Lone Wolf Teams With Earnnest to Provide a Fully Electronic Earnest Money Deposit Process
In September, Cambridge, Ontario-based Lone Wolf Technologies (“Lone Wolf”)—with additional offices in Dallas, Texas; London, Ontario; and Fraser, Mich.—entered a strategic partnership with Earnnest, a software platform that allows buyers to electronically transfer funds directly to an escrow holder’s account, with the goal of simplifying the transaction experience for Lone Wolf’s 1 million-plus agent customer base, who manage their real estate transactions in Lone Wolf software.
“Earnnest has a great product, built atop a scalable and proven architecture,” says Jason Cheverton, director of Ecosystem at Lone Wolf. “From our first discussion, it was clear that they were poised to disrupt the market and that they were just as focused on the customer experience as we were. Together, we have an opportunity to truly improve the transaction process.”
Lone Wolf serves more than 1.3 million real estate professionals across Canada and the U.S., offering an ecosystem of technology products designed to simplify the entire transaction process, including software for back-office and transaction management. Earnnest in 2019 alone has securely moved millions in funds for homebuyers throughout America, and is connected to more than 12,000 financial institutions. Cheverton explains that with this Earnnest strategic partnership, each element of the Lone Wolf ecosystem now enables brokerages, agents, MLSs and associations to operate more efficiently, reduce costs and increase opportunities for profitability.
Cheverton is responsible for curating high-value and innovative partnerships that improve the transaction experience for Lone Wolf’s customers, and found this to be an opportunity the company couldn’t pass up. The partnership came about after Lone Wolf looked at ways to make things better and easier for their customers.
“In discussing process challenges with our customers, Lone Wolf identified the hassle of making earnest money deposits as the largest pain point to agents and their customers,” says Cheverton. “The ability to seamlessly connect buyers with escrow holders from within Lone Wolf transaction management software is a huge value-add for our customers and their clients.”
Now, Earnnest’s product enables Lone Wolf’s customers to securely connect, via Lone Wolf solutions, buyers and escrow holders. The way the platform works couldn’t be easier. Lone Wolf’s agents simply select the escrow recipient and then initiate an invite to their client directly from Lone Wolf software. The buyer can then log into their preferred bank and complete the transaction. The entire process takes only a few minutes.
“We’re elated to add this amazing platform to our curated technology ecosystem,” says Cheverton. “This ecosystem now includes integrated solutions and services for front office, websites, CRM, moving, home inspections and secure online earnest payments.”
With the Earnnest partnership, Lone Wolf agents no longer have to hand-deliver a paper check, and because the system has a proprietary way of using ACH transfers, the threat of wire fraud is mitigated.
“The ease of use was one of the major contributing factors in selecting Earnnest as our first EMD partner,” explains Cheverton. “It takes a few minutes and a couple steps to onboard escrow holders. Once connected, escrow holders will be available to all of Lone Wolf’s customers as an escrow recipient.”
The partnership brings the entire transactional process online in one connected system—from the moment the first form is created to the day money goes to escrow and beyond.
For more information, please visit www.earnnest.com.
Keith Loria is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
