How Much Easier Can it Get? Paperless Real Estate Closings Now Possible by Dena Amoruso
Poof! No more paper. Poof! The escrow closed without overnight delivery services, couriers, or special appointments. As strange as this may sound, that is precisely what happened recently for a buyer, seller, and Realtor through cyber-science with Realty Plus Online, Inc. Dubbing themselves the "pioneers of paperless transaction technology", RealtyPlusOnline.com announced their first successful real estate deal closing within their trademark CloseYourDeal.com secure Web site, which automated the entire real estate transaction over the Internet. The "deal" involved a residential duplex located in the Sacramento area and was completed as part of a two-month pilot program conducted by Realty Plus Online. By using this technology, the buyer's agent, the escrow officer, and the lender were able to collaborate in a secure Web environment, according to the firm's sources. Each party was able to send e-mail messages, post documents, and track the status of the transaction using only an Internet connection and their browser. In a recent press release, Kelly Pantis, president of Realty Plus Online, says, "closing the first transaction in CloseYour Deal.com is a major milestone for the real estate industry. It uses a platform that all real estate professionals can use to streamline their business and reduce their costs." Fran Dixon of Ellington Properties was the buyer's agent involved. By accessing the CloseYourDeal.com Web site, he was able to "select" the closing partners and order the required products and services needed to complete the transaction, including a new loan, a roof inspection, and a home warranty plan. "It's exciting to see the manual and cumbersome real estate processes we've been using for years being revamped by this technology. The time savings gained from exchanging information was significant, and because the transaction went smoothly, it made it easier on my first-time buyer," says Dixon. The lender involved, Bruce Siegel of Capitol Mortgage, was able to post the buyer's pre-qualification letter online, selecting who could access it. The escrow officer, Lynette Raisbeck of Stewart Title in Sacramento found that she was able to save time during the day by not having to leave voicemails and wait for return calls. "It made it easier to check the status of the deal at all times," says Raisbeck. "The business hours of the agent, lender and escrow representative are very different, so being able to check the deal status online makes it so much easier at closing time. Seeing documents online is wonderful too; there is no need to wait for couriers and overnight packages to show up. Loan documents come to us from all over the U.S. and sometimes you even have to deal with weather delays. With CloseYourDeal.com, we can get them instantly online." Some of the benefits are just beginning to be analyzed in retrospect, according to the agent. For both buyer's and seller's agents, communication was easy. The seller did not live in the property, making him one step removed from the process to begin with. And the seller's agent's assistant could easily access documents that were needed at any time and create a historical record for the deal, an important aspect. "The ease of communication and the ability to work around everyone's schedule made this an attractive tool for the agent," noted Dixon. Based in Sacramento, CA, Realty Plus Online, Inc. was founded in May 1995, with its early success stemming from its flagship product, Fusion MLS™, and Internet-based Multiple Listing Service. Their newest product, CloseYourDeal.com is touted as the first secure Web site to automate the entire transaction over the Internet with Intranet applications, and was recently unveiled at the REALTORS Midyear Governance Meeting and Trade Expo in Washington, D.C. Every day seems to bring newer and more amazing developments in cyber-technology making real estate transactions more stress-free and effortless. The frenzy of last-minute closing details and crises that make escrow closings likened to childbirth may very well become a thing of the past. With paperless technology such as this, vital documents can be checked over, fine-tuned, and executed with ease, and services leading to closing can be ordered 24 hours, 7 days a week. It doesn't sound as if it could get much easier than that, but stay tuned; someday it probably will. |
