How to Become a Transaction Coordinator in California

Transaction coordinators play an important role in the real estate industry. They support agents by taking time-consuming, detail-specific, and deadline-oriented tasks related to contracts off of their plates. Making their services extremely sought after by new and experienced agents alike. Let’s be honest, real estate agents are sales professionals at heart. Spending their time hashing out the nuances of contracts and deadlines is not why they got into the business. So, it is clear to see how becoming a transaction coordinator in California could become lucrative quickly. Generally, if you can get your certification, refine your skills, and allow your agents to just focus on their clients, you will always have a valuable, and profitable, service to offer to any agent. 

Getting Your Certification 

To become a transaction coordinator in California, you do not need to have a real estate license, but you do in fact need to take some CTC (Certified Transaction Coordinator) courses. These courses will make sure you are prepared to be a transaction coordinator and can be completed on your own time. 

How to Find Which CTC Courses You Need

If you do not have a real estate license, you will need to purchase and complete the Non-Licensee CTC Course Bundle. This bundle includes the five self-guided courses listed below, and costs $735:

• Fundamentals of Transaction Coordination
• Transaction Coordination 2 – Beyond the Contract
• Risk Management
• All About Disclosures
• Real Estate Law Dos and Don’ts for Non-Licensees

If you do have a real estate license, you will need to purchase and complete the Licensee CTC Course Bundle. This bundle includes the self-guided courses below, and costs $698:

• Fundamentals of Transaction Coordination
• Transaction Coordination 2 – Beyond the Contract
• Risk Management
• All About Disclosures
• Your Guide to the California RPA and Related Forms

These certification bundles are constantly evolving and being updated as the laws and expectations around CA real estate change.  So be sure to check out the bundles yourself on the California Association of Realtors website before making any decisions. 

Requirements for CTC Courses 

Even though all courses in the CTC bundles are self-guided, allowing you to complete them at your own pace, they all must be completed within one year of purchasing the bundle. Each course will have an exam at the end you are required to pass in order to complete the course. 

Once you have completed your bundle, your certification will be valid for two years. After two years, you will either need to retake the certification courses, or you will need to take a renewal course. The renewal course is also subject to constant updates, but currently, the renewal course is $198 and is estimated to take about 8.5 hours to complete.

Invest in the Right Tools to Support Your Work

Finding tools that allow you to perform your best is a must as a transaction coordinator. Transaction coordinators working off of hard copies can typically handle 30-40 transactions per month. Whereas a transaction coordinator who uses online tools to manage their files can work upwards of 150 transactions per month. So taking the time to find which platforms allow you to work at your most efficient, is definitely worth the investment. 

Here are some popular applications that many transaction coordinators recommend:

• Transactly
• TC Workflow
• DocuSign 
• Paperless Pipeline 
• Skyslope 
• TC Docs 

Make sure to thoroughly test out any transaction management platform you are interested in before using it to work a client’s file though. You definitely don’t want the use of any application to slow you down instead of increase your efficiency. So consider multiple possible scenarios that could occur while you are working on a transaction. Then decide how you would handle each of them within the application you choose. It’s not a bad idea to create a ‘test transaction’ in multiple platforms and work it, going through the motions of everything you would need to do to successfully get it to close. This will help you decide which application, or a mix of applications, is the best fit for you.  

Finding a Job

As a transaction coordinator, you have a few different options when it comes to your work environment. 

Build your own business. You could market your skills yourself, and offer your services freelance to agents. Allowing you to have complete control over your schedule, where you work, how you work, and who you work with.

Work with a brokerage. Working with a specific brokerage or team will ensure you have a steady stream of income. You will also get very used to how that brokerage likes their files handled, allowing you to become efficient quickly. These positions are not always remote though, and you can’t just decide to not handle an agent’s files if they are troublesome. 

Work for a company. Transaction coordination companies offer services to agents primarily based on state and handle everything entailed in acquiring new clients. These companies will usually require training in how they feel is the most efficient way to work a transaction. As well as offer you support from other experienced transaction coordinators. Positions in these companies often allow you to try and take on as many files as you can handle (if the market is right) potentially becoming very lucrative for you.

Enjoy Your New Career!

Being a transaction coordinator in California can offer you a ton of freedom, while still being a very profitable job. If you are detail-oriented and thrive off deadlines, it may just be the perfect fit for you. 

So invest in a career that will help you reach your personal and professional goals. Take the CTC courses that are required of you, find some platforms that allow you to do your job efficiently, and then don’t be afraid to jump right into the real estate industry!