I love my Free Google Office

I hope by now Real Estate agents are using the free office tools offered by Google.  One of the most useful is the calendar.  It's simple, easy to use, and free.  I can set appointments, keep track of my showings and my mileage, just in case the IRS ever asks.  One of the features I began using this year is the invite. 

When an offer is accepted I go through my check list of all the dates and deadlines, inspection, earnest money, loan commitment, walk though, closing, plus all other issues.  When I set the date I invite other parties.  All I need to do is begin typing the e-mail address and the G-mail does the rest.  It send out a reminder to the party responsible for completing the task and to the Buyer. 

G-mail is another valuable resource.  I don't use G-mail for business, but it has some features I can use.  I can sync it with my Thunderbird account with Zindus.  I can also sync G-mail to my Google phone.  It's a pain to type on that tiny keypad on the phone.  G-mail is already linked to the calendar, so they work together. 

Another great feature of G-mail is what I refer to as my vacation mode.  I can add my other e-mail accounts to G-mail in a flash.  When I travel, G-mail will download all my e-mails to the G-mail account, while leaving a copy on the server.  That way I can use my laptop to deal with issues and still download the e-mail and keep a record on my PC. 

Ever get a document attached to an e-mail you do not have the software to open?  Google has an open document web site to help.  Https://docs.google.com

Using this program I can open any document or spread sheet, print it, or change it, save it in the original format and even e-mail it back completed.  The person on the other end thinks I have all this expensive software.  This is better than driving around in a Hummer.  There is plenty of free space to save the documents, and you can save them to your hard drive in the forms original format. 

Don't forget iGoogle, the home page.  I have all my news, a dictionary, Google translate and a number of other useful gadgets I use from time to time.  I can even tell when gas prices are about to change. 

Now if Google would only offer a free fax service, or is that asking too much.  Okay, a free fax service offered to those who own Google phones.