Instanet Solutions, a provider of Web-based transaction management systems, says it’s signing long-term agreements with multiple listings services and local Realtor associations in Florida, as its contract to provide services to agents and brokers through the statewide Realtor association will expire at the end of the year.
It’s been nearly five years since Instanet and the Florida Association of Realtors announced an agreement to provide Instanet’s TransactionDesk to all 145,000 of the association’s members as part of their monthly dues. The agreement was a major boost for Instanet, increasing the number of TransactionDesk subscribers from 33,000 to 178,000.
TransactionDesk offers built-in electronic forms, digital signatures, online document management and storage, plus e-mail and Internet faxing.
Florida’s state Realtor association, which now numbers 115,000 members, has since developed its own Web-based forms application tool, Form Simplicity, through a subsidiary, Real Estate Industry Solutions (REIS).
The association, which has changed its name to Florida Realtors, began offering Form Simplicity as a member benefit on April 1.
A spokeswoman for Florida Realtors confirmed that the association’s contract with Instanet Solutions expires on Dec. 31.
The association’s board of directors signed off on the decision to drop TransactionDesk as a member benefit, because Form Simplicity "offers what they felt was a better product for our members," spokeswoman Marla Martin said.
Steve Mapes, vice president of sales for Instanet Solutions, said TransactionDesk is currently used by more than 75 percent of Florida Realtors on a regular basis.
Although Florida Realtors will no longer be offering TransactionDesk as a member benefit in 2011, "agents will be able to continue to purchase Instanet Solutions’ services directly," Mapes said.
In addition, Mapes said Instanet has signed "multi-year agreements" to provide services to members of five Florida MLSs and Realtor associations with a combined membership of about 54,000.
So far this year, Instanet has signed agreements with 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 South Broward Board of Realtors, which serves about 1,600 members from its headquarters in Pembroke Pines.
"Instanet is expecting to make more announcements of this nature in the very near future," Mapes said.
In announcing the agreement with the South Broward association on Aug. 6, Instanet said it had 390,000 licensed, paid, user accounts associated with its real estate focused products, including InstanetForms, TransactionDesk, DocBox, DocBox2Go, InstanetFax, and Authentisign.
