Collaborative to build Realtor B2B platform

The system is designed to help streamline the process of closing sales on property

Some of the largest organizations in the real estate industry, comprising Realtors and financial and technology companies, have joined forces to build the Realtors Electronic Transaction Platform, an online system designed to facilitate and streamline closing the purchase or sale of a home.

The announcement of the new venture was made May 19 at the mid-year NAR conference in Washington, D.C., by Stuart Wolff, chairman and chief executive officer of Homestore.com Inc., and Dennis Cronk, president of the National Association of Realtors.

The Realtors Electronic Transaction Platform is designed to provide transaction participants with a business-to-business venue for ordering services, coordinating the closing process, and exchanging data and documents, according to a release from the National Association of Realtors.

The real estate market now represents 15 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, its single largest market sector, while the transactional elements of the real estate deal generate $90 billion in fees on an annual basis.

The new platform will be designed to more effectively process services such as property inspections, appraisals, mortgage, title and escrow, and to provide consumers and Realtors with the real-time status of their transactions. It will also provide integrated software to help real estate professionals streamline the contract-to-close activities.

Joining Homestore.com and NAR as the initial equity investors in the venture are GMAC Real Estate formerly Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Service and GMAC Mortgage, the sixth largest mortgage servicer with nearly 1.8 million customers; Fannie Mae, the largest non-bank financial services company in the world and America's largest source of home mortgage financing; VeriSign Inc., a provider of online authentication, digital signature, payment processing, and digital records and receipts services for e-commerce; and WyldFire Technologies based in Silicon Valley, Calif., and recently acquired by Homestore.com the leading developer of Multiple Listing Service data and property photos.

In addition to developing a suite of products to help automate real estate transactions, WyldFire is developing Realty Link, which is designed to offer real estate professionals with a unified view into the property closing process.

It will also provide detailed calendars to allow buyers and sellers to track sales through the close of escrow, as well as secure Web-based tools that allow customers real-time information as their transactions are completed.

Endorsing organizations that support development of the platform with plans to play a larger role in the future are The Prudential Real Estate Network, the Re/Max franchise network and RE FormsNet, which offers a library of more than 9,000 pages of electronic contracts and forms, enabling Realtors to create and electronically transmit contract and disclosure information during the closing process.

The three organizations signing on as charter investors and the three entities committing their support as endorsers expect to commit capital, expertise and other assets valued at approximately $150 million to $200 million to the development of the Realtors Electronic Transaction Platform over the next 12 months.

The charter organizations will collectively contribute capital, software, transaction processing infrastructure and expertise covering a breadth of functions.

The fundamental elements of this transaction platform are already in place, with development efforts under way to bring the remaining parts of the real estate deal online, as well as integrate and extend platform capabilities, the NAR stated.

The National Association of Realtors is America's largest trade association representing 750,000 members.