Contact management software?

[jimday1982]

I was just curious as to which contact management programs some of you pros use and why. Are there any features you find paritcularly useful and/or missing?

I hear great things about ACT!, but it's so archaic looking...not to mention expensive.

Looking forward to your comments!

[TJ2007]

I'm sure there are others, but I have always found ACT great.

Starting to use ACT helped me really boost me business.

I was also suprised to see so many people in Europe using it aswell, which is great when you are doing business overseas

[jimday1982]

Great to hear, TJ, thanks!

Do you use the regular version or the one specifically tailored to real estate agents?

[Thesa]

I use to use act - but it did not merge with a lot of my other tools.... then the upgrades were too expensive - I also found that it took a long time to open due to the size of it. I switched to Top Producer Online - it has a few issues - but I was able to use it a lot easier than I expected and it is web based - that does not always mean you can open it on any computer though as I thought it would be - a lot of settings often need to be changed but once you have it running it is great - it too can be expensive with it's monthly fee - many agents in our office simply use Outlook.

[TJ2007]

I guess the regular version.

But Thesa's right that TOP Producer Is excellent.

I happen to do real estate & mortgages + so I found ACT better for that, though for a strictly Real Estate point of view Top Producer was great.
I probably haven't seen the latest upgrade but it should have many great tools for you getting started - well worth the investment.

[jimday1982]

After viewing Top Producer's monthly fees, Act! is looking more and more like a bargain.

[Thesa]

Before you spend the money on ACT you might really want to take a look at Outlook Express - you can somewhat easily "tweek" it to do a lot of things. I used it for a while before I made up my mind to use Top Producer - It works well with most PDAs and Trio type phones

I use Top Producer because it works with Microsoft Money, it works with my PDA and it is easy for me to work from home or the office and have the same exact data - I work from home 80% of the time I am doing desk stuff -

[ericbramlett]

I've always used the MS Office version of Outlook - it does everything that I need. Can I ask you guys what features ACT & Top Producer have that Outlook doesn't?

[Patrick Mc]

I used Act! through my first year in real estate, but I've been using Top Producer for a long time now and in my opinion it is worth the price. :D

I recommend checking it out.

[YourOrlando.com]

Hey jimday1982,

I have used both Act and Top Producer. Both are great programs and have things that the other doesn't. I think either will serve your needs very well. The reason I use Act now exclusively is because I felt that that would pull all the best ideas from across all industries since they are more broad based where TP is real estate only. TP has an additional monthly cost for use with handheld devices. Once you pay for ACT you are done until you want to upgrade. ACT does have a real estate version but I want to wait a little longer for them to debug it.

Good luck,
Phil

[OneFeePlus.com]

I have to place my vote for ACT because it is highly customizable and there are many addons available for it. see actaddons.com

Danny

[StuartDuPont]

there is an excellent add on to Msft Outlook. think it's called active agent.

[RobGerhart.com]

there is an excellent add on to Msft Outlook. think it's called active agent.

I was going to ask about that. I use Outlook and and very happy with it, though I would not mind it being a little more specific. Does anyone have experience with active agent.

Top Producer 7i: My main problem with it is the fact that it is online. What if there server goes down, internet is out ect? No access to information. and then there is the $30 a month....