Broker Kit Bag pt. 2

You spoke and we listened. These three items are essential to every broker's success, according to our readers.

You spoke and we listened. These three items are essential to every broker's success, according to our readers.

3 – Online Faxes
Everyone thought faxes would go the way of the Dodo once email secured its stronghold on communication, but those phone-line messages have managed to stick around.

Now several companies are catching on to the idea of the 21st century fax with online fax services, like MyFax.com. These services allow users to send and receive faxes online. The document is sent or received as an email attachment, though the process is facilitated through a traditional fax number.
“I love the online fax because I can literally fax everything from my computer,” Daniels says. “I don’t even need my physical fax, except for original copies. I can scan something, go to [the online fax system], and send it to someone.

“The faxes all come to me in an email so there’s no paper and I always have [the message] right there for wherever I want to send it or store it.”

This way, you can fax your client an important document, even if you’re away from the office and don’t have access to a fax machine. Likewise, you can receive faxes from clients and colleagues while on the go. And, since your fax machine is virtual, you won’t ever run out of paper or ink.

According to Daniels, the greatest benefit to the system is the fact that it saves time.

“Anything that saves you a little bit of time in this business is helpful,” he says.
 
4 – Canada Post

For most people, the only mail you’re likely to receive is bills. But don’t deny the child-like feeling of giddiness that you get when you open your mailbox to a handwritten letter.

Cancelli is often the person behind those letters in her neighbourhood.

When Cancelli became a mortgage broker just under a year ago – she was previously, and still is, a successful Realtor – she sent her realty clients a letter informing them of her expanded service offerings.

She has continued to reach out to her market in a personal way by sending out handwritten thank-you cards to potential clients after her initial appointments with them.

“It just shows that you’ve gone out, got the card, wrote the card manually, wrote the address on the envelope, got a stamp and that’s an additional cost,” she says. “It’s honest and shows that you really do appreciate their business.”

Cancelli says the response that she’s received from that seemingly small gesture has been incredibly positive.

“[My clients] call me to say thank you. It’s nice that they appreciate the time it took to get the card.”

Continued...

#pb#
 
5 – Revodoc
Perhaps you’ve already conceded to some of these new technologies that promise to streamline your day-to-day workload, and perhaps you’ve found yourself spending more time with each of these technologies, resulting in the opposite effect that they were supposed to have.

Enter Revodoc.

As a cloud-based mortgage collaboration system, Revodoc helps brokers and their assistants manage deals and workflow – all in one place.
“It eliminates the use of disparate systems that brokers currently use to manage their business,” says Phillip Slen, president of Revodoc, and himself a mortgage broker.

“[Revodoc] is more efficient [because] all the tools are in one place, integrated within the deal dashboard.

“So all your documents, your task reminders, all your communications, workflows, deadlines, deal underwriting – everything is in one place.”
Slen developed the system himself, building it from the ground up specifically for use by brokers.

“It is truly a complete system that handles all the mortgage business from leads to pre-approval to live deals, and sending and sales service,” Slen says.

“In between all that, it handles all the deal collaboration documents, management and distribution, task reminders, sales pipeline, audit and compliance.”

Because the system is cloud-based, brokers, their assistants, and even their clients can not only view the live data in real time, but can also make and track certain changes. Elite users, who pay $70 per month, instead of the $35 per month for the value tier, are also able to upload and store documents in the cloud – and invite their clients to upload directly to the document condition. The icing on the Revodoc cake lies in the fact that the system is compliant to the industry’s online security regulations, which means you and your clients can upload sensitive information worry-free.

Revodoc also recently took on several syndicated and commercial mortgage brokers – something Slen said the company was able to do because of the platform’s unique system configuration.

“Our workflow is customizable,” he says, “so commercial and syndicated mortgage brokers can use our system to manage their workflows and deals.”