Your personal technology consultant

Spend your money and time in the right places for the best results.

by Joe Poole   Ever wish you had a technology consultant to tell you where you will get your best return from a limited technology investment? As the director of information services for the Texas Association of REALTORS® and having visited with REALTORS® from all across Texas, let me help you. Here is my list of where you should start.

Updated equipment. You don’t have to purchase the latest and greatest computer or PDA, but you should have machines that will run up-to-date operating systems. If not, you will likely experience more crashes and other problems. An up-to-date OS doesn’t necessarily mean the latest version. It means one that is still supported and usually still sold in stores. If you’re running Windows 95, your OS is not up to date. If your PDA runs only Palm OS version 1, you may want to update that technology. There is no reason at today’s lower costs not to have fast, reliable equipment that can run the latest software.

High-speed connection. If you don’t have a high-speed Internet connection, this is one of the first things I would suggest–especially in the office. The time you spend waiting for your dial-up modem to connect and for longer file and Web-page downloads isn’t worth the money you’re saving. Cable modems and DSL don’t cost much more than a dedicated phone line with a dial-up connection.

E-mail address. An e-mail address people can’t remember guarantees that you will miss some opportunities. What happens when a potential client can’t e-mail you because they can’t remember your convoluted e-mail address (something like
joep0561@texasrealtors.com)? Once you find a good e-mail address, keep it! A memorable e-mail address doesn’t benefit you any more than the convoluted address if you change it every six months.

Domain ownership. You should have a Web presence by owning your own name or business- name domain. For example, if my name were Joe Agent, I would want to own JoeAgent.com and have a permanent e-mail address of joe@joeagent.com

Web site. There is no doubt that having a good Web site can help you in today’s market. However, I don’t think people realize how a badly designed or poorly functioning Web site can negatively affect business. More and more people use the Web to do all sorts of business. They know what a professional site looks like, and they expect their REALTOR® to be professional. If you don’t have the skills or can’t afford a professional-looking Web site, don’t put one up. Just keep the domain for the e-mail until you can afford a professional Web site.

Proper virus protection. It isn’t enough to install the latest version of antivirus software. That software has to be configured to protect your machine properly. It has to be set up to update virus definition files daily and scan your entire computer nightly and inspect every file you receive as you receive it. With the number of viruses out there, it is imperative that you spend some time and money making sure your computer is protected properly.

Training. As a REALTOR® you know the value of training. You take courses on a variety of topics that benefit your career. However, few REALTORS® see the direct benefit from general computer training. This training can increase your confidence with the computer and its applications, reduce your downtime when you can fix problems yourself, and help you adapt to new technologies quickly. Overall, you will increase your efficiency. If you accept the fact that the computer is an important business tool, then you should invest in training to use it.

Joe Poole is director of information services for the Texas Association of REALTORS®.

Illustration © PhotoDisc.

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