As MyTechOpinion’s resident hardware guru, Chad is always on the lookout for the latest and most innovative gadgets. Constantly keeping the technology needs of real estate agents in mind, Chad offers readers sound advice for purchasing and maintaining computer equipment. Chad Johnson is the founder of Draven Creation Web Design and Consultation. Through Draven Creation, Chad partners with real estate agents to build a strong and profitable Internet presence. Specializing in the implementation of Wordpress websites, Draven Creation builds custom sites that represent the unique offerings of the real estate agent, while always keeping the needs of the website visitors in mind.

About Chad A. Johnson

                 

Below are a few recent posts by Chad A. Johnson:

• 10 Reasons a Real Estate Agent Should Upgrade to Office 2007, 27 Jun 2007
• Blackberry Messenger: Helping Real Estate Teams Communicate, 23 Jun 2007
• Digital Picture Frames for Real Estate, 07 Jun 2007
• Zipform Desktop Is Now Vista Compatible, 14 May 2007
• Is an Apple Smart Real Estate Technology?, 21 Apr 2007
• Cingular’s Wireless Connectivity Speeds Finally Catch Up, 14 Apr 2007
• Let’s Talk Google Apps, 01 Apr 2007
• Hosted Exchange Email for Your Real Estate Business, 18 Mar 2007
• The New Blackberry 8800: Not Just For Work, 25 Feb 2007
• Need a Computer Now, But Can’t Run Windows Vista?, 12 Feb 2007
• Real Estate Agents: Windows Vista Isn’t a Good View for You, Yet., 04 Feb 2007

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10 Reasons a Real Estate Agent Should Upgrade to Office 2007

By Chad A. Johnson · June 27, 2007 · 10 Comments 

It is almost unfortunate that Microsoft released Office 2007 on the same day of the release of Windows Vista. In the technology shadow of the massive juggernaut, Office received little attention. While I am impressed by Vista, it is the advancements that Microsoft has made in the latest version of Office that really blows me away. These changes are significant enough for me to whole-heartedly recommend Office 2007 to real estate agents, no matter what version of Microsoft Office they are currently using.

The most obvious change (and the one most talked about) is the addition of the new user interface called the “Ribbon”. While I think that the idea of changing the menu options based on your current activity is brilliant, I would like to look beyond the obvious to the smaller features and tweaks. Those little things that you wished Office always had and now does.

While I couldn’t possibly cover all of these new features, I have put together a list of 10 features that has made my life easier and more productive.

1. Save as PDF – The PDF file format is gaining more and more importance in the real estate industry and now you can save your Office files directly as a PDF, no additional software required.
2. Email Merge in Publisher – Email marketing is becoming a standard marketing channel in the real estate industry. Publisher 2007 has now made it easier to send full cover email campaigns to your past client base by adding email merge capability. You can now personalize each email and send it without relying on the BCC field.
3. Indexed Searches in Outlook – Outlook has always had a Find feature, but it has been painfully slow. Searches in Outlook 2007 are virtually instantaneous. Your search keywords are even highlighted in the search results. I would have upgraded just for this feature!
4. Easier Pivot Tables – I am a statistics junky. I love to analyze market activity to find trends. I use pivot tables in Excel to create dynamic tables and charts. The new Excel finally makes creating pivot tables an intuitive process. The pivot charts that it creates look so good that you will want to include them in all of your listing presentations and marketing materials.
5. Context Checking – There? Their? They’re? I often forget which one to use. The new context checking ability in Word will put a blue underline on any word that it feels is misused. I love technology that makes me look smarter.
6. Post to Your Blog From Word – You know that blogging is here to stay when Microsoft incorporates it into Word. You can now publish a post directly from Word to your blog. Why would you want to do this? Think, active spelling, grammar and context checking.
7. Smart Art in Powerpoint – This is so cool that you have to try it. Take a list of bullet points in Powerpoint and turn them into a chart with a click. Use this and your listing presentation will jump to the next level of professionalism.
8. Text Formatting Menu – Right-click on any text and find a formatting menu pop up. No longer do you need to venture off to the top menu to change the font or size of text. This menu as to be using my wrist fatigue.
9. Conditional Formatting in Excel – In college, a professor showed us how to use convoluted formulas to change the background colors of cells in Excel based on the cell’s value. With Excel 2007, you just need to highlight the cell(s), click Conditional Formatting and make a selection. Try this to color code a spreadsheet of listings. Color code listings that sold below asking price in one color and those above as another color. Once you do this, you will see market trends without even putting your glasses on.
10. Graphs that Impress – All I can say is “WOW”! Recreate a graph that you made in a previous version of Office in Office 2007 and get blown away. You will look like a professional graphic artist to your clients.

