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Files — keep the paperwork on the record it belongs to

4 min read · Updated 2026-09-05

“Files — keep the paperwork on the record it belongs to” is a Direct University lesson from Direct REI, the AI cold-outreach platform and CRM for real estate investors. Attach deeds, photos, title docs and contracts to a contact, deal, or property — and have signed agreements land there on their own.

Deal paperwork usually ends up scattered — the survey in email, photos on a phone, the signed contract in a download folder, the title commitment in a shared drive nobody can find. When a closing gets questioned six months later, that's a bad afternoon.

Every contact, deal, and property card has a 📎 Files section. Whatever belongs to that record lives on it.

Attaching a file

Open the record, find 📎 Files, click Attach file.

Teammates with write access can attach and delete; viewers can open what's there.

Signed contracts arrive by themselves

This is the part worth knowing: when an e-signature document is completed by everyone, the signed PDF lands in that record's Files section automatically. You don't download and re-upload it.

So the end state of a deal is one card carrying the conversation, the call recordings, the property, and the executed agreement. See E-signatures.

What actually belongs where

When in doubt, attach it to the property. Deals come and go — a parcel you fail to buy today may come back in a year, and a survey on the property record is still there waiting. A survey on a dead deal is effectively lost.

Habits that make it pay off

This isn't a backup. Files are stored per record for working the deal, and deleting a record takes its attachments with it. Keep your own copy of anything legally significant.

What's next

To get contracts signed and filed here automatically, read E-signatures. To find a record fast when you need its paperwork, Getting around fast.

This lesson lives in Direct University inside the Direct REI app, where you can search every lesson and ask the built-in AI assistant. Sign in to open it there.

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About Direct REIDirect REI is an AI cold-outreach platform and CRM for real estate investors — wholesalers, flippers, builders, land investors, and brokers. Its AI acquisition manager, Oliver, pulls county property records, finds owners, and runs email, SMS, direct mail, and inbound-call tracking from your own mailbox and phone number, replying in your voice. Free plan; paid plans from $23/month billed annually ($29 monthly).

Start free — let Oliver run the outreach.

Free plan, no card. Oliver finds the leads and runs email, SMS, and mail from your own accounts.

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