On the show today we have an… Digital and Secure Funds Transfer for Real Estate with Earnnest!
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– Earnnest’s website
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Show notes for Digital and Secure Funds Transfer for Real Estate with Earnnest!
The Vantastic Life is…
– is in Chelan WA!
Today we are super excited to have Durell Grisebaum of Earnnest on the show!
Julie
We are going to be talking with Durell about Earnnest and their payment service.
Today we are all working toward digital platforms, and excited to learn more.
Earnnest allows for a fulling digital transfer of funds that is protected with banking level encryptions. And don’t collect any bank info.
How long has Earnnest been around and how’s it going?
Durell
We’ve been around since 2017, and have ramped up business like crazy. The business has been booming as people realize they don’t want to shake hands.
Julie
What the history of Earnnest?
Durell
The founders are Daniel and George. They closed on a house as a realtor and a client, and they liked the relationship but nothing else. So they started talking about how to make it better.
And I’ve been with Earnnest for about 2 years.
Julie
Are you all in South Carolina?
Durell
Most of us are in SC. But a few other remote workers.
Julie
What is the company and how are you gaining traction?>
Durell
You have a requester. Someone that sends a request to a buyer.
There’s no way of sending money to the wrong place like a wire with the wrong number. You know exactly who you’re sending money to.
You can do this anywhere that you have an internet connection.
Julie
Who initiates that relationship request?
Durell
You as the buyers agent would send out the request, and it would label it as coming from Julie (buyers agent). Or it could come from a title or escrow company.
There’s a lot of people that are seeing verified people that that know. So it’s very transparent.
Anyone that needs to be involved can be involved. Like a lender.
Julie
Tell us about security?
Durell
The 2 common methods are check or wire. Check have all your personal info on them. Then you have to photo copy everything, and people can fish those things out.
For wires you have no context provided. You are going on instructions and hoping things work out. If you look at fraud, wires are very high on the list.
Ours is a closed network. You have to have indentations. You should know the known final location.
We also don’t have any of the info, we take everything as a token. We only get essentially what’s on your Facebook page.
Julie
Are you in all 50 states?
Durell
All but Hawaii and California. And should get Hawaii soon.
Julie
Are more areas that are using it over others?
Durell
Colorado and Utah. Then Arizona have picked up recently. We have a lot on the East Coast via proximation density.
Julie
How about timing?
Durell
You typically have 2-3 days. With a check you get the check and get a recipe. When someone hits the pay button on Earnnest you get a receipt.
Julie
You aren’t an Earnest company, right?
Durell
Correct.
Julie
When does the escrow company see it or is there anything that needs to be disclosed?
Durell
We’ve seen guys that have created full templates for us.
Julie
Are you saying that the MLS is adding you to their docs?
Durell
Not MLS’s, but Real estate companies have added us.
As far as it works… we have been found compliment because it works the same way as a check does. We send the receipt out to escrow, buyer, and buyers agent.
Julie
Cool! Are you working with brokerage firms?
Durell
Sure, yeah, Loan Wolf. Zip Forms. Lots of Keller Williams, and Remaxes, and tons of other brokerages have been using us.
Julie
What’s the cost?
Durell
We charge a $15 transfer fee that’s on the buyer. So no fees to setup at all. And you can do it in a couple mins.
That’s compared to wires that are much more expensive. And we are way more convenient than checks.
Julie
Are there transfer limits.
Durell
Right now it’s $25k and we are working to get that to $100k in the next few weeks.
We’ve seen some people putting down big numbers for the down.
Julie
What about all cash buyers… that need to transfer funds into escrow… where are you guys headed?
It’s like Venmo…
Durell
Venmo but real estate compliant. We are trying to make it way more open. Like commission payments for agents, or to buy cat and dog food if they wanted to. There’s not mechanical restrictions.
Julie
What about rentals?
Durell
Yes, for security deposits. Not for monthly rents though.
We would be open to changing things for people that are doing more transactions.
Julie
It seems natural that things would be going this way. The whole online direct home buying is a trend of the futures. Like OpenDoor and Zillow to take it beyond the buy/sell. You don’t have to leave to engage other parties.
This seems to be where the future of real estate is headed. If you’ve already heard of Earnnest drop us a note.
We do appreciate you coming on.
Where do you think it goes from here for you guys? And I know you’re going to stretch your arms beyond real estate…
Durell
We are looking at real estate in the near future, and to perfect what we’re doing right now. As we grow we are going to be making the real estate transaction much easier. As long as everyone is built into Earnnest you have an immediate community around things.
Later on we will look to move on, but right now we are looking at real estate.
Julie
I’m wondering if international will happen. I’m with Exp Real Estate right now. And now my mind is racing with possibilities.
Durell
We are seeing Xpats with a local phone number using it.
I love the international scene, and would like to see more movement in that direction.
Julie
I’d love to connect with you guys on that because I’m also interested in international real estate.
Does my brokerage firm need to confirm with this?
Durell
You can signup as an agent in a couple of seconds. Just go to Earnnest.com and click on enroll.
Julie
I use End Point Closing for digital title and escrow, which has been winning some awards locally.
I can be the ginny pig here, and test it out.
Durell
A couple things that are coming down the pipeline are… a native app that will be an all in one experience. That will be showing up in June.
There’s no pullbacks. Normally you can pullback money from someone. But with us they surrender the rights to do that. It’s a nice benefit.
Millennials don’t have many checks these days.
Julie
Thank you, awesome, this is good stuff today!
Durell
We are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram 🙂
Joe
Please give us a review if you liked this podcast.
Julie
Actually every Thursday at 11:30am PST we have an online meetup for everyone in real estate. Just checkout https://meetup.com/seattleinvestorsclub.
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