Happy Holiday everyone, I am getting rid of my landline and will be using only an Iphone 8 for my LL business. I am not sure what problems I will face so all of you pros please share your wisdoml

1. What happens if I lose my cell phone? How can i still get my texts and voice mails?

2 Do you have a backup phone with the same number just in case something goes wrong?

I'm going through this exact thing. :)

My cellphone model has a defect from the Chinese factory: they didn't use enough adhesive to secure the screen to the phone, so there's a problem of the two becoming detached, and only connected by a narrow ribbon of something. It's called screen lift. A lot of people ran into the screen lift issue during the first few months of phone usage, but mine took a year and a half before in manifested.

It happened on the 6th. I FedExed it the morning of the 7th. Today is the 27th, and my phone only got its return tracking label generated in the last few days... and I still have no clue where it physically is, since the return label was generated in Ontario, and it hasn't hit any of the other FedEx facilities yet.

I normally use GoogleVoice for my biz. That's the only thing that's kept me running at almost-normal. I can accept text, and I can accept email, and I can hear voicemail, because I can do all those things through my desktop computer. But anyone who calls my personal number (like the plumber, or the roofer, or the electrician) isn't going to get ahold of me. And when I try emailing the roofer ("Hey, are you going to send me an invoice, or shall I just pay the first installment now?") they try to call me back... and I think they ignored my email, so, oops, we don't get it figured out until two weeks later, when I swing by with a check in person.

Or, for example, if I'm off getting materials for my handyguys, and they text me, "Hey, bring back two more boxes of mud", I don't get that message while I'm standing in the store with the boxes of mud... until I drive an hour back home and look at my desktop.

I'm juggling an eviction right now. I always put my biz email and my biz phone number on my correspondence, but this particular tenant sometimes texts my personal cell #. So if she's sent any correspondence to my personal number, I have no clue about it.

I want to call my plumber to go check the gas line at a particular house. I used someone else's phone to get in their queue... but I have no clue as to what the status of that is.

I want to order some LandlordLocks for my eviction house, but I wanted to do it over the phone. But I don't have a phone during business hours...

I have one vacancy that I'm advertising. Right now, I have a big red text box on my flier saying "11/19-12/1 Due to technical difficulties, text or email only" but that's not the image I want to project. I change the dates every time I print up a new batch of fliers.

So it's good to build in redundancy. I've ordered a backup phone, so I hope it's just a matter of switching out the SIM cards. I was originally supposed to be without my phone "about a week", but tomorrow will be 21 days. I went to Swappa, but you might try Gazelle or one of those other used-phone stores, where people trade in their phones.

You can't have two phones with the same number. The phone number is attached to the SIM card. So just order a second phone that can use the same SIM card, and keep it in a drawer somewhere, so that when something unexpected happens, you've got enough backup systems in place so that you're the only one who notices.

Use Google Voice instead of your actual phone number.

+1 for using google voice. It gives you the ability to read and respond to texts on any computer and/or smartphone and will also give you access to voicemail transcripts from any computer and/or smartphone.

Another Goggle Voice. You can text from your desktop and print out the entire thread with that person.

Almost all our communication with prospects and residents is by text. They love it and we love it. Usually the responses are immediate.

Email is out.

Lost or damaged? Set up automatic back up in the cloud. Contacts, photos, etc are easily loaded onto a replacement phone.

Use FourSquare insurance on the phone.

We still recieve faxes thru an online service like eFax. They arrive via email.

What's a landline? It's been over a decade since I've actually had one.

Hook your cell up to Google or iCloud (I think that's what Apple calls it). Contacts and whatnot are backed up in case phone is lost, damaged, stolen, etc. No reason to print all that out, it's saved in the cloud and they can worry about backing it up regularly.

Haven't sent a fax in years. If there's ever a need to, there's online services that will do it. Just scan in the doc and go through them to fax. Scanning and emailing works for everyone but the medical industry it seems like.

I only use my cell phone. I do have an office with a line but the tenants NEVER call it - they only communicate via the cell (call, text).

Obviously my cell also does emails but everything is backed up (either on my laptop for my emails) and the icloud/ google drive.

