Digital notary startup Notarize announced Wednesday that it struck up a partnership with dotloop, a Zillow-owned company that provides a popular transaction management platform for real estate professionals.
The new partnership means that agents will be able to request notarization of their documents with the click of a single button inside dotloop’s platform, Notarize founder and CEO Pat Kinsel explained. Kinsel announced the partnership during his company’s Rewired conference, which took place online thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
In practice, Notarize believes the partnership should help close a kind of digital gap that has persisted in many real estate transactions despite a long-rising tide of digitization. That gap typically happens at the final stage of a closing, when a transaction “has to go offline to be notarized,” according to a statement from Notarize.
Kinsel on Wednesday ultimately called the partnership a game changer for real estate agents who want to “provide a seamless digital experience to their clients.”
“From commercial lease agreements, to parental guarantor forms and survey affidavits, it’s now only a click for a Realtor on dotloop to request a notarization,” Kinsel added. “Going even further, real estate agents will soon be able to track the status of Notarize closings directly from within dotloop.”
Once a user clicks the Notarize button, they’ll be directed to a brief video call with a notary. All said, it should take between 10 and 15 minutes to get a document notarized.
In a statement, dotloop said that “by partnering with Notarize, we’re able to offer a seamless experience to get documents notarized remotely, from anywhere, without having to meet in-person.”
Pat Kinsel at Notarize’s virtual Rewired Conference Wednesday. Credit: Notarize
Dotloop was founded in 2008. Its technology was the first of its kind to be formally reviewed by Inman, and Zillow bought the firm in 2015. Over the years, dotloop grew to become one of the more popular transaction management platforms in the industry and by 2018 the company said its software had at least some involvement in half of all U.S. real estate transactions.
Dotloop has in recent years focused on becoming mobile-friendly and has added features such as dotloop Messenger, which lets anyone be invited to a deal via text message.
Given dotloop’s popularity, and its goal of making transactions easier, the partnership with Notarize makes sense right now; Notarize has pioneered the process of moving the once-analog notary experience online, and has seen soaring demand for its services during the social distancing practices of the pandemic.
Notarize announced its new partnership with dotloop the same day that it unveiled a new mobile tool specifically for agents to track transactions. Notarize also revealed Wednesday that it is opening its platform to an array of outside notaries.
Kinsel expressed excitement about all of these announcements during his comments at Wednesday’s conference, adding that the dotloop partnership in particular is an “integration that’s going to help agents be more efficient.”
