Data and software ownership is crucial to any business.
There are many important issues to consider when choosing the right software for your business. It makes sense to ensure you own the software and can access the data stored in the system even after the business is sold or ceases to continue as a real estate agency.
Real Estate Manager is specially designed as a ‘Desk Top’ solution. The software is loaded on your PC and the data can be simultaneously stored in both the office and on the Internet.
By law, real estate companies must keep their trust accounting and other financial data for 7 years. If for some reason a business is sold, the original owner must still have full access to the company historical data.
A disadvantage of other systems which use an internet only based approach i.e. the program can only be accessed via internet browsers, means that both the program and associated data are housed on the software provider’s internet server. A possible consequence of this is that you, the business owner, may not necessarily have access/ ownership of your data in the future.
Some internet based system may allow you to download your data. However:
- Your data is useless without the appropriate software.
- It is unlikely that you will be able to download every bit of data you have entered.
- The downloaded data can be extremely difficult or expensive to be imported into another system.