Just curious as to what methods agents are using to maintain their list of (potential) clients? One broker told me to use Excel, but I'm wondering if there's an application out there a little more robust or geared more toward real estate.

Top Producer from what everyone tells me is the way to go!!! I personally have only played around with it under my managers username and password as I have yet to sign up on it because I am new to the business with having my license for a month only. Right now I have all my SOI in the MLS, but after I close a deal I will purchase Top Producer for the $30 a month! my 2 cents....

bambam --

The real key is use (and I mean really use) something.

You can argue the merits of each approach: Outlook, Excel, a wordprocessor, Top Producer, Agent Office, Act, etc.

But, most people dither and don't pick one. And, many of those who do don't really use it.

A real contact manager should be used to send an e-mail blast once or twice a month and a mail piece at least every month to your sphere of influence. At a minimum.

And, anyone you run into who is going to buy or sell in the future should go in and receive appropriate followup. Send them the same pieces you are sending to your sphere or, if you are ambitious, create custom pieces --- maybe postcards with that month's mls stats.

Last, mail or email are not enough. You should call everyone in your list AT LEAST once a quarter. Ask them how they are doing. Pose the question: Do they know anyone who is looking to buy and sell? If they do, can you use their name when you contact the prospect? In today's Do Not Call List, run the phone numbers through the DNC database. But, Call the others and anyone you've had recent contact.

If you do the above, you will be head and shoulders above most of your competitors.

Top Producer hands down. There are so many useful options. $30 a month well worth it, especially if you have 2 computers. No need to sync or have duplicate dataases. Now with the Blackberry interface you have complete access to your clients where ever you travel throughout your day.

Stephen Winters
http://www.StephenWinters.ca

Microsoft Outlook with Business contact manager is great. I hate Top Producer, personally, lame OLD SCHOOL letters expensive to operate and a third party has your database on their servers!

Also I think email blasts are SPAM! People hate them. If your going to send something to your SOI make it personal and individual.

MS Outlook 2003 or newer can be an effective system (without the business contact manager) to manage contacts, prospects, listings and transactions.

The value is in the ability to take a prospect from that status into a client status and keep tracking their transaction and the tasks involved in it.

When Top Producer shelved their broker product, now only one person can log in at a time, the value there is to the individual but not to a team or brokerage. For teams or brokerages, there are intranet solutions that bring it all together for sharing contacts, calendars, documents and tasks.

I love Top Producer, even though, yes, the template letters included are horrible. But I use Top Producer for contact management, contract management, as well as keeping me on track with my SOI commitments.

I like the fact that it's managed off my computer, so that I can access my up-to-the-minute data on any computer.