Real Estate: Make it Easy

Transaction management streamlines business for association members
Transaction management streamlines business for association members

By John Voket

RISMEDIA, October 11, 2006?When the dot-com bubble burst in the late 1990s, a lot of real estate industry professionals found themselves with the equivalent of Confederate dollars. The rapid disappearance of a lot of start-up tech companies left users in the industry with loads of customized system tools and IT applications and no support or further development.

Karen France was one of those real estate industry professionals. As president of Real Estate Business Resources (REBR), a subsidiary of the Kansas Association of Realtors she was charged with helping nearly 10,000 statewide members work more efficiently, and at a reduced cost to assure their offices constantly improved their bottom line.

So when the company that had previously supplied REBR?s transaction management platform went belly-up, she ventured quickly into the marketplace and was pleased to find a ?superior? product from First American Corporation.

?As the lead business support unit for members, I was researching transaction management platforms,? she explains. It was important for our members to be adopting this technology and when my office went back to the market to see what was available, I found the products and services of First American were superior from the onset.?

According to the vendor, First American’s transaction management platform was designed to help the Kansas Association’s members streamline and automate administrative tasks in order to help agents and brokers better utilize their time and resources.

?Transaction management takes the folder and to-do list and does it electronically for you,’ says France. It reduces the time it takes carrying transactions from start to close, and provides components that are directly accessible by clients?buyers and sellers?to help improve efficiency.?

Most importantly, it immediately helped distinguish Kansas Association members in the market.

?In a few years clients will be demanding this,? she adds. So it helps our members get ahead of the curve on a program that will virtually be standard element in the next three years.

Since its integration, REBR has provided the First American platform under the name: ?My Transaction.

?We invite our people to use our system to enhance their professional image by placing the ?My Transaction? button that allows access to the system on the agent?s or broker’s Web sites, rather than coming to our Web site,’ says France. Since average sales prices across Kansas are running around $110,000, we didn?t want the price for the program to get in the way of companies adopting the technology, so we bought the platform statewide.

From an economic standpoint, First American was an optimal choice.

?If they belong to an MLS which is managed by REBR, individuals can pay as little as $9 per month for an unlimited number of transactions,? France explains. An agent or broker who uses a non-REBR MLS may pay $12 ? 15 per month, depending upon how many agents are using the system in their office. Members can either use the system under the My Transaction brand, or REBR offers a model that can be branded to individual brokerages for a modest set-up fee.?

?It’s all online so there is no hardware,? she says. Web-based technology provides accessibility virtually anywhere a computer, e-mail capable phone or Blackberry is online?even from home or a local library. We have one agent in a rural area of Kansas who transacted a deal while his client was laid up in a hospital while on vacation in Maine,? she said.

?We have another relatively new agent about 30 years old?only in the business for four years?who got into a small market and became very successful because she is using these tools in her listing presentation,? France adds. The First American system has really helped her zoom?I would guess she?s up to 30 or 40 percent market share where she had almost nothing when she came into the area as a broker about two years ago.?

The system has been live since October 1, 2005, and to date several hundred of the 10,000 Association members are using it.

?And that’s the way we want to do it?by bringing the most accomplished, tech savvy agents up to speed first and then educating others about the amazing benefits transaction management brings and gaining broader adoption,? France explains. Right now we have over 700 transactions open in the system, and we would have been happy to have 500 in the first year. We are very pleased. RE

Source: RISMedia’s Real Estate magazine, October 2006.

Real Estate Hot Topics

Profit Center: Real Estate Tips, Training & Events

RISMedia Solutions

RISMedia on the Go

Today's Featured Listing