What Documents Does a Transaction Coordinator Need From You?

The fully executed contract with every page and initial, contact details for every party, and anything already agreed that is not yet in writing. That is the whole day-one handoff and it takes about five minutes to assemble.

The day-one list

• The executed contract, complete. Every page, every initial, every signature, all parties.
• Any addenda and amendments already signed, including anything agreed during negotiation.
• The seller's disclosure, if you have it.
• Buyer and seller contact details, including preferred contact method.
• The other agent's details, name, brokerage, phone and email.
• The lender's details, including the loan officer's direct line.
• The title company and escrow officer, with the file number if already opened.
• Anything agreed verbally that has not made it into the document yet.

That last item catches more problems than any other, because verbal agreements from the negotiation frequently exist only in the two agents' heads.

Why the complete contract matters

Because incomplete contracts are common and they are far cheaper to fix on day zero than on day nineteen.

A missing initial on one page, a second seller who never signed, an addendum referenced but not attached. These surface in week three when the lender or title asks for something, by which point other decisions have been made on top of the error.

A coordinator checks this first for exactly that reason. Sending a partial contract means the first thing they do is ask you for the rest.

What they will ask for later

A handful of things arrive during the file rather than at the start.

What you do not need to send

Your listing marketing, showing feedback, or anything from before the contract was executed.

Coordination starts at the executed contract. Pre-contract material is not part of the scope and sending it adds noise. If you want listing coordination as well, that is a different service and should be agreed separately.

How do you send it?

However your coordinator prefers, and ask on the first file rather than guessing.

Most work from a shared folder, a transaction management system, or a simple email with everything attached. What matters is that it is one delivery rather than seven, because a file assembled from six separate emails is where things get missed.

Avoid putting full account numbers or wiring details in email at all, for reasons that should be obvious in a business targeted by wire fraud.

What about access and permissions?

A coordinator generally needs enough access to do the chasing without going through you for every message.

That usually means being copied on correspondence with the lender and title, being introduced to both so their emails are not treated as coming from a stranger, and in some arrangements having access to your transaction management system.

A short introduction email to the lender and escrow officer on day one saves a surprising amount of friction. People respond faster to someone an agent has vouched for than to an unfamiliar name chasing documents.

Does it differ for a listing?

Slightly, and mostly in what you supply rather than what they do.

On a listing side you will also need to provide the seller’s disclosure, any existing survey, HOA details, and the details of anything the seller has agreed to repair or leave behind. The deadlines and the chasing are largely the same.

If you represent both sides, say so explicitly at handoff, because it changes who receives which communications and it is not always obvious from the contract alone.

What slows a file down?

Almost always the agent, and almost always on decisions rather than documents.

A coordinator can chase a lender indefinitely. They cannot decide whether your client accepts a repair credit, whether to request an extension, or how to respond to a low appraisal. When those questions sit unanswered for two days, every downstream deadline compresses.

Responding to decision questions within a few hours is the single most useful thing an agent can do to keep a coordinated file moving.

What should you agree upfront?

1. 1Who contacts the client, and about what. Usually both of you, with a clear split.
2. 2How often you get updates, and in what form.
3. 3What they escalate to you immediately versus handle themselves.
4. 4The fall-through policy, in writing, before file one.
5. 5Who covers them when they are ill or away.

How long does the first handoff take?

About five minutes once, plus a short conversation to agree the points above.

Agents overestimate this substantially, which is often what delays them trying it. The paperwork you send is paperwork you already have, and the working pattern settles within a file or two.

Send the executed contract and the contacts, and we take it from there: every deadline, every amendment, every chase, from executed contract to funding. $375 per file, $300 for Pipeline OS members.

[See TC Services | $375 per file](/transaction-coordination/)