CAR vs. dotloop: Sparks fly in debate over forms software [VIDEO]

SAN FRANCISCO — Joel Singer, CEO of the California Association of Realtors (CAR), the U.S.’s largest Realtor association, and Austin Allison, CEO of up-and-coming transaction management platform dotloop, faced off at a special session of Real Estate Connect.

The head-to-head represented a climax to a weekslong public discussion about whether CAR should license its valuable real estate forms so that CAR members, and others using the forms legally, can fill them out by software other than zipForm, a product offered by CAR subsidiary zipLogix.

Joel Singer, CEO of the California Association of Realtors, and Austin Allison, CEO of dotloop, talk about forms software on a panel at Real Estate Connect. (19:50)

“As a business, should I have the freedom and ability to choose how I run it?” Allison asked Singer just before placing a cassette tape in a boom box to illustrate an analogy that emphasized his point.

Singer, with copies of dotloop’s terms of use and privacy statements in hand, said that the question about broker and agent choice is moot because “forms and technology are totally integrated” and zipLogix has add-ons that help agents fill out forms correctly. CAR, as well, he said, has chosen not to work with dotloop because its terms of use and privacy statements are too permissive.

After the 15-minute heated debate on stage, Singer and Allison had a 10-minute cordial, private talk backstage. Allison asked Singer if there was anything dotloop could do to gain access to CAR’s forms, they both told Inman News in separate interviews after their session.

Singer, Allison told Inman News, told him that dotloop would need to amend its terms of use and privacy statements and to beef up the security around its e-signatures.

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