Google Voice. Voice Mail was Never this Much Fun.

Google Wave. Google Search. Google Docs. Google Apps. Let's face it. Lots of us are Goo-goo over Google.

And for good reason. Simplicity is what we all crave.

Aren't you just a little tired of dealing with five, seven or even ten different companies out there who mange your website, Top Producer, Settlement Room, Point2Agent, Reply! for leads.... aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh it makes you want to scream.

There'a a lot to like about Google when it comes to anyone streamlining their real estate business. They innovate constantly, which is something a lot of us should be doing, too. And best of all, Google is a big enough company to pay lots of propeller head engineers to come up with some impressive business solutions at a price tag that we all like.

FREE.

So... if you haven't heard of Google Voice, here's the skinny from the Bartman. 

It's a single phone number that Google can set up for you, or in two weeks -- you can use your own phone number. But now on line, you can create any greeting you want. Forward calls to any phone number you want and it's pretty cool having ALL of your voice mail messages in one place.

My Google Gmail is about three years old, and I've got emails from now bankrupt and dead brokers like the Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy Group and All Pro Realty who closed their doors in October 2008.

So I guess it's time to go in and clean out some old Email "dust bunnies," here. 

One really nice advantage of Google voice is that is can translate your voice mails into text and send it to your cell phone or email. This way, if all you want to do is get the voicemail to hurry up and give you the phone number to call back... Google can now grant your wish. 

You can set up different outgoing voice mail greetings for your customers. Make another for your mom, one for your friends, etc. It's like a fancy Voice Mail PBX without the expensive price tag.

I've been using RingCentral.com and it's good. But I pay $49 a month. With Google, I can save that $49 and buy a tank of gas with my savings. I just need someone to invite me to Google voice so I can start using it. 

Click here and watch the Google Voice Video. 

While all of this sounds "too good to be true," it does come with a few "gotcha's."

1.) For now, Google is only available via invitation. 

2.) Not all of these cool features (above) are going to be available unless you HAVE a Google Voice phone number. 

Insiders for me at Google tell me that changes or STARTS to change in two more weeks. So stay tuned to my blog posts for more. 

-- bart