Real estate is a fast-paced, data-intensive business. And in today’s economic environment, Realtors are looking for ways to improve all facets of their business in order to stay competitive and gain more share of the market.

Inefficient document workflow and the necessity for agents to produce effective marketing materials are part of the problem that is causing increased and unnecessary operational costs.

Faxes

Currently, most Realtors rely solely on printed fax output, taking unnecessary risks with agent productivity. When sales agents are not in the office, paper faxes can be difficult to forward, and offer letters, counter-offers, inspection notices and/or listing contracts that are faxed to an office and re-faxed to the agent at home, may be illegible or expire by the time the hard copy is received. Often, the illegible documents need to be sent again, taking up more time in a business where every second counts. From a confidentiality standpoint, leaving printed faxes in an exit tray creates opportunities for competing agents to view each other’s offers, contracts and other sensitive documents. If you are a veteran of the real estate industry, this is not anything that you don’t already know. So, what’s the solution?

The implementation of e-mail-enabled fax solutions provide a company with the ability to receive incoming faxes via e-mail, allowing them to forward documents confidentially to agents’ e-mail addresses. This solution makes it possible to receive documents immediately via laptop, PDA, or other Web-connected devices. The quick turnaround time helps Realtors to respond faster to listing/selling contracts, offers, counter-offers and closing documents. Additionally, agents can work from any location with Internet access, and the security of e-mail-enabled faxing gives them peace of mind when sending or receiving sensitive information. For brokers, Web-based faxing significantly reduces printing costs for fax documents, and incoming and outgoing faxes can be easily tracked and managed. Some fax systems can actually serve as network printers, enabling a company to track all print activity in its office and recover these costs from agents.

Print costs

Another issue plaguing the real estate industry is that many real estate agents use expensive specialty print shops to produce high-quality, full-color flyers, brochures, and postcards that limit their capacity to produce effective marketing materials, not to mention the cost. Through the simple installation of color track printing software, Realtors are able to track color printing to an individual for full cost recovery, and agents are able to produce professional-quality color documents in-house, at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing.

The color track printing solution provides many benefits to agents including a significant competitive advantage over rival agents who do not have access to affordable, in-house color printing, as well as higher potential income from increased sales and reduced color print costs. Another benefit is quantity control – some on-demand print shops will require a minimum number of prints that is more than the Realtor wants to print in order to take advantage of the volume discount. With an in-house solution, the agent can print as few or as many as he wants without worrying about the cost. Additionally, a faster turnaround on color print jobs increases productivity and in turn, creates more time for agents and brokers to meet with potential clients and customers.

Realtors have a choice. They can continue losing thousands of dollars because of easily resolved inefficiencies, or they can take a closer look at their document workflow cycle and production cost expenses. Through the implementation of the right document management solutions, enormous change can be created and tremendous cost savings can be achieved for any agent or broker. Furthermore, these solutions can be easily integrated onto any network, with minimal impact at minimal cost, increasing efficiencies and helping to streamline the document management flow of any organization.

Fred Vobornik, Corporate Account Manager, Real Estate Market of Lanier Worldwide. For more information, please contact Mr. Vobornik at fvoborni@lanier.com

Published: May 16, 2003

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