Computer Tips June 1995
Ron Sodos
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Email or electronic mail is an incredibly efficient way to stay in contact.
Most large businesses (single or multiple office) use Email to communicate
between employees. Even the most high priority messages can be initiated
through Email. In the real estate business however, we seem reluctant to
use this form of communication. Here in Albuquerque we have a mail system
in Stellar that could accomodate our Email needs very well. It is a simple
to use, personal mail system that uses our Public ID as the Email address.
For example my Email address is RONSODOS which is also my Public ID. If
any of you would like to send me hate mail, feel free to do so. I welcome
it. All you have to do is type MAILS at the ENTER SELECTION: prompt or
enter the numbers 10 to enter the mail menu and 1 when you are in the mail
menu. Type I for Individuals and the Public ID when it asks you to. That
is as difficult as it gets. When you want to read personal mail you type
MAILRP at the prompt or 4 in the mail menu.Why real estate people are so
resistant to this sort of technology is beyond me. I see the future as
such. I come in to the office and the first thing I do is check my Email.
There are 8 messages waiting. 3 of them are agents asking for feedback
on properties I showed. The others are agents I am involved in transactions
with. Messages like "We are ok on the termite inspection on a property"
and "Call me we have a problem with the roof on a property". This seems
so much more efficient than playing phone tag all week long. Why can't
we operate this way? The whole world of business is already doing it.
My wife worked at Blue Cross and BlueShield of NM from 1983-1991 and she
tells me this kind of Email system was in place then. Messages would go
back and forth between Albuquerque and Denver hundreds of times a day.
In my most recent class as I was teaching the Email system we have in
Stellar, one of the students commented that women, (as opposed to men)
need personal communication. They need to chat with each other and stay
in close contact. Another one of my students commented that everytime
she gets a personal message on Stellar it is usually garbage. Therefore
she tends to not even read her personal mail. Whether either of these
comments has any validity or not is not for me to decide. In my opinion,
I feel that none of you as salespeople would disagree if I say time is
a truly precious commodity. Anything that saves us time is valuable.
Email is an amazing time saver and I hope our real estate community will
see that in the not too distant future.I would like to announce to those
of you who have continued to support my efforts as a computer instructor,
and to those of you who enjoy the Windows environment, that I have been
writing a class for Windows. This class will include some of the basic
Windows functions as well as Altaira and other programs. Watch in the
next few months for more announcements. Also I will be teaching my 6
credit Advanced and Automated Functions class in September at the
Education Fair at the Board. Of course watch in the Professional
Education flyers and on the computer for the classes. CompuServe and
America Online as well as some of the other online services offer an
Email that is absolutely incredible. What you are able to do is attach
files to your mail. This means that you can capture a listing from Stellar
(Altaira cannot do this yet) and send it to anyone who has an address on
the service. For example, I have taken listings as well as photos from
StellarVision or Altaira and Emailed them to prospective buyers in other
parts of the country or the world. It is incredibly easy to take a listing
and a picture, attach it to Email and send it accross the world in seconds.
The best part is that this is a local phone number so there is no long
distance charge. There is of course, the monthly fee of approximately
$10 or so for being a member of the service. One thing I truly enjoy in
Altaira is the ability to easily convert a photo to a compatible file
format so that the user at the other end can look at the picture without
having any type of special software. I combine this ability with some of
the graphics programs that I have and can edit or convert these pictures
to different file formats. One of these file formats is a self executable
file that requires no software at all to view the picture. The PC at the
other end only needs DOS to view the photo. The other function I use is
I ZIP the file if I am sending a large file with many pictures, so that
the file transfer doesn't take too long. For those of you who have
interest in some of these procedures and are not familiar, you are welcome
to call me and get started in your education.
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