If you’re a real estate broker in the Lone Star state, you’re required to hold onto your transactions records for four (4) years. According to the Texas Real Estate Commission there are several records a broker must be conscience about.

In a PDF provided by TREC, they outline the specific records that must be retained. Except for records destroyed by an “Act of God” such as a natural disaster or fire not intentionally caused by the broker, the following records, at a minimum, shall be maintained for at least four (4) years from the date of closing or termination of the contract in a format that can readily be made available to the Commission.

• Disclosures

• Commission Agreements such as listing agreements, buyer representation agreements or other written agreement relied upon to claim compensation;

• Work files

• Contracts and related addenda

• Receipts and disbursements of compensation for services subject to the Act

• Property management contracts

• Documents required by USPAP for appraisals

• Sponsorship agreements between the broker and the sponsored salesperson

Now, with this research under your belt, the next portion to evaluate is HOW you plan on retaining your records so the TREC can  “readily” inspect those files. That’s where Filetwin (www.filetwin.com) comes into the picture.

Since we know everyone is cost conscience right now, here are a few points that address the financial aspects of online backup with Filetwin:

1. You DO NOT have to invest in major capital expenses. You’ll just receive a monthly bill for the storage space you use.

2. If you have a Blackberry, iPhone or HTC smartphone device, you’re probably paying as much monthly for that phone as you would to backup your entire real estate form – just to draw an immediate comparison most people will understand.

3. Filetwin is a U.S. based company with ALL of our customer support specialists located here in the United States. We don’t profess to be the cheapest option on the block, but our outstanding customer support skills WILL DEFINITELY become noticeable to you if or when you experience a data loss due to natural disaster or human error.

If you’d like to learn more about how our company can help you, please contact us directly at 1 877 310-2884 and one of our Backup Specialists will be pleased to assist you

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As we continue our real estate record retention blog, we’ve shifted our focus from Mid-West states to Southern states because of the record flooding going on there. According to CNN, the Mississippi River crest is heading towards Louisiana and Mississippi. This is of grave concern if you live in those states and you haven’t taken precautions for your small business. We strongly recommend that if your business is located in the area anticipated to be affected by the flood waters, that you take our advice and immediately look into online data backup with Filetwin. Here’s why:

1.Your digital assets are stored in another state, so regardless if the floods affect your business, your data is safe.

2. We offer a 30 day unlimited trial so even if you want to use our servers as a temporary resting place for your data – WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO THIS.

3. All you need to do is download our software and start your backup ASAP so if you have a lot of data, it can all be captured before any flooding.

Right now, these are the three main points that should strongly motivate you to look into a service like ours.

Our Backup Specialists are located in the U.S. and are available to speak with you directly in case you need to learn more information in this short window of opportunity. Please call our toll free number 1 877 310-2884 and we’d be glad to talk with you in person and make some quick recommendations.

As we’ve blogged about in the past, it’s these exact types of potential natural disasters that we refer to frequently because there is no forewarning that trouble is on the way.

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who lives in the potential areas that could be affected.

Again, since we offer a free 30-day unlimited free trial, this is the exact time that we expect people to take us up on our trial.

Remember, when disaster strikes, it’s too late. Take precautions now and save yourself headaches int he future.

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The images we see in the media about Japan are just heart wrenching. The sudden onslaught of Mother Nature is awe inspiring and at times, just surreal. How could anyone have prepared for that? I believe that these types of mega-disasters should teach us, especially those of us that live along the east and west coasts, there is something to be said about implementing prudent business policies that takes care of your business on a daily basis. Your digital assets should be virtual. Digital assets that are kept locally are susceptible to being destroyed in the wake of a natural disaster.

Check out these links about disaster preparedness:

1. http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/

2. http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/1,1770,19025-1;20070-3,00.html

3. http://www.ready.gov/business/

Now, the last link above is a great link for small businesses because it gives you a sample Preparedness plan so you don’t have to start from scratch.

When it comes to your data, more and more regulatory bodies are recommending to real estate brokers and securities brokers that they use electronic storage media since it is reliable, cost effective, secure and easily accessible for anywhere in the world.

Our service runs quietly in the background so if you never experience a natural disaster – great, however, if you and your business did go through what the people of New Orleans, Haiti and Japan are going through, at least your data is still available. Look, no one expects a business that just went through a natural disaster to be up and running when there is nothing left of your town, however, people are people and if you don’t eventually get back to your customers in some sort of reasonable time frame, they will have no choice but to start using another product or service.

Virtualize your digital assets now because when disaster strikes; it’ll be too late.

If you’d like to learn more about protecting your digital assets so you never have to worry about their safety and security, please call us at 1 877 310-2884 and one of our U.S. based Backup Specialists will be glad to answer any questions you might have.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011