The Role of the Transaction Coordinator on the "Real Estate Dream Team"

This episode is an interview with Melissa Gilbert of Right Hand Real Estate.  Melissa is a top notch transaction coordinator in the state of Georgia, and she shares some great information.

Whether you are ready to get some leverage or just looking for improving your own internal systems, you will find a few nuggets here.

Transcript

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Welcome to real estate. Common sense. I'm your host, Lisa Spencer international trainer and real estate coach and author of the book real estate. Common sense. How can you find the perfect partners and create a dream team of professionals that will help you support your clients? And your business. Season two is dedicated to interviews with top professionals. They will explain their role in the real estate transaction and how we can work together to provide the best experience for buyers and sellers. And today we are here with Melissa Gilbert, who's the founder of right hand real estate services, and she has been a transaction coordinator for over 9 years. So, Melissa, thank you for giving us the time today and I always like to start with an introduction that says, I like to work with people who love What they do, and in my experience with you, you absolutely love what you do. So will you share with us why you love being a transaction coordinator. I'd love to I owned a business in the early 2000s and, I didn't love being a business owner. So I went back into, what I went to college to be, which was an elementary school teacher while my children were young. And I loved being a teacher. However, I have this entrepreneurial spirit and I did not love working for a school system. And, um, Other things that I'll not get into about being a teacher, the bureaucracy mostly. And, I left teaching to go into real estate. And I remember when I did it, I told my husband that I hated that I was not going to make a difference in people's lives anymore. And then I got into real estate and I realized that buying and selling homes are huge moments in people's lives and when I can step alongside them, then I am making a difference in people's lives, not just buyers and sellers. But then I learned that I could make a difference in the lives of agents by supporting them. I love real estate. I love, how every transaction is different, how every person is different, the agents are unique. Last, last week, we processed a contract where in the special stipulations, if someone was going to make someone else a cobbler of their choice. And then I had another transaction where someone had to remove a dead chicken from the yard. So how can you not love working with contracts that have those wonderful nuggets in them every day? Melissa, you point out something so important. I want to just share as a broker. I used to love when teachers came and interviewed with our brokerage, because I found that teachers and nurses often made the best realtors and it is because of carrying that servant's heart. And I appreciate that. And you've even taken that to a next step in making the difference in the lives of buyers and sellers. And also making the difference in the lives of realtors. So we appreciate that. And I can attest to you having that history. So the role of the transaction coordinator is kind of a relatively new innovation as a service that helps agents stay focused on the people side of their business. When I started in 1994, transaction coordinators really weren't anything that we even considered. Of course, we had an MLS. Book, and we had a DOS computer at that time. But when I say a relatively new evolution, you've had your business for nine years. So that doesn't seem too new, but in the history of real estate that goes back into the early 1900s, it certainly is a new innovation. So, Melissa, the role of transaction coordinator helps agents stay focused on the people side of our business. So would you explain to our audience? What the services you at right hand real estate services provide. Absolutely. So we provide a proactive turnkey contract to close support for agents currently in Georgia and South Carolina. And what we have learned is that agents. start off wearing so many hats, they're working on finding clients. They're learning technology. They're, showing property. They are, managing their contracts. They're doing marketing. They're doing social media, all of the things that they have to do. And so, often they like to find someone that's just going to help them with everything. And what we have tried to do is just provide a very turnkey, Opportunity for them to just send the contract to close to us and then handle everything else until they have the ability to leverage other parts of their business. And so they leverage the contract to close to us. And what we do is we process the contract when it goes under contract, we're introduced to all parties. We check all of the contracts to make sure that everything was executed properly. We help them with the details, the deadlines. We help everybody stay connected. One of the things that we do that often agents just either don't know to do or get busy and forget to do is when there's a lender involved. We check with the lender, like obnoxiously, almost like I basically start my relationship with lenders with an apology saying. I'm sorry, we're going to ask you everything. And so we check on loan application. We check that it was submitted to underwriting. We checked that it was conditionally approved, appraisal order, the appraisal's due date. Did it get scheduled? Did it happen? Did it come back? If it needs repairs, did it get reappraised? Do they have final approval, CD release, buyer, wire? Lender package like we check on everything because those are the things that are the hiccups that happen that stress everybody out at the last minute when we realize that a CD didn't get released in time and nobody realizes it until five o'clock that that day and and the lender has already left to go home that day. So we follow up on all of that stuff. So that an agent can. Have the meaningful conversations. they can build that