I’m sure that I missed many indispensable new Office features. If you can think of one, leave a comment telling us about it. We’d love to hear why you think Office 2007 has made your real estate business more efficient.

Tips on Using Microsoft Office 2007 for your real estate business.

View microsoft Office 2007 Video Promotion

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Blackberry Messenger: Helping Real Estate Teams Communicate

By Chad A. Johnson · June 23, 2007 · 1 Comment 

Blackberry devices are a great way for real estate teams to communicate. Having the ability to send and receive emails from anywhere adds an additional channel of communication that previously was limited to the home or office.

There is one noticeable downside to email communication via Blackberry, unless you have invested in a technology called Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), you may experience as much as a 15-minute lag in the sending and receiving of emails. This lends itself to the possibility of a 30 minute timeframe for an email to be sent and a reply to be received. I have seen real estate teams try to overcome this shortfall through the use of PIN messages. This is a fairly decent alternative technology, but really doesn’t amount to much more than a fancy text message (SMS).

A great technology solution for instant communication is the Blackberry Messenger. This instant messenger program allows real estate agents using such Blackberry models as the Pearl, 8800, and 8300(Curve) to chat as they would using any of the more familiar desktop computer instant messaging programs (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger). Chat with everyone in your team simultaneously with no delay in transmission. You can even send files and voice notes using the Blackberry Messenger.

If you are not a fan of the Blackberry Messenger, you might be interested in the Yahoo Messenger for Blackberry and Google Talk for Blackberry.

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Digital Picture Frames for Real Estate

By Chad A. Johnson · June 7, 2007 · 2 Comments 

With the real estate industry being so visually driven, what better than a simple, portable way to display digital photos?

Digital frames are small LCD screens (usually 6-10 inches diagonally) disguised as a standard picture frame. Pictures can be transferred via USB connection or by inserting the memory card from your digital camera into the onboard card reader. Once loaded with pictures, the photographs are then displayed as a running slideshow. Some models even come with a remote control to make navigation a snap.

Think of the possibilities for the use of such a device in the real estate world. When at open houses, display photos as other homes for sale. At the office, promote agents and their listings by scrolling through office listings and agent photos. On your desk, highlight all of your past listings. The applications are endless.

The thing I like most about this is the way that it doesn’t appear technical. Yes, you could always display images on your laptop, but many people have an aversion to technology. The digital frames have the familiarity of a normal picture frame with the novelty of the slideshow capability. The way digital frames flew off the shelves at Christmas, even non-technical people had to have shown interest in them.

Check out this great selection of digital frames at Amazon.com.

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Zipform Desktop Is Now Vista Compatible

By Chad A. Johnson · May 14, 2007 · 2 Comments 

The wait is over for users of Zipform Desktop (a.k.a. Winforms Desktop). The program is now Vista compatible. For real estate agents who use Windows Vista computers, go to this site to download the 5MB Zipform Desktop Version 1.9 Upgrade.

For those real estate agents in California, the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) website currently has version 1.8 of their Winforms branded Zipform Desktop available. For a fresh install on a Vista computer, download and install the version 1.8 from the C.A.R. site and then download and install the patch mentioned above.

