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!