Archive for How To
The Mobile Real Estate Office Depends on Being Paperless
You can’t go mobile until you go paperless – it’s that simple. While busy real estate professionals have worked to un-tether themselves from their brick and mortar offices by accessing their email and their MLS data from their mobile devices, they’ve discovered a serious limitation. Those that have not taken their listing, sale and lease files digital cannot be truly mobile. It’s simply impossible to access a paper file from a Smartphone!
However, new online services, such as DocBox2Go, are coming to market that allow real estate agents and brokers to access their files from their Smartphones and PDAs – provided they have digitized all their listing, sales and lease files.
Being able to access listing, sale and lease files, as well as other business documents creates a truly mobile real estate office. Agents and brokers can now access their files from virtually anywhere in the world and don’t even need a computer to do it.
Here is how it works. We’ll use DocBox and DocBox2Go, for our example. DocBox is an online document management solution for real estate. It allows agents and brokers to take their real estate offices paperless and store all their real estate files online. They can access those files from virtually any internet connected computer. They can also provide secure, selective access to their assistants, partners, managers, clients, service providers (e.g. – title, mortgage officers), etc. Their broker can also access the transaction files.
Once they’ve moved from paper to online files (click here for a few tips on how to do that), using DocBox, they can then use the mobile version, DocBox2Go, to access those files from virtually any phone with a mobile browser. So, for example, an agent is out of the office and a client calls and tells the agent he needs a copy of the sale contract and the property survey, the agent can securely accesses that sale file at www.docbox2go.com from her phone. Once the agent is in the online file, she can select the documents in question and email or fax the documents to the client from the phone. It’s that simple.
Go Green, Go Paperless!
Find out how much you can save by going paperless using our paperless savings calculator. You can also call us at (800) 668-8768 or email us for more information about DocBox2Go and DocBox.
Luxury-Goods Makers Brandish Green Credentials, Shouldn’t you?
Recently I came across a very interesting article from the Wall Street Journal by Rachel Dodes and Sam Schechner that showed how luxury good makers are embracing “Green” not just through their corporate social responsibilities but also by providing ecofriendly products.
“Over the past year, many of the world’s best-known luxury labels have started to introduce ecofriendly products, snap up brands that tout their social responsibility and weave environmental themes into their advertising and marketing.”
One has to think, why they are doing this?
How does this apply to the real estate market?
The real estate market would be keen to follow their example for a number of very import reasons.
These companies are the ones who get consumers to spend thousands of dollars on a handbag, they are some of the best marketers and brand managers on earth. They did not attain their success by chance and they are taking the green movement very seriously.
The new idea of “Green” products and services will be common place in a couple of years. These companies are joining the green wave before it is no longer new and has lost it’s cachet.
A new idea or movement that affects every aspect of how we live comes around maybe once in a lifetime. The green movement has been around for a while but over the last couple of years it has gained enough momentum that it is not going away and due to the economic hardships and current recession in North America it will be relied upon to help get us out of recession and back on our feet.
Here lies the key. In this economic down turn, smart companies are taking advantage of going green to not only save money internally (which is a complete other topic for another time) but also to add extra marketing punch to their services showing that they are indeed good corporate citizens providing green services as part of their overall service offerings.
One of the most compelling parts of the WSJ article and the part that should be a wakeup call to the real estate industry is displayed through the following graph:
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34% of consumers now are more likely to buy “green” products and services over other products.
Who is this 34 %? A good majority of them are younger consumers, the same people who will be the first time home buyers of today and the near future. “In a recent survey, the Luxury Institute, a New York research firm, found that younger and more-affluent consumers seek information about corporate social responsibility more actively than their older and less well-off counterparts. ‘Young consumers believe that caring about the environment is how you create a meaningful life,’ said Milton Pedraza, the firm’s CEO.” |
You can find plenty of reasons for going green but one very important reason not often considered is that by doing so you will provide legitimate reasons for the consumers of today and more importantly the consumers of tomorrow to embrace and use the services of REALTORS® now and in the future.
Why not take advantage of this once in a life time opportunity to go green, save money and promote yourself whether you are an MLS, real estate board, brokerage or individual as being a good corporate entity that is leading edge with a social conscience.
Luxuary product makers have invested in this, why shouldn’t you?
Document Management Best Practices
There are a few things you can do to make going paperless easier and more effective. Below we’ve listed some document management best practices that you can implement in your real estate business.
Fax, Fax, Fax
If documents are not already in electronic form, simply use the fax-back cover sheet that is created every time you start a new transaction to fax the document into the transaction file using the DocBox fax-back coversheet. This will remove the need for scanning. The faxing does the scanning for you. Faxed-in documents are converted to PDF documents that can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat.
Create a Centralized Filing, Document Storage and Transaction File Repository
Create and maintain a single transaction file accessible by those who will be supplying and reviewing any documentation. A transaction file should be created every time you have a new client, listing, sale or lease.
Utilize DocBox for all Document Management Needs
Remember that the DocBox can be used for more than just transaction documents (listing sale and lease documents). Loading documents into DocBox gives all appropriate parties centralized access and document security from localized disasters. Use DocBox to store marketing documents, operational documents, new hire training manuals, etc.
Stop Accepting Paper Documents!
If you are a broker or broker staff, just ask your agents to fax documents into the file rather than handing them to staff. This will reduce the need for staff to fax or scan every document into the system. And, agents, staff and clients will benefit from having all documents available in the transaction file online.
Email or Fax Documents Directly Out of DocBox
This will save time, reduce paper waste, reduce outbound faxing costs and improve document clarity for the recipient(s).
Provide Fax Back Coversheets to all Your Clients and Vendors
Give anyone who typically gives paper documents the DocBox fax-back coversheet. Giving clients and third party service providers the ability to fax documents right in to the DocBox reduces the need for you to scan documents. Fax Back Coversheets can be faxed out, email out or printed and handed out to your clients and service providers (as well as other agents/co-brokers).
Use the DocBox to Control Document Versions
When replacing a document with a newer version, utilize the Upload Document Revision DocBox functionality to ensure an accurate audit trail is created.
Archive Closed Transactions to a CD or DVD on a Scheduled Basis
Create an off-line back-up of record files by transferring closed transaction files to CD or DVD weekly, monthly or quarterly. By creating transaction archives you will have a local copy that you can securely store off-site such as a safety deposit box or home office.
Standardize Document and Transaction Naming
Ensure that a standard method is used when naming both Documents and Transactions for easy search and retrieval.
Learn more about using DocBox and going paperless by visiting our website or by watching one of our free webinars.
Find out how much you can save by going paperless using our paperless savings calculator.
You can also call us at (800) 668-8768 or email us with your contact information.
