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File Swapping Software Can Be a Valuable Tool For Real Estate Agents

You see your teenager downloading music off the Internet and have heard stories of how people are arrested for that sort of thing. Napster was legally challenged and forced to close. What you may not know, however, is that legal file swapping is alive and well and could be a potentially useful tool for real estate agents as well.

File-swapping firms are showing some of the fastest growing number of users on the Internet today. LimeWire was recognized as the number one download last month on Download.com. Kazaa averages over four million users in a year, with billions of files being traded over its network.

So what is file swapping? There are several firms all offering a slightly different platform. After Napster failed, Kazaa quickly stepped in as the replacement of choice, signing up millions of users and even surpassing its predecessor in total numbers. LimeWire is the world’s fastest p2p file sharing application. Similar to the popular Kazaa, it enables the sharing, searching, and downloading of MP3 files. LimeWire also lets users share and search for all types of computer files, including movies, pictures, games, and text documents. Other features include dynamic querying, push proxy support for connecting through firewalls, the ability to preview files while downloading, advanced techniques for locating rare files, and an extremely intuitive user interface. Other firms expanding in this market include eDonkey and BitTorrent .

How can real estate agents use these services for their business? In a number of ways. First, you can use them for images. You need an image of your city, a specific landmark, and a local figure for a marketing piece. These all there for free with a simple search. You would like to search files for a local map, for specific government or real estate- specific documents—they are all available. Unlike a Google or Yahoo search, these searches show the exact content, not another Web site that you have to investigate, to see if you have found what you are looking for. For presentations, this capability is unbeatable. You can actually type “sales presentations” and find full presentations that you can view and use. Essentially any type of document, image, audio or video that could be stored on someone’s computer is available to you.

These services are free; however, they all have professional editions that promote better download speeds and viewing options. I use LimeWire, but the aforementioned are equally user-friendly.

Happy file-swapping!

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Written by: Hans Hansson
Date: 07.21.04