The Best Contract Management Software For Real Estate In 2024

Content

• Which are the primary real estate contracts?
• Why is contract management crucial in real estate?
• How do you choose the best contract management software for real estate?
• Identifying key features and functionality
• Evaluate integration capabilities
• Consider scalability and customization
• Assess security and data privacy measures
• Conclusion

Contracts are a must to govern the seller, buyer, and partnership relationships that keep the real estate industry afloat. These agreements dictate the terms and conditions that protect the interests of both parties and facilitate a smooth transaction. 

Given their significance, businesses must exercise due diligence when overseeing real estate contracts throughout their lifecycle, from drafting to negotiating to managing. They must stay on top of contract language, upcoming deadlines, payment issues, etc. But that’s a lot of ground to cover for any legal professional because real estate contract management involves a wide range of documents and stakeholders. Fortunately, we have automated solutions and AI available today to take away the burden of administrative and error-prone tasks.

Which are the primary real estate contracts?

Contracts are essential for a successful and lasting relationship, whether you are a buyer, seller, tenant, or agent. You need them to state the rules of the transaction and help protect the rights and interests of all parties involved. Apart from responsibilities and regulations, they also specify the purchase price, payment terms, and any contingencies or conditions to finalize the deal. Consequently, these legally enforceable contracts offer security and accountability for stakeholders to pursue remedies for breaches. Some of the real estate contracts in use are as follows: 

• Purchase agreement: It is a legally binding contract that outlines the terms and conditions of the sale of a property.
  
  
• Lease agreement: It establishes the terms and conditions of a rental agreement between a landlord and a tenant.
  
  
• Listing agreement: This contract between a property owner and a real estate agent outlines the agent's responsibilities and commission for selling the property. 

Every kind of contract has its own unique features and functions. Businesses handling real estate contracts must pay close attention to detail and adhere to particular guidelines. From ensuring compliance with applicable laws to maintaining thorough documentation, they must do all they can to minimize potential risks and disputes.

Why is contract management crucial in real estate?

Real estate contract management involves the creation, execution, and management of contractual agreements. Overseeing them throughout their lifecycle guarantees all parties perform their obligations, uphold the regulations, and keep the deadlines. Most real estate contracts are long-term and involve multiple parties; hence, they’re much more likely to slip between the cracks. However, companies can avoid the pitfalls and maximize the benefits of their real estate contracts by implementing a proactive and well-thought-out contract management process. 

Real estate contracts have inherent risks for both parties, from violations to legal disputes. Efficient contract management allows businesses to identify potential risks or liabilities. They can stay on top of deadlines and obligations outlined to avoid breach of contract claims. 

These contracts must adhere to various regulatory requirements, such as local zoning laws, building codes, and environmental regulations. Effective contract management helps guarantee that they have all the necessary approvals and that the terms align with the regulations.

How do you choose the best contract management software for real estate?

Countless contract management solutions are available today to streamline the contracting process. However, when weighing your options, choose software that suits the specific needs of your real estate company. Moreover, it must be intuitive and easy to use so that the team can quickly adapt to the new system. Apart from that, here’s what you need to manage your real estate contracts efficiently:

1. Identifying key features and functionality

First and foremost, determine whether the software offers functions to automate every stage of the contract lifecycle. Real estate contract management entails many steps, including drafting, negotiating, obtaining approvals, signing, and monitoring. You need the following quick and efficient means to carry out these processes:

• Ready-to-use templates

Drafting contracts from scratch makes it hard to keep up with growing demands. Pre-built templates and clauses enable you to auto-fill relevant details to create real estate contracts within minutes. Thus, you can standardize real estate contracts across the board, and lawyers can spend less time reviewing them. 

Most contract management solutions, like Dock 365, allow users to edit and tailor templates to meet their unique needs. Customization options include adding or removing clauses, modifying language, and incorporating company-specific terms. 

• Automated workflows

Once the draft is ready, you must get it to the right person for review, approval, or signing. Depending on manual processes or email chains for these processes opens the door to errors, inefficiencies, and delays. That is why real estate businesses require automated workflows to manage contract review and approval processes.

