Macintosh Real Estate Users Are People Too
It's no secret that I am an avid Apple/Mac fan. I worked for Apple before I started investing in real estate. I love the company, it's technology, and ease of use. Sadly, my days were darkened when I left Apple to become a real estate agent. Although I love the field, Mac users were often treated as second-class citizens when it comes to real estate software and applications. Websites didn't work, MLS was a lost cause, and even popular database programs would falter.
For those of you who own a PC and are thinking of switching, the dawn of a new day has arrived in Mac real estate! Buyers, sellers, and agents have great choices. One choice is to buy one of newer Apple computers that can run Windows. If you aren't quite ready to take the leap, there other Mac OS options.
- Zipforms, an online documentation program now works on Mac. I've used the program for several years on the PC. If you don't know what it is, you should, because it allows buyers and sellers to save time AND trees.
- Quickbooks and Microsoft Office have worked on Mac for a while, but many are still unaware.
- Top Producer online database can be used with Northstar, a program that lets us log into their servers to access Internet Explorer-based programs.
Now that we have a new Applestore in Austin, I am encouraging local buyers, sellers, and their agents to take another look at what Apple has to offer. My Mac crashes a lot less and works more seamlessly than the Sony Vaio that I had to resort to in the past.
I'll be at my local Applestore soon and would love to see some of you there!
I've been reading your blog for a while, it's very interesting.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about Apple. I have one and I love it. I was shocked when I found out that Abor doesn't work on Apple very well, especially when using Mozilla. Is Bill Gates himself paying them?
Posted by: liza | Monday, March 19, 2007 at 03:33 PM
I'm a Mac addict myself, and being forced to use a PC to do my job is agony. The crashing, the not-as-user-friendly interface - it's all bad news. I agree that real estate needs to catch up and be more Mac friendly.
Posted by: erin | Monday, March 19, 2007 at 07:02 PM
I've been accessing the MLS with my Mac with no problems. ABOR has a citrix client for the mac that will give mac users access. When the Intel Macs came out I upgraded my PowerBook and instead would run Parallels running XP and access everything that way. Glad to see there are more Apple users out there in this industry. At the first technology masterminds I was not the only one to pull out a titanium apple laptop, one other agent was smart enough to come prepared with a Mac.
Posted by: Mike Weiland | Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 07:46 AM
Bravo! As a Virtual Assistant to the Real Estate Community as well as the general business community, I have both a PC and a Mac. I look to the day when all PC apps can be run natively on Macs with no problems...
Posted by: Taryn Merrick | Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 05:15 PM
Dee,
For Zipforms, are you referring to the Citrix solution or is there something else that I have missed?
Posted by: Braxton Beyer | Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 10:46 AM
It's the Citrix solution. I use it, but would prefer to have full implementation because you can't email through Docusign yet. Many Mac users aren't aware that they can at least save create and documents in zipforms.
Posted by: Dee Copeland | Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Are you saying that I can use my powerbook G4 that is not intel based and use top producer with just the download of Northstar?
Posted by: John Callesen | Friday, February 29, 2008 at 11:53 PM
Actually,
Top Producer 8i just launched, so I use it on my Mac now. The only thing you can't do is sent emails because they use a proprietary application.
Posted by: Dee Copeland | Saturday, March 01, 2008 at 01:01 AM
Dee,
Are you using the Northstar application for Microsoft Office & Internet Explorer, or are you running both OS & XP?
I'm trying to make the jump to a MAC, but I'm still a little nervous that everything will work.
Do you have any problems printing at your office to the network printer?
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Wilhelm | Wednesday, March 05, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Hi Kevin!
I use a local printer at the office because the PC network printers aren't working. I have Office for Mac, which is really old, but it works.
All of my presentations are using Keynote, which you may recognize. Pages.app is pretty cool too for flyers.
Posted by: Dee Copeland | Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 10:51 PM
How much does Northstar application cost?
Posted by: John Callesen | Saturday, March 08, 2008 at 02:10 PM