Making Sense of Countless Forms

ZipForm? helps leading agency decrease paperwork, maintain

compliant state forms
ZipForm? helps leading agency decrease paperwork, maintain

compliant state forms

As the head of IT for Charleston, South Carolina-based Prudential Carolina, Les Sease says he is always looking for new ways to keep his agents efficient and, therefore, successful.

One of his favorite tools that makes his ?agents? eyes light up,? is ZipForm?Online?a Web-based service that allows Prudential Carolina’s agents to securely access forms and edit transactions via the Internet from any of the brokerage?s 16 offices.

?Now our 900 agents can work out of any office,’ says Sease. They don’t have to trek miles out of their way to their particular home office. If a client wants to buy a house in a certain area, the agent can now just go to the closest office. This saves them so much time and energy.?

What’s more, Brett Seyfried, Prudential Carolina’s IT trainer, says, ?When you consider that there are over 50 different state forms and another dozen or so company forms, it was real easy to have an agent using an old out-of-date form somewhere along the line. So we now have document consistency and, even better, we have the convenience of ZipForm keeping our state forms compliant, which keeps us out of hot water.

According to Sease, what sets ZipForm apart from the competition is that his agents only have to enter the client?s information once and the program auto-populates all of the other forms. From the listing agreement right to the closing forms, it’s all done,? he says. It’s easy and it makes our agents happy.?

Seyfried agrees, adding that because the system centralizes all of the forms, agents no longer have to spend time tracking down addendums or any extras.

Sease says the system also cuts down on potential errors that can come from poor handwriting as well. Not all agents have the neatest handwriting in the world,? he says. With ZipForm, they no longer have to scribble on the pages. They can just type in the information, the system memorizes it, auto-populates and everything is neat and clean.?

Sease added that the service also drastically decreases the amount of errors on the agency?s documentation because its auto-population functionality eliminates redundant data entry.

ZipForm has also added some key services that Prudential Carolina believes it will soon bring on board.

One such new service is called ZipForm Concierge, which allows agents to help clients easily arrange utility connections. Realtors across the country are using this service and finding it to be greatly appreciated by their clients.

?The Concierge is really a one-stop utility connection service for electricity, gas, cable, local and long distance phone service?you name it,’ says Robert Bailey, Chairman of the Board of RE FormsNet, the creator of ZipForm. The client enters the information online and the Concierge service communicates the requests to the service providers instantly.?

ZipForm also offers RELAY?, a Realtor-owned transaction management system that ?lets agents and brokers streamline document flow from contract to closing. RELAY also lets agents connect to their clients through a custom transaction Web site? Bailey adds.

In addition, ZipForm has introduced an electronic signature component for its line of products.

Prudential Carolina says that they could not function without ZipForm and the electronic transaction tools it offers.

?Lesley Geary

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