Brokers: 3 Hacks to Improve Your Transaction Management Experience

The life of a real estate broker-owner is a balancing act. You juggle an endless array of responsibilities daily, from recruiting and retaining top talent to ensuring legal compliance, managing finances, supporting agents, overseeing transactions, and building relationships.

As a broker, one of the most effective ways to increase office efficiency is by integrating a digital transaction management solution into your real estate business ecosystem.

With the right system in place, you can leverage the power of a robust transaction management solution by utilizing hacks to get the most out of your system. Here are three impactful hacks that can help you get the most out of your transaction management system:

Hack #1: The power of agent insight — acting vs. reacting

Transaction management systems give brokers real-time visibility into deal workflows. Rather than waiting for agents to raise issues, you can proactively identify bottlenecks and provide support. By tracking agent activity, you gain insight to:

• The habits of top performers to share their best practices across your team
• Identify points in the transaction lifecycle where agents commonly get stuck
• Develop standardized systems and checklists to smooth workflows
• Spot areas where additional training may be beneficial
• Checking in with agents at critical milestones

For example, if you notice several agents taking over a week to get fully executed contracts to buyers, you can work with them to identify obstacles. Perhaps they struggle with understanding a new form or are simply new to the business. Insight can lead to additional coaching, and you can continue monitoring to see if the situation improves.

Armed with this knowledge, you can immediately offer support or resources to help agents get back on track, avoiding delays that could jeopardize their deals. This proactive approach accelerates transaction completion rates and enhances agent satisfaction and client trust.

Hack #2: Using clauses to save time

Creating and saving clauses within your transaction management system, such as Form Simplicity, can significantly reduce the time spent drafting documents. These clauses consist of creating standard phrases or wording frequently used in transactions and making them available to be inserted into forms as needed. This preparation saves considerable time across numerous transactions, making the process more efficient for everyone involved.

Both brokers and agents can build a database of reusable clauses related to transaction language for forms, disclosures, and more.

With a robust clause library, brokers and agents can search and insert relevant clauses into documents instead of drafting from scratch each time.

Some examples of helpful clauses include:

• Standard terms for listing agreements
• Phrases for Seller disclosures
• Verbiage explaining financing contingencies
• Language surrounding home inspections

Consider your office's cumulative time savings across all transactions. The use of prefilling clauses speeds up the drafting process and ensures consistency and accuracy across all transactions, benefiting both agents and clients.

Setting up clause libraries will require a bit of effort upfront but will save significant time down the road. Brokers can choose to build a shared clause library or allow agents to create their own individual collections.

Hack #3: Configuring automated notifications and email reminders

By setting up automatic notifications, brokers put their transaction management system on autopilot. One of the greatest values of task notifications and email reminders within your transaction management system is you can ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Automated reminders help keep agents, clients, and third-party vendors informed about upcoming deadlines, necessary documentation, and other critical aspects of the transaction process.

Email alerts also remove the need for brokers and agents to log in to check statuses continually. Instead, the system pushes out reminders when attention is required.

Some examples of notifications brokers can include:

• Alerting agents when new forms are uploaded that require review
• Reminding agents of looming tasks and deadlines
• Informing brokers when transactions reach key milestones requiring oversight
• Requesting broker review when agents submit completed documents

By fine-tuning notifications for different user groups, brokers ensure the right people receive prompts relevant to their roles. Removing the need for brokers and agents to monitor systems constantly enables everyone to focus on high-value activities, saving crucial time.

Streamline management with smarter transaction tools

You know from personal experience that running a real estate brokerage comes with no shortage of moving parts to manage. Transaction management systems organize workflows to help brokers act as strategic leaders rather than reactive problem solvers.

Monitoring agent dealings, building clause libraries, and configuring system notifications allow you to work smarter, not harder, when overseeing transactions.

Implementing these three simple hacks helps brokers ensure transactions flow efficiently so agents can provide exceptional service. When you have structured processes in place, you can help create more capacity for business growth while cultivating a positive office culture of success.

Learn more about one of America's leading transaction management solutions, Form Simplicity, at formsimplicity.com.

Related reads

From the Form Simplicity Blog:

• Protecting your brokerage: How to audit-proof the transaction side of your business
• Broker Benefits: 3 Ways Brokers Can Maximize Their Use of a Transaction Management Solution
• 3 Surprising Advantages of a Digital Transaction Management Program

Tricia Stamper is Director of Technology at Florida Realtors®, which owns both Tech Helpline and Form Simplicity.