Bentonville Firm Exploring New Transaction Management Platform
by March 18, 2013 12:00 am 79 views
In 2006, RE/MAX Real Estate Results in Bentonville became the first Arkansas real estate office to conduct its business in paperless fashion.
Now the firm hopes to be the first in the state to use products from a new, fast-growing real estate software company. RE/MAX broker/owner Kim Minor said her office is interested in partnering with dotloop, which provides an online transaction platform for agents to share, modify, approve and electronically sign transaction documents in real time.
The system would make transactions more hassle-free for agents and their clients, Minor said.
“We are actually in negotiations with them to put it in our office,” she said. “Their platform and the way it’s based and the way it’s supposed to work is a phenomenal premise.”
Dotloop recently reported that since the program was launched in August, more than 16 percent of RE/MAX agents and 75 percent of Keller Williams Realty agents are using its platform to close deals. Minor’s firm does face some stumbling blocks, though.
Chief among them is the fact dotloop is not compatible with FormSimplicity software. All Realtors in Arkansas must use FormSimplicity — an all-inclusive forms and software support package — to generate closing contracts because of an exclusivity agreement between it and the Arkansas Realtors Association.
“Everything looks great, but unless [dotloop] can generate my contract, the program is a moot point,” Minor said. “I’m kind of in the middle right now.”
An ARA spokesman said the association does not track the state’s number of paperless offices.