The Blog

I went out the other day to an office in Southwest Riverside County to consult with them as they made the migration to a paperless existence—a paperless brokerage. I’m excited for them; they are going to be so happy once they get up and running without paper files in boxes and storage spaces.

That’s not the only good thing about a paperless brokerage. Of course there is the benefit of helping the environment by using less paper, and the reduction to the carbon footprint by delivering items through email as opposed to driving across town. Then, there is the time savings when you’ve devised an effective paperless brokerage system. If you have to look for an individual document in a file of 250-300 pieces of paper, then you’ll probably thanking your lucky stars when you can log in and locate the item in under 20 seconds—all from your La-Z-Boy in front of the television.

3 Things Brokers Should Consider When Going Paperless

There are tons of things to consider when converting an entire office to a paperless system. Here are the three biggest considerations:

1. Technology Resistant Agents. Not just resistant, but there are agents that are technology-challenged as well. You’ll need to support those agents if you want them to hang their license at your office. How are you going to do that? Will you provide tutorials and classes? Will you have an employee available to help them with scanning and uploading?
2. Work Flow. You’ve probably already got an established workflow. Maybe a listing file is placed in a broker’s inbox when it is ready for review, or maybe the sales manager receives an email. Whatever the case, the workflow will change when everything is online. It’s important to establish the new flow and determine when broker review and approval will occur. Will the broker review documents intermittently or will the broker review everything when the transaction has closed?
3. Selecting the Right Platform. The good news is that there are lots and lots of really great systems available right now. Many are extremely affordable and very easy to use. Some systems are only for transaction management and others include marketing tools, email campaigns, and even real estate contact resource management systems. Depending upon the needs of your brokerage, you’ll need to see which one is best for you. Keep in mind that most people never use all the bells and whistles on anything, so you may not need the most robust system. For example, I never use cruise control on my car, so why did I even get it? The same goes for selecting your office system.

If you’d rather forgo all these decisions, support agents, and put more and more deals in your pipeline, we’d be happy to help. Not only do we provide transaction-coordinating services, but we can also do private consulting to help you migrate your office and become a paperless brokerage. Please feel free to contact us for all of your real estate administration needs.