11/16/2016 Trust Stamp, A Safety Tool For Real Estate Agents, Nabs NAR Funding

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AGENT TECHNOLOGY

Trust Stamp, a safety tool for real estate agents, nabs

NAR fundingTrust Stamp lets agents verify identities, get 'trustworthiness' scores of strangersPUBLISHED 6 HOURS AGO

BY TEKE WIGGIN ! STAFF WRITER

Key Takeaways

The startup combines driver’s license analysis and "proof-of-liveness photographic identification techniques" with

social media data and public records, including criminal and sex offender records, to verify a person's identity and

create a "trustworthiness score."

Hacker Connect January 16 in New York An event for and by the real estate tech community

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As several real-life horror stories have shown, Realtors can put themselves in harm’s way if they show homes to strangers.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has taken another step toward addressing the problem by backing a startup,

Trust Stamp, that provides identity verification to agents meeting new clients or strangers.

Industry demand is so high that NAR expects that close to half of all Realtors will be using the service within a year.

What’s Trust Stamp do?

11/16/2016 Trust Stamp, A Safety Tool For Real Estate Agents, Nabs NAR Funding

http://www.inman.com/2016/11/16/trust-stamp-safety-tool-real-estate-agents-nabs-nar-funding/?utm_source=inbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inbrief&u… 2/3

Trust Stamp combines driver’s license analysis and “proof-of-liveness photographic identification techniques” with social

media data and public records, including criminal and sex offender records, to verify a person’s identity and create a

“trustworthiness score.”

Under a partnership between Trust Stamp and NAR, Realtors can use a real estate-specific website or mobile app powered

by Trust Stamp to enter an individual’s email address or cell phone number and invite the person to make a Trust Stamp.

It takes a few minutes for individuals to create a basic profile with a photo of their driver’s license, selfie and links to one or

more social accounts.

Agents receive a notification when a Trust Stamp is completed with an individual’s verified name, photo and

“trustworthiness score.”

Realtors can create their own Trust Stamp profiles for free, but they have to pay to view Trust Stamps from prospective

clients.

NAR announced today that it made a “strategic investment” in Trust Stamp through its venture arm, Second Century

Ventures.

“As a result of the investment Trust Stamp created a unique process (and applications) for Realtors and was able to make

that process free,” said NAR spokeswoman Sara Wiskerchen. “Without the investment, the process would have been a

paid service.”

Trust Stamp has also committed to “always provide paid services to Realtors at the lower cost offered to any enterprise,”

she said.

NAR agrees with Trust Stamp CEO Andrew Gowask’s estimate that over a half million Realtors will have installed the Trust

Stamp app within 12 months, Wiskerchen said.

Trust Stamp says it also uses blockchain technology to store and access data that is immune to the distributed denial of

service (DDoS) attacks that plague many internet companies. In October, a DDoS attack put dozens of high-profile

websites, including real estate sites, out of commission for hours.

The NAR investment

NAR CEO Dale Stinton calls Trust Stamp “an easy-to-use online and mobile tool — that’s also powerful” and “ideal to

improve [agents’] business and personal safety.”

The startup is one of eight companies that enrolled in NAR’s startup accelerator, NAR REach, earlier this year.

Also in an effort to promote agent safety, NAR recently passed stricter core standards for Realtor associations requiring

that they annually certify that they “have conducted or promoted a Realtor safety activity for members,” Wiskerchen said.

Email Teke Wiggin.

11/16/2016 Trust Stamp, A Safety Tool For Real Estate Agents, Nabs NAR Funding

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Comments

BY TEKE WIGGIN !

BY INMAN !

4 Comments Sort by

Zaheerah Porter Barrett · Real Estate Broker at Euphoria RealtyI love this..Like · Reply · 1 hr

Michael Seguin · University of Michigan"...over half a million Realtors will have installed the Trust Stamp application within 12 months of launch..." A 40% adoption rate in the first year?Seems like a grounded assumption.Like · Reply · 1 hr

Sell Buy or Lease Your Home with Kris and Kim Darney

Makes sense. Awesome investment to protect us as Realtors®.Like · Reply · 23 mins

Debbie Meyer Lotts · Residential Real Estate Broker at The Lotts Realty Group, EasyStreet RealtyBut will people really put their info out there for Realtors to see? It seems that it's voluntary on their part. That's going to be the hard part,especially when the clients may not know us well yet. They're still judging whether they want to work with us yet and for us to ask for their driverslicenses and other info?Like · Reply · 7 mins

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