A couple years ago in a non-RE project I tried the one of the fax to email and vice-versa systems out there and I had a HORRIBLE experience.
Both receiving and sending FAXes involved manipulating HUGE image files and my computer could just not stand it. It worked ok for 2-3 page faxes, but for 10-20 page faxes I would regularly have applications crash or come to a standstill. I recommend that you talk to someone who uses this approach and that you are able to call them for help and that your system beats the stated system requirements by a factor of 2 or 3.
I live in the South Suburbs of Chicago and want to have a dedicated cell phone for business marketing. I currently have TMobile for my personal phone, which I am not thrilled about. US Cellular was recommended to me by a business person, who also has a virtual office. They recommend it because inbound calls are free and don’t count towards my minutes (My TMobile bill was higher last month than normal) and evening hours begin at 7pm. I also don’t want any of my calls to be dropped, which I am having problems with using TMobile. Your recommendations will be much appreciated.
Also, does anyone have a virtual office? In my letters I normally say I live in “X”, but my post office box is in the neighboring city of “X”. I think that this is o.k. However, if I have a North Michigan Avenue address in downtown Chicago on my letters and business cards, will this be a turnoff? Is a virtual office necessary when you are getting started, like receiving mail from the Secretary of State and other agencies or receiving and sending faxes and forwarding phone calls? I work downtown so during the week the virtual office might be helpful since I don’t want to fax things from my full-time job’s fax machine.
I think there is a difference between one of those MailBoxes etc boxes, and actually paying to have a shared office. You would only need an office if you are going to meet and greet people in it.
As for the faxes, get a service that gives you a number to use for your fax. When one arrives, they receive it and turn it into an email attachment.
You can be sitting in your employer’s office and receive such a fax and deal with it that way.
To send faxes, scan the document into a file and send it as an email with attachment to the fax service company. The company takes it and faxes it out to your recipients.
People don’t look to see if you live in timbuktoo or the trump towers. You are in this to relieve the pain of real estate for people who are experiencing problems. Have generic cards made with your phone number on them. Answer your own phone. Find out their pain, and fix it.