Notwithstanding that Lawlab are the inventors and innovators of the Rundl collaboration platform, they also happen to be a team of experienced property lawyers and legal professionals who are among the most recommended conveyancers in Australia. The transition from local lawyers to a national conveyancing powerhouse began as an attack strategy against disruption.
“What we saw, through things like fax and the beginnings of digitisation and disruption, was that players from outside our region were starting to come in and take customers from us. We just thought, ‘We need to build something that enables us to go back out and offer our services out of our geography’. That’s sort of how the journey began,” says Richard Bootle, one of the founders of Lawlab.
“Nothing is more certain than if you do not digitise your service someone else will, and that will appear on someone’s iPhone. You will lose your clients to that new provider if you’re not on someone’s iPhone,” says Richard.
Shares have been trading electronically for around 30 years and internet banking via websites has been around since the early 1990s.
In 2017, however, property transactions are still often the result of paper documents and cheques being driven around in cars.
“Disruption takes away that distance altogether, and the only relevant distance essentially is between a person and their iPhone, and the service that’s sitting on that iPhone,” explains Richard.
Lawlab were early movers on disruption and, by creating Rundl, they are a perfect example of what is possible for agents, or anyone offering professional services in the digital age.
Rundl is a platform where parties in a transaction can communicate, share documents and transact securely in a sophisticated but oh-so-simple way. A Rundl is a secure meeting room in the cloud, hosted by one of the parties in a transaction. For example, Lawlab might host a Rundl in the purchase journey for a property buyer. As the buyer’s legal representative, they will then invite the buyer and vendor, the vendor’s legal representative, the agent, the broker, the banks, building inspector, property manager and anyone else who might help assist in the exchange.
The journey of each person and each transaction through the Rundl is fully customisable, meaning that the steps of each transaction can be configured to exactly what you would like them to be. The parties involved in that particular Rundl will only have access to documents, and be notified of the information and steps, that are relevant to their role and necessary for their part in the collaboration.
For example, the contract of sale is shared among many parties in the transaction while private documents given by the buyer to their finance broker can be restricted so that only the buyer and finance broker can view them.
Where an agent is hosting a Rundl, it presents with the agent’s branding and can be configured to host any phase of the selling process, or to project manage the entire customer journey from listed to sold.
On the theme of collaboration, Lawlab uses DocuSign for functionality that enables electronic document signing and a streamlined experience from appointment to contract. At the final stages of settlement, Lawlab being a PEXA subscriber means that financial settlement and lodgement can be undertaken electronically, thanks to PEXA’s integration with the different government land registries, lenders and the Reserve Bank of Australia.
“Now that subscribers can complete financial settlement and lodgement in PEXA this enables end-to-end digital property transactions – for example, last year saw the first fully paperless property exchange on PEXA. We’re seeing the emergence of businesses that challenge old paper processes and existing business models. PEXA is encouraged to see Lawlab bringing consumers a better experience. As these digital providers flourish, PEXA looks forward to working with them. They are welcome to come onto the exchange,” says Mike Cameron, PEXA Group Executive, Operations.
In a space where there are varied and rolling threats of ‘uberfication’, it is a tool like Rundl, powered by Lawlab, that gives real estate agents the power to inoculate against disruption and to make the switch from analogue to digital – easily.
“The best way to experience a Rundl is to refer a matter to Lawlab and discover a new, digitally enhanced experience for you and your client,” says Richard.
To watch an interview with Richard Bootle from Rundl with Sara at AREC2017, click here
And if you want to try a Rundl yourself, head to either of these links:
