You look so UNPROFESSIONAL!

I do not see a problem with either method.  Like a number of people said, it is about the way the other agent conducts business.  Once the email account is in my address book, I don't even see it any more.

I actually think johndoe@gmail.com is more professional than john@johnsellsrealestate.com.  Having an arbitrary domain name does not mean you are a professional.  The only email addresses I would truly say is professional are the ones affiliated with your company.  Everything else is misleading and is only a facade.  Unless  you are a broker with your own company, john@jdrealty.com when you are just an associate is misleading.  john@johndoe.com is also not any more professional to me.  Who is john doe?  Realtor? Consultant? Hairstylist? Garbage man?  Having your name as a domain name just means you have a personal domain name used for whatever purpose you want to use it for.

I've worked in traditional jobs in companies (many years as an engineer) as well as owning my own businesses.  I have no issue with technical know-how.  I have multiple domain names and websites, each serving their intened purpose.  Unless you are willing to use your company's email (and have to change it with clients whenever you leave) or have totally inappropriate addresses (iamtoosexy@yahoo.com) used for business, everything else is the gray area in between.  If you want to use a personal domain, more power to you.  If you want to use public domains, go for it.

Let's all just get back to doing our jobs the best way we know how.  As long as we treat our clients and eachother with respect and honesty, email addresses, branding, SEO, ... are peripheral issues.

I was checking in on one of my listings in my farm one day and saw 3 clients standing around.  2 were buyers who live near the listing.  They admitted they were chatting about me (among other things) and how happy they were that they found someone honest that they can trust to take care of them.  My clients have never given my email a second thought.  How my clients feel about ME and my service is my priority, not the manner in which they contact me (as long as they can contact me).  If you take care of your business, you will continue to get  business regardless of your email address.

Have a successful weekend everyone.

Free email accounts are NOT supported. Which means if your email account gets hacked, which happened to an agent in our office, you will lose everything in there. Seomone hacked into his account, changed his password and deleted his contacts and his emails. He called and called around looking for a solution and was told since it was a FREE account, there was no support and no solution. He has since gotten a domain and email account to go with it.

I agree completely with you and when I see @gmail, @hotmail, @yahoo I don't want to ever send them anything important.  I prefer my information to be secure.  I use hotmail for my friends and family, but never business.  Also those free account emails are often routed to a SPAM folder.

Mimi,

Thanks for a livley debate. I have my own website/domain and email because:

1. Security- Free accounts are not secure.

2. Branding- Just likes pens and mugs, everything that leaves the office should have my name on it:-)

3. Business is Business- When I was a teacher, I used my professional email to communicate with parents. My business now is Real estate, so I prefer to use a professional email.

In response to those who complain of personalized emails not reaching the recipient- you should only be emailing people you have a relationship with and/or have "white-listed" you. This will ensure a better delivery rate with any server.

Great post and an engaging conversation.

I enjoyed scanning the responses and can see both sides of it. I can't speak directly as a buyer or seller, but as a mortgage guy I often FEEL as if I'm working with a better agent when their email address is NOT @gmail/hotmail etc. This has not always been the case, but that was my initial impression. I don't know that it would cost a true professional any business yet I agree that the branding is important.

Thanks Mimi.

The ONLY way having a free acct like gmail, yahoo, etc will make an agent look unprofressional is when they use ding dong code names like: bill2193@, or robertcst_2009@, or susan_loves_cats@, etc.

Having BestAgent@gmail, or BobSmith@yahoo, etc, looks just as, if not more professional as Tom@TomSellsLakeCamanche.com

I have a GoDaddy domain email that I mainly use through my MacMail account, but so many times it gets hung up when I try to email offers or any other attachments, so I have a gmail acct as a back-up and it works every time.

Thanks, Mimi, for a great post and starting such a lively debate! 

I must say that I have used gmail for my business emails because I was told by a seasoned agent, during my 1st year, that one should never use the company email, fax, or phone numbers.  He explained that, even if you think you never will, at some point in your career you will likely change brokerages for one reason or another, and then you will have to notify everyone of the change, and change your info on so many places on the web where you've ever posted it, not to mention that anything on the server or voicemail at the brokerage will be lost to you FOREVER!!  That got my attention, but when Prudential acquired our Coldwell Banker franchise shortly after that, I discovered how awfully time-consuming it was to have to try to remember everyone you need to notify of the changes, and all the places on the web you may have to change things too, like Trulia, facebook, LinkedIn, etc., etc., etc. 

With gmail, my own eFax #, and my cell #, they always go with me, no matter where or why, which I found to be very helpful when I migrated to Keller Williams a year & a half ago.  

I did know that I could have my own email on my website, but just never bothered, thinking it would be the same ordeal of having to notify everyone and change so many places on the web.  Now I know, thanks to you, that I can link it to my gmail somehow.  And thanks to Brian Black for his input on here, too.  I found his blog, along with yours, to be a gold-mine!!!  Add to that the info I learned at RainCamp Atlantic City about one place where you can login to change your info on every website you need, and I'll be set to go!  I have to go thru my notes and find that reference, as I forgot about it till just now.  There was so much great info there, that you can't retain it all!  Anyone who can get to one should definitely GO!!!

