A Griffith Listing

Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

You are here: Home / Archives for drive

Synchronizing ZipForms Desktop on Multiple Computers

by

Every so often I do a tech tip that inevitably helps others in the real estate community.  This is one of those times.

ZipForms is a great tool that most of use now to create and fill out the various contract documents associated with a real estate transaction.  ZipForms Online is the online version, which by most standards, I would find perfect for what I need to do, but there’s something about the online version I don’t like, which is why I’ve been using the desktop version.

The desktop version is installed locally on your hard drive which allows you to work offline.  As connected as I typically am, I decided that blowing $60.00 every month on a mediocre wireless access card through one of my cell providers wasn’t a great use of my money, considering that I’m usually near a WIFI hotspot.

Even with that in mind, there are certain limitations to the online version of Zipforms that have nothing to do with Zipforms, and everything to do with the internet connection that you’ve joined for the time being.  Sometimes coffee shops just don’t have the bandwidth I need to get my contracts written.  I tend to work much faster than an internet connection can accomodate, so being able to do the meat of the work offline, create my digital packages to send to my clients, then connect and send is much more efficient.

The Problem

ZipForms desktop is fantastic when it comes to offline editing of files.  It’s not fantastic when you’re someone who not only uses multiple applications on one computer, but multiple computers.  I have a desktop at home, a Windows based laptop, and now, a MacBook Pro.  The desktop version stores all of the information about your transactions on the computer you’re using, not on the internet, so you cannot access a contract written on one computer on the other…unless you employ the following tool…

Microsoft has a great synchronization tool that allows you to choose a folder, or set of folders on one computer that can be synchronized through the internet to another set of folders on another computer.

ZipForms Desktop stores all of your transactions, clauses, templates, etc., in the same folder on each computer, so it’s quite simple to setup synchronization between those folders to ensure that all of the changes you make in one transaction are nearly immediately available on all of the other computers involved.

Getting Started

Before you can sync files over the net, you’ll need to create a Windows Live Login.  I know, this is probably one of many options on the internet, but to date, it’s the most reliable I have used, and even though it’s a Microsoft product, which I typically cringe at, it works.

Head over to http://login.live.com and create an account if you don’t already have one lingering around from years past.  Once you have an

Giving Up is NOT an Option

by

In the midst of one of the most difficult “through-points” that I have ever experienced (that time in your life when God smashes you through something and doesn’t let you go around it) the inspiration found in a video such as this one I’ve re posted here should touch you deeply.  To think that we complain about some of the things we do…well, just watch and be inspired:

Road Trippin’

by

About 3 hours into it the road began to look long and narrow, like peeking through a rolled up piece of paper to focus in on something of perceived importance. The eyes grew heavy and all I could do to remain awake was scratch my head and rub my face, wishing I had something to munch on to keep my brain occupied. She offered to drive, but I said I was okay.  I knew that it would be a short while before I’d be back on track and alert as I remembered that there was a bag of sun flower seeds waiting for me. But, without a cup, sun flower seeds get messy, so I set my sights on a cup of coffee. On long road trips sleep begins to manifest at about the 2 hour mark, but a few tools have been put into place to prevent disaster. I don’t know why it happens, but it does. Perhaps it has something to do with the dashes. Dash, dash, dash. Endless painted lines streaming through the center of my way, flashing, dashing, blinking, over and over again. And the power lines, suspended by giant toothpicks that manage to survive the elements for years and years, one after another, all the same…

…New Mexico. Not my idea of one of the most beautiful places on earth, but hey, you can buy fireworks there. Oh, and you can find aliens, so I’ve heard. Hogwash. The better parts of New Mexico are as the better parts of Arizona. High mountain country with pines and cool weather, clouds that wash the heavens and are so close you can reach up and grab them, like fluffy cotton candy. Roads aren’t laid out like they are in Phoenix with perpendicularized intersections and easy to figure addresses. They roll and bend and turn, every once in a while stretching out for a long climb or swiftly swooping up and around the edge of a mountain. Don’t drive off the edge however.  It’s a long way down…

Coffee, food, sun-flower seeds, and good company make for what one would consider an agonizing drive much more pleasant, and upon reflection, rather quick.  Here we are Ruidoso!

Gas…like…ass

by

Gas rhymes with ass and that is how I felt as I poured $3.19 down that little tube in my truck as every gallon seeped from the tank beneath my feet.

$50.00 and change. A 16 gallon tank. Too much. I spent about $225 on gas in August. This is ridiculous. So much so, that I may have to forfeit driving as much as I do. I may have to sacrifice fellowship with people that live 10 or more miles away. I may have to never see a movie further than the Pavillions. I may have to quit seeing movies altogether for a while.

My truck gets 17 miles/gal at a cost of 18.7 cents per mile. It costs me $1.00 to drive 5.8 miles. My friends are further away than this. With a factor of 2 (there and back) just to drive to church, I spend $7.50. If I want to visit the Koziczkowski’s, 35 miles from me, it’s $14.00 round trip. Go to dinner with them too? Now I’ve spent $30.00. If that happens 4 times/month i’m spending $120.00/month on just that. On average, I drive about 100 miles/month based on the number of tanks I’ve paid for in the past months.

So, I’ve been thinking about moving from my truck, to a scooter. A scooter gets 70 – 100 miles to the gallon. That’s roughly $3.00-5.00/month in gas. If I’m spending $200.00/month as it is, I could save (I’ll estimate) probably $150.00/month if I switch from my truck to a scooter only. Of course, that’s not 100% practical since I still need to haul my gear to church. If a scooter costs $2499.00 new, it would pay for itself in 16 months. If I go with one that has less power, it would cost about $1700.00 new and would pay for itself in 11 months. Either way, I will be spending this money over the next 16 months, whether it be on gas for my truck, or another form of transportation. The ultimate goal is to reduce my monthly expense and to reduce it as quickly as possible.

I could just ride my bike I suppose?!