Which is better?

not sure what you are asking.

Ok well how about this.... Is Top producer or Agent office a better agent contact database?

I use top producer. I was one of those people that relied on "stick-it" notes..Bad idea! Top producer helps me keep track of every client, every conversation I have with them, as well as having a fantastic follow up program. Graphics are a little out of date, but the program itself is great. As far as agent office goes, I have no idea.

I had TP for about 3 months and I never got used to it and at $40 a month I got rid of it and got started with AO.

I barely used it for another 6 months, but I spent the $200 one time fee and it hung around.

Now AO is my life.

I would use AO at first until you become deadicated to use it... then if you feel that TP offers some better features that you'll use move up and deal with the monthly expense.

I started with TP & then went to AO because it was free. I hate it. I like TP much better.

I absolutely love TP. It's worth way more than the $40 a month I pay. I didn't really see what all the fuss was about until I took a 1/2 day class and saw everything it could do for me.

I now use TP for all my contacts, but also for listings, closings, listing presentations and about 100 more things.

I've heard of some agents using just MS office for their database needs. Anyone know anyone who does this, and how does it work for them?

You can use Outlook and MS Word quite effectively as contact management, transaction management and marketing tools. There are ways to customize Outlook contact screens with real estate-related fields and some really effective ways to get large blocks of transaction tasks into Outlook via spreadsheet input.

They don't seem to like links here to my instructional pages, I assume because those pages have links to product. You can email me and I'll send you the pages where you can find free helpful instructions.

Try a program called Time & Chaos.
Great and cheap.

www.isbister.com/chaos32.html
(no affiliation)

Here's another one....anyone here use agent oraganizer?