Since the beginning of this year, we have been working on a system to communicate with our clients what's happening in the market around their home.  In addition to the normal things like showing feedback, we compile website traffic for that listing, number of calls, number of showing requests, numbers of previews, along with a cma every week in a spreadsheet.  With sales down in our area 50%, I wanted to know what was selling, what was new, and the direction we needed to take with pricing, and so do my clients. 

The problem has been is that this means I am usually sending a lot of excel files and if you're a blackberry user (which most of my clients are), it's hard to view the document at the time you receive the email.  The type is very small, it takes up valuable space, and it usually arrives in an inconvenient time.  So we're utilizing Google Docs starting this week to improve this communication with our clients.

Until this week, I was totally unaware of this service's potental.  For about a year, I have been playing around with Google docs but never found much use for it.  However, something clicked on and now I understand just how incredible the concept is. 

Google Docs allows you to email or upload documents to the web in most common document formats (excel, powerpoint, word, pdf).  You can then edit the documents online much like you would offline using their compatible software.  Next, you send invitations to those who you want to view that specific document and they can just view the document or they can collaborate with you on the document.  This is handy for those working on a document from multiple locations.  My assistant doesn't work from the office so sometimes the documents I need to reference may be on the wrong computer.  With Google Docs, they're online all the time and I can even access them via my smart phone. 

With our weekly updates, we will create a folder just for updates and upload our client's excel spreadsheets.  After we're done adding in the relevant data, we will send out an invitation for them to come and view their weekly update.  I can post notes, highlight items, and see when they last visited thanks to Google Analytics.  Finally, when we update the document for next week, the program already knows what we're doing and will save a version of last weeks update on the server as well. 

Now, there's no need for repeated emails.  We can all work together in a much smarter way to sell their property.  Like anything new, I'm sure it will take some time to get used to but I'm sure that we'll have it seamless in no time.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

Jonathan Osman
Charlotte NC Homes, Charlotte Real Estate