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Brokerage Engine wants to pick up the pace at which agents and other deal parties get safely paid and has selected growing fintech, Payload, to make it happen.
Brokerage Engine will leverage Payload’s flexible set of APIs (application programming interfaces) to automate a range of crucial financial functions, such as agent billing, earnest money deposits, agent commission payouts and internal customer SaaS (software-as-a-service) billing, according to an announcement exclusively sent to Inman.
As countless real estate operations do, customers of Brokerage Engine used typical funds management tactics to pay out transactions, which are not secure in the context of today’s technically sophisticated fraud market. This includes bank-direct ACH, separate card processing, manual checks and wires, as well as cash, according to Payload.
“Behind every successful tech venture is a robust API that empowers its users to achieve greatness, and an awesome support team that stands ready to guide them every step of the way,” said Brian Zhang, chief technology officer at Brokerage Engine, in a statement.
Payload secured seed funding of $1.5 million in April of 2022, a year in which its software successfully moved close to a billion dollars for real estate clients.
It announced a partnership with popular transaction technology company Skyslope in early 2022, enabling fund transfers to be executed directly from the interface upon a deal’s close. It also works with Dotloop, Reeazily and DocuSign Rooms, and integrates with MRED to absorb MLS (multiple listing service) data directly into transaction records and is the digital payment resource for Baird & Warner, The Keyes Company and Berkshire Hathaway’s Long & Foster.
Brokerage Engine earned a high rating from Inman in 2022, recognized for its broker-inspired user experience, workflow customization and top-down deployment, meaning the company aims to work with office leadership to determine priorities and examine best practices before proposing how to best create a solution.
The software has off-the-shelf features but primarily designs functions around clients’ existing systems. Features can be tweaked and scaled according to agent count, lead generation tactics, reporting needs, task structure and accounting systems.
Brianne Alston, chief financial officer of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, uses Payload in the company’s day-to-day paying and billing. The software makes complicated money management faster and more secure, she said in the announcement.
“Managing a decentralized payment landscape for more than 500 agents was time-consuming for our agents and administrative team,“ Alston said. ”The convenience of Payload is very evident as it enables us to make charges remotely and electronic records for all transactions are easily accessible.“
