Encore is a special, by-invitation-only, real estate professional's group that offers personalized coaching in an environment that provides individual attention to growth and fosters relationships with top-performing agents throughout the Puget Sound region. We focus on accountability, practices that improve business, developing market expertise, presentation skills, referral building, and deep-dive conversations into opportunities for real estate brokers that you won't find anywhere else.
Our members are committed to improving their businesses and providing top notch service to their clients. Does that sound like you? Learn more about Encore and our live monthly group meetings located Lynnwood, WA at the link below and schedule a consultation to find out if we are the right fit for you!
When vendors decide to end a product line that you have relied on, it can cause unexpected business chaos. As real estate agents, our lives are already chaotic enough. Sure, some of us thrive on that chaos, but I can't think of any one agent that wants to be surprised the day they go to print listing flyers only to find out software has stopped working.
Fortunately, this time we have some advance warning. First announced in February 2024, Microsoft let the publishing world know that is decades-old software, Microsoft Publisher, will reach end-of life in October 2026. We made mention of it in a Zebra Report last year in fact.
What's end-of-life mean? Publisher won't be included in Office products, won't receive security updates, and won't get any new features. That much is obvious, but if we dig deeper, the impact goes further. When software goes end-of-life, that means other vendors may stop supporting it. Want to turn your Publisher file into a PDF to email to a client or for professional printing? That may no longer be supported in the future. It means future versions of Windows may not support running Publisher, that future printers may not be properly supported, and that compatibility between Publisher and the rest of Microsoft Office will no longer be guaranteed. Ouch.
Even though Publisher hasn't seen a meaningful update since 2010, hundreds of our clients still use it as their tool of choice for listing flyers, open house feature cards, post cards, holiday letters and letterhead, business cards, and many other branded real estate tools for their business. So, yes, this is something we've spent a lot of time thinking about.
Canva is an online, collaborative tool for creating everything from business cards to social media posts. It's your one-stop-shop for 95% of your desktop publishing needs - you'll still need a professional sign-maker for your A-boards. It features photo editing, pre-designed templates, charting tools for those of you who breathe housing market graphs, video editors, a bevy of graphic design tools, and much more. You can even order prints of your materials on Canva and have them delivered to your door.
Our designers appreciate how Canva is easy for our clients to learn, with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and a thriving online community of users that provide a wide layer of support and ideas for budding Canva users. Unlike Microsoft Publisher, which hasn't seen an upgrade in over a decade, Canva is being actively supported with a regular feed of new features and improvements.
Canva is web-based - that means you can use it just about anywhere. Update your listing flyer or create a social media post for your new listing in your car over your hotspot and send it to the printer without returning to the office. You don't need to install any special software on your computer, you can use it on your Mac or PC computer and all you need is an internet connection.
We suggest you get started with Canva's capable free edition, which you can use for as long you like. Eventually, you may want to upgrade to the Pro edition - maybe for the AI editing tools, more storage, access to creating custom layouts, its social media scheduling tools, or something else. Canva Pro is $120/year, less than half the price of an annual Adobe InDesign subscription.
Is it the right tool for you? Watch a few tutorials or look-up some YouTube videos to learn more and give yourself a little time to acclimate.
If you've been in real estate for a while, there's a good chance you are in good company of many thousands of other real estate agents who are still using Publisher to print their home marketing tools, listing flyers, and business collateral. Our designers at The Lones Group are adept at both Publisher, Canva, and other publishing software. If you are ready to take the step forward to a modern, flexible, and powerful, and actively supported publishing software - give us a call!
Just one thing - don't be the agent that waits until the last minute or worst still, discovers that their ancient copy of Microsoft Publisher is broken and has stopped working right before a listing appointment!
We'll take the time to evaluate all your materials, prioritize what is most important to your business for conversion, and answer all your questions about Canva so you can move forward with confidence.
By Denise Lones CSP, CMP, M.I.R.M.The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones has over three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development and more, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.