How ToExport a list of contacts from REIN and

import to Top Producer

A step by step guide by:

Rosalind BoyleVirtual Tidewater757-880-6422www.VirtualTidewater.comrosalind@VirtualTidewater.comTop Producer Certified Professional and Reseller

Find Contacts

Log in to REIN and do a search for the types of contacts under the tax records you want to have a mailing list for. We will use the example of a neighborhood farm, but this will certainly work for absentee owners or other contact groups.

When the results are displayed, most likely it will be in the default Tax Standard Grid. Change it to the Mail Label Grid

This grid will show you both the property address and the mailing address of each property (Note: if you are looking for absentee owners you can quickly sort the names by clicking on the mailing address zip code – the mailing addresses out of the area will sort themselves out – then you can just select those for your export.)

Select the names you want to export by clicking the boxes to the left of each name (or the top box to select all). Select the Export Tax from the

action box on the bottom right. (Click green arrow)

Select selected records and Tab Delimited, and then click Next.

Select Current Grid Format and Check Include Column Headers, and then click NEXT.

A File Download Box will appear with a .txt file. Click Open.

A Notepad File will appear with the names (don’t worry it will look a little jumbled at this point):

Right Click with your mouse over the addresses and click SELECT ALL (all the addresses should turn blue):

Once all addresses are selected Hit CTRL-C or Right Click Copy.Open Office Excel and a Blank spreadsheet – to paste hot CTRL-V or Right Click Paste (Make sure box A1 is highlighted).

Now all the addresses are lined up in their correct column. You may have to go through and edit some of the addresses and make some corrections where the tax records were incomplete (sometimes they leave off a few zip codes or states, etc.) Once you have made your edits, save your spreadsheet.

From here you can use this mailing list in a mail merge in Word, but I am going to continue as if we are going to load these names and address into a Contact Management System, specifically Top Producer, however you can use other systems such as Sharper Agent too.

Click on File and SAVE AS. Then save as a .csv (comma delimitated file)

Open and Log into Top Producer 8i on your computer. Click on Preferences in the top right hand corner. Then click on Contacts and Top Producer 8i Import

Tool.

This will prompt you to download a file. Click OK and Then RUN. You may have a security warning and need to grant permission to run the program. Log out of Top

Producer 8i.

The Top Producer Data Transfer Wizard will open – Select CVS File and Click Next:

Fill in your Top Producer user name and Password. Click Next.Browse to where you have your .csv file saved on your computer and click Next.

A box will come up for you to sort where each part of the address to go.

Make sure First Row is a header row is selected

Use the Arrows to move over the appropriate Top Producer Column to the blank columns in the middle. Once you have all the columns you want to

import into Top Producer lined up click on Next (you don’t have to use all the columns)

(Last Name will be under Contact info and address info will be under Property Statistics)By the way – if wanted to export more information then just the addresses (i.e. # number of bedrooms, or square footage) from REIN you can using the column manager before you export. Unfortunately the format that REIN uses doesn’t completely match up with the format that Top Producer uses. With some time, you could line up the columns a little better by dividing first and last name up on the excel spread sheet first, but for a farm mailing list I think it is OK to just put the whole name under last name as I did above.

Assign a Contact Type to your Imports – you can either select from the existing list, or create a new contact type. Click Next.

The next step will show you the records that will transfer. Make sure these are correct and Click Next.

Top Producer will notify you when your transfer is complete. Fill in an e-mail address other than your Top Producer e-mail for notification. Click Next and Finish.

Once you get the e-mail notification you can log back into Top Producer and assign your marketing plan as you see fit.

If this is more than you want to mess with, Virtual Tidewater

offers mail merge and Contact Management Services (Top Producer or other programs) for Hampton Roads Realtors.

Just let us know what you want or need, and we’ll take care of setting it up for you. Contact Rosalind at 757-880-6422 or

rosalind@VirtualTidewater.com or more information.