Once upon a time, before voice mail, cell phones, beepers and email, a personal assistant took your calls and forwarded or screened them, depending upon your discretion. But now, you are too busy, on the road, or out of pocket to be able to take advantage of all the communication tools you have.

Now, three Internet marketers are proposing to offer you the same services as a personal assistant can provide, but with some interesting twists. Using speech recognition software to communicate with you and your clients, family and friends, the new virtual assistant is on call twenty-four-seven, reducing the need for you to carry so much hardware around. The virtual assistant is totally interactive, responsive to your requests, and comes with a distinctive personality, like Webley, the English-accented butler, or Wildfire, the sexy personal assistant.

The three services, Wildfire, Portico, and Webley, offer a variety of services using telephones and voice recognition technology. Portico and Webley are offered nationally, while Wildfire is up and coming in certain markets. Their primary attraction is the ability to centralize information from an assortment of communication tools that will help you in your daily business - from gathering stock quotes to answering your email for you. The services are voice activated, so you can interrupt your assistant, make changes in your schedule or in what you want to hear, and the assistant will immediatly change gears to your new request.

Product demonstrations are available on each Web site, providing you have RealPlayer (Portico) or Emblaze (Webley) audio software on your computer, or the time to download a free demonstration from Wildfire.

According to Alan Goldstein, author of "You Rang?" featured in the Dallas Morning News, virtual assistants can "handle everything but the coffee."

Goldstein reports that Webley can "juggle incoming faxes, electronic mail and voice messages in a single service." Conference calling is possible with up to 32 people on the same call. Offered at $9.95 per month, minutes are billed at about 15 cents each.

On Portico's Web site, you are told you can now access your email, voice mail, address book, calendar, news, and stock quotes over the phone or the web and reply to messages immediately. Less expensive than Webley, Portico charges $19.95 per month for 60 bundled minutes with extra minutes billed at 20 cents each.

Each system works by assigning the subscriber a local or toll-free numer whi ch will take the calles from other numbers, including fax, pager, mobile phone, work and home numbers. The service will even forward your email messages, using text-to-speech technology. The user can program in a number where s/he can take calls or allow the virtual assistant to take a message.

Some additional technology may be needed to make the virtual assistant work at an optimum level. For example, Portico offers voice mail retrieval via computer if the subscriber has RealPlayer software loaded.

One of the advantages is that you can program the virtual assistant with a calendar. If you aren't available to take calls, the assistant doesn't hesitate to take a message. Otherwise, s/he will find out if you are available and forward the call, or take a number.

Since real estate agents spends so much time away from the desk, doing much of his/her business on the road, what could be easier? Now you can make changes to your calendar, answer calls, retrieve and send messages without having to pull your car over or take your eyes off the road or "off the ball."

Published: January 14, 1999

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.