Forms Advisor™ and Forms Tutor™ eliminate the guesswork

By Roger Cruzen

No matter how many years you’ve been in the business, it’s a dilemma every agent faces at the beginning of a real estate transaction—deciding which of the hundreds of standard forms and federal, state, and local disclosures are applicable to your specific transaction. Use the wrong form or an outdated version or forget an important addendum and you put your transaction, your client, and yourself in jeopardy.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easy way to take the guesswork out of selecting which real estate standard forms to use?

Forms Advisor™, the Newest Members-Only Benefit

Designed by and for REALTORS®, the new Forms Advisor™ and Forms Tutor™ online forms management tools join WINForms® as a standard benefit of membership in the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® for 2008. Used independently or in tandem with WINForms® Desktop, WINForms Online®, and WINForms Online Plus®, Forms Advisor and Forms Tutor provide brokers, sales associates, and transaction coordinators with the opportunity to provide better service to their clients and avoid expensive and time-consuming litigation.

Forms Advisor employs patent-pending business rules management technology to determine which California standard forms are relevant to a specific transaction in a matter of milliseconds based on information the agent provides. It then compiles a comprehensive list of recommended forms, and Forms Tutor provides detailed information about every aspect of each form so agents can understand the reasons why they need to fill out a particular form and share that information with their clients.

“Forms Advisor is like a GPS for forms,” declares Sereta Churchill of J. Rockcliff REALTORS® in Lafayette. “It asks you a series of basic questions about your transaction and then provides a complete roadmap of the forms you’ll need to complete that transaction.” What’s more, says Churchill, Forms Advisor is easy to learn and use. “This product is something that anybody with an average level of knowledge can use and use very easily.”

Broker Kathy Mehringer, director of Risk Management Training for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Southern California, agrees. “This is the first time in the 31 years I’ve been a broker that I am able to create an entirely foolproof transaction,” she says. “Forms Advisor does the hard work of analyzing the transaction, the property, the agents and their clients, and the statutory requirements, and brings them all together in one place.”

Big Benefits (at No Extra Cost)

Whether you’re a veteran or a relative newcomer to real estate, Forms Advisor provides peace of mind by further reducing the risk of expensive mistakes and lawsuits. Forms Advisor and Forms Tutor can:

> Protect you against the potential for costly mistakes and time-consuming litigation;

> Provide the instructions you need to fill out every form in the C.A.R. forms library;

> Access the entire C.A.R. forms library and C.A.R. Legal Q&As whenever you need a form;

> Make your transaction coordinator or broker’s life easier by generating custom forms “templates” or checklists for every transaction;

> Preview forms and obtain accurate legal guidance as you fill them out.

Changing Markets, Changing Forms

Many REALTORS® are negotiating new and unfamiliar territory these days thanks to the changing real estate market. Foreclosures, short sales, bank REOs—all have unique requirements when it comes to real estate forms and disclosures. Even veteran agents who have done these kinds of transactions in the past are discovering that the rules of the game have changed.

“This is a terrific tool for agents who haven’t done an ‘unusual’ transaction,” says Churchill. “For example, if you haven’t done a short sale, or if it’s been awhile since you have done one, Forms Advisor will walk you through which forms you need and the Forms Tutor will tell you why that form is needed and guide you in filling it out correctly.”

“Let’s say you represent a buyer who wants to write an offer on a property,” adds attorney and real estate educator Kevin Burke of Burke Real Estate Consultants in Del Mar. “Normally, you’d automatically fill out an RPA-CA, which is the standard residential purchase agreement. But let’s say the property is owner-occupied, a notice of default has been filed, and the buyer is an investor. When you put this information into the Forms Advisor, it would know that it is a violation of Civil Code Section 1695 to write the offer and to use the RPA. Forms Advisor would advise you to use the NODPA and attached forms instead. The only way most agents would know that is if they asked an attorney, which could take three or four days to get an answer—by which time they may have a lawsuit on their hands. With Forms Advisor, there’s no waiting. You can get on with your client’s business.”

Local Adoption

The ability to instantly update the Forms Advisor tool is important because many local California REALTOR® associations already are preparing to post their local standard forms and tutorials on the Forms Advisor and Forms Tutor.

Dave Parry is a San Francisco-based broker associate with McGuire Real Estate who served on the Forms Advisor Advisory Committee at C.A.R. A self-proclaimed “forms wonk” and past president of the San Francisco Association of REALTORS®, Parry has a Bachelor of Arts in computer science and a Master of Science in systems analysis. His broad experience and local perspective were critical in ensuring that the Forms Advisor and Forms Tutor tools can accommodate local forms and disclosures as associations elect to offer that benefit.

Some local Associations already have created teams comprised of attorneys and practitioners to develop the business rules under which the Forms Advisor and Forms Tutor will operate. To participate, local forms must be submitted to C.A.R. for legal review and approval.

Parry believes the combination of statewide and “extremely local” forms makes Forms Advisor an unbeatable tool for REALTORS®.

“The Forms Advisor is extremely valuable from a risk management perspective, particularly with certain types of transactions like trusts and probates, where an agent may not be certain whether the seller is exempt from filling out one form or another,” says Parry. “It’s a great product for any brokerage to have in its arsenal, and when you add the localized forms and information, you have a product that has nationwide applicability.”

Getting Forms Advisor Is Easy

To access the Forms Advisor, simply sign in to your car.org account (if you use paper forms or WINForms Desktop) or to your WINForms Online account with WINForms Online or WINForms Online Plus: That’s all you have to do. There’s no software to download or update—ever. Future forms updates and additional product features will automatically be added.

You can learn how to use Forms Advisor/Forms Tutor through interactive Webinars. For more information about Forms Advisor and Forms Tutor, or to sign up for a future Webinar, visit www.car.org.

Roger Cruzen is a freelance writer based in Minneapolis, Minn.