Have you done a complete transaction online?

I was talking to my friend Dick Betts the other day and we got talking about technology. Dick is a National Real Estate Speaker and has a wealth of knowledge. You can go to his website at www.DickBetts.com and see what all he teaches.

While talking the other night, I told him that I did a complete transaction online. That's correct, a COMPLETE real estate transaction online. It started with an e-mail several months earlier requesting some information about land sales in my market place. I e-mailed the seller back and forth many times. I didn't hear back from them for several months and then I received an e-mail stating that they wanted me to sell it for them. We agreed on a price and I scanned the listing agreement, property disclosure forms and e-mailed them everything. They printed it out, signed them and faxed them back to me, since they didn't have a scanner.

I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner and I love it. It is about the size of a small loaf of bread and it sits right next to my monitor on my desk. This scanner will scan 15 pages per minute, both sides and in full color. WOW! beat that! The cost of this scanner is about $350-400 and I purchased mine at newegg.com for $350 and received a $50 mail in rebate. So shop around. This is a piece of hardware I don't know how to do without.

Continue with my story. I sent out a letter to about 25 property owners around the subject property. Several of them showed interest but I was contacted by an adjacent land owner that lived out of town. He was very interested in it. We negotiated back and forth and finally was able to agree on a sale price without any mineral rights. The buyer was buying the property in his trust and I had to direct everything for signing to the trust officer at the bank. I drafted a final contract and sent it to the trust officer and they signed, scanned it and e-mailed it back to me. I then forwarded the attachment to the seller and they printed it, signed it and faxed it back to me and I in turned scanned it and e-mailed it to the buyer for a complete file. This also makes for a great paper trail.

The seller was an out of town seller also. At closing, the documents were sent overnight to the seller. The closing company received the documents and schedule the Trust Officer for the closing. I NEVER met the SELLER or the BUYER in person. I usually attend all of my closings and I did get to meet the trust officer at closing.

Technology is here to stay. Get use to it and it can help you do things like this. Have a great teckie day! HA! HA!

My name is Larry DeGroat and I am a Realtor at Realty Professionals, Inc. in Searcy, Arkansas 72143 and I sell new homes, existing homes, commercial property, farms and land as well as manage and own rental properties. If you are looking for real estate for an investment or a home, I will be glad to assist you! You can call my personal cell number at 501-278-7659 or e-mail me at Larry@Searcy4Sale.com. Visit my website at http://www.searcy4sale.com if you are looking for Searcy homes for sale or other areas.