The Value of Real-Time Payment Traceability & Transparency with Real Estate Transactions

This is a guest post from Jason Doshi, CEO & Co-Founder of paymints.io

There are two threats to the real estate and title insurance industry: cyber criminals who manipulate bank account information for their own financial gain and inefficient manual payment processes.

With paymints.io, minimize the risk of fraud associated with manual payments by eliminating paper checks in real estate transactions by adding automation to your experience. We can do this through our integration with Dwolla’s payment technology to easily access the ACH Network and RTP® Network to offer a safe and efficient way to transfer funds in the real estate and title industry.

Using Dwolla’s flexible payment API, paymints.io is able to act as a digital real estate transaction coordinator for real estate agents and current homeowners who are refinancing or new homebuyers looking to secure their dream home. A real estate transaction coordinator handles many of the duties related to selling a home and our software provides a simple and secure solution for real estate transactions.

With Dwolla, paymints.io has been able to eliminate the need for homebuyers to find their checkbook or initiate a wire transfer for earnest money deposits. Our secure, digital process takes about 60 seconds to initiate a payment and enables the customer to easily track the funds from their bank account to the real estate brokerage or preferred title company’s escrow account in real-time.

A homeowner can use our platform to transfer cash-to-close from their checking account to the title company’s escrow account. No checks to mail, collect, or deposit. Making payments online using ACH transfers or real-time payments, streamlines the homebuying process and provides greater visibility into the status of the transaction.

The paymints.io platform is uniquely different with its bi-directional, pending push button technology which allows title companies and settlement agents to disburse payments to all relevant individuals and companies. At the time of settlement, vendor payments to real estate agents, mortgage brokers, real estate attorneys, inspectors, and municipalities can all be initiated within 90 seconds and securely sent over the ACH Network.

Reducing Real Estate Transaction Fraud

As a real estate transaction coordinator at a real estate brokerage and title company, sending and receiving funds can now be done safely and securely online. No need to print or mail paper checks or share routing or account numbers.

ACH transfers greatly reduce fraud, ensuring proper security checks and authorization are met before an account is deducted. An ACH return can be referred to as “ACH disputes” or “ACH chargebacks” but while those terms might seem like synonyms, they are crucially different.

“Disputes” and “chargebacks” are terms used heavily in the credit card space and imply that there is a third-party arbiter looking at evidence to determine a fair outcome. That does not happen during the ACH return process. With nearly 70 ACH return codes, an ACH transaction is not “disputed” nor is it “charged back” it is simply returned.

As ACH transfers become a more common form of payment for real estate transactions over wire and checks, the speed of the transaction is still a topic of conversation in the real estate and title industry. As a real estate transaction coordinator, we aim to provide traceability and transparency in real estate payments while still moving money quickly.

Real-Time Real Estate Transactions

The shift in demand for traceability and speed is why Real-time Payments (RTP) are becoming so important. With Dwolla’s Real-Time Payment solution, we’re able to create operational efficiencies — as well as a stress-free and streamlined consumer experience.

RTP allows escrow holders to send and receive funds transfers in real-time 24/7/365. This allows a homeowner to accept an offer on the weekend and receive their earnest money on the same day! No more waiting for payments!

Using Dwolla’s platform to initiate a payment to an RTP-enabled bank creates a near instant bank transfer. RTP, has the ease-of-use similar to ACH but comes with the irrevocability of a wire. This aligns the goals of both the businesses and the customer in the real estate transaction. The customer expectation today revolves around solutions that are fast and seamless while businesses expect secure, cost-effective and ubiquitous solutions.

Real-time payments are the most advanced payment method for paymints.io to further its mission of becoming the leading transaction coordinator to replace paper checks and reduce wire fraud among real estate transactions.