There was a time when Google was just one of many search engines. I remember using several and ultimately using Google because of its minimalist search design.

But that is not what earned Google the earth-shattering business share it has today. Google was savvy, and wasn’t content to be just a search engine. Instead, they set out to become your online ecosystem.

The genius of Google was creating numerous different products that worked well together, but also that didn’t have to be used together. In that way, users could adopt a few products from the Google ecosystem without being forced to switch everything over to Google. It enabled the incremental adoption of Google products.

Just because you use Google Drive doesn’t mean you have to use Gmail. You can use your Google Pixel / Android phone to access DropBox just fine.

Using one Google product, however, leads to being exposed to others. And before you know it, you’re all in on Google.

Starting Your Business on Google

Being all in on Google isn’t such a bad thing.

If you are just starting out in real estate, Google can give you many of the office software you need to get started.

The basic tools from Google will allow you to get or manage:

• Website URL / Professional email (i.e. not [email protected])
• Mobile Phone
• Unique business phone number
• Cloud document storage
• Website analytics, advertising, and SEO
• Videos
• Productivity Tools
• and More!…

Read below for a partial list of Google’s tools and how you can quickly use them for real estate.

Google Workspace (Formerly G Suite) – Professionalize Yourself

Most of the tools on this list are free.

Workspace is not.

Formerly called G Suite, you’ll want Google Workspace for real estate if you are going to use Workspace for your professional domain and email (e.g. [email protected] instead of [email protected]. If you’re still using an @gmail.com or @hotmail.com etc email address, I recommend getting started with the paid Workspace today and professionalizing your business.

Workspace also acts as the hub for all of your other tools, like your Google cloud storage or the DocuSign for Google app for integrating your e-signature software straight into Google Drive.

Alternatives

Microsoft Office is a business tool ecosystem and competitor with G Suite and Google’s suite of tools. I personally have both the basic Microsoft products as well as many Google tools.

Microsoft Office is probably more geared toward larger enterprises.

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Gmail – Business Email

Get rid of that @gmail.com free email and professionalize yourself!

We already discussed this when talking about Google Workspace. But so many agents neglect to get a professional email. Our profession is going to consolidate. There will be fewer agents in 10 years than there are today. Nothing screams “part-time agent” like an @gmail.com email address.

Meanwhile, Gmail itself is a well-respected email service. It is highly lauded for keeping out the spam and trash, a clean interface, and comes with some awesome real-estate extensions like Folio.

Alternatives

Again, Microsoft’s Outlook is probably the #1 business competitor to Gmail.

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Hangouts / Voice – Business Phone

These are technically two different products that are closely integrated and are effectively now the same product.

Google Voice is amazing for a new Realtor looking for a new, local business number. It’s free. Just sign up for your Google Voice and get a new number! Voila!

You then install the app on your phone and can make calls from it just like any other number. But, even better than your actual phone, you can make phone calls and texts from your computer (Google Voice is a VOIP phone, which stands for Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol, which essentially means using the Internet as your phone service).

I hate texting from my phone, and most of the texts I send are actually from my Google Voice dashboard with me typing on my keyboard. I take most of my calls from my computer with a headset, as well.

The actual phone program is Hangouts. Even if you don’t elect to get your own number with Voice, Hangouts is still useful for contacting clients overseas or doing video calls.

Alternatives

Voice is great for a newer agent and will sustain you to perhaps the small team level. But a robust or large team of real estate professionals will outgrow it completely. At that point, you’ll need a more professional service like Ring Central. These VOIP phone providers include multiple phone numbers, call routing, and other sophisticated phone services for a growing business.

Skype, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger all have similar functionality to Google Hangouts regarding making calls via VOIP or video, however not with your own, new business phone number.

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Drive – Cloud Storage

Google Drive is your cloud storage and file sharing solution. It is very easy to store files and comes with a generous 15 GB of storage for a free account.

Google Drive is also closely connected with Google’s Microsoft Office knockoffs Docs (Word), Sheets (Excel), and Slides (PowerPoint). Google’s solutions are not nearly as powerful as Microsoft’s. If some of the advanced functionality of Word and Excel are integral to your business, then you need to stick to MS. But if you are doing just basic word processing and “excel” files, Google’s suite of tools might be right for you!

Alternatives

DropBox, SugarSync, and Box are the main competitors to Google Drive.

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Calendar

The Google Calendar is a solid option for managing your time and schedule.

The best part of Google Calendar is how well it integrates with your email, as well as other calendar tools for syncing a calendar invite.

It’s also easy to add seasonal, premade calendars to help you keep track of important scheduled events and holidays, like the Dallas Cowboys game times.

Alternatives

Outlook Calendar is pretty much it among business calendar competition to Google.

Apple has a calendar as well, but is completely outclassed by Google for the time being.

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Analytics – Website Tracking and Metrics

If you have a website, you should have Google Analytics.

Analytics tracks how your website is performing: visitors, top pages, bounce rate, source, demographics, and more. If your website isn’t performing as it should on the search engine, Analytics will tell you why.

It is large and has a lot of moving parts, but don’t be intimidated. The most important information will be easy to find like monthly user counts and your most visited pages (hint: optimize those pages!).

Alternatives

None.

There is no alternative.

Google is the most searched search engine in the world. Therefore, you need to have an analytics account with them. That’s all there is to it.

