Digital notary startup Notarize announced Monday it will now allow more people to participate in a real estate closing via video conference, and that it has seen a major uptick in business since launching a “hybrid” closing product last month.
The company’s new conferencing option is an expansion of the Notarize Connect product and will let anyone participate in a closing meeting as long as they have an invite from a lender or title agent. That means loan officers, real estate agents and others can join the meeting via a video and audio stream, which also includes a space to visually share documents.
Perhaps even more significantly, even if people with invites don’t opt to jump into the conference itself, they’ll still get alerts when each step of the process is completed. So for example, an agent who isn’t in the meeting will nevertheless see when others have joined and when the closing documents are signed.
An example of Notarize’s new multi-person video closing service. Credit: Notarize
Notarize marketing director Ryan MacInnis told Inman in an email that the move to beef up the company’s video closing abilities came after receiving feedback that “everyone needs better visibility — from tracking status in real time and sharing it with your partners to joining closings just-in-time to address consumer questions.”
“This transforms the experience for buyers and sellers, combining the convenience they expect with the power of connecting with their team online,” MacInnis added. “It streamlines operations for lenders and title agents who are responsible for getting the deal done and keeping everyone informed. And it allows their partners to join closings and provide exceptional service, even as they’re out in the field earning new business.”
Boston-based Notarize was founded in 2015 and has made a name for itself by offering remote notary services. Those services can be used by people in any industry that requires notarized documents — law, for example, or finance — but have been especially helpful for document-reliant parts of the real estate industry.
The firm has had a string of major announcements this year, including hitting a milestone $1 billion in online closings and the launch of “hybrid” closings that let people sign documents over the internet while still wrapping up a transaction at their lender’s office.
Ryan MacInnis
According to MacInnis, in the month and a half since the debut of hybrid closings — which was part of a relaunch for the company’s Intelligent Closing Automation Platform — Notarize has “seen incredible adoption across the real estate industry.”
“Closing volume is up more than 200 percent on our platform in just the past 45 days and growth is accelerating,” he said.
Additionally, MacInnis said that since June 5, Notarize Connect has brought more than 10,000 new contacts to the company. Those contacts include real estate agents, loan officers, mortgage brokers and others, all of whom “receive real-time status into the closing and the ability to click to join a rich, live view of the closing as it unfolds online.”
MacInnis described these new contacts as a “massive real estate flywheel” that builds as lenders and title companies invite people to Notarize’s platform. In turn, those people have then been opting to use Notarize for their own subsequent transactions, MacInnis said.
And if the past is any indication, this surge of new business and contacts should lead to bigger and better things for Notarize.
“It’s a service our lenders and title agents can leverage to transform the closing, keeping Realtors better informed even if they’re out in the field,” MacInnis said. “We’re continuing to gather feedback from our partners on how we can make the closing experience even better.”
