Technology For Agents

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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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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An agent recently visited with me as he was extremely frustrated that Zipform Desktop wasn’t playing nice with Windows Vista.  It seems that many programs have slight issues coping with the changes that Vista brought to the table, but I’m happy to say that we found a solution to his problem.  Perhaps this will help you?

Zipform Desktop Vista users may notice after installing the program that you’re taken to a foreign screen; asking for things like codes or passwords.  This is an admin configuration area that’s not actually meant to be seen by consumers, but the fix is pretty easy.

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Ryan Paul over at Arstechnica reported yesterday that the big campaign to have everyone download Firefox 3 was a resounding success.  Their goal was a mere 5 Million downloads.  The actual numbers hit were around 8, that’s EIGHT, million downloads of the awesome browser known as Firefox 3.

I was one of many who downloaded the browser and I’m certainly impressed.  Faster load times and session restoration (if you’re browser somehow closes then the pages you were on will usually come back) are a couple of the big changes that went into place.

In regards to making entry into the Guiness Book of World Records, Ryan had this to say:

I also asked Dotzler some questions about the process through which Mozilla’s download day statistics will enter the Guinness World Records. The server logs and download information will be given to an independent review board consisting of Corey Shields and Paul Vixie, which will then conduct a thorough audit, weed out duplicate and incomplete downloads, and determine an exact number. The download day event, which was orchestrated by Mozilla’s global marketing team, has been one of Mozilla’s most successful awareness campaigns to date.

Looks like time will tell; though server reports should be pretty concrete evidence that the record has been broken.  Great job to the Firefox 3 team!

If you’ve downloaded Firefox 3, what do you think?

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One of the ways you can sign contracts using your Tablet PC is using a piece of software named PDF Annotator.  I’ve personally used this to have my clients sign contracts to buy and sell real estate, so give it a shot!

You don’t need to have a tablet PC per say, but a tablet component to your computer is a necessity.  Here is a selection of writing components you can attach to any laptop to enable the ability to digitally sign your contracts.

I love it when developers keep their products fresh and up to date, and PDF Annotator 2 comes with a bunch of nifty new features.

• Page Manager
• Toolbox
• Stamps
• Bookmark Manager
• Auto-Smooth (smooths out hand drawn lines to be perfect)
• Enhanced Full Screen Mode
• Enhanced Text Search
• Continuous View
• Pan Mode
• Page Navigation
• Enhanced Menu/Toolbars
• Enhanced Text Box Styles
• Enhanced Rendering Engine

Existing users can purchase a single license update for $34.95, but new users will have to pay the standard $69.95.

Update: PDF Annotator does not currently support Apple products.

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