Even if you don’t use it, it’s free, and many third-party services you might use work through analytics to get you the information you need. So if you have a website, set up a Google Analytics account.

There are third-party analytics tools that help you track your competition, though. It is only guessing, but SEMRush or Ahrefs have tools for taking your SEO to the next level.

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Google Ads – Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Ever get calls about getting your website on the top of Google?

Those folks are usually talking about running a Google Ads (previously called AdWords) advertising campaign for you (usually at a hefty fee – don’t say yes to sales calls).

AdWords can be complex for a newbie, and expensive, so so it is probably best to outsource it to a highly reputable company (be careful, because there are lots of unreputable ones).

Alternatives

Anywhere you can spend advertising dollars is a competitor to AdWords. Zillow. Bing Ads. Facebook Lead Ads. BoldLeads.

Or you can skip spending the money altogether and try to earn your way to the first page of Google with solid SEO (search engine optimization).

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Maps – Navigation

This is a pretty straightforward one. You need to know where you are going! It integrates with contacts which can help you remember where so-and-so lives.

Alternatives

Waze is a highly touted app, though it is also owned by Google.

Apple Maps is not well regarded, and MapQuest has fallen off as a consumer-facing company and is mostly focused on B2B mapping.

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Google MyMaps – Create Maps

Using a map is meh.

Making your own map, now that is cool!

Especially if you have your own website, you can use Google MyMaps to create iframes to include for neighborhood pages. Above is an example from my own site and how I’ve tried to use these features.

Alternatives

I’m not aware of any accessible alternatives for map-making other than using your IDX provided maps for your website and home search.

Microsoft has Power BI, however it is focused not on consumer-facing maps but internal business analytics and visualizations.

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Google My Business – Local SEO

Google My Business is Google’s business directory. It’s their Yellow Pages. And it is where local businesses manage the information that appears online about them, including in the Maps, reviews, etc.

It is incredibly important as a Realtor that you create and manage your Google My Business account, even if you don’t use Google for your other tools.

Alternatives

There is no alternative.

Google My Business is the business directory for Google. Even if you haven’t built your business within Google, it is still the #1 most used search engine in the world, and you must be listed in it if you are a serious real estate agent.

By all means adding your site to other business directories is beneficial as well, like Yelp, Yellow Pages, your local newspaper’s business directory, and 100s more. There are programs like Moz Local or Yext that can help you with this.

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Forms – Surveys and … Forms

These are easy-to-use form generators that you can email, link to, or even embed a Google Form into your website with an iframe. Create a buyer questionnaire that is sent automatically to new prospects, or get feedback at the end of a transaction.

Alternatives

Gravity Forms is worthy of your consideration if you have a WordPress website. Or a simple site like Survey Monkey or Pollsnack might be all you need in form creation.

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Keep – Note Taking

Keep is a newer product that is designed for note-taking. It is great for creating lists, to-do’s, and reminders. It is intuitive and easy-to-use, like most Google products.

Hopefully Keep will help you save time and spend less time managing your tasks!

Alternatives

Keep is Google’s answer to the popularity of Evernote, which is still a more robust and powerful note-taking software alternative.

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YouTube – Video Content Library

Video has been the “it” thing for some time in real estate and marketing in general, and that has not changed at all. YouTube is owned by Google, and makes it easy to upload videos, listing presentations, how-tos, neighborhood videos, and more so that the billions of YouTube users can find your videos and you.

It is also easy to include your YouTube videos into your website.

YouTube videos now even show up in Google searches.

Alternative

Many businesses like Vimeo, which doesn’t have ads playing in front of their video and more customization options.

Of course you can also upload videos to other social network sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.

Pixel 4

If you want to really go all in with Google, you can get a Google phone. Not just an Android phone (Android is owned by Google), but the hardware itself!

You could do worse! The Pixel phone is highly touted with excellent camera and video. The perfect complement to the Google and Android user.

There is a 5.7″ size and 6.3″ size.

Alternatives

iPhones, duh.

If you still want to stay with a Google theme and stick with Android, there is the highly touted Samsung Galaxy as well.

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Google Chrome – Web Browsing

Chrome is one of the better browsers.

Most useful to real estate is the ability to use Chrome extensions, which can improve and better integrate your internet experience with your business tools.

Alternatives

Long gone are the days when everyone used Internet Explorer. Microsoft has moved on to the Edge for Microsoft power users.

Mozilla Firefox remains perhaps the leading competitor to the Chrome browser.

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What Google Can’t Do

Google doesn’t have a CRM, TMS, CMS, or other real-estate-specific software. That is okay, though. Good grief, man, they can’t do everything!

Alternatives

Microsoft comes closest to having a business ecosystem to rival Googles (and again, is probably a better solution for larger companies and enterprises).

Google cannot be beat for anyone who is ready to go all in with Google.

And the fact that it all comes standard with a basic G Suite subscription means it is the cheapest way to set up a nearly complete office backend.

The downside is that you aren’t necessarily always getting the best-in-class in each product category. Even that is hardly a downside as Google is very agnostic and tries to play nice with everyone. For example, nothing is stopping you from using all the software above but with an iPhone instead of an Android.

Conclusion

There is no avoiding Google in your real estate business. The only questions is how much you are going to use Google, not whether you are going to use them.

And that is okay, because for dirt cheap – often free! – these are world-class properties that give the solo entrepreneur or small team everything he or she needs to thrive in this industry.

Updated May 18, 2021; Originally published September 17, 2018.