In an effort to get organized and stay organized, every office - even your office at home, needs a filing system. The following information may prove useful to you in the event you are ever called upon to search your own paper trail or in the event you are called upon to be a professional witness regarding a real estate transaction.

At the local office supply store, you can purchase file folders with a slip-in pocket on the inside flap. A useful tool. Or, make your own, simply by placing a regular large envelope into the file for storage of bits and pieces that fly around if not stapled in place.

I often staple a small note to a regular size sheet of paper, for filing purposes, which also provides an additional space for more note taking on the same subject.

At our office, we keep a file within a file, one of the files being colored. Copies of all correspondence and telephone notes are kept in the separate file, all the pertinent "property" info in the other. Seems like extra work? Not at all. Helps in managing phone call look-up info, as well as having other uses. At the front of each file, stapled in place, is a three page "to do" list, and spot beside each entry, for a check mark, date and initial. We never know when we may need to know who did what, said what, and when. Particularly so, if you are called to witness an event. And, this is such a simple cross-check for the secretaries, to double-check that they, in fact, did not duplicate a "to-do" item.

If you have a particularly difficult client (no Realtor can relate...), jot down notes in your database file, and print them out (there's no such thing as a paperless office). File them in the extra file, as well. One never knows when these notes might come in handy, even way far into the future.

You can also keep copies of advertising in this type of file. This file may come in handy when you need to extend the expiry date on a listing that has not sold, and the seller thinks you haven't spent enough money on it? Or complains to your broker about something the seller thinks you should have done, and thinks you didn't? When everyone sees how organized you appear to be, fewer questions and/or accusations are likely to surface.

You have just had a meeting with your broker? That very day write down, or type out, a few notes, even in point form. File these notes the same way, only in your personal material. You may never need them, but you never know when those notes will come in handy. And, will your broker be impressed if you are ever called upon to prove a point? You now have a point of reference. Don't forget to date everything.

If we are in possession of any seller's documents, this too is recorded, and we have the seller sign a form, date it, and store it in the property file, showing when the document is returned. When I first became a Realtor, 19 years ago, I had returned a survey copy to a seller. He said he couldn't find it, and was not sure I had returned it. Today I would not only have an extra copy in the file, I would have his signature saying "when" I had returned it, if you make a habit of carrying an extra company envelope in your briefcase, or returning items using an envelope, you can have the seller just sign the envelope as a receipt. Then file the envelope. Simple but effective.

Another important note: get a signature and date when you return keys, if a listing does not sell, or goes off the market. File that piece of paper, too. All these bits and pieces go into the extra file. The only items in the main file, in the end, are those pertinent to the closing of the property, and its resale should you be so fortunate to sell it again in a few years.

When typing correspondence, have the secretary print out the correspondence on regular paper, and photocopy it onto letterhead. This saves printer ink and printed company letterhead. By using the photocopier to duplicate the material on your company letterhead, you now have a ready "copy", not on letterhead, for your property file. For a large office, this is a huge expense savings in printing costs alone. Place a check mark on the bottom right corner of the copy, and an initial, to know that you have completed that part of the file, and mailed the material, or otherwise distributed it.

Published: September 14, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.