For those of you that have attended one of my trainings this one is going to be familiar. “Remember transparencies?” I believe if you need to do something more than once you need a system and in this case a template works great!!
For the example we are going to be creating a “Lead Based Paint – Buyer Template”. As an agent when you are writing an offer for a Buyer we have to get seller/property disclosures, lead based paint disclosures and sometimes other forms that may be required by your state. Since we all must have a lead based paint disclosure, I’m use a general one for the example. Your’s may look different and you will want to do these steps with any from that you need.
First, go into your Templates section of your account. You should have a folder if you have created Document Templates, then use a Buyer Packet that is YOURS, can’t use one created by the office. If you don’t have one, click “create folder” and name it something. Now go to the office library of forms and find the lead based paint and click “make copy” and select your folder in your templates and make sure you say “flat PDF”. Select your folder and click “copy”. Now you have a PDF in your folder and let’s go back to that document and you will now see no text boxes, signatures or anything fillable on it, that’s what we want. At the top under “file” click “apply template” and select the EXACT document you originally added from the library. This will add all the fields to the form but allow you to move and edit them! Click “save”.
With the fields applied exactly where they should be you will need to select the seller fields like the ones at the top and the signatures fields. Click and drag over the fields and then use a shortcut “shift-delete” (two keys at the same time). Anything highlighted will be deleted so don’t select any of the buyer fields. Continue this until all the fields are removed that you do not need.
As a side note, I find some lead based paint forms are not done correctly with a “radio button” instead of “checkbox”. If that is the case with your form you can fix it now! How you can tell if your form is correct depends of if it will allow you to select both receive and waive the opportunity to test for lead based paint. If you see a “check” on both it needs to be fixed. If you see a dot then it has been done correctly and will only allow a choice and not both. To fix this first delete the current check boxes with click-drag-highlight then shift-delete. Now click at the top “add” and select “radio button” (one of my favorites). Before you click hold your shift key button down on your keyboard and then let go before you click the second one. (While holding the shift key button down when you click, it keeps the item with your cursor so you can apply more than one.” You will need to “group” all of the radio buttons which is as simple as click and drag over all of them, in this case 2, and once they are highlighted you will see 4 boxes making a square at the top left next to the “assign” area. The word “group” will be above it when you hover over the boxes then click on them and it will turn white and say “ungroup” above it. Don’t forget to adjust the boxes to exactly where you want them. Do do this, click on or click and drag over multiple items and the hold the “shift key” down and move your arrow keys the direction you want it to go. If you need to change the size of say a text box, then you can old your “Alt”(PC) or “Option”(MAC) PLUS the arrow keys and it will change the size of the box based on the TOP LEFT CORNER is “fixed” and everything moves from it. These are known as “hot keys” by Dotloop.
If you needed to create a from from scratch an don’t use the shortcut above make sure you also “group” (mentioned in the above paragraph) the signature boxes and/or initial boxes. This makes it so if you have more than one client it will only allow them to sign/initial 1 of the grouped boxes. This is makes it in my opinion, “client proof” so they can’t accidentally sign more boxes than we need for them to.
Now that you have all of the necessary changes and corrections done, click the “save” button and go back to your templates. While in your templates you may want to rename the file “Lead Based Paint – Buyer Template” or something that makes since to you so that you know it only has the Buyer boxes/signatures/initials on it.
If you chose to do this from a loop instead of in the templates, you will need to click on the “file” and then “save as template” at the top. Then select the template folder to put the document it. It will automatically name it whatever your original document is called so you may want to go in and change the name.
USING YOUR TEMPLATE – Since you have created this template it is super easy to use. Load in your loop the seller signed lead based paint (usually from MLS or the Listing Agent) and then go into the document. Click “file”, “apply template” and select the template you just created, in this case “Lead Based Paint – Buyer Template”. It will then add all of the Buyer only fields. It may not be perfect based on the fact that all scans are not equal, but simply click the “save” button and use the shortcut keys (hot keys according to Dotloop) and move them around. Now send it to your client to sign and you are good to go. (Same as the pictures above)
I have created templates like this for seller/property disclosure, estimated net/cost and other forms that I repeatedly use and don’t want to add the boxes every time. Enjoy, most classes love this tip and I hope you do too!
I can be reached at CarolynTechPertise@gmail.com, by phone or text at 918-951-9020 or visit my website at http://www.SearchTulsaHouses.com. For technology training or consulting assistance visit http://www.iCarolyn.com.
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