The Arizona Association of Realtors® and Stewart Transaction Solutions have partnered to deploy SureClose, the nation’s most widely used transaction management system, to more than 5,000 real estate brokerages across the state.
The Association and Stewart will jointly dedicate resources to train, service and support the deployment.
“As the seventh-largest state association of Realtors® in the United States, we strive to provide the best possible service to our members,” said John Gall, the 2008 president of the Arizona Association of Realtors®. “We believe that the deployment of transaction management across the state will raise the level of professionalism, create a better work environment for our brokers and real estate professionals, as well as enhance the service we offer our home buyers and sellers.”
“We are very pleased and honored to announce this landmark partnership with the Arizona Association of Realtors®,” said Travis Wright, president of Stewart Transaction Solutions. “Arizona Association of Realtors® and Stewart have agreed to fund, manage and staff this initiative to ensure maximum adoption by real estate brokerages of all sizes in Arizona.
“This project creates the ability for all Arizona brokerages to jointly conduct real estate purchases and sales in an online paperless community through SureClose,” Wright continued. “With the integration of our TrueForms® online contracts with electronic signatures, SureClose will prove to be the collaboration platform that propels the real estate transaction into the digital age.”
“Arizona Association of Realtors® has been evaluating transaction management for over three years,” said Craig Sanford, 2006 president of the Arizona Association of Realtors®. “Eighteen months ago we formed a technology task force of association brokers led by an industry consultant to evaluate the leading transaction management platforms. Our selection of the SureClose system, together with the training and implementation resources of the Stewart team, gives us the confidence that we have the right mix of technology, marketing and people to be successful in our statewide initiative.”
“After a year of thorough evaluation and negotiations with the Arizona Association of Realtors®, we became convinced that the association is truly committed to forming a partnership as opposed to a vendor relationship,” said Carl Espy, vice president of Stewart Transaction Solutions. “We believe this partnership is vital to ensure the success of a statewide deployment.”
“As an early adopter of the transaction management technology in December 2005, Dan Schwartz Realty saw many other broker attempts fail,” said Duane Fouts, president of Dan Schwartz Realty of Phoenix and member of the Arizona Association of Realtors® transaction management task force. “We selected Stewart in our endeavor because they demonstrated a true partnership in our deployment and adoption of the technology. Today we are proud to share our SureClose success with the Stewart team, and we look forward to expanding our successful model throughout the state of Arizona.”
The Arizona statewide deployment is set to begin in early 2008.
About SureClose
SureClose gives real estate brokerages and individual real estate professionals the ability to manage and share digital documents online during the home purchase or home sale process. In addition, real estate brokers and professionals can easily index and archive closed transactions online for future reference by the home buyers and sellers. More information can be found at http://www.sureclose.com.
About PropertyInfo Corp. and Stewart
Stewart Transaction Solutions is a division of PropertyInfo Corp., a Stewart company. PropertyInfo Corp. delivers state-of-the-art real estate information solutions to the real estate, closing and mortgage industries. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp. (NYSE:STC), a customer-driven, technology-enabled, strategically competitive, real estate information, title insurance and transaction management company. Stewart provides title insurance and related information services required for settlement by the real estate and mortgage industries through more than 9,500 policy-issuing offices and agencies in the United States and international markets. Stewart also provides post-closing lender services, automated county clerk land records, property ownership mapping, geographic information systems, property information reports, flood certificates, document preparation, background checks and expertise in tax-deferred exchanges. More information can be found at http://www.stewart.com.
About Arizona Association of Realtors®
The Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR), the largest professional trade association in Arizona, is comprised of individuals involved in the real estate industry, allied industries and firms. The association's more than 54,000 members represent more than half of the real estate licensees in Arizona. For information about the Arizona Association of REALTORS®, visit the organization's Web site at http://www.AARonline.com.