Real estate professionals using Zipform Online will still need to be patient. That product‘s Vista upgrade is still in the works. See our previous article on the Zipform Online Vista work-around.

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Is an Apple Smart Real Estate Technology?

By Chad A. Johnson · April 21, 2007 · 4 Comments 

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Cingular’s Wireless Connectivity Speeds Finally Catch Up

By Chad A. Johnson · April 14, 2007 · 2 Comments 

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Let’s Talk Google Apps

By Chad A. Johnson · April 1, 2007 · 2 Comments 

After posting my article on the benefits of Outlook Exchange hosting for the real estate professional, I got a great comment asking, “Why not use Google Apps?” This question really made me think. We here at MyTechOpinion.com are huge Google fans. I have become addicted to my personalized Google homepage and love my Gmail account. While these tools have improved my personal computing life, let’s take a look at Google’s offerings from the perspective of a real estate agent’s business needs.

Google is in the first stages of a new push towards becoming a leading business applications provider. In fact, they have recently announced a partnership with IBM to develop enterprise applications starting with an intranet search tool.

Google Apps is a compilation of several existing Google applications with the addition of some new offerings. These applications include Gmail (email), Google Talk (text and voice calling), Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets (a Microsoft Word and Excel alternative), and Google Page Creator (web page publishing). Google has also added domain name hosting, allowing you to use the Gmail application without an @gmail.com email address.

Google Apps is a very impressive package. Yet, I am not convinced that this is a great option for a real estate agent. While Gmail and Google Calendar have some great functionality, they fall short on contact management and smart phone synchronization is limited. I have played around with Google Docs & Spreadsheets and am amazed at what Google has accomplished with this application, but it isn’t robust enough to replace my beloved Microsoft Office (think of functionality like mail merge). Google Page Creator does make web page creation easy, but are you a real estate agent or a webmaster? Focus on selling homes and pay a professional to build your website.

Feature comparisons aside, the most important issues are that of reliability and support. InfoWorld.com ran an article here this past week discussing problems with service outages. According to their article, Prudential Preferred Properties, a Chicago based real estate firm with about 500 agents, experienced a several hour period recently where email service was unavailable. That type of service disruption can prove to be quite costly to a real estate agent or in this case, the entire brokerage.

With regards to support, phone support and uptime guarantees are only available to Premier Edition users. Premier Edition accounts cost $50 per user, per year. Standard Edition (free) users are limited to online support that includes user discussion groups, email and knowledge base access.

Relying solely on online applications adds another potential problem. If your Internet connection goes down, you are in the dark. With no access to your calendar, you could miss an important appointment.

When it comes to my business, downtime means lost opportunity. I would much rather spend a little bit more to have tools and services that I can rely on. Until Google Apps or another alternative can prove themselves over time, I am going to continue to use Outlook Exchange hosting, Microsoft Office applications, and a dedicated web host and recommend this for real estate professional, as well.

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Hosted Exchange Email for Your Real Estate Business

By Chad A. Johnson · March 18, 2007 · 5 Comments 

These days, it is difficult to find a real estate agent that works on only one computer or who doesn’t work with an assistant or in a team. For those of you who fit that description, you have probably found that you have outgrown the standard configuration of Outlook. Your contacts, calendar and tasks are on only one computer. Other computers that you use don’t have that information and you are unable to share that information with teammates or an assistant. The good news is that it is now easy to overcome these limitations.

Outlook Exchange is a server based version of Outlook. All contacts, calendar events tasks and emails are stored on a server. The user then configures their standard Outlook software to communicate with that server. This means that you can have the exact same Outlook data on multiple computers with no additional effort.

For times that you need to access your Outlook data when away from your computer, you can access your server’s Outlook Web Access (OWA) page from any Internet capable computer. OWA gives you full access to your data with most of the functionality of the Outlook program. This can be a real savior when on vacation. I accessed my OWA page from a coffee shop in Italy and was able to respond to an urgent client email.

