The Best of Beta

In case you have not noticed, there is an option where you can access the “new and improved loop page”.  There are many things to love about this new look, including the sleek and fresh view so let’s go over some of the features including some personal favorites!

At first glance you will notice the light bright look with color accents, and no more big circles, instead you have tiles with the circle in the bottom right corner.  It’s important to note that with the beta version only the loop page has been updated.  When you go into a loop or into other tabs, you will not see the new look and it will go back to what you are used to.  If you want to go back to the version you are used to, just click the top right where you see the words “Go Back”.  The development team also wants to know what you think of these new features and have added their email to send comments to: beta@dotloop.com.

Let’s start at the top right, when you click on your photo (provided you have one on your account), you will still see your “Member ID” and “My Account”.  The new things added here are the customer service number (easy to find and they are awesome at answering your questions) and a “Search Profiles”.  For people like me that are in multiple offices as an admin and help many offices with training and support, this is one of the best things to have here!  If you are like most people and only have one or a few profiles, then this feature may not mean much to you.  The “Sign Out” has moved to the bottom of the dropdown.

 

When you click on the “New Loop” you will see a new look.  I love this because it is emphasizing searching by an address or MLS number.  This is an important option to prevent duplicates and if you want to know more about this, please see my other blog post about this subject.  Once you have entered the address or loop name, if your office has templates you will be asked to select one or don’t and create the loop without it, if no templates, you will not see this option.  Next it prompts you to add the photo, which as you can tell, I like those on my loops.  Please remember that photos can be seen by anyone you share something from that loop with, so don’t put a “Buyer Selfie” on the loop, it’s not very professional.  🙂  Next you say you are “Done” and the loop is then created.  This really does make it much simpler to get the loop started and ready to go.

Notifications and Activity Log are still the same and at the top left and will take you back to the current view (not updated yet).  Ok, here comes one of my favorites and personal requests!  In the Filers you can now “Save Custom Filters”.  No more checking them and unchecking them individually!  I have my first two already set up and saved, one I call “Working Loops”, these are the: No Status, Private Listing, In-Progress, Active Listing, Under Contract, Pre-Listing, Pre-Offer and New.  My other one is “Completed Loops”, which includes: Sold, Leased, Archived and Done.  You can create other searches and even include review stages and tags in your searches.  You can even “search” all of the loop types, statuses and tags.  Once you have selected the items you want to filter, you will need to click “Apply” to use those filters or “Save” to keep the list to search again later.  This is also where you “Clear” your filters to see everything.

The same sort options still exist: Creation Date, Last Updated, Transaction Price, Listed Date, Expiration Date, Closing Date, Submitted for Review Date.  Instead of clicking it twice to change from ascending to descending, there is now a new button for it next to the sort.

Now for the loop tiles section.  The each tile represents a loop and you will notice the picture shows at the top of the tile with the “last updated” date at the bottom of the picture.  Below that you will see the address or loop name.  Next you will see the Transaction Type and Loop Status which both of those can be changed from the main page.  The very bottom shows the “List Price”, which I don’t think is the best choice of items to be listed, because only the listing agents care about the list price.  Since this is a “beta” version, there is a possibility that this could change to something else like “Sales Price” or “Contract Price”.  Now to the bottom right is where you see the circle that is tied to the loop percentage and inside it you will see the “Closing Date”.

 

That’s pretty much it for the new look and I’m looking forward to all the new cool stuff that will be updated within the other pages when everything goes live for all!

 

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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2016 Recap & 2017 Tip

It’s now 2017 and so much happened in 2016.  Most of the people that read this blog have attended one of my classes and I wanted to take some time to say “Thank YOU”.  I have enjoyed traveling the country and meeting so many new people.  I taught 108 classes in 54 1/2 days and spent 39 days traveling with 14 days away at functions or on the road.  In case you are wondering, that is 107.5 days (29% of the year) on the road traveling and training.  I have now trained in 33 states, only 18 to go.  The 51st one is DC, I counted that as a separate location even though it is not a “state”, but it’s not in a state, so 51 it is!

I’m looking forward to a new year with more new friends to meet and some great places to visit.  While I’m on the subject, if anyone knows offices in the states I have not trained in and would like to help me reach my 2017 year end goal of training in all 50 states.  This list of places I am looking for contacts to reach out to is here: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Utah (I will be there next week), Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.  Thank you in advance for helping by emailing or texting me with any leads.

This is a tech blog, so I can’t go without giving you a tech tip!!  Since it is the year end and soon it will be tax time now might be a good time to give you want of my favorite tracking apps for my real estate and training business.  MileIQ and a link to a referral is here: https://www.mileiq.com/invite/IIPRG.  You may not know this, but years ago for an entire year I wrote emails (should have done it as a blog!) every week on “Apps” and every four weeks I did a “Four for Fun”.  Of course I explained how it works and what it does so this is like going back to that.  Here goes!

