Is it just coincidence, or do most of the brokers signing up for transaction management products appear to be Coldwell Banker affiliates?

A flurry of recent announcements involving transaction management software producers shows that a trend is definitely emerging; brokers are going online to manage the transaction, and they are allowing consumers to peek behind the curtain, too. But the companies most often mentioned in the releases seem to be Coldwell Banker affiliates. Are they the only ones catching on to the importance of online transaction management?

A year ago, transaction management software was something most brokers didn't know they needed, but with the new Internet economy - based on consumers retaining more control of the transaction process, many brokers realize that they must be more proactive in enabling their agents to serve the Internet consumer.

Fourteen of Coldwell Banker’s multi-office brokers in 12 states have signed on to use Homebid.com’s Offer Manager platform. Serving over 8,000 agents with online offer and negotiation tools, the sites are scheduled to start going live in September, with a commitment from the 14 brokers to list a total of at least 5,000 homes.

According to Homebid.com, Offer Manager mirrors the traditional process of buying and selling a home, putting the steps in a digital format. It streamlines and manages the homebuying and selling process and gives agents new marketing muscle with virtual tours, photo presentations, highly detailed property reports and printable flyers. Offers can be made online by represented buyers, with or without contingencies, and the listing agent has the option to make the offers visible to homebuyers to raise the excitement level.

Homebid is creating a custom-designed “private-label” Web site for each brokerage, enabling each site with the Offer Manager transaction engine while preserving the broker’s choice of online partnership links and advertisers. Homebuyers can simply click on the Web sites to view homes for sale in real time.

iProperty.com went straight to the Internet source by partnering with a progressive online one-stop-shop called 9keys.com. Over the last 18 months, both companies have been independently developing enhanced methods to better serve homebuyers by managing the integration of data, streamlining procedures and creating a new way to store the details of each transaction, but 9keys.com has decided to spare itself a lot of headache and adopt iProperty's Chorus Real Estate Management Engine(sm) instead. During the next six months, iProperty.com’s Chorus Real Estate Management EngineSM will consolidate all the different information needed to process the purchase of a home, from mortgage documents to title insurance, into the 9keys back office systems and Internet strategies, says the company.

9keys is a network of home services companies that support home ownership and the home-buying and selling process, and include two Coldwell Banker brokerages, Coldwell Banker Associates and Coldwell Banker Sandpiper, as well as General Mortgage, Summit Escrow, AGIS Insurance, New Century Title and others. The "nine keys" represent the nine steps present in the purchase of a home and include brokerage, mortgage, title, escrow/closing, insurance, remodeling, utility, inspections and moving.

Coldwell Banker Associates in San Diego will be the first group to roll out "MyHomeKeys," a feature that will enable homebuyers to directly view, at any time during the transaction, the status of the complex, multiple-vendor process of buying and selling a home.

But not all the new transaction management companies are going direct to the broker.

Realty Plus Online, Inc. offers its transaction management solution through CloseYourDeal.com, a secured Web site which automates the entire real estate transaction over the Internet. It has just completed its first sale to hometown real estate association, the Sacramento Association of REALTORS®, serving 3,100 agents. The CloseYourDeal.com service is being offered to the Realtors through the MLS service provider, MetroList® Services, Inc., which plans to offer the paperless transaction method to its remaining 4,200 agents in other associations.

In May, the first online real estate transaction closed using CloseYourDeal.com, making Realty Plus Online the only company with a commercially available online solution that automates each of the 12 steps in the real estate deal closing process, says the company.

Using only an Internet connection and a browser, the real estate agents, the escrow officer, title representative, lender, appraiser and others, can easily collaborate in a secure Web environment to manage an entire residential transaction from open to close. Each party is able to send email messages, set key dates and milestones, post documents, and track the status of the deal to make sure it closes on time.

It will be interesting to see if the brokers and agents who take advantage of the CloseYourDeal.com transaction engine are Coldwell Banker affiliates.

Published: August 8, 2000

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Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.