One of the most important considerations when "getting on the Internet" as a REALTOR is which ISP (Internet Service Provider) to use.

Many, many REALTORS® use AOL as their ISP. Due to its size and popularity, AOL does have lots of great features such as chatrooms, message boards, classifieds and the like. However, it's not first and foremost a business ISP. It has too many well-documented problems with email applications, for example, and email is far too important a communication tool to risk.

When choosing an ISP for your business as a REALTOR, you should keep in mind the following crucial characteristics. Doing so will increase the smoothness of your operations.

1.) Reliability. Make certain your ISP has good number of modems available so you don't receive any busy signals when trying to connect.

2.) Responsiveness. The local ISPs (and there are many!) sometimes have a better response rate then the large one-size-fits-all services such as AOL, Compuserve, Worldnet and the like. Are support numbers easily found on their site? If you run into a problem, can you speak with a living, breathing human being who will walk you through your questions?

3.) Security. Many hackers enjoy passing an exciting evening by trying to break into ISPs. What security protocols have been established?

4.) SPAM. High-rated ISPs will have in place filters to remove a good number of SPAM before it reaches your email box. Ask potential ISPs if they've configured their email servers to do this.

5.) Connectivity. Does the ISP provide cable-modem access? ISDN? 56K? (these are all different speeds). Ideally, the faster, the better. Check out this excellent article about choosing ISPs for more information.

There are many, many ways to locate good, local ISPs. Simply go to The List, where you can browse ISPs via area code, state, and more. Ask your nerdly friends whom they use! For example, I use my local NJ ISP of Cybernex.net - never have reached a busy signal, always have had my questions answered.

Your own business web site is another story entirely. You can host your business site at any ISP (it doesn't have to be local, as you yourself are not connecting to the Internet) - it just has to have good security and stability. For example, all of my sites are hosted at Serve.com based in PA and Ipubco based in TX, while I'm based in NJ.

Remember, your ISP is the means by which you conduct your real estate business via the Internet. Always take the extra time to ensure you have a reliable connection.