I wrote this post last December on the Active Rain real estate network, for other Realtors. Even though it is buried deep in my blog as a members only post it has been getting comments each month. I thought I would bring it out into day light.
Are you a 879Yahoo? (Members Only)
What does your email address say about you?
If you are John879@yahoo.com, you may have more problems that you think. Not to mention the depersonalization of having a ton of numbers after your name to separate you from all the other people with the same name or user name.
Sure your email account is free, actually all of my email accounts are too, and each uses a domain name that is unique and only used by me.
Sure you can get your email online from anywhere. Hmmm I guess mine works that way too. I can log onto the internet and read my email anytime, or I can get it on my laptop through MS-Outlook, and I get it on my blackberry.
Sure you have spam filters, well I guess I do to. Imagine that.
Your spam filters are better than mine, so good in fact that the email from your clients and future clients never reaches you. I do get maybe four or five unwanted emails a day, but I also get a few leads a week.
When I see your email address, I think is this a professional, or some kind of a hobby REALTOR. Then I check to see if the agent is with Prudential realty, because every time someone uses Yahoo they are indirectly advertising for Prudential realty. Yahoo has a real estate portal and Prudential has an exclusive relationship with them.
"For Prudential Real Estate, which has put an emphasis on developing and honing its Internet strategies, it’s an opportunity to capitalize on what the company has built-and, say executives, to take the lead in winning home buyers and sellers in this changing environment."
"With our Platform technology, and our exclusive marketing relationship with Yahoo! Real Estate, we took the early lead in providing home buyers and sellers with precisely what they were looking for," says Earl Lee, president, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. "We give them 24/7 access to the most current property information and instant interaction with local sales professionals when and how they want it." Read More
So john879@yahoo.com, I don’t have any respect for your tech skills, which are becoming more important for REALTORS to have. I don’t have much respect for you professionally either. To me you are just another 879@Yahoo.com, it could be worse for you, if you were another 12233@AOL.com, because you would actually have to pay for the email account that has so many filters on it that almost no one could ever reach you, not to mention that you can not accept or open all types of attachments as an extra protection against viruses. That’s right I have that protection too, through my anti virus software.
I could write a lot more on this topic, but will close by saying that having your very own email address is the best way to go. Your real estate company address belongs to your real estate company and is used by hundreds, thousands or maybe ten’s of thousands of agents. The well known domain names have been added to many spam filters right on the server where the end user has no control, making your messages less likely to get through to those Yahoo’s or AOL’s.