Organizing Google Drive

If you're a Realtor getting started with Drive we can suggested structuring your folders in this way:

• Buyers - put all related docs for your buyers in sub-folders under this one.
  
  Jon Buyer - his board application, buyer sheet, a doc headquarters with his contact info and history
  
  JoanAndSamBuyers - any pieces of paper related to their process can get scanned and uploaded here.
  
• Apartments
  
  Exclusives
    201 East 21st Street Apt 6a - put all related files here including exclusive agreement, signed contract, letters etc.
  
  Prospects 
    333 East 3rd Street Apt 1 - pitch packet materials, market studies, other related stuff for sellers whom you'd like to list with you.
  
  Archived
     666 6th Avenue Apt 65 - you sold and closed this exclusive. Save the important stuff (copy of the contract, letters etc) here for future access.
  
  
• Buildings
  
  201 East 21st Street - keep stuff in here about buildings. Recent financials, tax deduction letter, blank sales and rental applications, questionnaires, appraisals etc. Do not keep scanned Offering Plans here - they are too big!
  3 Fifth Avenue - any market studies can also go in here...

• Forms
  
  Sales
    Keep blank exclusive agreements, brokerage bills etc here. 
  
  Rentals
    Blank leases, riders, credit check forms etc here.

This is a minimal outline to get you started quickly. Don't be shy about making new folders under this structure - make Google Drive work for you!

The Poor State of Real Estate Technology - or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Google

The business of Real Estate generates tons of paper. Every buyer needs a buyer sheet or notes of some kind. Every sale has a contract, building application and other forms. Rental leases need to live somewhere. One question for every Real Estate Agent: where do you keep copies of your leases and contracts? Here are some options:

• Keep the printed copies in files in the office. Many companies now have limited space for this purpose, and the future trend seems to be headed in the direction of downsizing. Also how do you access these printed copies if you're not in the office?
  
• Store them on the hard drive of your work computer.  Available space maybe less of a problem but if your computer crashes you can lose everything. And again how do you get to these files from outside the office?
  
• Store them on the company network server. This is starting to be a partial answer. There's plenty of room up there (or there should be) and if the network server has a problem backup copies have been made (or should have been). You might be able to access these files from outside the office. For larger and/or older stuff this can be a good backup option but not the best solution.
  
• Email them to yourself via the company's email. So far probably one of the better answers. Space should not be a problem and should be able to access these from outside the office easily. But is this really the most organized and efficient answer? NO.

Google Drive To The Rescue!

What is Google Drive? Google Drive is an excellent place to store all your contacts, leases, deal sheets and other paper on the internet. Think of Google Drive as a big folder you can get to from any internet connected computer in the world anytime you want. 

Why Google Drive? Among many reasons:

• Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage per user. With correct use this should be more than enough for any Realtor's business for many years. There are options to add more space - either for free or for a reasonable yearly fee.
  
• Google offers it's own versions of popular programs the business world uses like Excel, Word and Powerpoint. These are also free and easy to use. Because they are web based you can use them right in your browser from any computer. Other programs are also available either for free or at a reasonable cost. Try Pixlr - a powerful (and free for now) replacement for Photoshop.
  
• For users who feel they must stick with Microsoft Word, Excel etc Google Drive can be used to store these files in those formats. To edit these files just download them to your computer, edit them (using MS Word etc) and upload them back to Google Drive.
  
• Google Drive offers users the familiar folder concept to help organize your files for easy access later. 

How do I get Google Drive? 

If you have a Gmail account you already have access to Drive. Log into your Gmail account and look for the boxes to the right of the search bar:

Click on the icon labeled Drive and you should see something like:

From here users can create folders, upload documents to Google Drive (check out the up arrow next to Create) and start sharing stuff with others. Here's the link to Google's introduction to Drive:

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2424384?hl=en

Happy Driving!

A Brief Background...

I worked in the computer departments of several major Wall Street banks for 10 years in the 1990s. Among my duties were:

• Assisting new computer users with getting up to speed on new technology. 
• Installing new hardware and software for individuals and servers. 
• Monitoring servers to make sure they were working optimally 24 hours a day 7 days a week. 
• Writing and maintaing various computer programs to support the bank's businesses.
• Producing contingency and back up plans to keep things running when disasters happened. 

Along the way I was in a unique position to see how technology evolved during one of it's most critical periods. The world radically changed from before the use of Windows and the birth of the web right through the 1st wave of internet based applications. These advances pointed the way toward a new future. We are now living in that future and the questions about how new technology can help business are just starting to be answered.

The banks I worked for were forced by competitive forces to spend large amounts of time and money (many millions of dollars) trying to solve some critical questions:

• How to spend the resources available efficiently and reduce waste. 
• Which technologies to invest in that would avoid early obsolescence. 
• How to empower their workers and max out their productivity.
• How to connect with our customers in the most effective ways. 

During my time with these banks I was able to see what worked, what didn't and why. As an experienced real estate agent it's easy to see our industry is still at the earliest stages of understanding how to leverage technology. The companies that effectively exploit these resources will have a decisive edge and dominate. 

Welcome to AgentNotes!

The goal of this blog is to help real estate agents share helpful information to enhance their businesses. Topics will include (but not be limited to):

• Computer Technology - how to exploit this stuff without going crazy.
• Photography - how a picture can be worth a million...dollars.
• Human Resources - "Does anyone have a list of recommended Tub re-glazers? ..."
• and Other Topics - "What should I do if the listing agent won't answer my requests to show?".. and more.

Why a blog? A blog is the easiest and most open forum to share information on the internet. Using Google's Blogger service makes it fast and easy to establish a presence on the internet.

We welcome comments on all posts. Comments are moderated but only censored for their use of bad language and relevance to the topic.