5 Steps to Simplify the Real Estate Transaction Process

At Paperless Pipeline, we’ve helped thousands of real estate companies streamline their transaction management processes. There’s no one best approach or perfect workflow that works for everyone—but there are best practices that lead to time savings, more productive staff, and even happier agents.

This guide will walk you through 5 steps, based on the very best practices, to help you improve and streamline your real estate transaction process. You may not need to follow all five, and that’s okay. Implementing just the right steps for your company and process can help substantially.

Step 1. Establish a single source of truth

In real estate, things come from every direction every day of the week. What’s missing for most real estate companies is a single source of accurate and consistent data that can be relied on. 

The problem for most is simply getting a single source of truth. Often, companies try to bring more people into the fold—but adding more cooks in the kitchen isn’t the right solution. 

The solution is actually reducing the cooks—limiting the number of people responsible for using your admin tools. In other words, a lack of consistency is due to the number of people you rely on to maintain up-to-date information. 

How this helps:

​With Paperless Pipeline, your admin controls the process and confirms what’s going on. So the next time you need to see the status of all your pending sales, check your Transactions Page for instant and up-to-date information. 

Step 2. Start the transaction earlier

Some offices start a new transaction only when agents have submitted documents—but there’s a better way. 

Start new transactions as soon as Active Buyer (when your agents are writing offers) or Coming Soon to Market (when an agent will soon list a property). 

How this helps:

​As soon as a transaction is added in Paperless Pipeline, things automatically happen that will save you a ton of time. 

Paperless Pipeline can automatically sync due dates to your agent’s calendar (and yours). Task reminders can be automatically sent out to your agent. Your listing or pending inventory reports will be more accurate. 

Step 3. Give your staff one inbox for everything

Do your agents email documents and updates to you or a staff member? Do they sometimes scan or print? Do you receive contracts in one place, offers in another, and still check a dropbox in the office?

The problem is apparent—there are too many places for agents to send documents, and there are too many places for your admin to check. Instead, give your entire company one place for incoming docs. 

How this helps:

​Using your Paperless Pipeline Unassigned page, agents will have one destination to send documents to, and your admins will have one place to check. It’s that simple. 

With a single inbox, agents can send or forward emails with attachments, scan documents into the inbox, or have documents automatically sent from e-sign tools into the inbox. And your admins will have just one place to check (plus, they can receive instant notifications when new docs are accepted.)

Step 4. Communicate quickly & often

Communication is key. It’s no secret, but it’s still often lacking for most real estate companies. 

Here’s the problem: Effective communication requires consistency and timeliness. The solution: Automatic updates and instant email templates in Paperless Pipeline. 

How this helps:

​Some messages are necessary, but they take up time to create and send each day—but not with Paperless Pipeline. 

You can turn on automatic email reminders for upcoming and overdue tasks, daily activity emails, and more. 

You can also streamline email updates and communication with saved email templates and auto-fill tags. Using both will allow you to send customized emails for the specific transaction and the people on it in just a few clicks—no typing necessary. 

Step 5. Give agents appropriate access into your system

How many times have agents called or emailed you with questions that could have been answered if they had access to your single source of truth? Probably a lot… 

Here’s the problem: When a system isn’t a single source of truth, agents and admins cannot rely on it. Or, when the system is only available to certain people, agents have no access in the first place. The solution: Give agents access to your account with specific permissions only so that they can view and see what they need, but nothing more and nothing less. 

How this helps:

​With appropriate and necessary access to your system, agents can see what they need, when they need it. At the closing table, on the go, or when they’re preparing for tax season—production, commission, and contact information is at their fingertips.