For real estate agents working in a team or with an assistant, Outlook Exchange adds collaborative features that you will wonder how you ever lived without. Share contacts and calendars with teammates. Invite teammates to appointments and have the time blocked off on their calendar. Store Microsoft Office files in public folders so that everyone can find them (think marketing materials).

Other value-added functionality includes auto-reply capabilities for times that you are out of town or in conferences, and the ability to sync your Outlook data with any Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.0 smartphone (see my posting on smartphone options for real estate agents).

Up until recently, only large corporations could afford the high cost of Outlook Exchange implementation. This has changed due to the numerous Outlook Exchange hosting services that have popped up. My personal favorite is a company called 1and1.com. They offer Outlook Exchange hosting for $6.99 a month per user. What really differentiates 1and1.com from the competition is the storage place that they offer. Most Outlook Exchange hosting services offer a miniscule 100 MB per user. 1and1.com offers 1 GB of storage per user (10 times the space).

1and1.com offers free domain names and Outlook software with your subscription. Most real estate agents that I have set-up on this service have their domain name tied to their website hosted on a different server. There is an easy solution to this. You can have your emails automatically forwarded from your website host to your 1and1.com account. You then configure your 1and1.com account to send emails with your email address as the “from” address.

Give this service a try. 1and1.com offers a 90 day money back guarantee, so there is no risk. Once you experience the added functionality, you will appreciate Outlook much more and will never go back to a standard POP3 Outlook configuration again.

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The New Blackberry 8800: Not Just For Work

By Chad A. Johnson · February 25, 2007 · 5 Comments 

The Blackberry 8800 is simply the best device that RIM has ever put out. While Blackberrys have always been the hands down leader in push email technology, they have been lacking the additional functionality that has become commonplace on other smartphones (such as the Treo or Q). The Blackberry 8800 changes all of this.

The Blackberry 8800 is sleek. With its glossy finish and shiny chrome trim, the device seems more like a Motorola Q in my hand than any of my past 3 Blackberrys. The 8800 includes a media player. This turns your Blackberry into a music and video player. The MicroSD card expansion slot can accommodate up to a 2GB memory card (1GB cards are available for less than $20). Voice-dialing has been a standard function on my cell phones for years, but has been absent from the Blackberry line until now. GPS is also added through the integration of the Telenav software package (this is a paid subscription service).

One of the most notable changes, especially to a longtimet Blackberry user, is the omission of the classic Blackberry scroll wheel. This navigation device has been replaced by a trackball located in the center of the phone. This trackball is flanked by the traditional escape button (normally found on the side, below the scroll wheel) and a new menu button. While this is taking me some getting used to, this new way of navigating through the Blackberry’s applications and menus seems to be more intuitive. The Blackberry newbie won’t experience this transition period.

For those familiar with Blackberrys, you may be saying to yourself that all of these features have been available on the Blackberry Pearl for several months. While the Pearl shares all of the great new features and adds a camera, which is sadly absent from the 8800, the lack of a full QWERTY keyboard keeps the Pearl from being a good business solution. Try writing a couple of emails on the “SureType” keyboard and you will agree.

If you are in the market for a smartphone, the Blackberry 8800 is the best business device with personal life functionality that I have come across. It is only available from Cingular at this point. Cingular was also the first to adopt the Blackberry 8700, but Verizon and Sprint finally came along with the 8703, so it probably is just a matter of time for them with the 8800.

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Need a Computer Now, But Can’t Run Windows Vista?

