So many agents that I encounter, struggle with having a basic understanding of the cloud based systems. This is an Amy analogy of the foundational apps & what they represent for me in my work flow.

Here is what I compare my foundational cloud based Apps, I chose to work with when I went paperless years ago.

An average day in the life of Amy, the REALTOR with paper….As a practicing Broker/Agent of 20 years, the old way I use to practice revolved around paper intensive files. Manilla folders were for my prospects, that I threw all paper work in it and scribbled all over the outside of the folder. Sound familiar? Then if they became an executed listing or executed contract, then they were put in the a nice Real Estate gray folder with brads & tabs separating everything. I would even cut up the manilla folder and punch holes in it to put in my gray folder as a risk management tool. Then I had my handy dandy 5 subject notebook to write my to-do lists, notes about prospects,clients, passwords, sticky notes from my desk, counter offers, etc. If I lost that notebook, I do believe I would of had major heart palpitations.  Every day, I would take my paper laden thick Active & Pending files from my vertical wire rack off my desk and move it to my briefcase.  Once I closed them in MLS, then I would take them out of my briefcase and put them in my upright legal file cabinet or in a bankers box. At the end of the year, the bankers boxes would go in to the attic for my record management.  To back up my database, I use to use 3 1/4 floppies, then DVD’s, then external hard drives so I could recreate my hard drive if it failed. Some of you may still be employing these tactics.

My work flow is still the same, except it is paperless and in the cloud. To replace my spiral notebook, Evernote to the rescue. (See more about how to use Evernote in those tutorials) Dropbox became my briefcase. I would move files from my Documents folder on my PC to Dropbox (moved them out of the wire vertical rack into my briefcase). Once the file was closed, I would move it out of DropBox to my PC. I did this so I did not have to pay for DropBox as well as to see if I liked it.  Then I have Carbonite back up my whole C:drive on my computer instead of utilizing external hard drives, which I always forgot to plug in to back up. Carbonite is my “attic” of old files.  This is an easy way to understand the cloud and how they play a role in your business.

Once I started the detox from paper process, I now utilize DropBox as a place to store my files instead of My Documents/Document on my laptop. Everything goes straight to DropBox. I willingly pay for DropBox. Why did I pick DropBox for Google Drive? See another post about that one.