I signed up for a Google Voice invite a couple of months ago and received my invitation after waiting 2-3 weeks. Google Voice is pretty awesome, in theory – like LOR, it’s “one number to rule them all.” You give out one phone number and then pick which phones you want it to ring – office, mobile, home, etc… They also allow you to choose your new number. So, after spending 3-4 hours (literally) choosing my number, I was ready to rock.
But…I don’t want to change my phone number.
The one flaw in Google Voice is that you can’t yet port a number in. So, if you’re like me and have had your current mobile number for 7+ years, you probably don’t want to go through the hassle of telling everyone that it’s changed. If you do go through the hassle of telling everyone it’s changed, then you’re going to have 2+ voice mailboxes to check until the late adapters finally remember to call your new number.
I started looking around online and found a way to “test drive” Google Voice until they allow me to port in my mobile number. If you’d like to use GV for voicemail, then take the following steps (thanks to Nokia blog for the info):
- Start off by going to your Google Voice settings, change to “display my Google Voice number,” and check “Do not Disturb.”
- Go to your phone settings (this will be a little different for everyone) and change “if busy, unanswered, and not available” to forward to your Google Voice number.
- Since your GV settings are “do not disturb” GV will automatically pick up as soon as the call is forwarded.
So what does this do for you? Basically, you get the pay features of Youmail.com for free. Since you’re now using Google, storage won’t be an issue. Also, GV has free transcription. So, if you’re using a smart phone, you can preview someone’s message to you via email before listening to it on your computer, phone, or android app. This is very handy if you’re out with clients, can’t take a call, but want to see if it’s important.
14 Comments on "Google Voice: Great for Real Estate Agents on the Go"
Just started with Google Voice. Know any good tutorials / videos for beginners?
Nice and very informative article? Share some more realted article and news for same..
Thanks
GV is really a nice effort made by Google and would be quite beneficial by cell phone users all around the globe.
Great post. I’ve been meaning to try GV. It seems so cutting edge. GV is like having a personal secretary if your a one man show like me.
Has anyone tried using the magic jack gizmo and then just forwarding that number to your cell?
I have a Google Voice account and really like it, but unlike Eric, I am not able to change my busy/call forward number on my phone. The info on the Nokia Blog, is only for Nokia phones, it isn’t universal. I’m with Sprint as my carrier and they don’t allow me to change that number, so I’m stuck with the two number/voicemail issue. So far I’ve just been using my GV number on my listings for other agents to schedule listing appointments.
I have been using google voice for about 2 months and I absolutely love it. I couldn’t think of a better way to keep track of things as they come up on the run. Great post!
Google voice is an excellent tool. They offer many options to forward calls and sometimes you can get a really easy # to remember.
I know this is new and many have tried it, but when I call someone that has it…I get some weird messages, like mailbox empty, not setup, or phone number not recognized. I hope they can work out the bugs, but I will give it a try.
Google has now worked out some sort of deal with major carriers and you can enter a code on your phone and your busy/no answer calls will roll into your Google Voice account. Check it out!
First time heared about Google Voice. Will have to Google now about some tutorials of it.
Eric, how’s your experience with Google Voice and how you rate 1 out 10? We’re a Sign company we provide Real Estate Sign and other type of sign servcies so our biggest customers comes from Real Estate Industry! It looks like very attractive as you write down in the starting of your article that it’ll rang any phone which we want, have you uploaded any tutorial about it?
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