As an office owner, new agents or part time agents struggle to spend the money on the Microsoft Office Suite which can run upwards of $400- 500 dollars. Some must haves for a real estate agent are:
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
The other programs I highly recommend are:
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Publisher
- Microsoft Power Point
For the agents on a budget I have compiled a list of alternative programs that can duplicate what the Microsoft Office has to offer. 
The first program is OpenOffice an open source office productivity suite. It's free and totally legal for you to use. It has The equivelant of Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point. The great part of OpenOffice is these programs can open and save files in the Microsoft format. It has a publisher program but unfortunately does not work with Microsoft Publisher. But what do you want for FREE!!
The other piece that helps in replaceing Microsoft Outlook is Mozilla's Thunderbird. Thunderbird as an email client with an address book to organize your emails and clients. By adding Lightning, a Thunderbird add-on, you can add tasks and a calendar. There are other add ons to customize your contact manager, calander and email client.
If youhave been working on a budget and been frustrated with some of the tools you haver (or don't have) give these programs a whirl. I think you'll be amazed at what you can get for FREE!!
Also, try out Mozilla's Firefox, a highly customizable browser that is much more stable than Internet Explorer.
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This post was provided by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate In Tewksbury MA. You can contact Kevin by email at kevin@kevinvitali.com or call 978-360-0422.
I pride myself in the quality of my work while helpingbuyers and sellers make dreams come true.
Real Estate Services in the northeast Massachusetts, around the Merrimack Valley, Southern New Hampshire including the towns of Andover, Billerica, Boxford, Chelmsford, Dracut, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Merrimac, North Andover, Newbury, Newburyport, North Reading, Rowley, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford, Wilmington, West Newbury
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