I want a Paperless Real Estate Office in my area.... am I wrong?

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I want a Paperless Real Estate Office in my area.... am I wrong?

Working with Real Estate Contracts can often lead to an overwhelming amount of paper. I try to go paperless as much as possible.

This week I sent an HOA package that was 160 pages with a simple link to the PDF file.

My home inspectors now do their reports totally on-line (or I would consider not using them).

We even transfer plats, surveys and contracts by email.

Yes we are close but I still want a Paperless Real Estate Office!!!

(Image courtesy: http://www.amalaserline.com/)

DEFINITION: The paperless office was a publicist's slogan, meant to describe the office of the future. The basic idea was that office automation would make paper redundant for routine tasks such as record-keeping and bookkeeping. The idea came to prominence with the introduction of the personal computer

PROBLEM: Here is the problem. I still get agents who do not get it.... yet. Some are hand filling out contracts when we can now put everything on-line with Adobe. If you still have to hand write it, then scan it and send it to me. Please do not make me a copy, I just want to reduce the paper.

SIGNATURES: Sure we are seeing digital signatures too, but they have not yet caught on in our area.I am looking forward to when they are accepted.

I just want a Paperless Real Estate Office... am I wrong?

Charles McDonald
PRINCIPAL BROKER

Charlottesville Real Estate
Solutions for Buyers and Sellers

(direct) 434-515-1585

Posted by Charlottesville Real Estate on 03/03/2010 05:00 PM

Comments (16)

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Originally posted at: Charlottesville Real Estate: I want a Paperless Real Estate Office in my area.... am I wrong?

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16 Comments on I want a Paperless Real Estate Office in my area.... am I wrong?

MAR

2010

I would love to have one as well. It's crazy how much paper our industry creates and hey an HOA package with only 160 pages is great. Recently had one with 280!

WOW 280?

amazing

Since these documents rarely change, several states are requiring that they be posted online and updated as needed...that is the way to go so that they do not become a profit-center for the HOA on the backs of the seller

eContracts with digital signatures is very big here. Makes life for everyone much easier...

Debi

Charles it is lesss expensive run a paperless office, I not published much in over 3 years. Effective mgmt. of computer I LOVE IT Have a great week.

I have been trying for 2 years with a Tablet computer with a digital pen then loading documents to Google docs and inviting interested parties. It works great for much of the process. We all need to get rid of at least some of the papers involved.

MAR

2010

Paperless is defiantly the way to go Charles! My inspector is paperless now as well. There are many agents in my office who still have a hard time with paperless.

Hey Charles! With this comment I will hit 100,000 AR points. I thought it appropriate that I do so by commenting on your post as most of them are due to your dilligence and I appreciate that. I need to find so much more time to blog on a regular basis.

It will be wonderful when we can get away from printing everything. The new "Kindle" and reader technologies will certainly help as some folks can't read details from a computer screen. They have proven that it is due to the refresh rate of the screen that the brain picks up.

I have a great system that takes faxes and creates pdf files directly into my email. I send everything to myself digitally so that I can dforward any and all files to everyone involved in the transaction.

Thanks again for the milestone! More congratulations to you than to me!

Charles One of my clients refused to accept an online set of HOA docs - he didn't want to use his own paper to print it out - go figure !!!!

MAR

2010

Hi Charles,

The problem is trust. Most don't trust the technology enough to safely store their documents, even if they make backups, so they feel the need to print everything out and file it. Computers, which in theory were supposed to cut down on paper use, realistically create more.

I blame Microsoft for all their unstable operating systems. LOL

We just sold our house and bought two condos and OMG!!! The paper generated for those three transactions (even the two stats had to be printed) was unbelievable. The stack was about a foot high - I kid you not.

Our office has been paperless for several years - it is the ONLY way to go!

Hey, Charles. I am all about going paperless. I burn everything on a CD and give that to all my clients. It is much easier to reference. Thanks, Jim

I still have not worked the 'Paperless' angle yet. I'm still printing up things to read them to ensure I dont miss anything. Who knows, eventually I'll convert.

MAR

2010

It will be great if we can scan all our documents from the previous year and save them instead of boxes of paper.

It drives me nuts when I run into an agent writing an offer on one of my properties and they don't know how to email it. I hate getting a fax when it can come via email instead.

I agree completely! Yesterday, I was forced to print out almost 300 pages of Condo docs for a purchaser who wanted a hard copy. Really? Because we all spend so much time re-reading this stuff.

I was able to get the purchaser's agent to get them to accept it via email (with a contract mod saying that they would accept it electronically). At least I saved the gas that myself or some delivery person would have used to deliver it.

I guess I am left with a lot of scrap paper....

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Charlottesville Real Estate

Charlottesville, VA

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Charles McDonald 434-515-1585

Address: Charlottesville Real Estate Solutions, 2013 Woodbrook Court, Charlottesville, VA, 22901

Office Phone: (434) 515-1585

Cell Phone: (434) 981-1585

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