Realtors make a Settlement.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors has signed a contract with SettlementRoom Systems, Inc., setting the stage for statewide deployment of SettlementRoom's transaction management software to its 21,000 members. The MAR version of SettlementRoom's platform is named "Transaction Live."

Transaction management software is now widely implemented by busy agents and brokers trying to cope with increased legal and compliance issues, heavier workloads and steady increases in mobile and home-office based agents. SettlementRoom will provide MAR members with a branded, well-organized online interface, with capabilities including action plans, email reminders, document management, task tracking, scheduling, showing feedback, reporting and transaction archiving.

SettlementRoom excels at managing numerous simultaneous transactions from the time of listing until after closing, and is easily implemented. For the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, the move to standardize on a single transaction management platform was compelling. According to Maggie Tomkiewicz, president of MAR, "The benefits of transaction management are clear and being embraced by successful agents across the country.

"These platforms not only help to increase agent efficiency and productivity, but with Transaction Live our members will benefit significantly by using the same software, thereby allowing them to communicate and interact over the web seamlessly, creating one big network for the state."

"The transaction management platform offered by SettlementRoom meets our criteria for simplicity of use, security and overall features," observed Peter Casey, chairman of the MAR Business Development Committee and a MAR past president. "In selecting a vendor, we wanted a company with good stability and industry experience which could provide top-notch support and training, and which had a product tested and certified as secure by the National Association of Realtors. We found that with SettlementRoom."

Notably, for Massachusetts Realtors, the fact that SettlementRoom is broker-centric was a distinct advantage, differentiating it from the many transaction management platforms owned by title companies.

As part of MAR's evaluation process, several association members tested the Transaction Live platform with their own transactions.

"SettlementRoom's solution was certainly the easiest to use," noted Corinne Fitzgerald, MAR's vice president of business development. "They were willing to integrate with our existing systems, had acquired MAR's security certification, offered free setup and training and their price per property was the lowest of the national providers."