MongoFAX, a free AAR member benefit, does one thing and it does it extremely well: it faxes a document to an email address and converts the document to a PDF attachment.  If you haven’t tried it, give it a go. You’ll like the simplicity and ease of use.

If you’ve tried this, you know that the PDF attachment contains the MongoFAX cover page in addition to the document.  But did you know that there’s a way to make that PDF simply contain the document itself – without the cover page?  To make the MongoFAX attachment exclude the cover page, simply add noecp@mongonet.net as a CC: recipient on the fax cover page before sending. The PDF will simply be the document you intended sending.

There are other tips and tricks for MongoFax available are available on the MongoFAX user tips page. Or contact us at AAR Business Services support by email or by phone (480-304-8930, toll-free 866-833-7357).

For those of you who’ve tried to use Digital Ink™ on your own, you know that it takes a little practice and a little getting used to; but once you know the tricks, it works great.  Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Always check your forms before sending them out for signature.  Digital Ink™ is pre-mapped to zipForm® documents, however there are fields that may not need to be signed or initialed.  There are many such fields throughout the forms; it is critical that you review your forms to make sure you’ve eliminated non-essential signatures/initials.  Two examples:
  • Residential Purchase Contract -
    • Lines 156 & 157:  The lead-based paint disclosure has two lines, one of which needs to be initialed depending on the date the property was built.  The agent should remove the initial field for the unnecessary initial.
    • Lines 412 & 416:  The seller will be prompted to sign line 412 to accept the contract and yet still ask for inititals on line 416 to reject it.  One of the two required fields must be removed.
    • Counter Offer – Lines 32, 34 & others:  There is no logic between Digital Ink™ and zipForm® at the present time.  Digital Ink™ knows a signature is required but doesn’t know who needs to provide it; the agent needs to “tell” Digital Ink™ who needs to sign these lines.
• Once forms and parties have been selected in the eSign Selection window, click the “Continue to zipLogix Digital Ink™” button to continue; do not use the “Review” or “Send Now” buttons.  The “Continue to zipLogix Digital Ink™” allows you to add parties/documents and edit prior to sending submitting for signatures.  Soon, the “Review” and “Send Now” buttons will be removed.
• Watch one of the online training webinars.  Click on a date/time to register for a webinar:
  • Wednesday, March 23  |  1:00pm – 2:00pm
  • Friday, March 25  |  10:00am – 11:00am
  • Monday, March 28  |  3:00pm – 4:00pm
  • Wednesday, March 30 | 9:00am – 10:00am
  • Thursday, March 31  |  12:00pm – 1:00pm
  • Monday, April 4 | 1:00pm – 2:00pm
  • Wednesday, April 6 | 10:00am – 11:00am
  • Friday, April 8 | 10:00am – 11:00am

AAR now offers unlimited zipLogix Digital Ink™ electronic signatures to AAR members included in your membership dues.

zipLogix® Digital Ink™ is a digital signature solution for signing transactional documents within zipForm® 6.

Digital signatures improve your efficiency while reducing costs, saving time, eliminating delays, and better serving customers. They facilitate quick, easy interaction between REALTOR® and client, and encourage a paperless transaction. Digital signatures revolutionize the customer experience and offer your customer a truly paperless electronic process that can be trusted. Instantly e-mail real estate forms requiring signatures and eliminate the cost and time expense of printing, faxing, or cross-town meetings to get paper copies signed.

Start planning for a more efficient 2011 by trying your zipLogix® Digital Ink™ member benefit today.

Sign up today for one of the online training webinars:

Friday, 3/11     2:00PM – 3:00PM
Tuesday, 3/15     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Thursday, 3/17     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Wednesday, 3/23     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Friday, 3/25     10:00AM – 11:00AM
Monday, 3/28     3:00PM – 4:00PM
Thursday, 3/31     12:00PM – 1:00PM

Digital Ink Support:

Direct: (480)304-8930
Toll Free: (866)833-7357
Email: support@aaronline.com

Image courtesy of Flickr user Tom Raftery

It wasn’t long ago that I asked if you would e-sig. You responded quite emphatically… “Yes!”