MileIQ, it’s Free to download, but only gives you 40 free drives each month.  It is absolutely worth it to spend the $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year for this!

What does it do?  It tracks everywhere you drive.  Yes it runs in the background, but doesn’t take up too much battery or data.  It will show you a map of where you started and where you ended.  Starting mark is green and ending is red.  It’s as easy as “swiping”.  Swipe right for “business” and left for “personal”.  If you swipe slowly in either direction, you can select from custom categories in either the business or personal side.  A couple of cool things is that you can “name” a location so that you remember were you are going.  I name my listings so that I know when I’m going to a listing or showing houses.  You can also select “auto classify” when it pops up so that you don’t have keep answering the same question.  It is super smart and when you are done it shows you a “star” in an award type badge that tells you that month is complete.  It can send you email reports of either a month or year end which makes doing your taxes a breeze!!  Another option is adding multiple vehicles and adding the odometer for each vehicle as well.  I have some screen shots to show you how it works.

App Store showing the logo on the app and the “Auto-Classify” feature.

Business items, and categories.  Notice the “potential” at the top right and naming the locations to any name that you want. (Swipe right)

Personal drives can be categorized differently as well. (Swipe left)

Monthly summary shows the amount of personal vs business drives and the year end totals show the graph of the milage driven.  You will notice that Jan is really short because I didn’t decide to use the “paid version” until February.  The nice thing is that it did remember the drives for a month, but not all the way back.  This is another reason why I’m telling you about this now.

I can be reached at CarolynTechPertise@gmail.com, by phone or text at 918-951-9020 or visit my real estate website at http://www.SearchTulsaHouses.com.  For technology training or consulting assistance visit http://www.iCarolyn.com.

Apply MY Template!

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.

Custom Document Folders

Creating a folder for the documents we use on a regular basis is a way to save time when we are ready to use them.  This applies to the agent and the broker level.  In dotloop, you are able to use your local, state and office forms (as long as you have permission to use them) for your real estate transactions.

Once you are logged into the system (dotloop.com), click on the “templates” at the top right (it’s the one that looks like papers).  To create a new folder, click on “Add Folder” and it will ask you to give it a name and click “Create Folder”.  Once you have the new folder, documents will need to be added to it.  Click on “Add Documents” at the top right.  This gives you the option for uploading them from your computer (PDF’s) or selecting from templates, which are your live forms.  When selecting from templates, select from the office name or “Version Now”.  AGENTS: If you are setting them up from an agent level, you will see the office name (example: Keller Williams Realty Advantage) or board name (example: Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors).  ADMINS: If you are setting them up from an office or admin level, you will see “Version Now” documents, which are the live forms that your office has loaded into the system.  Admin folder will also have to be “shared” with the office so that your agents can use the newly created folder of documents.  ALL: Once you have selected the forms you want to add, click “add documents” and they will now be in your folder.

If your forms have changed and new ones are in the system for existing folders, use the same process as listed above with the exception of clicking on the existing folder and modifying the list instead of creating a new one.

Now that you have your folders creating and don’t forget you can also set the default information on each form once it is added to your personal folder so that each time you pull in the document from that folder, it will have the defaulted information on it.  To do this, click on the document, edit it and then click “save”.  This is a great way to save time!  Happy Looping!

I can be reached at Carolynt@kw.com, by phone or text at 918-951-9020 or visit my website at www.SearchTulsaHouses.com.

Keller Williams Agent eEdge Tips

As a Keller Williams broker and trainer I have found a need for some quick tips and tricks to help associates run their business more efficiently and smoother. I have been a Keller Williams agent since 1998 and a broker since 2004 and I believe this gives me a unique view of the real estate side of our tools. It’s not just about having the technology, you need to know how to use it!

Agents let technology be a crutch sometimes and use it as an excuse to play victim and not do what they need to do to grow their real estate business. I’m not here to distract you, but to empower you with small tips and tricks that you can use on an daily basis to make more sales happen and get more listings!

Let’s start with the absolute basics: Take baby steps. If you are not very experienced in technology, don’t try to become a “techy” over night! This is a marathon, not a sprint. Take for example, I have an agent that I have been coaching for almost a year. When he first came to me, he barely knew how to turn on his computer and certainly not have an iPad, iPhone or feel knowledgable in technology. By the way, this has nothing to do with age if you were thinking that. After small weekly sessions, he is now very technology confident and even helping others!

Focus on learning 1 piece at a time. You don’t lose 50 pounds over night (without surgical help) and so don’t sit at a computer for 10 hours strait and expect to know it all. Because I’m a Keller Williams agent, this blog is going to be focused mostly toward Keller Williams tools. If you start reading and discover that you want more information about Keller Williams, I would be happy to share. You can also find me on the web at www.SearchTulsaHouses.com, carolynt@kw.com or by phone or text at 918-951-9020. If you have ideas or subjects that you would like me to write about, please let me know!