My .02 is that your actions are your actions. I live/work in the middle of almost nowhere, summertime tourist area. If I really "branded" myself I would be one of those snobby "I don't like your email name" agents with their volvo and their over done hair. I have my KW email, and a KW page and we are all good. I keep extensive records of all my contacts, so thats not really a problem.  Maybe if Hubby really does move back to Canada I will be in a bigger place and will worry about that. Until then I will shaky my head at all the busybodies intent on telling me how their way is better.

I just helped one of the local R/M volvo driving agents not include the brook I live on (that no one can see) as an amenity to my neighbors house...but he has always told me he knows everything and got a 90 on his Associate Brokers exam. A another agent told me I should have let him get sued.

While I really don't care what anyone else does, put me in the camp that says that it just makes sense to own your own domain and to continue the branding with your own email address.

A few years ago when I left the brokerage I'd been with for 9 years (right after it filed for bankruptcy and right before it closed for good), it took me maybe an hour to update my website to reflect my new brokerage information, and I never had to retrain all my contacts to use a different address. I'm not one to change brokerages lightly, but even so it's valuable to me that I control my personal brand and web presence. You never know when life will throw you a change.

It's not that expensive and it certainly saved me a lot of time and aggravation (not to mention probably clients).

p.s. I think you should put this post in the "Art of Marketing YOU" group.

Great advice to agents...some just use an account they had for years or still have an aol account.  Customizing the email address is more professional.

You hit it on the head Mimi! And along with this very simple thing to do is, punctuation, spelling and grammer.

I'm going to start out by saying this is a very nice and well written post. :)

However, I completely disagree with you on the point. If I know one thing it is that realtors are a vain bunch and their heads get swollen about some pretty ridiculous things. This being one of them (I wonder how many people are going to hate me for that one, sorry guys but it's true).

I served 14 years in the Marine Corps and I like to think I know a thing or two about professionalism. Professionalism is a way of carrying yourself and how you conduct yourself. It's in your actions. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Do you put your client's needs before your own? Are you honest in all of your dealings even if it's going to result in no pay check?? Do you respond to that email you just got during your lunch break or leave it until tomorrow?

I spent 2 hours today trying to email an offer to an agent today who had a "vanity email" because the file size was too large. The attachment size was 6MB. You read that right, she can't receive email over 5MB in size. She didn't have have a fax machine either. I thought it was pretty unprofessional of her to make every realtor who brings her an offer sit around for 2 hours trying to break up their attachments into small parts.

But her email address looked great in her signature....I guess. But it didn't really matter to me at the time. I'm sure it didn't matter to her clients who were trying to send her paperwork either.

Just my two cents.

I can see both sides of the argument. I may pause at email sent from a gmail or yahoo account but ultimately what defines professionalism for me is the content of the correspondence and how that realtor conducts his business.

I don't agree. But I am glad to read your opinion and the others but I personally think gmail is fine. I have noticed that the most tech savvy people use gmail. For one gmail can handle large attachments. Where as most personal email address can't.

I own 37 real estate domain names and I am very very tech savvy. I see nothing wrong with using gmail as long as it's relevant. Example: Brokerbob@gmail.com is very effective and professional  and love2ski@gmail.com would be unprofessional. Plus gmail filters spam well, It's connected to a calendar, a task list, you can use it as a contact manger. I use it instead of outlook, and as someone above said it's hip. 

I have also seen a few domain names expire by accident. (person didn't update their credit card info when changing banks with godaddy and the domain was bought out by a random company that buys expired just to try to sell them back at a high cost. So they lost their email address. 

I think it's petty to get wrapped up in which email address people use. 

Great add on for comment 172. That's good info. I'm not going to do. LOL. But that would have been great if I wanted to. Well done adding that.  :)

Mimi, what a great debate you raised with your post! Congratulations!

However, I am with the dissenters. I have used my name @gmail for 2+ years and wouldn't use anything else. I've used my broker email accounts and these are just horrible when it comes to sending attachments. In my business, I am managing and sending hundreds of pages of docs at any given time.

I appreciate the tip from Brian comment #172, it's good to know it can be done if one chooses, although it sounds from some of the commenters here that there are hangups with that method, too.

I have had similar problems as Nathan comment #268. It is very frustrating to try to send docs via email to an agent whose email is their domain name. Several times attempting and I continue to get error messages. Then I have to call to see if there is another email address or fax number where I can send or fax the docs to. IMO this is far more unprofessional than an agent who has a no-problem sending attachments via gmail account.

OK, this HAS to be a first on AR: comment 275 appears to be from a WITCH DOCTOR! Just when you thought you've seen everything...

Mimi do you still like Go daddy after the super bowl ad?!