I bought an unlocked phone last year at Best Buy to use with my cheapie cell phone plan, as I lost my employer sponsored Verizon plan when I retired. My cell carrier sent me a Sim card, I put it in the new phone, and I was in business. If my phone were to break, I could slip my sim card into another unlocked phone.

Contacts can be downloaded from your phone and uploaded to your computer, so you do not lose all your numbers if your phone dies.

I have old phones in my desk that can be reactivated in the event of damage to my active phone. Contacts are shared with my Google account so no worries about losing them, they stay synced.

Just recently got a new phone. During activation it asked if I wanted to restore all my old apps? Yes, and voila there they were.

Also, ditto Google Voice!

Get a good case and screen cover.

Need advice on those that use Goggle voice.

I have a home office separate landline. If a tenant calls I hear it in the other room. And number pops up on my TV.

Plus if I am in and out of the office I can look across the room and see the red light flashing on the answering machine and know I have a message.

I tell them to leave a voice mail and if an emergency. The message gives them my cell phone number to also call and leave a message.

Would goggle voice work for me?

I dont stay glued to my cell phone. And with a Iphone I have to pick it up and check for messages.

Compared to just walking in the office and seeing a red light flashing from anywhere in the room.

Maybe have goggle voice send a message to my landline and cell phone?

Any suggestions? I know I am behind the times with this. I still look at my cell phone as more of a car phone. And do most of my business with the landline and my desktop PC (email).

Thanks

Google Voice is one of the best free tools available for managing rental property.

Customize it to which phones you want to ring. I haven't seen if there's a limit on the number of linked phone #s, but at one point I had it ringing to 3 different phones.

Hide your personal phone#. No one NEEDS that info. Pretty much anything can wait until daylight hours. I value my sleep.

Set up "Do Not Disturb" hours. I am not going to run over at 1 AM to put out a fire or settle a squabble between two tenants. That's dangerous and why we have insurance.

Organize voice mails/texts for later reference.

Option to record incoming calls. Check your state's rules as to who needs to be informed.

Available mobile or desktop. Legacy desktop version has more Settings and is more user-friendly.

I have a google number which is tied to a google email...that won't let us in due to a password problem.

Can I get that phone number out somehow?

We have no info on when the account was opened, the email account was never used. The voice number goes through that account and forwards.

OOMA - OOMA - OOMA

cost $5.00 a month for land line and you keep your number

it goes wherever you move because it is internet based phone

I am surprised by the number of people here that seem to be "betting the farm" a bit on Google Voice. A service that is not at all guaranteed -- and is provided by a company that primarily provides free services in exchange for access to your private data for targeted advertising and such.

Don't get me wrong -- I like and use Google services very often. But I don't see myself making my primary/outside contact number a free Google Voice number that is under no contract or guarantee of service at all. Google could literally shut it down tomorrow without warning. (Note that they did recently turn off a big piece of Google Voice that people were using like Ooma's service and it simply no longer functions.)

Doesn't any have concerns about that?

- John...

Deanna: They've turned off some features that allowed integration with other VOIP devices that some people were using. (Sort of like an Ooma device, but with Google Voice integrated into it.)

Another example would be that Google used to have an agreement with Sprint with their users where you could use all of the Google Voice features without having to use a different number or port yours over to them. It did call forwarding, voice-to-text, anti-spam-calls, and so on. They turned that off a few months ago.

Now, in these cases, they did give some warning beforehand. But they don't necessarily HAVE to for the services that most people here use.

Again, I like Google's services. But I usually find that most LLs here are more paranoid than I am about giving 3rd party's access to your phone calls and data. So, I'm just surprised to see so many doing it.

- John...

razorback_tim: I agree it wouldn't be the "end of the world", but I still feel like it would be a huge hassle for some people here if it happened. Sure, you could send a new number to all of your tenants -- but lots of us have our number with LOTS of other people where that could be a real hassle. Especially if we currently were advertising for open rentals.

Changing phone numbers is a huge deal to many people. If it isn't for you, then great! I'm just not convinced everyone else here would feel the same way if they were told that they couldn't use their main number any more tomorrow. :)

- John...