Going Paperless in Your Real Estate Business with E-Edge and DotLoop

Going Paperless in 2012!!

Well gang here I am about to present WHY and HOW our Market Center at Keller Williams San Antonio Cityview has gone Paperless.

Why go paperless?  Well we like trees right?  Also it is much easier to review a contract via a PDF than having to print and go over line by line by hand.    Everything is electronic and can be stored ELECTRONICALLY on a Server!!  Not in a file cabinet!!  We have boxes and boxes of old contracts down in our storage area that we are STILL scanning into the system so we can get rid of all the PAPER!   

So storage and ease of access is ONE reason we have gone paperless.  Secondly everything is emailed pretty much now so why not stay in the format it was delivered in??   No need to print if we can read on the screen and SIGN on the screen in some cases.  

I would first like to say that it has been a transition and that we have been doing a ‘sort’ of paperless operation for years but once the e-Edge platform launched with the integrated E-Signing capabilities of DotLoop and our Broker Dashboard – we can do EVERYTHING Paperless.

So at first I will say how we used to do things and at times a handful of our agents will be stubborn enough to continue to use Zipforms to do contracts – Why is that a pain in the rear?  

BECAUSE Java has to be updated like very 48 hours and in a networked environment where the machines are locked down by admin,  it has to be updated A LOT!!  And guess who gets to do that?   That’s right.

So here is a screen shot of the e-Edge Platform and the area that we use for Transactions – It is called My Transactions (go figure) and you can do Listings and Buyer contracts, Upload your own forms and add signature and initial fields etc.  

After clicking on the My Transaction Button you will see some options –

You can now choose whether you want to look at an existing Contract or Loop (the Dotloop system calls a contract a LOOP) or Start a New Transaction -  This will take you to the DotLoop system which is STILL part of the e-Edge Keller Williams Platform.

And the great thing about it is this – it is part of the package!!!  Unlimited contracts, 7 years storage of your files, NO JAVA!!!!  So why in the heck would you not use it??? 

So once you decide which Loop type you want , you click on the button and it takes you to a screen where you put the Address of the property you are looking to List or Buy.  

So now we are getting closer!!! Don’t leave yet!!  Once we have the physical address of the property, we now can begin choosing the forms we need for our contract.   (you can actually set up FORM SETS so you just choose BUYER LOOP or LISTING LOOP and it will have the right forms all ready to go.

Here is something IMPORTANT you might not know about ZipForms – If you create a Buyer Template with all the normal forms it will NOT automatically update the FORMS in your Template to the most current version – DotLoop will.  This keeps you out of trouble!!!   So be warned.

Once you select your forms, it is as easy as filling in the blanks and saving them as you go.  Once you are done with all your contract forms, you can open them as a PDF and print them for ‘physical signing’ or you can EMAIL them to the client to have them e-sign!!  It is a snap.

Once you are done with all your paperwork, it can be SUBMITTED to compliance INSIDE the system to be reviewed and checked off.  It ALSO will do most of the Greensheet work for you also by filling in most of the blanks and getting that to the person who does the DA’s…and you get paid.  How cool is that?

So at Keller Williams, they give us some great tools to make things easier for everyone.  Now you might have to USE the system to learn it but man why would you not get to be an expert at DotLoop like you did with Zipforms?  

So we do our part in making Technology work for the agents and most of all for our clients – more and more clients want the capability of being able to E-Sign documents – if you don’t do it you are being left in the dust by those of us who do.

And who wants that!! 

You would then have to get a PAPER Towel and wash it off!!! And where is the PAPER Saving benefit than?   You see.  I am trying to help you!!!

Below you will see a short video of ME running you through the basics of the paperless system built in to the e-Edge platorm..