Goldmine

Goldmine was also a program I used for a while also, but they seemed as if they didn't care about the entry level customer at all and their support was sub-par so I gave up on them. They had "templates" that were industry specific (there was one for real estate and one for commercial real estate) in their program, but they weren't supported by the company, they were supported by VARs and -- they weren't supported. This seemed a curious approach - sell them as if they're part of your program, and yet when the customer calls for help - say "no, it's not our template". So out of frustration i gave up on them. In their defense the program did seem to be a fairly good one, however their support policy was wanting.

Commercial Brokers Association (CBA)

The datbase of CBA, the local multiple listing service for commercial agents here in the Seattle area, has been selected as the database format for NAR. Pretty cool - especially if they could be convinced to add contact management to it. Their property database is already quite good. It doesn't need much improvement, if any.

Robert

Act V10 Premium 2008

I recently deployed this software and really like it. It is stable, fast and seems to have much better integration with Outlook. What I don't like is the memory that is used by SQL server - it is a ton. Other than that, so far, so good.

Robert

Software I use or have used . . .

I have used Act from Sage, Marketforce from Software of the Future, Maximizer, and Realhound as well as Costar Ares 6.

There have been pluses and minuses to each of these over the years. I still believe this medium is ill-defined and in its infancy. I have a wish list that I will post and see how it compares to others.

Robert

Commercial Real Estate CRM: New Group Setup on Plaxo & New Blog

Hello fellow members of the commercial real estate group on Plaxo. I have added a new group that is specifically for those that are intersted in automation for their business; CRM (client relationship management) for commercial real estate.

You can locate it here:http://crecrm.plaxogroups.com

We will focus on what things add value and make a commercial practitioner more profitable in their brokerage business. What is good software, what is bad software, etc. Who are good vendors, who are bad vendors, etc. Note that the inclusion of bad ones will help members avoid the pitfalls of choosing to invest money, time and energy with bad ones and hopefully help them choose good vendors that really care about the profitability of their customers (commercial brokers).

Robert