How documents get filed

Paperwork that comes to you gets read and filed without you lifting a finger. Backhouse works out what each document is, reads the details that matter, and puts it on the right transaction. When it isn't sure, it asks instead of guessing.

Ways in

• Email. Anything that lands in your connected Gmail, plus anything you forward or cc to your workspace's Backhouse address, found in Settings > Email.
• Text. Text a PDF or a photo of a signed page to your assistant.
• Chat. Drop a file into a conversation and ask your assistant to file it.
• Upload. Add a file to a transaction, or upload an offer you received.

However it arrives, it's read the same way. What came with it counts too. The email's subject and sender, or what you texted alongside the photo, help Backhouse tell a counter from an offer and an amendment from an addendum.

What it reads

PDFs and photos, including the HEIC photos your iPhone takes and scans that are a little crooked. Signature logos and tracking images in an email are skipped, and so are Word files and spreadsheets, which stay attached to the email where you can open them.

Backhouse recognizes contracts, listing agreements, buyer representation agreements, amendments, addenda, seller's disclosures, lead paint disclosures, inspection reports, appraisals, title commitments, surveys, deeds, closing disclosures, earnest money receipts, pre-approval letters, proof of funds, and commission disbursement authorizations. Anything that isn't a real estate document, like a receipt or a newsletter, is left alone.

A packet of several forms in one PDF is split, so each addendum, amendment, and disclosure becomes its own document. The same file sent twice is filed once.

What it does with each one

• Contracts and amendments. The price, earnest money, option period, closing date, and the other terms go onto the transaction, and its key dates follow.
• Pre-approval letters and proof of funds. Recorded on the buyer, so an offer packet attaches the letter. An older or weaker letter never replaces a stronger one already on file.
• Offers and counters. A buyer's offer on your listing joins that listing's offers, and a counter is linked to the offer it answers. See Offers and counters.
• The people on it. Buyers, sellers, lenders, title officers, and inspectors become contacts, or are matched to the ones you already have.

Everything it files is searchable by what it says. Ask your assistant "what's the option fee on 412 Maple?" or "which inspection mentioned the roof?" and it answers from the document itself, with the page. Photos and scans are found by their title for now.

Which transaction it lands on

Backhouse files a document on the transaction its email thread already belongs to. If there isn't one, it matches the property address on the document to one of your transactions, and only when exactly one matches. A document it can't place waits for you instead of landing on a guess.

When it asks you

It files what it's sure of on its own. When something needs your eyes, you get a notification saying Backhouse has work ready for review, and opening it shows what it did and what it wants you to check. That happens when:

• A contract arrives for a property you don't have a transaction for. Nothing is created until you say so, and one click opens the transaction from the contract.
• An executed contract arrives while its offer is still open. Backhouse files it with the offer and leaves accepting to you, since that moves the transaction under contract.
• A new contract arrives after an offer was already accepted, or a counter arrives for an offer it has no record of.
• A commission disbursement authorization can't be matched to one transaction with certainty.
• It added a contact by name alone, with no email to confirm they're who they seem.
• It couldn't read a document confidently enough to act on it.

What it never does

It never accepts, counters, or rejects an offer, never opens a transaction without you, and never sends anything to anyone. Recording what arrived is the whole job. The decisions stay yours.