If you still depend on a fax
machine and this Blog post makes you angry, then good. You
should really think long an hard about what I post below. Now
if you cannot come to ween yourself off your fax machine addiction and
your fax machine still has thermal paper and or a handset, I hope this
post really roasts you into a fury.
1. Fax machines degenerate the copies they make everytime you
fax the same document. Your documents become unreadable and
especially with the small print on real estate forms this happens after
fewer re-faxes. This degeneration problem is very problematic
in that loan underwriters cannot read the purchase contracts and if you
make a client sign a document that cannot be read, then you just
created a document that cannot be enforced.
2. A fax machine is like a boat anchor, why be tied
to a dedicated pile of outdated junk, when there are other ways to
convert and transmit your paper documents. Why have to be
tied to a home fax machine or a office fax machine when documents can
be delivered to your email 24/7?
3. All in one
copier scanner printers are under $150. for home use. If you need an
automatic sheet feeder then the cost is more; however for less than
$150 as in the picture of this Espon CX6000, you can convert your
documents with a higher quality scans than a fax will ever give you and
with Acrobat you can actually add text and graphics to the documents
you scan.
4. On the Real Estate side of transactions,
electronic signatures create the ability to totally eliminate a fax
machine, FedEx, messengers, or any other courier/overnight delivery
systems. This reduces time waiting for documents to be
shipped all over town or even around the state or country.
5. Online Transaction management systems are now becoming
popular enough (why this is taking so long to be realized by agents is
another blog post in itself) that the online storage and
distribution of documents to all parties of the transaction creates
less dependence on a fax machine.
Now I know some think how can you even contemplate running a
transaction without a fax machine? Most transactions start
with a paper purchase agreement and that has to be at least converted?
Yes this is true, but the conversion does not have to be made with a
fax machine. As I mentioned above scanning into Acrobat
produces a much higher quality reproductions that then has the ability
to be amended or even set up to be electronically signed.
This scanned document can be sent via efax if the recipient
on the other end still uses a boat anchor, sorry I meant a fax machine.
If you use a service such as efax or a similar service,
then your documents will be converted to PDF anyway,
not a the quality level you can create with your own scanner
and Acrobat, but now your documents will no
longer be degraded by the fax machine.
As agents, most of our offices already have all the equipment in place
to leave the fax machine as the last go to device (only when your arm
is twisted). I have only one client at this point that does
not have computer access, but even more interesting this same client
does not have access to a fax machine either. Even when I
look further into the homes of people I meet, everyone has a computer,
very, very few have a fax machine.
Overall the ability to give clients access to their documents 24/7 take
much more than a fax machine. The quality of these documents
is critical and shows what level of care and professionalism we have
for our craft. The tools are mostly already at our disposal,
I see this more as a shift in attitude and not a shift in
some new technology.
Ted Mackel Simi Valley Real Estate Simi Valley Homes, Simi Valley Realtor
;)
;)
I presented this question on Twitter a while back... the response was interesting.... look at how long the cassette tapes hung around after their time?
I'm ready for them to go away. I just received some papers from a client that really looked like the 'ole thermal paper kind :O eeee gads!
I've also had to get better copies to the loan officers many times! There is a definite room for improvement these days!!!
I'm for the Bye-Bye on the Fax Machine! It's so nice on the receiving end to get email wherever you are vs. having to get to a certain machine!