"You've Got to Be Organized"

Name: Gary Schenk, SIOR

Company: The Schenk Co.; Columbus, Ohio

System: ACT!

For 20 years, Schenk has relied on real estate-specific software from ACT! to keep him organized and on target. “You’ve got to be organized and a system like this makes it so much easier," he says. He use ACT’s varied features to stay on top of all 2,000 contacts in his database.

"Whatever I need to know is there and easy to find," he says. "I can e-mail right from the program, add notes when we talk, and easily pull up reports on whatever I want to know."

"Everything I Need Is Always Right With Me"

Name: Kathleen Murray

Company: Realty Executives Mohave; Kingman, Ariz.

System: Real Estate Success Tracker

"My contact manager is my book of business," says Murray, who feels her data is most secure when she has it saved in a software-based product installed on her laptop, not a Web-based server. After shopping around, she chose Real Estate Success Tracker.

"There was a one-time charge for buying it so I’m not paying any monthly fee,” she says. “The people who developed it understand [the real estate business] are not in the computer business, and they’ve made it very easy to set up and use. Everything I need, it’s always right there with me.”

"To Get Referrals, You Need a Database"

Name: Nancy Patrie

Company: Duckworth, Morris, Garrison Real Estate; Tuscaloosa, Ala.

System: RealFuture CRM

The fact that RealFutureCRM, made by Adigida Solutions, is free made it easy for Patrie to sign up for the Web-based software. As managing broker, she’s hoping the cost and ease of use will prompt her sales associates to follow her lead. To date, eight of 30 have. "I keep telling everyone how important contact management is, and we’re really going to push it in the new year,” she says.

Key benefits, she cites: It helps organize data, ensures information is always current, and simplifies the planning and launching of direct mail and e-mail marketing campaigns.

"The real selling point is a system like this will help you make more money,” Patrie says. "Referrals are a No. 1 source of business. To get referrals you’ve got to have a database, know who the people are who can help you, and keep in touch. It seems the agents who sell the most are already doing things this way.”

"It's Simple, Basic, and All I Need"

Name: Barbara Eichmuller, e-PRO

Company: Charles Reinhart Co., Ann Arbor, Mich.

System: Microsoft Outlook

Eichmuller worked with more sophisticated contact management solutions in the past. She prefers the intuitive simplicity of Microsoft Outlook. “It’s just a lot less complicated,” she says. "It just doesn’t make sense to me to spend my time entering all this information into a computer when I can write it down on the front of a file folder."

Synched with her phone, Outlook gives her quick access to essential contact information and calendar reminders on when to call clients. “It’s simple, basic and that’s all I need.”

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