When you start your career as a real estate agent, your future depends on earning your clients’ trust. If you win their trust, you’re squarely on the path to success. Without that trust, a career simply won’t be possible.
Your clients will be handing over large sums of money during closing, and you’re partially responsible for making sure all those transactions are safely conducted. Everyone is relying on you as you put your newly-attained knowledge to work. Here are some key pointers that will ensure your clients’ trust in you is well-founded.
Real Estate Closing Transactions Are Vulnerable to Cybercrime
Purchasing a home is often the largest transaction in clients’ entire lives. If they’re first-time home buyers, this can be especially intimidating, partly because these large transactions provide a rich hunting ground for cybercriminals.
The fact that the payments are being passed among so many parties (one or more buyers, the sellers, the title company, the escrow company, and your office) leaves your clients vulnerable to various forms of fraud. In one 2021 survey, title insurance professionals reported that fraud was attempted in one-third of all real estate and mortgage transactions.
Wiring Money Between Banks Carries Risk
When funds are wired between bank accounts, cybercriminals can insert themselves in the middle of a transaction. Hackers accessing vital email chains can offer the title company or other recipient a legitimate-looking “correction” to where the money should be wired.
In 2020, the number of internet scams and losses reported to the FBI increased by seventy percent, totaling over $4.2 billion dollars. It’s important to note that business email compromise is the primary channel by which fraud is attempted.
Paper Checks Don’t Offer Safety
Traditional real estate closings often include the sending of paper checks between parties to the transaction. Unfortunately, the tangibility of physical paper doesn’t make it a safe payment medium. Physical checks can be stolen, signatures can be imitated, and account numbers and personal information can be copied. In 2020, checks accounted for 66 percent of fraud activity.
Electronic Money Transfers Are the Gold Standard for Secure Payments
The proprietary solution offered by paymints.io eliminates the need for traditional wire transfers or writing checks that expose account and routing numbers. Our platform uses AES-256, the strongest encryption standard available, to protect your clients’ sensitive information. No personal material is visible, stored, or shared. A single sign-on with one set of credentials offers additional assurance of safety. Furthermore, paymints.io integrates with every financial institution in the United States.
Electronic Money Transfers Are Permitted in All States
Even if you’re located in a state that doesn’t currently allow remote online notarization (RON), it is still possible for your clients to make payments via electronic money transfer. In the wake of COVID, many states took legal steps to allow more remote document signing, and the resulting patchwork of laws is still in flux.
However, while rules about signatures vary from place to place, all states allow the electronic transfer of funds. If your client is required to sit at a table and provide a “wet” signature on a document, they can still benefit from the greater protection and transparency offered by digital payments.
Today’s Clients Prefer Electronic Money Transfers
Clients’ trust in their real estate agent depends on safety and security, of course, but that’s not the only criterion by which you’re judged. Millennials represent the fastest growing sector of home buyers, and they prefer to conduct their financial business online.
Half of all home buyers in today’s market are under the age of 36, and half of sellers are under 41. Ninety-nine percent of these millennial buyers use the internet to look not just for homes, but also for mortgages and other real estate services. They’re more comfortable searching online for financing than in a bank and talking with a lender in person.
These people are not accustomed to writing paper checks, nor do they frequently wire money, if ever. Instead, they seek the clarity and security offered by electronically transferring funds. Digital payment platforms are their comfort zone; they use their phones every day to conduct business.
Over 50 Percent of First-time Home Buyers Get Help From Family and Friends
You’ve seen it happen: Buyers find a house they love, and by the time they put in an offer, the property has already sold to a cash buyer for tens of thousands of dollars above the asking price. In a market like this, it’s no surprise that 50% of first-time buyers get financial help from people close to them.
This generosity adds a new level of complexity to real estate closings, especially if the transaction has to move faster than family members expect. When payments are sent from multiple locations, using an electronic money transfer program like paymints.io is vital to give your clients the best chance in the home-buying competition.
Remote Closings Are Becoming the Industry Standard
In the old days (and even the fairly recent past), a real estate closing took place when buyer and seller physically visited the bank and the escrow company. In the wake of the pandemic, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) encourages remote transactions and even convened a recent “e-closing round table” to address best practices in this endeavor. NAR states that “Participants [in this round table] are committed to … promoting the use of safe and effective technology to execute e-closings.” Electronic money transfers are part of e-closings, and they’re here to stay.
Paymints.io Puts You at the Leading Edge in Real Estate
The real estate world has been slow to adapt to new methods of conducting business, while technology keeps accelerating. As a new agent, you’re just beginning to build your client list. You can’t point to decades of experience in the real estate market.
So, what do you have to offer in place of experience? Your fluency with cutting-edge best practices! You know all about electronic money transfers and countless other remote transactions. Your clients will feel confident as you guide them through remote real estate closings that are fully secure and optimally convenient. With paymints.io, you can turn your newness in the field into a benefit rather than a liability. To learn more about paymints.io, schedule your demo now.