They can easily assign contracts to internal and external stakeholders and keep track of them using due dates. Thus, reviews, approvals, and signing get done on time, even when multiple parties or documents are involved. Organizations can customize these workflows according to their unique needs and add numerous levels of approvers or reviewers.

• Document storage 

Another necessity for real estate contract management is having all the contractual agreements in one place. Businesses lack the time and resources to sift through filing cabinets or folders for essential contracts. A well-designed system for managing and storing documents can significantly reduce the workload of the legal team. 

Contract management software offers digital repositories to store and manage all real estate contracts in one place. This secure and easily accessible database serves as a single source of truth for all contract-related information. Thus, users can search and retrieve documents using contract metadata such as name, date, type, company, etc.

• Automated reminders

Real estate contract management involves monitoring numerous deadlines and milestones. Manually tracking these dates can lead to breaches, delayed payments, and legal disputes. On the other hand, contract management software provides automated reminders to alert agents and clients of upcoming tasks or events, such as contract expiration dates, inspection deadlines, or mortgage application deadlines. 

It helps to reduce the risk of errors or oversights. Thus, real estate professionals can focus on other aspects of their work. While automated alerts are standard features in contract management systems, real estate companies should also look for means to automate obligation tracking. Setting off alerts for pertinent clauses aids in ensuring performance and compliance throughout the company.

• Version control 

Real estate contracts go through several modifications throughout their lifecycle. Contract management software with version control allows businesses to track different versions. It thoroughly documents all changes and relevant parties. The audit trail provides a detailed record of all actions taken on the contract. It helps to instill transparency and accountability in the contract management process. And provide a reliable source of information in case of any disputes or legal issues. Together, these features enhance the efficiency and reliability of managing real estate contracts.

2. Evaluate integration capabilities

Contract management is a collaborative process that involves all stakeholders in a business, from finance to operations. That is why one important feature of contract management software is its ability to interact with other business apps. For instance, Dock 365 enables seamless integration with major ERP and CRM systems like Dynamics CRM, Business Central, Oracle NetSuite, and Salesforce. Therefore, stakeholders can use any platform to request, review, and manage real estate contracts.

No one uses wet signatures anymore to execute contracts. Contract management software with electronic signature capabilities can fast-track real estate contracts considerably. With Dock, businesses can execute contracts from anywhere using secure services like DocuSign, Adobe Sign, or Sertifi.

3. Consider scalability and customization

When choosing real estate contract management software, it is vital to consider scalability. As your real estate business grows, you will need a software solution that handles a huge volume of contracts and data without compromising performance. Dock 365 offers advanced AI and OCR capabilities to draft, review, extract, and summarize contracts. The bulk feature allows users to edit, delete, add, review, and sign multiple documents at once. Thus, even when dealing with scaling contract portfolios, you get quick results with high quality. 

Customization is just as significant in contract management software. Whether adding custom fields, creating automated workflows, or integrating with other systems, a customizable solution can provide the flexibility to suit your unique needs. Dock’s custom dashboard allows users to add and remove functions and features to meet their requirements. Thus, there’s no data or process overload. Businesses only need to use what they need.

4. Assess security and data privacy measures

Real estate contracts contain sensitive information that requires the utmost security. That is why data security and privacy are non-negotiable features of contract management software. This ensures that critical information, such as contracts, client details, and financial data, is protected from unauthorized access or breaches. 

Opt for contract management software with robust security features such as encryption, user authentication, and secure data storage. Additionally, consider software that complies with industry regulations to ensure it handles data according to the highest privacy standards. Dock is integrated into our client's current Office 365 and SharePoint environments. Thus, there’s no risk of storing data on third-party sites. Moreover, real estate companies can utilize the compliance features of Microsoft in their contract management processes.

Conclusion

Managing real estate contracts efficiently is crucial to keeping your business relationships happy. It also enables organizations to gain maximum value without incurring risks or losses. Real estate companies can avoid legal disputes, reputational damage, or penalties due to missed milestones or deadlines. Hence, it’s best to invest in an all-in-one solution to manage your real estate agreements. 

Dock contract management software provides a structured framework and advanced features to automate every stage of the contract lifecycle. Our integration capabilities allow you to collaborate and communicate with stakeholders to streamline contract-related tasks. Book a demo with our experts to explore how our solution can improve your real estate contract management.