relationship. They have the phone calls. They, are getting their next client. You know, like, we notice a lot of agents when they're in a transaction, the emails that our team helps handle. Are the exact emails that stopped them from lead generating and getting their next deal. And, and that's that wave that happens where agents, don't have consistent business because when they have a deal, they, they're not working on lead gen. So we take all of that off of their plate or not all of it, but we take so much off of their plate that they have more time for the relationships, getting a referral out of that relationship with that client. Because they're doing the things that actually matter. Oh, thank you so much. And that is such a great reminder, Melissa, that as an agent, before I actually hire and bring an assistant on as a payroll responsibility, because if I'm on that real estate roller coaster, the ebbs and flows of business, it's highly stressful to know that I have an employee, whereas if I'm working with a transaction coordinator, I can spend the money on coordination services as I have the money and also the time that the transaction coordination provides and gives back to me is what I can do to level out my business because I can still lead regenerate and know that I'm giving a great customer experience to my buyers and sellers, because someone is on my right hand, helping me get things done. Absolutely. Of all of the different players and moving parts of a transaction and really working as, as your services are named the right hand of the agent. So I'd always like to provide our listeners with at least 1 key takeaway from each episode. So could you share an organizational tip for agents that. They might not have access to a transaction coordinator in their office, so what are some things that you use or some tips that you have about keeping things running smoothly? Oh, yes, I have tons of these. Okay. So, One of the tips, is use templates Gmail and I believe Outlook does too, but I use Gmail, but Gmail has a template feature. So basically anything that you have to explain multiple times. I should be turned into a template and saved so that you can make sure that your clients are getting the same information over and over. I also think that agents sometimes don't share the consumer brochures that they're. State or their board provide to inform buyers and sellers of their rights and responsibilities. So definitely use those brochures, Google Calendar. We, we have a system that we use that I'll explain. I'll talk about later, but, it links with Google Calendar. So all of the important deadlines that are in your contract, if your state, our state in Georgia. They're all calculated out. So there's 7 days from the binding date. And so we have to calculate them and make sure that everybody agrees and gets the same number. So once we do that, then put those on the calendar and share them with yourself and share them with your, your client. And then if they're your deadline, you know, give yourself multiple reminders. Gmail, you can have it email you one day before, several hours before. You can say. To remind you like at the end of the day. So definitely look into all of the technology that you just comes with your email platform that you use or your calendar platform. And then when I first started out, I used a software called folio, which is F O L I O and there's a free version if you don't have a lot of transactions going at once, you can get away with the free version for, for quite some time. And what it does is it puts all of your emails into, uh, folders automatically. It builds, um, a filter into Gmail and then of the address. So if everybody puts the address. or references the address in your emails, then when you're in a hurry and you're trying to figure out where something was left on a certain property, you just go to that folder. You're not just, you don't have to search your email for it. You go to that folder and it's already there., I've used folio in the past, and it is a really super tool and I really like the calendar features of folio. You can go in and tell it all the timelines and it automatically auto populates it into the calendar. I think that's super and that brings us to my next question about timelines. We know timelines are so critical in a real estate contract. So, do you have a technology tool other than folio that you use that you rely heavily on? So that you never missed a contract deadline. Yes. So actually, my company, we use a software program called Open2Close, and it is a transaction management software that is very, very robust. And the way that I've had to learn to set it up, which I've been tweaking it for five plus years, it used to be something else, and then they rolled it into this software company. And what it does is it has, we basically set. People's transactions up as soon as it comes through. We, we basically take all the details from the entire contract and we put it into fields into the software and then it does all of the calculations for us for the deadlines and I had to set it up so it would know how to do it. It does not come, plug and play like you have to actually set it up and then I loaded all of our templates in and then it has this smart feature where if it's a VA loan, it knows automatically because of the way I set it up that it's going to require a termite letter. So it puts that termite task list in and it knows if we say that the possession is after closing, then it knows in all of the emails, it Reminding everybody to go to closing, or let's say to turn the utilities on. It's not going to tell them to turn the utilities on the day of closing. It's going to tell them to turn the utilities on the day of possession. So we've built the software so that we can scale and handle multiple agents transactions without dropping any balls because we utilize the software to remind us of all of our deadlines and, and, and keep everything straight for us. As a broker, we used to support our in house transaction coordinator by paying her to walk through transactions with our new agents. Our agents had a choice of whether they wanted to shadow