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SnapNHD provides comprehensive Natural Hazard Disclosures reports via the web or text message.
Platforms: Web; text message via Android, iOS
Ideal for: All California agents
Top selling points
- Ease of use
- Elegant user interface
- Text-bot order via “Snappy”
- Digital signatures
Top concerns
- Less tech-savvy agents may prefer current resources for obtaining NHDs.
What you should know
This is one of those cases where a software company identified an antiquated solution to a problem and built a product to modernize it. SnapNHD is the fast, web-driven solution to a bureaucratic but necessary process for real estate agents in California.
For those outside the Golden State, SnapNHD nicely summarizes the issue:
“The Natural Hazards Disclosure Act under Sec. 1103 of the California Civil Code states that real estate seller and brokers are legally required to disclose if the property being sold lies within one or more state or locally mapped hazard areas. The law specifies that the six (6) required hazards be disclosed on a statutory form called the Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement (NHDS).”
Using either snapnhd.com or the text bot, Snappy, real estate agents can order their report using a property’s address or the APN (Accessor Parcel Number).
The software confirms the address and owner information before continuing, then inquires about purchasing a basic or full report with additional environmental disclosures.
However, SnapNHD is very careful to only include those disclosures that are required by law, as providing additional types of hazard information opens the door to potential liability issues.
Step three involves the input of escrow information for invoicing. The software saves each company used per transaction.
It then progresses into sending the document for digital signatures through HelloSign‘s API. The steps are finalized after an order review document is distributed to stakeholders.
Visuals and usability
The process is fast, attractive and clear at every step.
Transaction stakeholders receive a bold, colorful report that uses an array of emphatic visuals to communicate the most critical terms. It’s almost impossible to not understand the results.
Snappy is the company’s text bot that handles ordering via your mobile phone. The process is quite similar.
After only a couple of questions and confirmations, users get texted a link to the report. It can then be sent to anyone else needing to see it.
Snappy will save your name and account information so your order will go a bit faster the next time.
The company will soon finalize an integration with dotloop and Moxi Works that will generate an NHD report once a listing is marked as pending.
Agents with a philanthropic bent should know that SnapNHD contributes a dollar from every report purchased by a Pacific Sotheby’s Realty agent to a housing project in Tijuana being facilitated by World Housing.
I like this product, and agents in California should use it. The reports look great, the process is intuitive, and it beats filtering through a clinical, colorless document to uncover a potentially deal-killing piece of information.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
