I wanted to share with everyone a tip that I use when preparing short sale proposals to send to homeowners lenders. One of the most time consuming activities - writing the loan number and sellers name on each page of the application. Writing that number 90 - 120 times is just a pain in the neck.
I just thought of a way to save everyone some time and help out with the writer's cramp. I use a Microsoft Word to print loan number and sellers name at the top of each page of the short sale application. I am not sure if anyone does this already but it was a huge timesaver for me.
I create a document and narrow the margins and change upper to down to upper margin 0.3", bold and right justify and type in:
Loan #XXXXXXXXXXXX n/o Joe & Jane Sellers
I then put my short sale proposal into the printer. Count how many pages there are and enter that number in the amount of pages to print and hit print. The loan number and sellers name prints nicely on top of each page of the proposal and it looks great.
Hope this helps you!
Serving customers in Venice Florida, South Venice, Osprey, Nokomis Florida, Casey Key, Manasota Key, Englewood Florida, Rotonda West and North Port communities. Call me to list your home for sale, answer questions regarding steps you can take to AVOID FORECLOSURE or answer any general questions you may have about real estate.
Contact me by email at Kari@KariBattaglia.com. Need information fast, call me direct at 941-270-1851. Copyright©2011 by Kari A. Battaglia. All Rights Reserved.
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Hey Kari,
I just use the page header feature on my PDF maker... it works beautifully!
Another great idea.
Hi Kari - We cover this in our market center's short sale training as well. It's a great way to eliminate mistakes and add efficiency to the process.
Kari,
Nice Idea. I gonna have to try that one. Let the computer do the work.
John, I took the SFR class and other classes offered by my office and this tip has never been mentioned. I wish it was it would have saved me a lot of time and pain.
ReMax Benchmark - Let the computer do the work is better for everyone. Thanks for sharing.
That's a great idea! I used to hand write them all until I saw someone else putting stickers on each one. She just used a sheet of return address labels.
Joetta - Another great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Great idea and nicely explained so even I could do it. Thanks for sharing Kari.
Great Advise regarding the use of headers and footers. We had a short sale bank tell us (our outside negotiator) that our packet went to the top of the pile becasue we had done just what you wrote about. Way to help folks.
McLean Virginia REALTOR
Great tip, congrats on the feature.
I'm a big fan of neatly typed documents. If I can't fill out a contract on transaction desk I usually use fillanypdf.com to make sure that it's all nice and legible.
I am a fan of the address/folder labels - my contracts are already -pre-printed packets and since i have to pay for each page the copy machine counts out to print the pages with the account number and then re-do with the contract, addendums, tax docs, bank statements etc would double my printing cost.
Al - Glad that I could help.
Robert - I love to hear that. It is worth the extra effort to do your job well. Thanks!
Julia- I am going to look into fillanypdf.com as I don't have patience with transaction desk either. Thanks.
Angela - A lot of people I know like using the labels. I was trying to figure out a way to save a little money and thought of this. Thanks.
PDF editor and an efax works for me. I do the entire process paperless. But there was a time where I used to print off labels for this. Then I just had to find a better way.
If you don't have PDF editor I highly recommend PDFill.com It's leaa than $20 and does just about everything ADOBE does. I couldn't live without it.
Very helpful post Kari.
Great tip and well explained. I barely know how to turn my computer on, but with your instructions, even I might be able to do this. Thank you for sharing.
I do the same as Patty #1...except I use BOTH the Header and Footer areas to include: Lender, Loan #, Borrower Name, and Property Address. I've found some lenders prefer this info at the top of the page, some at the bottom, some don't care. And this goes on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of the package that get sent to the lender.
I have been doing this for many months. Also, as a former short sale employee at a major lender, you should never be sending 90-100 pages on a short sale. the average short sale file is around 35 pages. It is very frustrating for negotiators, and causes delays, to have to go through more pages than are necessary. Some agents say " I send them everytning and then the bank can decide which documents they need". Which file do you think the negotiator will handle quicker?
I use Avery free software to print the information on labels. If there are two lenders involved, you can put information for both of them on the same label. Then, just stick a label on each page, and file the extras for those future pages that will require the same treatment.
Bryant - Thanks for the tip on PDFill.com. I will be checking that out later today!
Juli - Glad it might help you.
Judi- Great idea. I am gonig to do both top and bottom now. Thanks.
Tony - Good to know but sometimes unavoidable sending so many pages as tax returns and bank statements are very lenghty. I just had Wells Fargo Equity Line department ask me for 3 months of statements. I only send what is required.
I hate to say it, but I pay someone else to do this and it never even occured to me.
