5 Document Safety Tips For Realtors

Privacy is a non-negotiable in today’s age. Further, privacy is held on a high pedestal across multiple industries, including the real estate sector. 

As a realtor, one of the most important aspects of you providing your services to your clientele and partners is upholding document safety. 

If done correctly, safeguarding your documents can send a clear message to your patrons and other stakeholders that you care for their privacy a lot. This can earn you a positive reputation in your local real estate circle. On the other hand, if you neglect to carry out document safety protocols, your business is vulnerable to data breaches, costly data breach-related lawsuits, and so on. 

Then, how do you keep your documents safe? Check out the following tips:

• Go Paperless

Going paperless means operating with minimal to no physical documents. Physical documents are prone to theft, putting your business and clients’ secrets at risk. An unauthorized party can photocopy, scan, or take photographs of the contents and use the illegally obtained information in a malicious manner.

You can go paperless by using digital systems to store and manage your realtor documents. One such system is an eFax. It allows you to keep, review, and digitally send documents like contracts to clients. eFax systems increase client confidentiality, protecting their interests in your business. 

It’s important to acknowledge that some clients might be reluctant to adopt the digital way of doing things. Therefore, you must bring them on board; help them see the benefits of paperless systems.

• Sort Out Your Documents Properly

As a realtor, the documents you handle differ in terms of the level of data sensitivity. You can group your documents into different collections depending on the information each one contains.

Legal documents such as title deeds, real estate contracts, and the like need the highest level of data protection because they contain sensitive personal information and crucial business deals details. Meanwhile, public property listings and your and your team’s official business contact details require less attention. 

Each group of documents will need specific protocols and more will be discussed below.

• Invest In Reliable And Highly Secured Storage Solutions

To further boost your bid to uphold document safety, it’s recommended that you invest in highly secure and reliable storage solutions. There are various storage solutions you can tap into depending on the type of document you wish to use with them. 

For your physical documents, allocate a separate room that’s highly secured and locked at all times. If you have minimal office space to add a storage room, invest in self-storage units instead. With both, make sure that only a limited number of personnel have access to the keys.

On the other hand, employ strong password combinations and multi-factor authentication to safeguard your digital documents.  

• Train Your Team On Document Security Matters

Include your whole team in the matter of data and document security – from your secretary to other team members. Do this by training them on matters of document security management. It’d help to do the following:

• Inform your team members of the importance of document security.
• Take them through the security procedures you’ve adopted. These can be shredding documents before disposal and setting strong system passwords.
• Teach them how to prepare Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). They’ll come in handy when workers have to disclose document data with third parties. 
• Caution employees about disclosing information over the internet with no regards to online security.  

As you train your whole team about the document safety rules you’ve set up, remind them of the possible consequences of not following them.

• Have A Data Recovery Plan In Place

Always prepare for the worst eventuality possible. It’s a phrase you want to know by heart and abide by in the conduct of your real estate business.

Indeed, you might’ve taken all cautionary measures, but what if a security breach still happens?  How will you handle such a situation? This is when having a data recovery plan in place comes to be really useful.

What’s a data recovery plan? It’s a document that directs your team on what actions to take in the event of a breach. Work with a certified and highly reputable data privacy officer specializing in the real estate sector to help you formulate and enforce your realty business’ data recovery plan. 

Conclusion

Document safety is crucial as a realtor if you want to retain your clients and be in the business for the long haul. The discussion above guides you in ensuring the safety of your documents. Implementing these tips in your realtor profession is in your, your team members, clients, and other stakeholders’ best interest.