EMTransfer Enables Real-Time Payments for Real Estate Transactions

EMTransfer now enables real-time payments for real estate transactions over the RTP network.

Delivered over The Clearing House’s RTP network through KeyBank’s application programming interfaces (APIs), this new offering streamlines the real estate payment process, EMTransfer said in a Tuesday (May 9) press release.

“By aligning our platforms to work together, EMTransfer is providing an industry-specific banking solution to settlement companies that will allow them to work both more efficiently and securely,” EMTransfer founder and CEO Bob Beams said in the release.

PYMNTS research has found that the real estate industry relies on legacy payment methods like checks for its B2B transactions, but that is beginning to change.

While just 1% of real estate firms currently use real-time payments, 90% plan to adopt real-time payment solutions to receive payments and 77% plan to adopt these solutions for making payments in the next year, according to “Corporate Changes in B2B Payment Practices: The Future of Real-Time Payments in Real Estate,” a PYMNTS and The Clearing House collaboration.

The report also found that real estate firms realize that adopting modern payment solutions can help maintain and strengthen their relationships with vendors and suppliers.

With the new solution from EMTransfer, members of the real estate industry can use Request for Payment (RfP) to request a payment and Document Exchange to access real estate contracts and other documents in the same transaction flow with the payment or payment request, according to the press release.

The RTP network also provides enhanced account security by using tokenization to protect sensitive account numbers and allows payments of up to $1 million to accommodate real estate closings and other high-value payments, the release said.

“The RTP network’s $1 million transaction limit along with its newer features provides a way for real estate payments to happen in a more secure and streamlined process,” Rusiru Gunasena, senior vice president of RTP product management and strategy at The Clearing House, said in the release. “With RfP, Document Exchange and tokenization, the parties involved in the real estate closing process can do more with real-time payments by requesting closing payments, sending contracts or invoices, all on a network that provides enhanced security through account tokenization.”