Guides for brokerage back offices
The jobs an office does around a closing, written out one at a time, plus a timeline you can use with no account.
These pages are for the broker-owner or office manager who still answers cap questions from a spreadsheet and still builds a closing file by hand. Each one is a single job. None of them is a city-by-city copy of another. The timeline calculator stands alone: it needs no account, and it does not send what you type anywhere.
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Transaction timeline calculator
Contract date, closing date, and the inspection and financing periods, turned into dates. Calendar days, in the browser, with nothing stored.
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How to track agent commission caps
What a cap counts, which year it belongs to, and how to record the closing that uses up the last of it.
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How to write an agent commission statement
The lines an agent needs on the statement for one closing, and how that page differs from the form you send to the title company.
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Google Sheets or a brokerage back office
What a spreadsheet is built to do, what a back office is built to do, and how an office can keep the sheet it already trusts.
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New agent checklist for a brokerage
What to put in place before a new agent's first file, and what they should be able to see on their own.
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How to reconcile commission at closing
The order to check one side of a closing so the statement the agent reads matches the figures the title company was given.
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What to keep in a transaction file
The records a listing file and a buyer file should hold, who adds them, and who decides they are complete.
Questions brokers ask
Do these guides require an account?
No. The guides are ordinary pages, and the transaction timeline calculator runs in your browser. Nothing you type into the calculator is sent or saved. A Deskwork office is a separate signup.
Where do I start if the office runs on a spreadsheet?
Read the comparison of Google Sheets and a back office, then the pages on caps and on reconciling a closing. The sheet can stay while you check one closing against a statement.
Which page is the free tool?
The transaction timeline calculator. Enter a contract date, a closing date, and the inspection and financing periods in calendar days. It lists the dates and flags a weekend. It does not replace the purchase agreement.
Try it on your own office
Set up a plan, file a deal and close it before you decide. A desk you set up yourself through the signup page is free. If we set up your desk with you, what your brokerage pays is set out in our written agreement with you. Read about pricing.