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In today’s digital world, your email address is often the first impression you make on others — whether you’re applying for financing with a lender, networking with other real estate investors, or contacting potential buyers and sellers. Yet many of my students still use outdated email providers like AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, MSN, or BellSouth without realizing how it can hurt their credibility and deliverability.
If you’re serious about business or simply want to look more professional online, it’s time to switch to Gmail. Here’s why.
When people see an email from yourname@aol.com or @bellsouth.net, it immediately dates you. These domains tell others you haven’t updated your technology in years — and that can subconsciously make people question how current or professional your business practices are.
On the other hand, an address like yourname@gmail.com looks modern, familiar, and trustworthy. Gmail is used by millions of professionals worldwide, and it signals that you’re up to date with current technology.
Tip: For even more credibility, you can connect your Gmail account to a custom domain (like you@yourbusiness.com) through Google Workspace — giving you the professional look of a branded email while keeping the same reliable Gmail platform. For example if your motivated seller website is www.webuyhousesinflorida.com then having an email address like lex@webuyhousesinflorida.com looks a lot more professional.
Older email systems simply can’t compete with Google’s spam filters and security infrastructure. Gmail’s advanced AI automatically filters out spam, phishing attempts, and malicious attachments — keeping your inbox safe and clean.
Many legacy providers (like Hotmail or Comcast) have weaker filtering and are more likely to let spam through or, worse, block legitimate business messages. That can mean missed opportunities or even identity theft risks.
Gmail works seamlessly across all devices — laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and integrates with countless business tools. Whether you’re using Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Calendar, or third-party CRM and automation systems, Gmail connects effortlessly.
Compare that to AOL or BellSouth, which often require complicated setup steps, outdated IMAP configurations, or software that doesn’t play well with modern tools.
Gmail gives you 15 GB of free cloud storage (shared with Google Drive and Photos), plus the ability to upgrade affordably. That’s far more than most older services, which limit mailbox size and often bounce messages when your inbox is full.
And nothing beats Gmail’s search power — it’s Google, after all. You can instantly find any message, attachment, or contact in seconds.
Emails from Gmail have a much higher chance of reaching inboxes instead of being flagged as spam. Many mail servers automatically distrust older domains like @bellsouth.net or @aol.com due to reputation issues and outdated security protocols.
With Gmail, your messages are authenticated using modern standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, ensuring smooth, reliable delivery every time.
Many older email providers have been bought, rebranded, or shut down over time (for example, MSN and BellSouth). Gmail, on the other hand, is part of Google’s long-term ecosystem — a platform that isn’t going anywhere.
That means your email will stay accessible and stable for decades, with regular updates and cloud backups.
If you have a gmail account and are using gmail and your computer is logged into Google Chrome then you are also logged into and are able to use all of the Google related products like Google Drive, Google Photos, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Ads, Google Maps, Google Chrome, YouTube and Notebook LM.
This makes it absolutely critical for you to have a gmail address because you cannot use the products above without a gmail address. If you log in from your computer at work, a laptop at home, a tablet or your phone, Google seamlessly connects and syncs your information, like contacts and calendar events, across all your devices. In Google Chrome, the password managers syncs your login information across all your devices too. This can be very helpful when you are trying to login to something from your table or phone and don’t know your password.
If you’re still using an AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, MSN, or BellSouth address, now is the perfect time to make the switch. Gmail offers a modern, secure, and professional platform that not only protects your communications but also improves your credibility. And when you are in business and want to appear professional – credibility is everything!
Your email address represents you — make sure it says the right thing about who you are today.
Make sure you buy more Google storage. Your Google Account comes with 15 GB of cloud storage at no charge. This can get used up pretty quickly because your storage is shared across:
Google Drive
Gmail
Google Photos (which take up a lot of space)
Since we recommend to all of our students and everyone who works with to use Google Photos, if you are visiting many properties and taking lots of photos you are going to run out of storage space.
You can get more storage space with Google One, which starts with 100 GB of storage. But I recommend you use Google Workspace because then you have a custom email address that matches your domain name.
Google Workspace comes with 1 TB of storage which is much larger than the 15 GB with a regular gmail account but you still access it through the gmail app like a regular gmail address.