those transactions, those 4 transactions with the transaction coordinator, Or they could just take advantage of the service, which helped her build her business. After 4 transactions our agents would then decide whether to continue with the service or handle it themselves going forward. So how do you get introduced to new clients? I've been introduced that same way. There's, one brokerage that we are, we provide contract to close for everyone, whether they do 1 deal a year or 25 deals a year and in their case, we work for the broker. And so, it's, it's, we have a different. Task list that we use for brand new agents that actually kind of spells out the process a little bit. it's kind of like a coaching template that not only. Prepares them for the next steps, but also gives them in case they don't necessarily know if they're a brand new agent, like they don't necessarily know that, that due diligence is coming up and that they have to terminate the contract. I think it's important that agents really understand how to explain to consumer. What's next? And I've talked about this in previous podcasts. So, if I'm not showing you property, and you did not like some of the houses we saw today. The end of that conversation is always what's next. So what's next is I'll look for properties that have pools and that are in the neighborhood you are favoring, and we should get together next Saturday. I will call you on Friday to let you know if there are our homes available for us to see. And so it's so important when you are in a conversation with someone, now they've gone under contract. What's next, what's next is you're going to need to bring your earnest money deposit within 3 days as our contract has stipulated. Let's get in touch with the attorney or the title company to find out whether that money should be delivered to them with a money order. A check or a direct deposit and or or wire transfer. Right? So we always want to leave a consumer with the idea of exactly what's going to happen next. And I think that's where a transaction coordinator can really help an agent along in that. So here's a favorite question of mine. What does an ideal transaction look like for you? Oh, well, it starts with a perfect contract. Back in the day, we used to print all of our contracts and I would joke about how I would kiss it if it was perfect. And so my, the ideal contract would always start with everything being fully executed and all exhibits. Included in that contract that comes through to me, but beyond that, there's really no ideal scenario for me because every transaction is different. So for me, I think that the key to an ideal transaction is when everyone, all the parties. Communicate with each other and show compassion and treat each other kindly. So my company's values are growth and compassion. So we're always looking for ways to grow. Anytime we have a hiccup in a transaction. We see if there's a way we could have prevented that hiccup from for future deals. Real estate transactions, they include up to 12 people. Sometimes if there are 2 buyers, 2 sellers, 2 agents, lenders, attorneys, and if everybody has assistants, or. loan processors or TCs, then, you know, that's 12 plus people that we're all trying to keep informed all along the way of a 30 day, transaction that can be very stressful and, and for buyers and sellers, it feels like a part time job for them sometimes. And so someone's going to forget something. Someone's going to forget to copy someone. Someone's going to drop a ball. But luckily, we're all on the same team and we rarely all drop the same ball. So I always just try to show compassion to everybody to get us to the closing table as smoothly as possible. And with my team, when someone asks for something that we've already provided, we're not allowed to say, I sent it to you on January 5th at 3. 03 PM because I love that rule. That takes more time than just resending the document. And you know, people are busy and they have a lot of emails and things get overlooked. And so we just say, here you go. So that's, that's the ideal transaction for me. It's just, everyone is kind and understands that. A real estate transaction is a lot of work for a lot of people. So you just, you touched on huge things to just really allow some grace and compassion in every transaction for all parties involved. It's a very stressful situation for everyone. And, you really have a great way of just saying, look, if they're asking for it, we're going to provide it. We're not going to be. I told you so. And I, and look in your notes and look in your email. I love that non defensive answer. So, what are 3 things that you wish agents wouldn't do. When you're in the middle of providing transaction coordinator services. All right, well, the first one is trying to leverage out their actual duty, like the agent tasks. So we support agents in so many things, but the things that we can't. Take over for them is we can't help them negotiate. we can't be in charge of terminating and extending contracts. Our team can't take responsibility for making sure that all parties sign something after hours to protect that deadline for your client. So we do our best. And we 1 of the ways that we try to support agents is we're so proactive. By asking for things in advance, if we don't think a closing is going to happen, like we're asking if we're going to do an extension, at eight o'clock in the morning. So we have that full business day to try to help them so that they're not on their own that night, making sure that an extension gets drafted and fully signed. So we just can't take that, but we're pretty good at reminding them of what these boundaries are and what we can't do. another thing is. is in the same taking over agents duties is, let's say for example, like a disclosure wasn't fully signed, like maybe it wasn't included in the original contract and we're copied on it when it comes through. And so a lot of agents just expect us to send that to their client and handle that for them and get that signed for them. And I always push back and I say, I can't send this to your client. To sign until you have looked at it because I