#RealtorProblems

Every Real Estate agent knows the moment an offer is accepted, the deal’s far from done with the thorny closing gauntlet still ahead.

At this stage of a sale, commonly called escrow or a pending sale, Real Estate agents and their clients enter a heightened mode of vigilance and care as they coordinate inspections, prepare their down payment, execute their loans, evaluate home warranties and a variety of other activities that require important service providers.

Before a transaction closes, service providers must collaborate in a careful sequence, meet critical deadlines and share sensitive documents and information.

A successful closing requires a careful orchestration of documents, people and process, and today’s technology.

Below are some primary elements that can hamper the real estate closing process, and how we have solved them.

1. Rudimentary security

When critical information passes hands, with little accountability or visibility into who has it and when, security becomes an issue. These manual trackings leave room for lost, mishandled (or worse) information that can slow or kill deals, and compromise client trust and lead to fraud. We use a task management system called Brivity. We are all aware who is doing what, when it is done, and that info is relayed to our clients.

2. Fractured process

Many Real Estate agents still muddle through the closing process with paper files, forcing them into a mind-numbing project management role as they strive to push a contract uphill to close as each party completes its section of the closing process. Our transaction coordinators utilize Google Drive and share the docs with our clients for 24 hour access.

3. Lack of accountability

Closings have lots of moving parts with a variety of service providers critical at different points in the process. Sometimes a deal stalls on the tracks and it’s not immediately clear what needs to happen next or who’s responsible to get the transaction train moving again.

This makes it hard to hold parties accountable for moving everything along smoothly. We have a morning huddle at 9:45 every morning to stay up to speed on every and all files and are continuously logged in to Brivity.

4. Hampered collaboration

In addition to buyer and seller and buying and selling agents, closings require a close collaboration among inspectors, lenders, title companies, lawyers, homeowner insurance, home warranty professionals and more.

If everyone could visualize where the closing process stands in real time, access documents from one central location, receive automated alerts when their attention is needed and who is responsible for the next step and message each other as needed, closings would go more smoothly. Hence, the need for Google Drive and Brivity.

5. Anonymous service providers

Many service providers collaborate to see a contract through to closing.

Buyers, sellers and their agents have the opportunity to choose many of them, but usually they select them based on convenience rather than quality and research. We ONLY recommend service providers based on our experience with them. Some of our providers have been with us for more than 30 years.

 6. A digital solution

One solution is an end-to-end digital transaction management platform that brings all parties involved in a closing to the table in an easy-to-use cloud-based dashboard. Ours is Brivity.

By giving all involved parties permissions-based access to the dashboard, setting up automated workflows that alert parties when their attention is needed and the status of the closing, everybody can stay on the same page and know who’s next up in the process and when.

In addition, the transaction platform offers access to a directory of user-rated and -reviewed service providers, agents and their clients can find the best professional for the job, ensuring the smoothest, quickest transaction possible.

And the most important part. If it includes cutting-edge blockchain technology to ensure all actions are recorded and verified, closings would be baked with trust and security. We believe ours are trusted and secure that can speed up closings, make them more secure, easier for agents to manage and reduce the probability that deals fall through, leading to happier clients and agents.

See our testimonials here - https://www.chrisfritchteam.com/testimonials

Proudly brought to you by the Chris Fritch Team eXp Realty