That started a process in which 2010 AAR President Holly Eslinger and her leadership team of Duane Fouts, Holly Mabery, Jack Woerner and AAR staff began researching which company would be the best choice to provide AAR’s digital signature member benefit. We investigated several different providers, including EchoSign, eOriginal, Authentisign, DocuSign®, zipLogix Digital Ink™ and AlphaTrust. All of these companies are good companies with good products. We appreciate the time and effort each provided in answering our questions and providing responses to our requests for proposals.

In the end, AAR chose zipLogix Digital Ink™ to provide digital signatures as our latest member benefit. This benefit is provided to you as part of your current AAR dues and requires no monthly fees or annual contracts with the vendor.

This benefit will allow you to email your customers AAR forms to sign digitally–no printing, faxing or driving around town to get the forms signed. This new efficiency tool will reduce your costs, save you time and reduce delay. Your customers will also find this a time saver and convenient way of working with you during their purchase or lease. Everyone is going paperless!

We are currently working with zipLogix to ensure that this new member benefit works seamlessly with our electronic forms through zipForm® 6. We are also working to ensure that the product works in multiple browsers, that it is intuitive and that you can add documents that are not contained in your zipForm® library that require signature. Our staff is testing the product and suggesting changes to the vendor. Our target date for release is mid-first quarter 2011.

Two digital signature options will be available and integrated with AAR forms in zipForm® 6: zipLogix Digital Ink™ and DocuSign®. Digital Ink™ will be a member benefit paid for by AAR. DocuSign® requires you to have a separate agreement and pay a fee to the company.

With the addition of digital signatures as a member benefit, AAR is striving to help you and your business succeed. This latest benefit added under the Business Services Department at the association continues our efforts to help you go totally electronic and paperless. AAR Transaction Management through SureClose, AAR electronic forms through zipForm® 6 and now AAR digital signatures through Digital Ink™ —what could be next? Maybe the Arizona Integrated Business Platform? Stay tuned for more on that idea in a future blog post.

As a certified zipForm® instructor who has taught this wonderful member benefit program to thousands of agents over the last five years, I have discovered that I use many features as a practicing REALTOR® that a surprising number of agents don’t know about.

Though there are many things I could go over here, as I actually give a three-hour accredited class on every function of zipForm® 6, I want to give you some main pointers that will help you expedite the way you do business, allowing you to be more proficient and professional.

Secret #1: Sync the desktop and online versions

My recommendation is to use the Standard (desktop) version, as you can work with or WITHOUT internet access. With the Professional (online) version, you HAVE to have Internet access to create a form, and your forms will only be saved for 14 months as opposed to having them FOREVER with the desktop version. Now, the good news is that you can have both versions at no charge, and you can sync them with a click of one button! That’s right–on the desktop version,  simply go to 1) File, 2) Manage File, 3) click on “include online files”, then 4) Sync All.

Now you can use both versions if you want to, though I still recommend using the desktop version on your tablet computer so that you can work anywhere in the world and still conduct a transaction.

Secret #2: Eliminate previously typed text from the drop-down menu

I know all agents have mis-typed an address or simply are tired of seeing addresses from several years ago that are now in a long drop-down menu. Well, you can get rid of this! You’ve probably noticed that every time you type something, it will not show up in the drop-down menu on the right side of the fillable field. Have you ever looked on the left side and clicked that question mark?

When you click on that, it will not only give you an explanation of how to fill out the field but will give you the name of the field as well.

Now go to the Edit tool bar and click on LOOK UP FIELDS.

Choose the field name (in this case, “propstret”). All of the previous addresses will appear, and you can add, delete or change them. Be sure to hit SAVE and then CLOSE. You now have your new drop-down menu with the correct information!

Secret #3: Populate information into your forms with MLS-Connect

Though this isn’t really a secret because AAR has made this a free member benefit, the majority of agents still don’t know about the wonderful feature known as MLS-Connect. With one click (and Internet access), you can now populate the address, APN#, city, county, ZIP code and listing agent information. AAR is working on adding the legal description as well in the near future.

This is how you do it:

Go to the Tools tool bar and click on MLS-Connect.

After setting up your RETS number with your MLS, put in the MLS number, click Find and voila! It will now find all the information about the listing and populate your documents.

I used to be able to type up an offer in about five minutes with the use of templates, but now I can do it in about three minutes! Feel free to join me in my next zipForm® 6 C/E class to get all the tricks and “secrets” to using this valuable program.

