A Chicago-based regional multiple listing service that serves nearly 40,000 real estate professionals has reached an agreement with Instanet Solutions to help its subscribers move a step closer to paperless by providing them with InstanetFax service as a member benefit.
InstanetFax, an Internet fax service, will be integrated directly into the Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED) MLS system and transaction management applications.
MRED subscribers will have the ability to upload paper documents into the MLS, and e-mail or view documents and transmit electronic files via fax or e-mail in one step. MRED subscribers will also have smart-phone access to faxes and unlimited toll-free inbound and outbound faxing capabilities.
MRED’s MLS provider, dynaConnections, collaborated with MRED’s technical team and Instanet to fully integrate InstanetFax capabilities into the MLS, MRED CEO Russ Bergeron said in a press release.
Instanet now claims 350,000 licensed users of its real estate applications, which also include InstanetForms, TransactionDesk, DocBox and Authentisign.
This year alone, Instanet has announced agreements to provide services to five other MLSs, four of which are in Florida, which represent a total of about 57,000 subscribers.
So far this year, Instanet has signed agreements to provide services to the Pinellas Realtor Organization’s Pro Biz Inc., serving 5,400 members; the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale, with nearly 9,000 members; Regional MLS Inc., a Palm Beach Gardens-based alliance of three Realtor association with more than 11,000 subscribers; My Florida Regional MLS, an Orlando-based Realtor owned MLS with more than 27,000 members; and the San Francisco Association of Realtors, which serves 4,500 subscribers.
The National Association of Realtors has purchased a minority stake in another major player in the paperless space, DocuSign Inc., and is offering a "Realtor Edition" branded electronic-signature service to NAR members.
DocuSign claims 30,000 accounts with real estate associations, brokerages and other firms, each with one to 1,000 or more users, and the company says it’s adding about 3,000 new real estate customers a month (see story).
The latest version of DocuSign’s electronic signature platform includes "designed for mobile" functionality for the Apple iPhone and iPad, and "Collaborate to Close" markup capabilities that allowing users to make changes to documents in the digital realm.