Nice tip. I first saw that one during the CDPE course.
Great idea. I will definatley try that on my next short sale and save boatloads of time.
Kari,
I print a copy on a blank sheet and copy (xerox) the docs. If there is a messup I can hand fix without huring the original. Great Post!!! We need more of these type.
Tony
Thanks for the tip. that works for a host of other applications too, doesn't it?
Kari, that is going to save us a lot of time, thanks a lot, I like the idea of the stickers, but your idea makes more sense because it is placed correctly on each page, at the same angle.
Antonio
I know what you mean! I've taken the CDPE and SFR. CDPE taught us to use labels, which is helpful, but could cover up some information. Whichever is the most effective and reduces errors is my vote!
Great ideas from the community!
I use NitroPDF Reader (the beta, so it's free) to "stamp" all the short sale info on my paperwork. Works great and keeps me from having to print things out!
Kari--Thank you and all the Rainers for the timesaving advice! Makes our work so much easier when we share tips!
Kari, what a super idea and so easy to do. Love it and all the other helpful suggestions that your post sparked.
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA, WE GOT IT FROM THE CDPE CLASS.. TIME/LIFE SAVER !!
MARLENE SHELTON GILES, RE/MAX 1st Olympic Lynchburg, Va.
Gene - I wish I could afford to do that, may be some day soon.
Bruce - I took SFR and that was not shared with us in that class. Sounds like CDPE is a course I should also take to pick up additional tips.
Marcy - Glad I could help.
Tony - Another great idea. I have been handwriting the number for too long.
Kimo - Yes it does. Thanks.
Antonio - My thoughts exactly. I had a hard time figuring out where to place sticker without covering up data. Glad to help.
Dawn - Another PDF freeware. I need to look into all these to see which one will work best for me. Thanks for sharing.
Jan, Linda - Thanks for reading.
Tamara, Lora, Marlene - Thanks!
I also make sure that more information is on each page. I put the loan number, name, address, contact phones and emails, and file number if they have given me one.
Sometimes it really speeds it up.
Mark Cohen, Eyemark Realty, Gainesville, Florida USA.
great ti. thanks for the advice and time saver method.
I' ve used the header and footer method, but will check out the PDFill.com
Thanks,
Very good advise! I was thinking a modifiable number stamp would work but you would get the client's name on everything too. Thanks for the tip!
I print out the loan number on 1/2" X 1 3/4" Avery easy peel return address lables and stick them to the top of every page.
Mark - Super idea. Thanks.
Greg - Glad to help.
Gary - Getting tons of great advice and pdfill.com is something I too am going to look into. Thanks.
Jenny - Don't spend the $30 for the stamp. I did it and it drove me crazy. I couldn't get all the info on the stamp and then when I wanted to change the number it was difficult to read all the little numbers because now they were all black.
Ruben - I did not want to have the added expense of buying labels and I came up with this. Everyone has their own tip to share. Lots of good information.
Brilliant! Great time saver.
Wonderful idea. Thanks for sharing. Also, great input for others.
Isn't this a great place? I love how you agents share tips and tricks for saving time and being more efficient.
And... I'd never heard of PDFill.com - I'm going to go check it out.
Thanks for tip on PDFill. I just downloaded it!! Anything to save time is greatly appreciated.
I learned of the printing out the loan info on the header from CDPE, I will check out fillanypdf.com & PDFill.com. Thanks for putting out this little tip for those who may need it.
Another vote for PDFill.com. I first thought it was too good to be true at only $20 but it is amazing! Even use the pencil to sign some documents so I don't have to print at all. And then off to the lender with loan info on each page.
That is a wonderful and time saving idea! Thanks so much for posting.
We use Short Sale Commander software program. It has all the lenders docs. and imprints the loan #s. Very well organized for multiple paries to communicate. Listing Agent, TC, Sellers and you can give limited acces to the selling agent and buyers also. Highly recommended
Hi Kari- That is a cool idea and something even I can do. Thanks!!! :)
Great idea! Thank you for sharing Kari!
Wow, just wanted to thank everyone for sharing all of their great tips! I am going to be busy today testing them all out.
For those of you printing on labels and then sticking them on each sheet, please save yourself some time and use the header/footer option to add the loan number info right on the sheet. Let the printer do the work for you.
Scott - I agree
I use a return address label. I add two lines of the loan number and cut the whole page in half. Then I have a small label for each page. It seems most of the docs have so much info at the top this works well without covering up anything. I never thought of including more info.
Lots of great tips here. Just this morning I was hand printing all of the pages for a loan. thankfully we are only at 40 pages but I sure it will grow larger. Thanks for the tips.
My fingers thank you.