I have at least 10-15 emails per day from all sorts of companies that can help my bottom line.  Phone calls  around 5 a week.  If these programs really worked that would be great but they tend to give you promises with no results.  No thanks.

We get a lot of those e-mails and phone calls. Thank goodness for caller ID, if it's a toll free number we don't answer the phone. On the e-mails sometimes we will let them accumulate then when we have some extra time we will take the time to go through unsubscribe and mark them as junk. This has slowed them down but I don't think they will ever STOP!

I've got a program in my e-mail server that allows me to send the e-mail back and it makes it look like it was bounced by the server saying no such e-mail address. It really has cut down on my e-mails from marketers.

Todd

Imagine what FSBO's feel like, lol.

Cyd:  I was thinking the same thing. Are we not guilty of similar procedure?

Todd, would you mind sharing that program or server

Http://www.namneet.com

Hi Namnett

I use, http://www.incredimail.com/english/index.asp it is a add on and it will bounce the junk back as no such e mail, it may be the same one Tod uses.

Vance

Hey Todd, what is that email program that sends back the solicitations? - I need it BAD!

I'm getting 200 to 300 emails a day that I would love to bounce back at them..

Todd, are you concerned that it might be sending emails back that may be qualified leads? I am afraid to do anything to get rid of my 300/day junk email in case I miss something good.

As for not answering the toll free numbers, I find that they keep calling. I tend to answer them and tell them to take me off their list. Those calls have been cut way back.

Has anyone gotten the call from someone that sounds like a buyer, but really turns out to be one of those services? They have gotten smarter and use a regular number now. Boston has a big relo base so I cannot miss any call. how dare they waste my time!!

Laura; Whole-heartedly agree.

Let he/she who is without sin cast the first salescall.

For junk mail I use cloudmark.  It's an ad-on in my outlook.  Works great.  Anything members designate as junk goes into a folder. If I designate it as junk it goes into the folder plus a junk folder for other members.   I then check it and can undesignate something if someone else has designated it as junk.   Saves me a lot of time because generally if someone else says it's junk, it is, so they've done part of the work for me.    For anything that requires an email that does not pertain to real estate I use a gmail account which takes care of junk automatically.

I use ZoneAlarm Pro.... Wow, what a help it has been.  It stops spam in it's tracks.

I actually listen to the whole sales pitch sometimes and let the voice know they delivered an excellent presentation.  My neighbor answers his calls and tells the callers to hold on while he changes phones, then he puts it next to the tv and forgets about it for the next couple of minutes.  

Spam from realtors (open houses, listings) I ask them to take me off of their mailing lists. General spam is way down.

Vance is correct I do use http://www.incredimail.com/english/index.asp and I love it. It also works with Adobe to take all e-mails and convert them to .PDF to put on a disc for safe keeping.

Todd

Todd...do you know if it will work with Outlook?  I visited the site but saw no info on that.

Sorry Phil it is not. It is actually a seperate e-mail service, I combine it with Yahoo appointments to get most of the features that Outlook offers.

I'm still peaved at Microsoft for an event that happened in 1995!

I won't go into it, but if you look in the library of congress and look up my name as an author of software. You might be able to figure out what happened...

Todd

Oh well, Todd!  That's the way it goes!  Just thought I'd ask.

Good luck with your business this week!  Weather in Portland metro is going to be perfect!!!!  70 and hardly a cloud in the sky!!!

Phil

I had an email from a friend that told how to stop solicitors...I think it said to press the # button several times (before they switch over to you - this is for the services that dial multiple people at a time)

It is supposed to funk up their system. Who knows whether it works or not. It also says on the auto dialers, that if you pick up, and you don't actually get a person, that it records the time that you picked up and then they have a record of when you are home to answer. They supposedly call back at the same timeframe as when you picked up. Who knows..

I have been getting a lot more sales calls lately than I used to ... the most recent ones have been from Homes dot com ... they have problems taking NO for an answer!

And when I am in the office, instead of waiting for walkins, I usually lock myself ... first of all, I don't like to be there all by myself with the doors open to anyone ... and secondly, any walkins that ever came by were salesmen ... they even tried to sell me TOYS! ... why bring toys to a real estate office ... I just don't get it!