Formal Research Proposal

Formal Research Proposal

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, ENGL301 Professor

From: Tamara Oman, ENGL301 Student

Date: October 15, 2021

Subject: Proposal for reducing the environmental footprint at the Keller Williams Realty VanCentral office in Vancouver

This proposal is targeting the management of the Keller Williams Realty VanCentral office in Vancouver, as well as the licensed realtors that conduct their business through this brokerage.  The intended purpose is to reduce the level of physical paperwork used during daily activities by converting to online solutions.  Limiting the amount of physical documentation and filing in the brokerage will reduce the office’s environmental footprint regarding deforestation.

INTRODUCTION

Real Estate offices use a substantial amount of paper to file transaction documentation.  Most transactions include hundreds of pages, including contracts, disclosure documents, strata documents, deposits and checklists.  Traditionally, these documents are printed and filed boxes, where they are stored in the event of an audit from the Real Estate Board.

Keller Williams Realty VanCentral is a busy brokerage with over 130 Realtors. The accumulation of printed paper requires a significant amount of paper, space and administration to organize each document.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Trees are a renewable resource that is critical for habitation by filtering harmful air pollutants, providing habitats to support biodiversity and the preservation of soils.  Trees are the primary raw material for the paper industry which come from managed forests and farms; where four million trees are planted each day, 300-400% more are harvested for the production of paper.  On average, 12% of the global greenhouse and gas emissions are caused by deforestation. 

PROPOSED SOLUTION

Virtual work has been a proactive trend in the workforce throughout the last decade, in particular the last two years during the global pandemic of COVID-19.  Real Estate is a pioneering industry that has adopted virtual platforms throughout this time, moving towards  online data management solutions has allowed the industry to explore innovative paths of operations which offer cost-effective solutions. In turn, the use of physical paper is substantially decreased. It is my proposal that the Keller Williams Realty office administration and their Realtors switch from physical filing systems to online solutions.

SCOPE

I will use the following areas of inquiry to assess the feasibility of adopting online administrative solutions:

1. What are the current costs of buying, maintaining a printer at the current level of paper production?
2. What is the cost of decreasing printing production and the addition of online subscriptions?
3. Are Realtors willing to learn using online solutions?
4. Are clients flexible to the idea of e-signatures?
5. What are some other potential solutions to decreasing the use of paper in the office?

METHODS

My primary sources of data will include the following:

• I will distribute surveys to the office realtors;
• I will interview the office administration staff;
• I will use office expense receipts to identify the current costs of using the printer at the current level of production.

My secondary data sources will include articles published from various online data management platforms.

MY QUALIFICATIONS

I have worked as director of operations for the KymBuna Real Estate group remotely for over 3 years.  I created efficient, cost-effective virtual systems that effectively processes transactions and I am familiar with online platforms. My position at the brokerage gives me the opportunity to access expense data and allows me to have access to conducting surveys to Realtors.  

CONCLUSION

Real Estate offices require a substantial amount of documentation which is being printed and stored into files. Not only does this require space, but the cost of maintaining and printing documentation is expensive.  Using traditional printing filing systems to store documents increases the effects of global deforestation. With your approval, I would conduct a feasibility study regarding the advantages of incorporating online solutions to storing Real Estate documents, and in turn reduce the environmental footprint at the Keller Williams Realty VanCentral office in Vancouver.