Take advantage of free zipForm® 6 and TM/SureClose® agent training! Training sessions are held monthly on the second and fourth Thursdays. On the second Thursday, TM/SureClose® agent training is offered in the morning with the zipForm® 6 training in the afternoon. On the fourth Thursday, zipForm® 6 training is available in the morning with TM/SureClose® agent training in the afternoon.

Call AAR’s Business Services Hotline (480.304.8930 or 866.833.7357) or email support@aaronline.com to register for the next available session matching your needs.

The paperless office, it’s all the rage.

Thanks to technologies like email, scanners, digital cameras, electronic signatures, the Portable Document Format (PDF) and AAR’s Transaction Management platform (TM), paper plays a smaller role in our day-to-day lives than ever before.

Smaller role, yes.

No role, no.

Sure, it’s possible to avoid paper entirely using the tools mentioned above, but the reality is we’re not there yet. And our road to paperlessness bottlenecks every time we touch a real life paper document. Our job then becomes getting that document from atoms to bits as quickly and painlessly as possible.

You know about MongoFax, right? It’s a free service offered to all AAR members:

Close deals faster with this COMPLETELY FREE Arizona Association of REALTORS® Member Benefit. MongoFAX empowers all Arizona REALTORS® to instantly fax paper-based documents (disclosure packages, signed contracts, etc.) directly to any email address in the world. All you need is an ordinary fax machine and AAR’s designated MongoFAX Cover Page to enjoy Unlimited, Toll Free Usage!

When I first heard about MongoFax, I was a little quick to dismiss it because it didn’t behave like my existing online fax service.

Instead of a dedicated phone number tied to the subscriber’s email address ( a la eFax and MyFax), MongoFax relies on the use of a custom, barcoded cover sheet to route incoming faxes through a shared number to a specified email address.

If you’re not looking to completely replace your fax machine for incoming faxes, MongoFax can definitely help you reduce the amount of paper you touch.

Include your custom cover sheet next time you email an offer to a client, for example, and ask them to fax the signed offer back to you with said cover sheet. Instead of checking your fax machine, you’ll be checking your email. No paper. No cost. Thanks, AAR!

But wait, there’s more.

Regardless of what fax solution you’re using, there’s probably a place in your world for MongoFax – and that ordinary fax machine, too.

Remember, “all you need is AAR’s designated MongoFAX Cover Page to enjoy Unlimited, Toll Free Usage!” You can fax yourself as many pages as your fax machine can handle, as often as you want, and MongoFax will turn those pages into PDF documents and email them to you.

MongoFax + Ordinary Fax Machine = Free Scanner

Here’s how it works:

1. Download AAR’s MongoFax cover sheet.
2. Open the cover sheet in Adobe Acrobat Reader. (You want to use the genuine Adobe for this, not a compatible viewer.)
3. Type your email address in the “TO:” box.
4. Type “noecp@mongonet.net” in the “CC:” box.
5. Press print.
6. Keep this cover sheet in a handy location for quick access.
7. Anytime you need something scanned, and fax quality will do, throw your cover sheet on it and fire it off to the toll-free number on the bottom of the cover sheet.
8. Check your email in a few minutes for your fax-quality PDF.

I have a scanner right behind my desk, and I still use it when I need a high-res or color scan. How often is that? Not very often.

Most of my scanning needs revolve around Transaction Management, and MongoFax is the perfect tool for it. Compared to my scanner, my fax machine scans much faster (your mileage may vary), produces smaller files and does the whole job unattended. Drop a contract in the fax and walk away; grab it from your inbox and drop it into TM.

Which brings me to one last point. By carbon copying noecp@mongonet.net (step #4 above), you’re telling MongoFax that you do not want the cover sheet included in your PDF. If you’re faxing to yourself, that cover sheet will just get  in the way. With this tip you won’t have to deal with removing it after the fact. Very handy.

There are other tools and services out there that do what MongoFax does and more. If you have a high-end scanner that processes pages really fast, or a fax machine that has built-in fax-to-email capabilities, you may not need MongoFax.

For me, it’s a productivity tool. It’s easy, it does the job and it’s free.

Is there a place for MongoFax in your world?