Get Your Free Real Estate Deal Tracker Spreadsheet (Plus Tips For Smoother Transactions)
Managing transactions for your entire real estate business can be both challenging and time-consuming. The process is also error-prone, with approximately 25% of transactions experiencing documentation errors and 35% of closings facing financial complications.
Whether you’re a broker, agent, admin, or transaction coordinator (TC), using a spreadsheet is an efficient method to track progress and manage transactions from initiation to closing, particularly for new brokerages.
We’ve created a downloadable real estate transaction management spreadsheet to help you organize your real estate business. Our real estate transaction tracker spreadsheet will help you to:
- Manage transactions.
- Track critical dates.
- Quickly and easily add key data.
- Filter your transactions by location.
- Get an overview of the most critical data.
7 Tips for Efficient Transaction Management Processes
Many real estate businesses are so focused on sales that they forget to ensure they need to close deals smoothly.
However, if your transaction management process is slow and full of mistakes, your business will be less efficient, meaning you’ll make less money than you should.
Here are seven best practices to streamline your transaction management processes:
1. Limit who can access your spreadsheet
Keeping your transaction data accurate and consistent is critical. Your entire business relies on this. The more employees who can access your spreadsheet, the higher the risk of errors.
Any mistakes can slow down the closing process or even lead to deals falling through, both of which will impact your revenue and reputation.
Maintaining consistency in a manual system like a spreadsheet becomes increasingly challenging when multiple people use it.
Restricting access to your administrative tools to a select few ensures that your data remains a reliable and singular source of accuracy.
Additionally, if there are any issues with the system’s management, you will know exactly which team members require further training.
2. Start transactions earlier
Many brokerages only start new transactions when their real estate agents submit documents. This means that there’s extensive admin to be completed before you can move deals forward.
This slows the entire business and can be frustrating for all parties involved, including potential buyers and sellers.
You can get a head start on some of these processes by initiating new transactions earlier. For example, you could begin the transaction when your agents write offers or when they are about to list a property.
3. Have one inbox for all transactions
Handling data isn’t the only area where consistency is key. You should also make sure that your staff and agents send all transaction data to one inbox.
Haphazardly sending documents, updates, contracts, and offers to various people can lead to the missing or even loss of some essential items.
Using a single email inbox, agents can send or forward emails with attachments, scan documents directly into the inbox, or have documents automatically sent from e-signature tools into the inbox.
4. Communicate quickly and often
Good communication is the backbone of a successful brokerage, which is why you should use automatic updates and instant email templates to make regular communication quick and simple.
By using Paperless Pipeline, you can set up automatic email reminders for upcoming and overdue tasks for all your contacts. The software also allows you to streamline email updates and communication using saved email templates and auto-fill tags.
5. Let agents view your system
As mentioned earlier, you should limit the number of team members who can change your transaction management system. However, you should allow everyone to view it by managing your permissions correctly.
This means anyone can search and access the detailed and critical information they need and know exactly what stage each transaction has reached. However, they can’t necessarily edit or alter the data themselves.
With this setup, your agents will no longer need to email you and your admins or TCs with questions, which saves time.
It also means your agents are always prepared. Whether they’re at the closing table or getting ready for tax season, production, commission, and contact details are at their fingertips.
6. Evaluate your transaction workflow regularly
Efficiency isn’t a once-off process, especially in the fast-changing real estate market. Your transaction management workflow should be continuously evaluated to identify bottlenecks, eliminate redundant steps, and adapt to new compliance regulations.
Create a monthly or quarterly checklist to evaluate the performance across key areas such as turnaround time for listings to closing, common reasons for delayed transactions, client feedback, and document errors.
You can collect data from your transaction software or even set up a brief post-closing survey for agents and clients. Over time, this feedback loop allows you to refine your systems and stay competitive.
Proactively doing this not only increases your current efficiency but also future-proofs your business by helping you adapt to shifting client expectations and market conditions.
7. Prioritize tasks based on value to clients and your business
Not every transaction task delivers the same value to your clients or business. Some steps, like prompt document delivery, deadline tracking, or contingency management, directly impact client satisfaction and deal outcomes.
Other tasks, while necessary, are less urgent or can be automated or delegated.
By identifying and focusing on high-priority activities, you ensure your team spends more time supporting clients and less time on administrative clutter.
This approach allows you to scale more effectively, as you’ll have a better sense of where to allocate your resources to maintain service levels.
8. Centralize all client data in a transaction database
Having client information spread across spreadsheets, emails, and notes makes it harder to deliver timely, accurate service. A centralized database solves this.
With the right transaction management system, all details related to a deal, including client contact info, documents, commission splits, and communication logs, are stored in one central place.
This ensures your team and partners can serve clients faster, you reduce the risk of missing key tasks or documentation, and you can easily respond to client concerns.
No Contract, Flexible Pricing: The Perfect Tool for Real Estate Brokers
Whether you’re an owner or a partner, it’s time to go beyond spreadsheets and enter the world of automated workflows, where processes and operations are simpler and more streamlined.
Paperless Pipeline is transaction management software that automates your entire process, reduces the risk of errors, and allows you to close more deals on time.
One of our key benefits is that our pricing model is flexible, with no contracts required. This allows you to subscribe to our tool on a month-to-month basis.
There are also no setup fees or per-user costs, meaning you don’t have to pay to add new agents or team members to our platform.
With transaction-based pricing and advanced features for transaction management, you can add your entire team to the software without any additional charges.
Paperless Pipeline is super easy to use, so there’s no steep learning curve that often comes with transaction management software. It’s simple, straightforward, and we provide free training to get you started with your account.
Try Paperless Pipeline today with a 100% free trial, with no credit card required, to discover why our software is the best spreadsheet alternative. It’s that simple!