This Post is for Tablet Users and the programs, tips or tricks they use to eventually turn their Real Estate Business into a paperless business!

Top 5 Tablets:

1. HP Pavilion tx2500z (Can be had for under $800)

2. Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PC (Can be had for under $1300) "my fav"

3. Dell Latitude XT (Can be had for $800 on Dell's Refurb site)

4. Toshiba Portege M700

5. HP Pavilion tx2000


The Questions for tablet users:

What type of tablet do you have?

What contact programs do you use? ex. outlook, top producer, the redx, etc...

What programs do you use that utilize the tablet function for your real estate business?

What form software do you use to have your clients sign your real estate contracts?

Do you feel your tablet has improved your business and help streamline it?

I have an HP TX1300 (about $1300 when new). Would have been happy with it except I had to replace the motherboard, heatsink, fan, and wireless card within 6 months of ownership - at that point had to make a decision to either send it out to HP for Warranty Service and buy another one to last the 2 weeks it would be out OR have HP send the parts, void the remaining warranty, and I pay a local guy to install (or do it myself). I don't like that arrangement. My previous laptop (a Sony) had in-home service within 24 hours - I had a full screen replacement done in-warranty within 24 hours from the time I called Sony...THAT is a useful warranty to have...

I use outlook, top producer (but really don't make good use of it at this point).

I use journal notewriter for signing documents which I then convert into PDF for fax/email/storage.

I love the idea of using the tablet to sign documents...but the majority of my customers are just much more comfortable with paper and the time it takes to explain the process, how it works, why it's OK to not have paper, etc etc just takes away from the convenience of not having to scan in paperwork (which only takes a minute or two).

Lately I've been having the customer sign paperwork, then I'll scan it all into my system and give them back the originals for their records...which kind of negates the use of the tablet, unfortunately.

Anybody have any ideas that might make it more useful? For me it's turning more into a novelty than anything else, which is annoying because I was really excited about it when I got it.

I'm right there with you ManIntheBand, it's a novelty. I've had my Toshiba Satellite for 2 years and have never really used it for the functions I thought I would. I have used the OneNote for taking notes in CE classes, but not for signing docs or anything. I use my Palm Centro for contact management, but can't sync with my laptop because the Palm desktop software does not support the XP tablet software. Once in a blue moon I can get it to sync.

My daughter likes the Art program on it and I do cross puzzles on it that I can download.

Our forms are not compatible with it and we don't yet have the capability of doing digital signatures.

I'm looking at getting a Mac Powerbook with XP on it for my next computer.

Wow! I was about to buy a tablet PC. But it really sounds like no one is enjoying it.

Is anyone finding it useful?

Same here. I'm still stuck at a crossroads with a tablet or those 9" subnotebooks (Acer, Asus, HP and MSI). Lucky for me, my clients are comfortable with signing documents on a tablet, but if there are breaking down and having compatibility issues with other hardware then I might have to pass for a subnotebook.

So far, most of my paperwork is transferred to electronic form anyway so I'm sure the tablet will help streamline many processes and help the environment!

We have a Lenovo x61T with the high resolution.
My favorite laptop ever. Love the high res (personal pref though!)
We use Office One Note 2007.

I would say it's not had a much of an impact, but as a laptop, we love it.