Better"?? Or cheaper in the long run"?? The grass is always greener on the other side."? To assume that something else is better, without using it for a while, is"?often disappointing. I don't believe there is any one CRM tool that is 'best' or 'better'."? Which one is 'best'"?depends upon your level of"?comfort with software in general, your current needs, and your goals for the future."? Certainly, committing to a monthly fee of any kind should"?be done only after careful consideration and research."? But the service provided by Top Producer is quite a lot for the money."? In fact, the range of functions, support, and ongoing development"?provided are arguably more extensive than any other Real Estate specific CRM tool."? Is it perfect"?? No, but neither is any other tool out there."? With regards to 'getting your data returned', try calling Quickbooks and telling them you want to switch to MS Money, and you want"?THEM to transfer all your data for you, for free."? It will not happen, and they make one heck of a lot more money than does Top Producer."? It is not difficult to export data from Top Producer. The problem is that most Real Estate agents are just not very tech-savvy in basic database manipulation."? That is not the fault of the provider."? The tool is there to export about"?250 fields, including property information."?While it is not possible to export things like 'History'; ie: e-mails stored with the contacts, and letters sent, it is not possible to"?transfer that lind of information with any other program of which I am aware either.

They seem to plan to make it hard to stop paying them every month. The whole system is a money making proposition and you will pay and pay and pay some more.

"The whole system is a money making proposition..." Sounds like what people say about real estate agents, and we get angry when they feel we get paid too much.

After many years of trying to use Top Producer 6i and then 7i I dropped the programs"? this week.

It's ironic that the 4 posts above this one were about spending money and a significant amount of time to learn MS Office."? How many of us have spent literally many hundreds of hours USING, and thereby learning, Outlook and MS Word, and getting a little bit bit better, and learning a little more all the time."? We accept as a matter of course that we need to learn it, and we spend the time to do so."? How long have we spent playing with, and learning MS Publisher and Power Point, Excel, etc."? MS Office is a "Suite" that"?is incredibly robust, and takes a great deal of time to learn."? The sophisticated CRM tools that we use are also "Suites"."? Top Producer is a powerful and extensive program which by definition makes it time consuming to learn."? So"?are Agent Office, and most of the other full featured CRM tools out there."? The majority of people buying them are not willing to spend the time and money to learn how to use them.'This is not the fault of the provider."? When I bought Quickbooks, I paid someone to teach me how to use it, and then invested the time necessary to learn it."? That's what it takes."? I ALWAYS advise people NOT to buy these programs unless they are willing to invest the time necessary to benefit from the money investment."? I advise that people commit to one hour a day, 5 days a week, FIRST thing in the morning, before your day gets cranked up, for at"?LEAST 2 to 4 weeks, depending upon the person's aptitude for software. That should get you a healthy start."? Then you need to continue using it regularly, and you will continue to learn more and more of it's uses."? Is that unreasonable? No."?Difficult - yes."? But not impossible if you make a commitment and stick with it. I was an agent doing 40 some sides a year. I had the same problem with making the time as anybody would, but I did. It's not a matter of 'getting the time', it's a matter of 'making the time'.

Before I cancelled I did manage, with the help of an expert, to download my database to Outlook. Because Top Producer"?flatly refuses to turn loose of your calendar and other information in an easy manner, I sat at my computer for hours and printed my entire Top Producer detailed information contact list. I will have to enter many items"?I want to keep manually into my Outlook program. I also printed every month of every year of my calendar for the last 4 years. Even then the Top Producer system did not give me all the meetings and appointments"?on the sheets I could"?print.

Top Producer does not 'flatly refuse' to release your calendar data.'They are"?simply not capable of exporting it."? Why should they be"""Because, even if"?they were,"?of the nine CRM tools with which I am affiliated, none of them would be capable of importing it, including"?Outlook."? Calendar data is almost always unique to that particular program.

I wish I had never heard of Top Producer. I feel the money was a tremendous waste -- not to mention the years I have struggled to learn to use their"?programs.

If you have a team of agents and you employ a fulltime computer whiz who can figure out the Top Producer systems, maybe it will be worth it for you. But if your whiz quits, I'll bet you will be out of business until you can find and educate a replacement. There are many other programs that will do as good a job for a lot less money and a lot less trouble."? Buying Top Producer was probably"?the most expensive mistake I ever made.