I've just been accepted on with RE/MAX for a new agent training program. To make it short, I will be starting my career with RE/MAX in 05/07.

I am getting everything in order as I have time, and I would like to know what kind of specs would be best in a personal computer used for business?

Right now I have a line on a used (Gotta Budget!) 1.3GHZ 1GBRAM, 100GBHD, 15" Screen laptop, fairly new (1 year old) for a good price. It comes with Windows XP.

I was seriously considering purchasing this unit as I want to be able to work at home as well. Is there anything you can think of that you look at specifically when purchasing a computer? Any specs I'm overlooking?

Thanks for the input.

Welcome Adam, it is nice to see a Realtor from Winnipeg in the forums again.

I assume the notebook is only a 1.3 ghz because it has Intel Centrino Technology? If so, that would be fine - if not, you may find it a bit slow. With Centrino it has built in wireless and getting online is a breeze.

Other than that it seems to have lots of Ram and disk space and will probably service you well.

I don't know all that much about specs but my desktop is 2.8ghz Intel Centrino Tech and, while it serves my purpose, I certainly wouldn't want any less than that.

Personnally, I would never buy a used computer.
There is just too much that could be wrong with it that you may not even know until you start to use it. Plus I find the life of a computer to be less than 3 years anyway so you'd already be a year into it's life. If I were you, I'd spend time online with Best Buy, Circuit city, Compu usa, etc ... they have some really great deals.

Just my 2 cents tho...

Buying new doesn't necesarily equate to a working computer out of the box either. I bought a new laptop from CompUSA last week only to find it had a faulty optical drive with intermittment operation. I had to take it back.

If you drill deep you will find test data which rates the computer manufacturers on failure rates, servicability, QC, customer service etc., on laptops and desktops. I found this out afterwards and found apple and lenovo have highest rankings so I build to order an x60 tablet and wait to see if it will work out of the box, though I read there is a 11% chance it won't...even among the top manufacturers.

As for CPU speed it's much like blown horsepower to torque ratings in a car. Even the fastest engine when mismatched to a power train...becomes no match for a smaller matched set.

Something I looked at was digital signature capabilities.

In my state, and about 40 others I believe, digital signatures ARE considered legal so I am going with the Gateway tablet PC.

I too am on a budget so I will be purchasing the lower end one for about $949 I believe.

I got the Gateway too and I bought it about a year and a half ago. It's great and I got the NAR discount. Make sure that you buy one for your small business through their small biz dept. then if something goes wrong you get better support than a consumer purchaser.