I searched around for something REALTOR® friendly.  Something simple and affordable.  Something that works smooth-like-real-butter, on my desktop, my notebook, my iPad and my iPhone.

I  and settled on a beautifully simple application called Dropbox.  The process is straight forward. If you’re looking for a simple synching solution, I think you’ll like this.

1. Sign Up for your Drobox account.  2Gigs for free.  50GB for $9.99 per month. Or, 100GB for $19.99 per month.  There are discounts if you pony-up a year in advance.
2. Simply download the software to your computers/mobile devices and launch.  Computer, iPad and iPhone applications are free.
3. Drag previously saved files into your Dropbox folder (See below) and begin saving new important files to your Dropbox folder and you’re good to go.

Most of my important stuff, listing presentations, .PDFs, letters, contracts, photos, slide-decks, etc., I create on my desktop or notebook.  For things I want to have handy anywhere (my desktop, my notebook, my iPad the cloud or my iPhone), I save it to the Dropbox Folder.

Here’s what you get on your computer when you install the Dropbox application.  Notice the Dropbox folder on the left hand side (red arrow).  To sync your files on all your geek stuff, either save new files to the Dropbox folder or drag previously created files from another folder to the Dropbox folder.  The little green-for-go check-mark means the file has been successfully synced (the syncing magic happens quietly in the background).

After you save something, the Dropbox application automagically syncs your stuff to your high-security Dropbox cloud account.  In the unlikely event that you need something important, and heaven forbid, you don’t have your computer/phone/iPad with you, just log on to your secure Drobpox account and get what you need.  Here’s what my Dropbox cloud-account web site looks like:

After you save a file to one of your Dropbox enabled devices, or the cloud site, the next time any of your devices is connected to the internet, your files are synced.  You can open any file, change it, save it, and it’ll be good to go on all you devices.  Plus everything you need is everywhere you need it.  Very simple, very affordable and very cool.  The Dopbox app for mobil devices has some cool forwarding and sharing features too.

For the iPad, I recommend you buy (.99cents) the GoodReader.com application.  This cool app, syncs with Dropbox and gives you magical viewing powers. You can open and read the most popular and common file types. Yes, Mac and PC.

OK.  That’s it.  I imagine there are other solutions, this one works great for me and I know it’ll work great for you too.  If you get started, within a few minutes, all your important stuff will be everywhere you are, whenever you need it – Geek Sync completed.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers.

As a technology inclined real estate professional you no doubt have a LOT of files on your computer. Your client database, contracts, listing agreements, blog posts, marketing materials, website content, photos, and more. What would happen if you lost all of this material? Heck, what would happen if you lost the one file you need right now?

I used to never backup my data. Then some nimrod broke into my car and stole my laptop. It tooks months to rebuild all my data, and two years later I still come across something I used to have–and now I try to find the joy in recreating work I’ve already done…

A catastrophic loss is what usually leads one to implement a back up solution. But admit it, you’ve accidently deleted a single file before. You’ve written the mother of all blog posts, only to have the PC lock up and you lose it (your mind, and the post).

You need a backup solution, and you need one that is automatic — done with no thought or purpose on your part.

Enter Carbonite. It is a web-based backup solution that is easy. Register at Carbonite, download and install the Carbonite program and you are done. That’s it, it’s that easy. Through the magic of technology, Carbonite will backup your critical data to an off-site server. Once that’s complete you can swiftly and easily restore everything, a single file, and anything in between. Carbonite will place an icon on your desktop so all you have to do to restore something is double-click the icon and drag the file you need where ever you want it.

Carbonite is smart enough right out of the box to know where your most important data is. You can also tell it to backup (or not) any file or folder with a simple right-click of your mouse. And it will backup any file you change or add within 10 minutes. Accidently delete something? No problem. Kid spills a soda into your PC, rendering it useless? No problem. The dang computer just up and dies? No problem!

I used to backup across my home network. Of course when the hard drive failed in the main PC, there went that plan. I have a really cool and geeky Maxtor OneTouch III portable hard drive that I could use to backup data. But I have to move it between the desktop and laptop. That rarely happens. Then I got a new PC with Vista — and the OneTouch software didn’t work.

Now I just use Carbonite. All my data on all the computers is automatically backed up on a near continuous basis. My data is co-located on my PC as well as off-site at Carbonite. (Good in the event of something horrific — like a fire, robbery, etc.)

The cost is $49.95 a year per PC. That’s a small price to pay to have a fully automated, hands-off, hassle free backup solution. (A two week free trail is available).

Regardless of the backup solution you chose, it is only as good as your implementation. You will suffer a data loss experience, trust me. Don’t wait until then! Maybe you are more disciplined than I am and can remember to backup your systems daily (if not more often). But if you’re like me and forget to backup, consider letting Carbonite do the work for you.

Hat tip to Chad at MyTechOpinion!