don't know if they're expecting the refrigerator to convey. I don't know if there's a checkmark about a foundation that you guys need to make sure that y'all have discussed. And so sometimes agents think that it's just paperwork and you're just getting signatures for them and they sometimes forget that there as the agents have to put their eyes on it first before we can send it to their client to sign for them. So, that's something that I make sure that agents don't do because we say no when they ask us to, or we push it back when they ask us to. And we're like, you look at it, you've approved it. Once you've approved it, then we'll send it to your client for you on your behalf. And the other thing that I tell them not to do is to never make the home inspection appointments for their clients. Thanks. Bye. And we say, no, that we're not going to make those appointments for them. and that's because I learned the hard way. I used to do that for agents. It would make the phone call and the person who makes the phone call to schedule an inspection, the inspection company says, does it have a basement? Do they want a radon inspection? Do they need a septic inspection? They ask these questions. that the buyer should be the one getting educated by the inspector and being the consumer. So we push back on that and we ask agents, we're like, please have your, put them in contact with inspectors, but don't take that off their plate because they need to be the one who chooses their own inspections, their own inspector. My last one is just, I wish that agents didn't absorb their clients emotions. Because You know, it can be very emotional when they get bad news or what happens in the transaction, and, it's just important that the agents just try to be as neutral and offset, I guess, the, the emotions of their client. And it gets sometimes translated to us and then we're the ones that like, what do we need to do to fix it? So we're always trying to be proactive of what's the solution. And, sometimes it's hard when a, when a agent is matching the emotions of their clients to actually think straight. And that's their job is to be able to think straight. Melissa, thank you You bring out some really great stuff. So I'm just going to recap. We want the agent to do the agent duties and that had to be part of getting the signatures from the clients to sometimes we have a transaction and there may be follow up addenda that need to be completed and although agents can lean heavily on a transaction coordinator, the agent is the negotiator. The agent is the person that needs to memorialize all of these agreements and needs to have, like you said, eyes on it. The 2nd thing was home inspection. And yet that really, you brought up some really valid points in the home inspection appointments. And even though you said the agent should have the buyer make the call. Yes, I agree. The buyer should make the call because the buyer is going to have to give their credit card number to pay for that inspection ahead of time. But also the agent needs to help guide the, home buyer into what inspections they might need. I know here we do a sewer scope inspection and a buyer without proper knowledge, a home inspection company is going to be a lot more, proficient at explaining what happens in a sewer scope inspection. Then an agent is, however, the agent should recommend a couple of different inspectors and say, they're going to go through a cafeteria plan of services that they offer. I suggest that you listen to all the suggestions. Your home does have a well, or a septic your home does have public utilities. We need to help inform them based on what's MLS. As to the amenities of the home and the services of the home. So I think that was a really great point. And then, of course, your 3rd 1 is, my favorite and famous saying is we are the calm and knowledgeable guide. And as you were talking about the last thing a buyer or seller needs in this highly charged emotional roller coaster is an agent who is matching their emotions. So we always need to have a little deep breath before we engage. And I think that's really great advice. So let's move on to 3 things that you wish agents would always do. So, how can our agents have 3 tips on how to create the best customer experience when they're working with the transaction coordinator? Well, they actually all fall under one umbrella and the umbrella is communication. So the first thing is. Copy your TC on all emails. So agents hate email. They hate it. They get too many. Usually they have 20, 000 emails in their inbox. And it's rare to find one that feels good about their email management. So they try to protect us. They think we feel the same way. So they only copy us on things that they think we need, like finalized docs. However, we like being included on all the emails. We like knowing that repairs are being negotiated. We like knowing that there's a low appraisal and that you're in the middle of renegotiating price. Because guess what? As a transaction coordinator, if we know that there is a furious seller who is being told that their house is not worth what they thought that Their house was worth, then we don't want to chime in and say, hi, seller. What day do you, what time do you want to close on the 14th? Can you send us a list of utilities? Like they don't want us to chime in and ask them that question while they're, you know, thinking that their whole deal is falling apart, or they're about to not get 15, 000 that they were expecting to get. So what we do is we go radio silent until the storm blows over. So keep us in the loop. Just keep us in the loop. We don't hate emails. We have a system. Uh, the other thing is they don't keep us informed because they don't want to bother us. They think of things at night and on the weekend and they don't want to bother us. My TC team, we have great boundaries. We don't work on nights and weekends and our agents know that, but we tell them we use do not disturb on our phones. You're not going to bother us. We're not going to work on the weekend and we're not going to stress about the things that you're sending us over the weekend. So you send us the