, how do you know if the information was disseminated to other parties as needed on a timely basis? Quite, simply who received what, when is a relative unknown. This is the trouble with paper! It is by very definition an open loop that conspires against getting and staying organized. Of course, there are some interrupt driven processes to help address the paper gap like requiring signatures, but who cares if the receptionist got your letter or package if that becomes its final destination?
The business world has taken a few tentative steps away from paper, but there’s a long way to go. Faxes have long been considered legal documents, but they’re still the only electronic type communication that is! Even with the convenience of faxing compared to “snail mail”, there are still lots of annoying little details to address like, “Did the right person receive it?”, “Was it timely?”, “Was the information shared appropriately?”
Today’s technologies can help you bridge the paper gap efficiently and effectively. Continuing with the fax example, cloud computing services like MyFax bring faxing to your email, smart phone, home, and literally anywhere that’s connected to the web; requires no hardware and software; provides end-to-end electronic tracking, and gives you an electronic record to file away. Paper with an electronic trail in one workflow. Simple, convenient, effective, and best of all organized!
During the month of May, MyFax joins QuickBooks in the Intuit App Center in a special promotion to Get Organized. Promoting the need to improve document management and reduce paper in the office, QuickBooks customers can try MyFax risk free by visiting http://bit.ly/MyFaxGetOrganized. As an added bonus, each use of this service in May includes an automatic submission to win a Kindle. For complete terms and conditions, visit http://bit.ly/IntuitKindle.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Faxing provides a solution to ethical challenge for lawyers
Those of us who work in offices and exchange documents regularly often use the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word. It’s a handy way to make edits without losing the original text, just in case we want to go back to the original later.
For lawyers, though, Track Changes can present an ethical problem according to this post from the Internet Business Law Services web site. A legal document may contain all sorts of information that someone makes a decision not to share down the road. If Track Changes was used, though, it’s possible that the “hidden” data can be exposed, thus creating a potential breach of ethics and confidentiality. It doesn’t take much effort to make that happen, either.
Toward the end, the post talks about ways to prevent these potential breaches. Of course, one of the first ones listed is to fax the document instead of emailing it. A fax has no Track Changes function, so as long as you remember to accept all the changes before sending it the person on the other end can’t get at that confidential information.
Even if you’re not a lawyer, there may be things that have been removed or changed in certain documents that you don’t want to share. If that’s the case, avoid the risks. Use MyFax to send them.
For lawyers, though, Track Changes can present an ethical problem according to this post from the Internet Business Law Services web site. A legal document may contain all sorts of information that someone makes a decision not to share down the road. If Track Changes was used, though, it’s possible that the “hidden” data can be exposed, thus creating a potential breach of ethics and confidentiality. It doesn’t take much effort to make that happen, either.
Toward the end, the post talks about ways to prevent these potential breaches. Of course, one of the first ones listed is to fax the document instead of emailing it. A fax has no Track Changes function, so as long as you remember to accept all the changes before sending it the person on the other end can’t get at that confidential information.
Even if you’re not a lawyer, there may be things that have been removed or changed in certain documents that you don’t want to share. If that’s the case, avoid the risks. Use MyFax to send them.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Things you can do to help Planet Earth
It’s Earth month again. What started out back in the 1970s as a way of raising awareness about the planet and the effect we humans are having on it has now been extended to the entire month of April. Perhaps someday we’ll all think about it all the time, and every day will be Earth Day.
Until that day, it’s important for each of us to do what we can in our daily lives. Fortunately, as a user of MyFax you’re already having a positive effect. For proof, check out this special page, which shows the impact moving from fax machines to an Internet fax service can have.
Ok, that’s one thing. What other things can we all be doing to make a difference? I’d especially like to see some more ideas that not only help the planet, but make life or work easier too – the way MyFax does.
Until that day, it’s important for each of us to do what we can in our daily lives. Fortunately, as a user of MyFax you’re already having a positive effect. For proof, check out this special page, which shows the impact moving from fax machines to an Internet fax service can have.
Ok, that’s one thing. What other things can we all be doing to make a difference? I’d especially like to see some more ideas that not only help the planet, but make life or work easier too – the way MyFax does.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
