For most new homeowners, the most challenging, tedious, and confusing part of their real estate transaction was the paperwork. As a real estate professional, it's your job to simplify that process as much as possible. But who is making it easier for you? One product aiming to do just that is zipForm 6 Professional. Hardly a new name in the industry, zipLogix is constantly improving their flagship forms solution, as is evident in its current generation. So please join us for a tour of zipForm 6 Professional.

Creating a New Transaction with zipForm 6 Professional

zipForm 6 Professional opens on a list of your transactions. From there, you can easily access any transaction that requires attention, or you can create a new transaction. We created a new transaction to see what the process was like.

When creating a zipForm 6 Professional account, the appropriate forms will be added to your account based on current membership status with your Association or MLS. Thus, when you create a new transaction, the lists of forms you need are assembled for you. From the forms list, you can click or drag the forms you need in your transaction file.

Note: Should your broker provide you with an account, the libraries you will have access to will be selected by the administrative user of the brokerage account.

Once forms have been selected, zipForm 6 makes it easy for you to populate the documents with client and transaction information. The biggest time saving feature is the automatic field population. Fill in one field and the information will find its way into other forms as you add them to the transaction. This is not fool proof because of the nature of some forms, though, so always go through all of your forms to be safe. This eliminates a lot of typing, but this is just the beginning.

After working in a region for a time, you may find yourself typing the same cities or zip codes, which can get tedious. The look up fields feature will remember this common data and put them in an easy drop down menu within the form field. This information is automatically saved and is available for all transactions and forms. In addition, the look up fields database may also be customized as you like and can be locked to prevent the database from saving any more information.

zipForm 6 Professional Using Look Ups

Do you find yourself typing long amendments that you use for multiple, if not all, contracts? If you do, then zipForm's clause editor is for you. The clause editor allows you to save this information for future use. Once the clause is saved, it can be pasted when you need it, saving a lot of typing.

According to zipLogix, the focus of zipForm 6 is simplifying the user experience; the fast fill feature is one that radically changes and simplifies the experience. This feature was specifically designed for users that are already familiar with their forms. When fast fill is activated, zipForm 6 removes most of the form, leaving only the fillable fields. This feature is for more advanced users and is not for everyone, but is easily accessible and turned on or off.

Managing Transactions

Once a transaction is complete, managing them can be difficult, but zipForm 6 has made this task easy. You can print them or email them as needed (we encourage email) for review and signature. For the fast paced or environmentally conscious clients, zipForm 6 offers two excellent integrated e-signature solutions, zipLogix Digital Ink or DocuSign.

Tools and Features

There are a number of handy utilities that round out zipForm 6, making it even more powerful. Some of these key features are spellcheck, mortgage calculators, and autosave. One utility that most real estate pros love is importing MLS data into their transaction.

As you can imagine, importing MLS property data is a handy feature. Currently several MLS vendors enable zipForm 6 users to do this with zipFormMLS-Connect. This feature is not available in all markets. If your MLS vendor is not currently connected to zipForm 6, be sure to request this service from your MLS.

zipLogix continues to add features and improve zipForm 6 Professional. One recent upgrade was adding zipVault document storage. zipVault makes transaction document storage easy, keeping the important transaction documents with the zipForm 6 transaction online and accessible anywhere. As the name suggests, this stores any document in zipVault safely and securely--just upload and save. Many agents are using zipVault for storing photos, Word documents, Excel files, PDFs, or any other file.

Understanding the user base is essential and not every real estate professional is the same, so if you still like using fax machines, zipLogix has you covered. Without having to print your transaction, you may send faxes directly from zipForm 6--no more running to a fax machine! In addition, zipForm 6 Professional can also receive faxed documents via custom fax coversheets. These coversheets are unique for each transaction with generated bar codes that sort the inbound fax into the correct transaction and stores the fax in zipVault.

In response to agent suggestions, zipForm 6 now comes with an online meeting feature that allows you to review documents over the internet. This is achieved through integration with AnyMeeting, which enables screen sharing, conference calling, and even video conferencing. This is free if you don't mind advertising. A small additional fee is required to remove the ads.

Brokers are supported in excellent ways with zipForm 6. Brokers can manage form access, agent accounts, and create office templates for their entire office. Brokers may also order custom form libraries. zipLogix custom form libraries take the brokerage specific forms and design electronic forms that work specifically in zipForm 6. Reporting features are also available to brokers; these reports show agent activity within their brokerage account.

In Conclusion

This product tour has covered zipForm 6 Professional as accessed online; there is a desktop version of zipForm 6 that is installed on your computer. Not all features covered in this article are included with zipForm 6 Standard, the desktop version.

To better understand the differences here are a few notes: zipForm 6 Standard only requires an internet connection for activation and form updates. This version would be optimal for users with low bandwidth, those who have intermittent internet access, or frequently work from their laptop away from an internet connection. The versions are identical in appearance and most functionality, but certain features such as zipVault, are not available. Both versions have online help, FAQs, how-to videos, and the zipForm store (for product upgrades).

First steps for agents wanting to try a zipForm 6 Professional demo, go online to http://www.zipform.com/zipForm6/demo.asp then choose your association, enter NRDS number, then select the products. If the association isn't on the list, contact the support team and they'll discuss available options for you moving forward.

Next Steps

• Learn more about zipLogix in our Company Directory
• Learn more about zipForm 6 in our Product Directory
• Visit their website at www.zipLogix.com
• Discover additional Contracts/Forms solutions