information when you think of it, if it's 11 o'clock at night, if it's Sunday afternoon. Um, so I love it that on Monday mornings, I have all, I have new contracts in my inbox and I have stuff that I can start working at 5 a. m. if I want to start working. And I have all the information I need to hit the ground running. So I, I, I love that they just get keep us informed. And then the last thing is to be clear about the communication. Sometimes we get emails just forwarded to us. With no instruction. So let's just say, for example, we get forwarded an email from the, the agent forwards us an email that the lender has asked for a change and we just get it forwarded to us. So what we don't know is that's great that we know that there is a change needed, but we don't know if the agent's asking us to help coordinate that change. If they want us to help write that amendment up. With them, if they want us to follow up on it, or if they want, they just wanted us to know what was happening, so I have to, if they're not clear when they forward us information, then we have to ask them the question, and then depending on their, the busyness of their day, that can cost us a whole half a day before we get the response back from them of why they, Sent us that email or what they wanted us to do with it. So just be really clear and overt with what you want so that there's no miscommunications. all of these 3 things seem to come under the umbrella of communication. Everyone thinks that are a great communicator and few are. So what I heard was copy you on all emails, even if we think it's an email that's going to require another email anyway, then over communicate, send things as you think of it. So, even though we're trying to be gracious and perhaps not bother you on the weekend, if it slips our mind, that's a bigger problem for you. So it's better if we just. Get it off our plate and while we're thinking about it, say, hey, can we follow up on this on Tuesday? But this is what's happening and you don't mind getting those extra communications. So I think that's really great advice and then also to be clear about what our expectation is. We just don't forward a complete home inspection and say, handle this right? we want to say. here's a copy of the home inspection. We are working on the items highlighted and then you'll know exactly what to expect in the future. I love that advice. That's really great. Advice over communication is a great skill, if you can develop it. Are there any other services that you've decided to offer? Have you expanded right hand real estate services at all? Or are you strictly transaction coordinators? We, we love transaction coordination the most. We've included listing coordination as an add on service for any agent who wants to follow our guidelines. But unfortunately, we're not just the, two hour turnaround version of listing management. We have a system and if an agent wants to do that system, then we're a good fit for them for listing management. And it's usually the ones who want to, give us about a week. Here's here's a listing agreement that we just got there. We have photos in a week. We're going to, take photos on Monday and publish on Thursday and do open houses that following weekend. Those are the agents that best fit with us doing listing management service, because then. We can break it up into chunks and, because the hardest thing about, which agents know, the hardest thing about a listing is, you know, no one really has six hours to sit still in front of a computer and do the, do the job. And transaction coordinators don't have the six hours either. so what we do is, is we just encourage agents to chunk that with us, and, set up that system to where we can help them, put all of that into play. And then I do some, system consultations with agents that want to, make some improvements and proactive improvements. One thing that I do for, the Georgia agents that we work with is, set up the, our, we get new contracts every January. So if they need help setting their templates up so that, because we have to do those each year. Then, I do that with a flat fee to set that up for people. We started out with talking about why you love what you do, and we always like to end our podcast with a high energy question, which is, would you share with us something that you're grateful for today, both professionally and personally? Professionally, I'm grateful for my team. I have been just so lucky to find amazing teammates who have great work ethic, positive, they just They are the reason that I want to do this job to so that I can provide for them and bring agents and that they can support. And, just, I guess, like a lot of agents when they grow and they bring people into their team, you know, you really just have to trust that this person that you're bringing on actually does it as well or in some cases better than you. And that's the way I feel about my team. So I'm just so thankful for them. And then personally, I have a 2 and almost a half year old grandson, and he is the cutest thing. And he lives 6 miles away from me. And, he asks to come to my house every day. He doesn't get to come to my house every day, but that's what he asks. So I'm, I'm the most grateful for him. And being a grandmother myself, I think that is life's reward. That is absolutely life's reward as we get to experience that generation. Growth in our family, so Melissa Gilbert, founder of right hand real estate services. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for helping us understand the position of a transaction coordinator, whether we choose to use them every time, or sometimes when we're just super busy and can't handle everything ourselves. We appreciate the fact that you're there and to be exactly as your name states are right hand. so much. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed this episode with Melissa Gilbert, founder of right-hand real estate services. We'd love to hear from our listeners and find out what you would like to hear as we develop our real estate dream team. Looking forward to our next episode until then This is Lisa Spencer, sending love and wishing you success.