This column, designed to offer examples of how
salespeople and brokers are using technology in their offices, won
the 2000 Florida Magazine Association first-place Charlie Award,
for its category. ©2001 FLORIDA REALTOR MAGAZINE, published by
Florida Association of Realtors (FAR), April 2001 issue.
Stephen Touzalin remembers, not too long ago, when
a majority of the contracts that came across his desk were filled
in by hand.
“It was difficult to fill in the contract with a
typewriter because, very often, the line spacing didn’t fit the
type,” Touzalin says. “Because of that, most salespeople used to
handwrite their contracts.”
This process was time consuming, sometimes
taking a half-hour or more, and the end result was a contract
that, despite the best efforts to write legibly, did not look very
professional.
Touzalin, a sales manager
with Wimbish Riteway in Miami Beach, is grateful that times have
changed. Today, many contracts look sleek — thanks to automated
form software.
Form software allows real estate professionals
to quickly draw up professional contracts using a computer.
Touzalin chose Alta Star
software in the summer of 2000 after seeing it advertised on the
Internet and in Florida Realtor magazine. “We were looking for
form software for the company. I was familiar with some of the
[other form software] that was out there. I chose Alta Star
because it is 100 percent Windows based and it was the most user
friendly, in my opinion,” he says.
Plus, he liked the fact that, by purchasing the
software, he could customize the forms with his company logo. With
six offices and a sales force of 385, Wimbish Riteway needed to
provide quality contracts. Additionally, some salespeople further
customize the contracts and have their own software so they can
use it in their home offices.
Here are some ways that Touzalin recommends using
form software:• Preferred Contracts.
While a whole catalog of contracts is available, all of Wimbish
Riteway’s Alta Star software is set to open automatically to the
Florida Association of Realtors’ (FAR) contracts because the real
estate company prefers them over others.
In fact, since the most-used contract is the FAR
Residential Contract, it comes up first. All of the other FAR
contracts, including one for commercial purchases and another for
vacant land purchases, are available. Touzalin can also use the
FAR/BAR Contract for Sale or Purchase if he wants.
• Sections of the Contracts.
“One thing about Alta Star that we like is that it pulls up short
pieces of a contract,” he says. “That way, you’re not faced with
the full screen. It’s not intimidating — it’s just fill in the
blanks and move on.”
• Saving/Revising Contracts.
Once a salesperson has finished a contract, he or
she can save it in case it needs to be changed or just keep it on
file.
“We recommend saving it on a [floppy] disk
because it’s confidential and is important to salespeople.
Salespeople don’t want to run the risk of someone else changing
what they’ve saved,” Touzalin says.
However, if salespeople have their own
computers, they can save it to their hard drive.
Once saved, they can open the file at any time,
make any changes that are necessary and then print it. “Then, you
have a perfectly clean copy that is extremely professional
looking,” Touzalin says.
• Training New Salespeople.
“I have a few salespeople who, the first time, thought it was
impossible to learn, but they think it’s difficult to learn
anything new on the computer,” Touzalin says. “Those same
salespeople used it one or two times and started thinking, ‘It’s
the greatest thing since sliced bread.’ ”
He estimates it takes about five minutes to
relate instructions to first-time users.
Although he admits that some salespeople sit
down and figure out the program themselves, he likes to teach
shortcuts. One feature is that the software automatically fills in
the names of the parties in the contract. After you’ve entered the
parties’ names once, a simple mouse click allows you to auto-fill
in the names wherever necessary. You can also print just one page
or certain clauses or addenda. Touzalin says that most salespeople
at his company now have Alta Star down pat. “Between 60 to 75
percent of the contracts that come across my desk are from the
computer.”
The program takes about five minutes to install.
Then, you need to allot about 15 to 30 minutes to fax a password
request to the company to receive your password approval back via
fax.
Upgrades of the product have been easy to
install with CD-ROMs that the software manufacturer sends to
Wimbish Riteway.
Once the software is installed and upgraded, it
takes about five minutes to make a professional-looking contract
compared to 30 minutes to handwrite it.
“There’s just no comparison,” says Touzalin.
“What you get from the software is that it looks like your
contracts were professionally printed and customized with the
company’s logo. [In fact], some salespeople have it customized
with their name,” Touzalin says. “It’s just a tremendous tool.”
![[Company Logo Image]](images/altastar%20software%20one%20word%202%20color%20B%2045.gif)
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