Your office can and needs to be virtual, technology makes this easy.  One thing that this article did not mention is communication, people expect instant communication these days, and they demand it from the people that support their most important decisions. The best realtors I know have excellent communication skills and understand the importance of good communication. We need to make sure that anyone who tries to get in touch with us can do so when they want to.  Have you ever asked your clients, which communication method do you prefer?  E-Mail, Phone Calls, IM’s, Text Messages?

Wi-Fi, The best thing to networking since high speed internet?

When most of us think about a computer or the cost of it, we rarely think about or pay attention to how sensitive our data is, or how costly it would be if that information fell into the wrong hands.  I challenge you to think of just how much sensitive information about yourself and your clients is stored in your PC.  Do you do online banking or shopping?  Have you sent a credit card over e-mail to a friend or client?  Most of you would say yes to some degree.

Yahoo, MSN, Google, ICQ, AOL, Text Messaging and other IM programs are perfect for business situations.  Consider having instant communication with co-workers and clients instead of that elusive e-mail send and receive campaign.  A recent study has shown that more experienced internet users are checking e-mail less often. (see article here)  As an internet and IT professional, I'm always looking for information to help my clients get the most out of their technology, and after reading this recent article from Techdirt, I started to think about how I communicate with my clients, friends and family.  Most of my friends and family have an instant stream of communication with me VIA instant messaging, either texting or IM's to my computer or cell phone, but I haven't opened this communication tool to my business clients.  Why was I missing the boat on this?