Real Estate Office Goes Paperless

A very special thing happened in our office this week. We became a paperless office.

I think back to the early days of my career. Just 25 years ago, the process was a far cry from today. Imagine a real estate agent wants to write an offer for a buyer. The process begins with the buyer(s) coming into the office work with the real estate agent to get the offer written.  

The agent then gets in his or her automobile with five copies of the offer in a folder and drives to the listing agents office or home. The listing agent takes the folder and then gets in the car and drives to the seller’s home. They sit down and review the offer and then make changes by marking through and initialing the changes and then off the agent goes back to the buyers agent's office.

The next step is the buyer’s agent takes the counter offer to the buyer and the process goes on sometimes taking a week or more.  And if you had an out-of-town buyer or seller and you had to depend on mail, weeks could go by without getting a signed contract.

The next big change was the computer and then the fax machine which was looked down on as something we would never use. Imagine telling someone you were sending the offer to them and putting it through a little machine and then the offer coming out on the other end. The paper was funny but the offer was there.

We fast forward to computers, iPads, smart phones, efax and today we go paperless. The process has become very complex. The structured environment of the paperless office is is a perfect match for today’s marketplace.

We are able to complete listings, make offers and complete a transaction without any party to the contract introducing a paper document into the transaction. That is not to say it does not happen.

All documents are turned into paperless documents. The gatekeeper at our Keller Williams office only accepts paperless documents from the agents.

New on the market this week 5224 North Hampton Ridge, Peachtree Corners

New on the market this week. 5715 Greenbank Terrace, Peachtree Corners

Editor's note: Nancy Minor is a Realtor with . Her office is located in Peachtree Corners.