Mary, what in the blue blazes happened?  Did you ever play a musical instrument?  Compete against yourself!  I referred to some of your other posts and yes, there are alot of agents that do not do diddlelysquat and the NAR dues are up and alot of them will drop out.  It's about connection and maybe you are focusing on what burns you and that makes business self-defeating.

I joined KW because I am a business within a business.  This is not a pitch here at all guys.  I am on the same boat that you are on.  

You have to deal with agents in some way, don't you?  People?  

Like the doctors office concept.  

Hey, Mary! I'm with you. The more agents I meet, the better I like my dog. Drop down to the post from  David Keith on 'What do you expect from your Broker?', and tell him. Maybe there will be a 'new' broker relationship born today.

Mary, you may want to talk with your local Prudential and see if the ePartner program is out there. It's basically what you describe. I did it for almost 2 years and loved it in many ways. You will need to be very empowered because you won't have a broker holding your hand. But the online everything is cool.

My office is modeled that way as well.

Hi Mary,

I have 5 brokers who work for me and we use to have a great office but it was an executive office where everything was done for you but no one used it so we went completeley virtual and everyone loves it.

We never met clients at the office...we either go to their home to list it or we pick them up to show them listings or meet them there.  I took a couple of buyers home to look at properties on my computer and they loved it.

I have several relationships with attorney's and title companies to use their offices for meetings in fact we are having one today.

I have been in business for 30+ years and sold a company I had with 250 agents and I have worked for Coldwell Banker. I don't like franchises because I really didn't get anything from the name. I find that people work with you because you are you.

Also we have companies that only charge $100 a month and give you 100% commission that have an office and do everything for you and I was thinking about going with them but my team loves our name and doesn't want to change.

I love just being a small team we really work great together and don't have to ask anybody to do anything.

The paper work isn't that much but you can go paperless with the

http://settlementroom.com.  We all have our own phone numbers on our cards and websites so we never miss a call.  I find that people like the personal touch instead.

My average sale is close to $1million and none of my clients care that I have a home office....they love it!

Good Luck and always remember to have fun....life is just to short not to have fun!

Hi Mary,

I can't speak to having experience with eBrokering-but I ran several physician practices in my past life- as a broker associate, I now have my own real estate /staging business within KW. I use Ringtone.com to set up a virtual office-it is amazing. It will network your calls from a central source to  individual broker cell-phones as designated, fax and provide e-mail notifications to the e-mail addresses for your company, and more features than I can explain. Definitely worth checking out if you don't already know about it.

Mary, I hope your broker isn't reading these posts :)

Yes, you can go virtual without to much problems. I've seen offices that just have a Client Center concept a small space to meet clients and have a computer, printer and such to use when clients visit. Also, all calls go direct to the agents or their assign cover agent when on vacation. Using accessline.com or ringtone.com sounds like a great idea. I use callwave.com for all my fax/e-mail for $7.95 month.

The agents/brokers share monthly expenses and do their own advertising too.

Good Luck

Opps, sorry Mary, I was logged into the office website when I responded above (Realty Exec)

KW also has a business within a business - not sur ehow that works but maybe Barb V can tell us how that works.

I am 100% virtual.

This post is longer but you can't see the rest

Mary, I use zip forms for my contracts, etc. They can be filled in and e-mailed, PDF whatever you want. Even Custom forms if you want.

http://www.zipform.com/

My husband is always bitching at me to be in my office more. LOL! My office has a phone system that 'finds' us so I don't miss my calls as long as they hit the 7 key at my extension.

All my docs are at my home and physical offices alike.

All my tools, ditto. Two sets of everything.

When I'm in the office, I am almost always distracted by people coming to visit me, such as lenders, inspectors and title company people. Who I love but I get more done in seclusion. So I'm not quite ready yet to bag my office but it is always tempting.

Why keep the office? For the agents to meet clients and for a physical address for title companies to deliver escrow docs (they won't deliver to a residence).

An editor of mine in Los Angeles recently started a 'virtual office' biz.

They have a small office leased that is a 'day office' with phone system, and a virtual portal for online meetings etc. Their clients pay 199/month and have electronic receptionist and a physical office they can use by appointment.

It's like a 'Mailboxes Etc.' for offices! :)

It's a great idea that is being used  . . . they already have 30 clients which she says about half are real estate brokers!

ONLY problem I see with it is what if your clients don't show up on time and someone else has the office booked after you?

I mean gee, our clients are always on time! LOL

A tablet PC and http://www.docusign.com/ ??

Docusign is nonnegotiable for me. I LUV that service and it is very inexpensive (under 15/month for my office)

Some kind of PDF converter. PDF995 www.pdf995.com  is FREE.

Some kind of online fax program. I use FaxWave which is I think still under 10/month, but it works only in receive mode. Still, you get faxes as a PDF and can save and forward them. Or eFax if you want to send and receive. I can usually just e-mail docs so not that big a deal for me.

A good scanner is important. There are many, but my Xerox WorkCentre C2424 has a great scan feature and it's wireless too.

http://docusign.com

Electronic signature program. It downloads to your PC as a printer driver so you simply choose whatever doc you want and 'print' it to the program.

Your clients receive via e-mail link, and can literally double click their initials and sigs to the docs. The signed doc then transmits back to you and whoever you deem should receive a copy.

It's neat neat neat.

Roberta, I was curious to see what Ringtone.com offered but all I saw was ringtones.  How does that create a centralized phone system?  Can you expand?

thanks

YES Mary that's the ticket. It's offered thru our association via Zip.

Here's how you get it from contract to e-sigs:

FIRST, you will need to (after you purchase DocuSign), bookmark the Member Console (I just have it on my desktop) and download Docusign Express. When you do the latter, it will install printer drivers. That's what makes it work.

THEN, when you have a doc, and that is ANY doc, from Zip or from Word or a PDF or Notepad, does not matter, even a photo -- ANYTHING you can print with a printer -- you simply hit your 'print' button, then you get the drop down menu with your printers, and one of the selections will be 'Send in DocuSign Envelope'.

SELECT THAT PRINTER OPTION.

The console will pop up, you sign in, and the program will go thru its process . . . the docs will show in a spot that enables you to drag and drop little "Sign Here" tabs like the title companies use . . . EXCEPT they are electronic and have a unique identifying number on them and if you choose, you can drop a 'date signed' tab on there as well so when they are signed, the date and time will pop up.

Once you're done dropping the tabs where you want them, you proceed and the program will send to your recipients AND if you pay a little extra for a side dish, it can auto-route to your recipients in order. And CC you and whoever else.

Your client receives the docs via a link. They click it, and THEN they have to go thru a brief one time process where they swear they are 'who they are and authorized to sign for them'  . . . they get to choose their favorite font for the sigs even.

After that, the docs pop up and they just DOUBLE CLICK to drop their initials and sigs onto the tab.

Hit "Done" and it sends the signed docs back to you,

You can save them or PDF them or print them up, OR you can even print back to Docusign for more initials by someone else or if you missed a spot.

I should instruct for them, huh? LOLOL

But I love this program and it really has made life easier and more efficient for us.

And you can of course scan to doc if you don't have Zip, or whatever. It works on anything . . .

http://epartnerusa.com/preview_network.htm

Mary, you may want to contact Donald about ePartner which can be set up in your state. I don't know if it's still affiliated with Pru. Been gone a few years, LOL

He is WONDERFUL. Tell him I sent you. He will remember me. :)

Even if you don't opt for it, you will probably hear some good info about how virtual offices fly. Mine is heavily modeled after it.