TransactionDesk | Reviews and Pricing | 2024
TransactionDesk is a prominent transaction management software that is part of the Instanet package. Instead of selling directly to agents, their preferred customers are the MLSs and associations, who often buy their product and then offer it to their membership for free. There is a chance you already have TransactionDesk! TransactionDesk includes MLS integrations, transaction checklists, document storage, and even a client-facing transaction dashboard.
Instanet Solutions, now owned by Lone Wolf Technologies (1989) was founded in 1991 and headquartered in Cambridge, ON with offices in Dallas, TX.
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Use TransactionDesk if…
- You already get it for free and have time to do a little setup and familiarize yourself with it
- You are a brokerage or team and wanting an all-in-one tool that plays well with the rest of your tech stack.
Skip TransactionDesk if…
- You are a Gmail power user and want simple transaction checklists organized there (consider Folio)
- You are willing to spend a little more for a more complete transaction system and brokerage backend (consider DotLoop)
- You want a similar solution with more direct integrations (consider Skyslope)
View Other Transaction Management Software
Best Features
All-in-One Tools
In addition to transaction management, TransactionDesk and its parent company Lone Wolf own Authentisign, an e-signature tool. They also now own the forms library zipLogix, as well a the Instanet library.
And TransactionDesk itself has brokerage dashboard in Instanet to help manage agents and their MLS transactions, as well as the DocBox for unlimited document storage.
As such, it’s a pretty well-rounded solution if you elect to have all these additional a la carte products (though they don’t all come with TransactionDesk as a standalone).
Client Dashboard
Don’t keep the transaction progress to yourself! Your clients and vendor partners need to know what is going on as well.
TransactionDesk comes with a client dashboard that lets you define which tasks your relationships need to see, and allow them to track completion.
Keep them in the loop and well aware of the work you are putting in for them!
MLS Integrations
As mentioned, TransactionDesk works closely with MLSs, integrating directly with the major MLSs in the country.
You can even initiate a transaction directly from the MLS into TransactionDesk. It pulls the property and agent information so that you are not wasting time filling everything out from scratch.
Biggest Pitfalls
Middling User Interface
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the TransactionDesk user interface has never gripped me. It doesn’t feel really intuitive.
In a transaction management software, I would expect something like maybe a kanban style main dashboard highlighting current deals, progress, and outstanding tasks. Colors showing cases moving along well or highlighting those with outstanding issues.
Instead, TransactionDesk just feels dated and a little unintuitive. Filling it out can be clunky at times. It’s just not super-easy to pick up unless it’s your job as an office manager or transaction coordinator to work it.
No Templates
This isn’t necessarily a knock on TransactionDesk as most of their competitors are short on templates as well.
However the user adoption and usefulness would likely be improved significantly if there were some transaction checklist templates already available in TransactionDesk.
As it is, to get the most out of the system, you have to do a significant amount of setup to get the tool functioning at a high level.
Maybe implementing a setup wizard would help.
Bottom line – you need to spend some time on TransactionDesk getting it set up. I recommend developing checklists and form templates on an as-needed basis and iterating on them in real-time.
Few Direct Integrations
It directly integrates with TopProducer CRM, but that is all.
It obviously has great MLS integrations as well as with forms libraries, and with Authentisign. But if you have a chunky tech stack featuring numerous different products, you may run into problems integrating TransactionDesk completely and seamlessly.
TransactionDesk Pricing*
- $259/yr
- Often provided as an MLS add-on service
To sign up for TransactionDesk directly would cost $259/yr.
TransactionDesk markets itself primarily by selling to MLS associations as an MLS add-on, meaning many agents may have access to Instanet and TransactionDesk for “free”. Or discounts may be available depending on your MLS, like with BrightMLS.
*This is current to the best of my knowledge at the time of this writing. Contact the vendor directly to check current prices, discounts, and terms.
My Personal Recommendation
For me, TransactionDesk was not a super-intuitive piece of software for me to pick up and use in my business as an agent.
However diving in further for this review, it has a lot of good tools and functionality that is a far step above using nothing for your transactions.
Its checklists are reasonably robust and I like that, though even then they’re less sophisticated than what is possible with other workflow-based products like the CRMs Realvolve or Infusionsoft.
So instead, in my opinion, it is a great tool available for free if your MLS provides it already. Check it out.
Or, if you are a brokerage or a large team who helps agents with their transaction management or an in house transaction manager, it is a pretty thorough all-in-one system that will do all the basics well.
TransactionDesk Videos
TransactionDesk Overview from Dan Instanet Phillips on Vimeo.