Many of you who have sat through my classes know that I’m not a big fan of professionals using free email addresses in business.

A domain name with matching email address is not expensive, and shows the public that you take your business seriously.

There are a million reasons for having a domain name and matching email addresses; we’ll cover those in another article- for now lets look at the reasons NOT to use a free email address for your business:

1. An email address that does not include your domain does not promote your website. If my email address was kgranger@gmail.com you wouldn’t know my website address, but if it was kgranger@arrangingpixels.com— instantly you could find my website.
2. Free addresses do not offer flexibility on outbound mail. Did you know that bellsouth.net and rr.com do not allow you to send email while on another network? Have you ever been on the road and your outbound mail will not send? Don’t trust your outbound messages to a “personal” email address.
3. What if you move out of a rr.com or bellsouth.com area? How would people find you if you were all of a sudden on comcast.net or embarq.net? What if you want to change from cable to sattelite? What if you want to move from your standard bellsouth connection to VoIP? If you have an email address with your home internet provider you’re obligated to stay with them or you lose your email address!
4. Yahoo and Gmail addresses arent all they are cracked up to be either. Ever wonder why Gmail still says Beta? Because they do not want responsibility for your email if they have a failure. Anyone can get a gmail or yahoo address in minutes- does that show a comittment to your clients? When I engage with a business online and they use a yahoo or gmail address I’m immediately on guard.

Purchasing a domain name can cost you as little as $10-$15 per year… and a quality hosting program can be as inexpensive as $10 per month. If you do not take your business serious enough to make this small investment- be prepared for your clients not to take you too seriously either.

An agent shared a great story with me last week on how technology has impacted his business.

He was working with some buyers from the UK when a new property came on the market the agent emailed his clients a copy of the MLS listing.  The client was interested and asked the agent to go take some additional photos, so the agent headed out to the property- technology in hand.

He took photos with his digital camera- transferred them to his laptop and emailed them to the client through his Sprint Card— he then made a Skype call to his client through the internet.  The client checked their email and they had a conversation about the property…  Pretty cool, but here’s the best part———  The client loved the property, so while they were on their Skype call the agent prepared the contract using his Adobe Acrobat and sent it to the client!   The offer was written, signed and submitted to the sellers in under 20 minutes all because of the agent’s use of technology— and the agent never left the property!

Imagine how that transaction would have been different 10 years ago!?!

Can you Imagine-

• Taking photos with a 35mm camera, going to Walmart having the film developed and sending it via Airmail to the UK
• Waiting for the client to get the photos and call you on a very expensive long distance phone call.
• The agent prepares the contract and “Faxes” it over another expensive international phone call.
• The client signs the contract and “Faxes’ it back to the US over yet ANOTHER very expensive phone call.
• The agent receives the fax and turns around and “Faxes” it again to the selling agent.
• 3 generations of faxes the selling agent faxes it over to their sellers—
• The seller signs the agreement and “Faxes” it back to the selling agent
• The Selling agent “Faxes” it back to the buyers agent
• The Buyers agent “Faxes” the fully executed contract over a very expensive phone call to the US.

Do you think all that could be done in 20 minutes???  Can you imagine if we had to throw some addendum’s in there?  WOWZERS!  How times have changed- for the good!  Embrace Technology!

For all you real estate agents who need to upload photos to the MLS, KWLS, Truilia, Boolia, and Foolia- here’s a great photo resizing tool that will resize a whole folder full of pictures in just a few seconds while keeping the originals the same. Its call PixResizer and it can be downloaded here

The tool is very small and takes just a minute to download and install.  Once you have PixResizer on your computer you can point to an individual photo you want to resize or a whole folder full of photos, then choose the desitination folder, the length of the longest side of the photo and push the button-  and Viola

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For the month of January we are happy to announce our $20.09 in 2009 promotion. You can purchase 1,000 full color business cards- full color on the front and back, with a UV coating for only $20.09 plus $9.95 shipping and handling.

To take advantage of this offer you must place your order before 1/29. Offer is not valid on previously placed orders. All artwork must be print ready. Custom Business Card Design is an additional $95.