Real Estate Transaction Management Requirements
Though a big part of transaction management involves dealing with a long list of tasks, deliveries and deadlines, there is more to it than that. Sure, we have to keep things moving and not miss any deadlines that could cause problems for our clients. But we're also creating documents, making property coordination visits, interpreting documents for our clients, and documenting all of these activities in a legal manner.
If you view this as just a task list with check boxes, you're over-simplifying it and could have problems if later you need to document when, how and where things happened in the case of complaints or worse, a lawsuit. It is also about customer service. If real estate agents want to avoid the fate of travel agents after the Internet arrived, we must realize that the consumer can get pretty much all of the listed property information they want on the Web.
The best service we can provide for our customer/client is to help them to negotiate, buy or sell, and get through the transaction process efficiently and come out on the other end happy with our services and the result. If we do it right, they'll likely recommend us and send us more business.
There are some really fancy systems, both software and online in the cloud, for real estate transaction management. They come at various costs, and almost always require a monthly subscription, and possibly additional money for each transaction.
Most of them are stand-alone systems, and you'll need to coordinate information between your other systems, such as CRM.
Let's see how we're going to use the tools we've already discussed in this series, Gmail, Evernote and PowerBot to manage transactions and documents for a smooth process and CYA approach to verification of all actions taken, when and where.
Let's think about what our customer is experiencing. There will be a pile of documents going back and forth, disclosures, inspections, surveys, and more. Not only will you want to grease the wheels of this process, you'll make a great impression if you can provide them with a digest of all of these documents after closing.
What Evernote allows you to do is to share a Notebook, which is what other systems call folders.
You can create a transaction notebook for everything going on in the transaction, but also a sub-notebook for sharing with your client. Once it is shared, you don't have to attach lengthy documents to emails, instead just directing them to the shared folder to pick up the newest additions. They can download and sign them, or you can use a digital signature system as well.
After closing, you can merge all of the documents in the folder with a single selection and click. Then you can print them to a PDF file with each document beginning on a new page. It becomes a master record of everything that transpired, with every counter offer and all supporting documents in dated order. Your clients will love it.
Take a look at the image above to see how easy it is to create a printed and/or PDF copy of every email and document involved in a real estate closing transaction.
You simply do a search to pull up the notes you want on the left, select them, and use the Merge Notes command. This is a valuable customer service tool, as you can provide them with a complete record of the transaction in a couple of PDF documents after closing.
One would be for emails and the contact information, while the other would be all of the documents.
As important as the customer service piece is the CYA factor. Protecting your interests by having a complete and searchable record of the entire transaction and all communications could become invaluable if there is a problem or complaint in the future. Actually, I haven't had that problem, but this feature has enabled me to serve a couple of clients "above and beyond" well after the closings.
In one deal, three full years later my clients in another state needed to address an issue but couldn't find a copy of a document that proved their point in a dispute with a contractor. They emailed me and I sent them another full copy of the documents. I searched it first and found the specific document they were missing and gave them the page number. They were very impressed.
In another deal, a builder from out of state purchased a land parcel in a mountain vacation area. In the past there had been a dispute with the county about whether it was a legal subdivision for building permits.
There was a letter in the listing broker's file from the county attorney clearing this parcel, but it was two years old. I requested a new letter with a current date, and received it.
Over a year later he applied for a building permit and was denied by the new county attorney who had decided to make the subdivision situation an issue again. My client hired a local attorney at my recommendation and he contacted me. He wanted to prove to the county that the purchase of the property was contingent on a building permit. I sent him a copy of the transaction emails PDF with the new letter to my client by email with the statement that we could now go ahead with the purchase. Problem solved, permit issued.
You can up your game significantly using Evernote for real estate transaction management.
Though a big part of transaction management involves dealing with a long list of tasks, deliveries and deadlines, there is more to it than that. Sure, we have to keep things moving and not miss any deadlines that could cause problems for our clients. But we're also creating documents, making property coordination visits, interpreting documents for our clients, and documenting all of these activities in a legal manner.
If you view this as just a task list with check boxes, you're over-simplifying it and could have problems if later you need to document when, how and where things happened in the case of complaints or worse, a lawsuit. It is also about customer service. If real estate agents want to avoid the fate of travel agents after the Internet arrived, we must realize that the consumer can get pretty much all of the listed property information they want on the Web.
The best service we can provide for our customer/client is to help them to negotiate, buy or sell, and get through the transaction process efficiently and come out on the other end happy with our services and the result. If we do it right, they'll likely recommend us and send us more business.
There are some really fancy systems, both software and online in the cloud, for real estate transaction management. They come at various costs, and almost always require a monthly subscription, and possibly additional money for each transaction.
Most of them are stand-alone systems, and you'll need to coordinate information between your other systems, such as CRM.
Let's see how we're going to use the tools we've already discussed in this series, Gmail, Evernote and PowerBot to manage transactions and documents for a smooth process and CYA approach to verification of all actions taken, when and where.
Let's think about what our customer is experiencing. There will be a pile of documents going back and forth, disclosures, inspections, surveys, and more. Not only will you want to grease the wheels of this process, you'll make a great impression if you can provide them with a digest of all of these documents after closing.
What Evernote allows you to do is to share a Notebook, which is what other systems call folders.
You can create a transaction notebook for everything going on in the transaction, but also a sub-notebook for sharing with your client. Once it is shared, you don't have to attach lengthy documents to emails, instead just directing them to the shared folder to pick up the newest additions. They can download and sign them, or you can use a digital signature system as well.
After closing, you can merge all of the documents in the folder with a single selection and click. Then you can print them to a PDF file with each document beginning on a new page. It becomes a master record of everything that transpired, with every counter offer and all supporting documents in dated order. Your clients will love it.
Take a look at the image above to see how easy it is to create a printed and/or PDF copy of every email and document involved in a real estate closing transaction.
You simply do a search to pull up the notes you want on the left, select them, and use the Merge Notes command. This is a valuable customer service tool, as you can provide them with a complete record of the transaction in a couple of PDF documents after closing.
One would be for emails and the contact information, while the other would be all of the documents.
As important as the customer service piece is the CYA factor. Protecting your interests by having a complete and searchable record of the entire transaction and all communications could become invaluable if there is a problem or complaint in the future. Actually, I haven't had that problem, but this feature has enabled me to serve a couple of clients "above and beyond" well after the closings.
In one deal, three full years later my clients in another state needed to address an issue but couldn't find a copy of a document that proved their point in a dispute with a contractor. They emailed me and I sent them another full copy of the documents. I searched it first and found the specific document they were missing and gave them the page number. They were very impressed.
In another deal, a builder from out of state purchased a land parcel in a mountain vacation area. In the past there had been a dispute with the county about whether it was a legal subdivision for building permits.
There was a letter in the listing broker's file from the county attorney clearing this parcel, but it was two years old. I requested a new letter with a current date, and received it.
Over a year later he applied for a building permit and was denied by the new county attorney who had decided to make the subdivision situation an issue again. My client hired a local attorney at my recommendation and he contacted me. He wanted to prove to the county that the purchase of the property was contingent on a building permit. I sent him a copy of the transaction emails PDF with the new letter to my client by email with the statement that we could now go ahead with the purchase. Problem solved, permit issued.
You can up your game significantly using Evernote for real estate transaction management.
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