Technology For Agents

Just a quick note that the contest for a free Dropbox beta invitation has been updated with a new question.  If you’re interested in testing out Dropbox, please feel free to participate in answering a real estate question to get the next invitation.

• Our first winner, Bob Zabor, successfully answered the very first contest question to get his Dropbox beta invitation.
• A couple of days later, Jay answered our second question about the NAR Code of Ethics and is enjoying his Dropbox account at this very moment.
• Graham scored his beta invite by answering a question about the date that the NAR was officially the, well, NAR!
• Our next winner, D Hamiltion, successfully answered the question about the second president of NAR.  Alexander Sacket Taylor was the National Association of Realtors second president.
• Andersson successfully answered the year when Realtor.com was launched, which was in 1997.
• Xjs answered the question about the president of the National Association of Realtors, even though he’s already a dropbox user.  How nice of him/her!

The next question will be posted on the 25th!  Be sure to get your chance to win by answering the next question.  In the mean time, what do you think about OpenOffice?

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One of the tools I see agents using the most are the productivity tools known as Microsoft Office.  In real estate, you’re probably using Excel, Word, and Powerpoint almost every day.

Rather than having to fork over nearly $350 for the best of the best (Ultimate) version of Office 2007, why not try to get it for free?

Engadget.com is currently holding a raffle of sorts with the recent announcement of Bill Gates leaving Microsoft, and they’re offering to give away a free non-upgrade edition of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007.  That means it’s the full version; not an upgrade-only.

The winner will be chosen at random among the mass of commenters on this post.  Head over to their blog and comment on what your favorite Microsoft (or Apple) product is for your chance to win; the contest ends on Sunday so don’t be too late.

I personally love the XBox 360 and good ol’ Microsoft XP Professional.  What about you?

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Update: There are only 5 out of 10 invitations left!

Have you heard of Dropbox? This nifty tool has developed quite a buzz lately, and after personally trying it, I can see why. Not only is it intuitive and simple to use, it could possibly become my preferred online storage for the future. See my review of Dropbox here.

Since I am a beta tester, I have been gifted with 10 beta invitations that I’d like to hand out to my readers.  Rather than me just toss them in the air like a bouquet at a wedding after party, I’m going to try and get a little creative here.

Since most of my readers should be in the real estate field (or related to it), I thought it’d be nifty to ask a question.  The first person to answer the question right in a comment under this post will get a beta invitation!  Seems pretty simple; right?

I’ll post a question, then wait for the right answer in a comment.  Commenters please be sure to enter your correct email address when posting as this is the way I will send your invite.

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In 2007, two fellows by the name of Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowski had a notion that file sharing and storage was way too complicated, and that it needed to be simplified. Sounds pretty crazy, hmm? I’ve tried their solution, Dropbox, and what can I say; it’s a piece of cake.

In the real estate world, we have a ton of documentation that’s flying around the office. Buyers have residential purchase contracts and third party financing agreements. Sellers have listing agreements along with Seller Disclosures; not including revisions made to each ones.

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