What computer should I invest in?

Question

It's time for me to buy a new computer but unfortunately I am not tech savvy. I am more than willing to learn but to get going I need advice for what brand or model I should be looking into based on my needs. My real estate future will include being an agent and running a buy and hold business with construction being a part of my model. That's a general idea but that's what I want. I want the ability to edit videos, make virtual tours, work with CRMs and that sort of thing. I only know what I know though so tips on what I may require from a computer is appreciated. A laptop may be preferred due to portability but if there are suggestions of desktops I will look into them.

Thank you, BP.

Marcus Johnson · Answer

@Ashton Karp

I am an IT professional for the University of Minnesota, and I buy my wife a $500 HP laptop every five years on Black Friday, because you get a hell of a deal.   ￼￼

Aaron K. · Answer

It really doesn't matter, you can do all those things even on the cheapest computer you could buy today, heck you could probably do all that on your phone if you really wanted to.  I'd go with something cheap under $600 you won't use the features on anything more advanced most likely.

Charlie MacPherson · Answer

@Ashton Karp I bought a 15" MacBook Pro in 2015 and still use it heavily every day.  Macs are more expensive than PCs, especially when you load then up with maximum memory and a solid state hard drive - both of which I highly recommend.

Most computers will still come with a "spinning disk" hard drive.  They're less expensive than solid state drives (SSD) which have no moving parts, but are MUCH faster.  I would buy a computer with an SSD of at least 256 GB, but more is better.

I also recommend at least 16 GB of RAM.  That's the memory on the computer's main board.  In many computers, you can add more later but MacBook Pro doesn't allow that.  The memory chips are soldered onto the main board rather than plugging them into a slot, so order it with the memory that you can afford.

Backups are mission critical.  I have redundant backups.  I use Backblaze, which is a continuous online backup.  I also use a Mac app that comes with every Apple computer called Time Machine.  That takes hourly backups to an external drive.  For that, I'm using a 3 TB external drive.  I think it's important to have both onsite and offsite backups.  If our house took a direct lighting strike, it would likely kill my computers and local backups, but I could fall back on Backblaze.  The local drive is a lot faster if I had to go recover a file, but it's not bulletproof.

The nice thing about Backblaze is that you can even back up external drives.  I have two 1TB photo libraries that are too big to back up with Time Machine with my current 3TB Time Machine drive, but are handled by Backblaze.

As far as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc, there are Mac versions of these programs.  The native Apple products (Pages, Numbers) are very good and in some ways better.  However, if you have any niche programs you want to run, check to see if a Mac version is available.

Scott Mac · Answer

Dell is my preferred hardware vendor.

Also having a backup solution is smart. There are several online solutions at different monthly costs.

Word and Excel run on Windows operating system, if that's something you're interested in.

Frank Wong · Answer

MacBook Pro its worth the money

Zachary Ray · Answer

I have a surface pro for flexibility from desktop to laptop. I feel like it is at a decent price as well. Microsoft though.

Renee Moomey · Answer

@Ashton Karp as a realtor, I will tell you not to over spend. You dont need anything real expensive. I had alot of problems with my Dell I bought 2 years ago. I wont be doing that again.

Steve Smith · Answer

I could argue to get a MacBook Pro. I've had them for years and they just work. Get 16g of ram and at least a 500g solid state hard drive. (If you have a ton of videos/pix, get a 1 or 2 terr hard drive, but you could also use an external.

Occasionally, you'll find a PC programs that you might want, so either get a cheap PC or get a Windows emulator like VMFusion for your Mac. I rarely use my PC anymore. The last software that was PC only was TimeValue (a GREAT amort program), but with 10bii Financial Calculator on Mac, don't need TimeValue. AND, off topic, but you'll want a GOOD cash flow/amort software.

And, a computer is NOT an investment, it's an expense.

Thomas Cunningham · Answer

Hi Ashton,

I switched to Mac about ten years ago and never looked back. For me, they just work. I can seamlessly switch back and forth from Desktop to Macbook with ease and on the fly. Running everything from Video Editing, Autocad, CRM's, ETC. They can handle almost anything you throw at them. To reiterate others I agree you should buy more ram, but not from Apple. I buy all my Macs new from apple with the base minimum ram, then head over to OWC Digital for an upgrade. Super easy to swap out and lifetime warranty. Now with all that said when I was traveling 3 weeks out of the month, I would only take my Ipad Pro. That thing is a beast and will do everything except the Cad Program. It does Word, Excel, PowerPoint, most everyday stuff. PM me if you have any questions. Cheers

Tom

Marc Rice · Answer

Macbook, read Steve Jobs biography and you'll understand