Paperless Paperwork for New Jersey Real Estate Transactions

Go GREEN, Go paperless!

Things have been hopping around here in New Jersey, lots of contracts being written. And, with every Real Estate transaction there is a lot of paperwork but, I’m learning, that doesn’t have to mean a lot of PAPER!

As part of our “GREEN-ing”, we have tried to implement paperless transactions where ever possible. Emailing, Faxing and Online listing databases and transaction management calendars, as well as shared online files have certainly paved the way to reducing the amount of paper used. Before the online MLS, each agent had an MLS book, full of all of the active listing for a given area (currently there are 457 homes available in: Maplewood, South Orange, Summit and Millburn alone). What a waste of paper!

When I schedule Buyer Appointments, I print out as few (if any) copies of the MLS listing sheets as possible. Instead, my clients and I review online listing and narrow down our home selections online. And, I have noticed that my clients no longer want to take every piece of paper that the Listing Agents leave out. Savvy buyer’s think: “I can pull up everything on my phone…why carry around a bunch of papers and kill more trees.” Love That!

I have a client whose profession has caused him to transfer locations (and homes) 7 times in the past 15 years. He and his wife have actually purchased 2 of these homes completely online – not having stepped foot into them until they were the owners.

As a GREEN REALTOR there are two sites are the backbone of my GREEN paper (less) work trail: NJAR.com which provides Realtors with access to online copies of all forms needed for any Real Estate Transaction and Docusign.com which provides the ability to securely obtain digital signatures (considered legal). I am sure they are not the only game in town, but I am really happy with their product.

When all is said and done we have clear, legible documents that everyone can read, because they haven’t been copied/scanned/faxed a million time and you didn’t have to schlep around town (wasting gas) getting original signatures. Best of all you avoid the mounds of wasted paper copies along the way.

So next time you go out with me to look at a house, let’s bring our smartphones and view the listings online.

Paper copies are sooooo last year!

Tracy Freeman, REALTOR GREEN
Buyer Specialist

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Buying a home in this market, From Contract to Close, GREEN Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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