By Chad A. Johnson · February 12, 2007 · 3 Comments 

I have found myself in a bit of a predicament these last few weeks. Occasionally I’m approached by a real estate agent for recommendations on what computer to purchase. Up until recently, I have always had an answer for them. This all changed with the introduction of Windows Vista. As I discussed in my recent posting, “Real Estate Agents: Windows Vista Isn’t a Good View for You, Yet.”, it would be ill-advised to recommend a computer running Windows Vista to a real estate agent at this point in time. It could take months for all of the programs that a real estate agent relies on to become Vista compatible. There are still options of purchasing a Windows XP machine. Dell and HP are continuing to offer Windows XP on their business series computers. You can also find remaining inventory of Windows XP computers in local electronic stores. Recommending this option is difficult for me, though, since Windows XP is a 5 year old operating system. Why purchase dying technology? You could always upgrade to Vista on one of these machines once compatibility issues have been resolved. The upgrade would be a costly endeavor in both time and money. I have run across a solution to this recent dilemma. Polywell Computers (http://www.polywell.com/), an award-winning computer builder based out of South San Francisco, is offering to install both Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same computers. This is what is known as a “dual-boot” machine. Upon starting the computer, you are given the choice of working in Windows XP or Vista. Having a dual-boot machine gives you the best of both worlds. You can continue to run your real estate business on Windows XP and slowly acclimate yourself to Windows Vista. Once all of your programs are updated to run smoothly on Vista, you can simply phase-out your use of XP. If this solution sounds good to you, keep these 2 things in mind. First, you will be purchasing 2 operating systems, so your computer will cost you about $200 more than a single-boot system. Second, don’t skimp on hard drive space, since you will be actually splitting your hard drive in half. Additional hard drive space is cheap these days, so this shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

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Real Estate Agents: Windows Vista Isn’t a Good View for You, Yet.

By Chad A. Johnson · February 4, 2007 · Leave a Comment 

The wait is finally over. Microsoft has finally released its replacement for the aging Windows XP operating system. You may be wondering if you should go out and purchase a new computer running this highly publicized new operating system or purchase an upgrade. My advice to you is keep waiting.

There are 2 main reasons to NOT purchase Vista at this time. The first is related to hardware compatibility. Every component of a computer needs software, called drivers, to work properly and these drivers are operating system specific. Not all hardware has stable drivers available for Vista as of yet. In fact, Reggie Nicolay (my fellow blogger) and I are ready to purchase new home machines running Vista (we are keeping Windows XP on all of our business machines), but the manufacturer is having driver issues so we are waiting as well.

The second reason to NOT purchase Vista at this time has to do with software compatibility. While main stream software companies seem to be reasonably prepared for Vista, it is going to take weeks, if not months, for real estate and lending software companies to update their products for Vista. In my area, 2 invaluable programs (Winforms and our MLS) are not Vista compatible. Without those tools, an agent couldn’t do business.

If you are in the market for a new computer…

Hold off if you can. If you are in a situation where you need a new computer, purchase one with Windows XP installed and get an “Express Upgrade” coupon for Vista. Many computer manufacturers are still offering XP on machines and there are still many machines in stock at your local big-box store with XP loaded.

The Express Upgrade coupon is available for any computer purchased since October. Those coupons can be redeemed for a free upgrade copy of Vista (usually with a $10 shipping charge). The catch is that they must be redeemed by March 31st of this year. So if you bought a computer in that timeframe, dig out that coupon, send it in and then hold on to the Vista upgrade disc until the dust settles.

If you are considering upgrading…

What’s the rush? From what I have read, there aren’t many features that are going to enhance your real estate business, but the time you waste dealing with incompatibilities will definitely take away from your productivity.

Only consider an upgrade to Vista if the computer is relatively new (look for a Windows Vista Capable sticker on the machine) or if you got an Express Upgrade coupon with your machine. Even then you need to do your homework before you move forward with the installation. Contact the manufacturer of the machine to determine if compatible drivers are available and how to get them. That isn’t too difficult and those types of problems should be solved soon. You will also need to identify all of the programs that you rely on and determine if they are Vista compatible. This can usually be found out by visiting the software manufacturer’s website.

The lure of a new operating system can be tempting, especially for those of us with an affinity towards technology, but we can’t lose site of our objectives. If you are a real estate agent, your objective is to sell houses, not invest hours to overcome technical issues. Keep life simple and let others be the guinea pigs for Vista.

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