New Company Automates RE Certifications
Certa is a new software company that fully automates the compliance of licenses and certifications to prevent fines and suspensions.
“As we developed Certa, we discovered that it wasn’t just the individual agent that needs to manage their real estate licenses and credentials,” Damian Martinez, a co-founder at Certa, tells GlobeSt.com. “Managing brokers benefit from the Certa Admin Portal, which allows them to automate email and push notifications for agents coming up on expiration. Most importantly, the platform is designed to eliminate a potential lapse in licensing, which can result in heavy fines, suspensions or even shutdowns.”
Martinez has experience at a public utility agency that required specialized certifications, and he needed a program to manage the requirements. When there wasn’t one, he started to develop his own, and consulted Kevin Michaels, a friend and software executive. In 2017, they assembled a team and launched full-scale development. “While sharing early prototypes with different agencies, there was always a common theme: organizations are struggling to manage multiple licenses, with varying renewals, across multiple states for their employees,” Michaels. “As it turned out, Certa was going to be much more than an app to manage licenses and continuing education. Fast forward to today, Certa has evolved into a platform for automating license and certification management across the organization.”
In real estate, Certa helps brokerage firms manage sales agents and city governments track certifications, license expirations and continuing education requirements. “The Certa software platform officially launched in May 2019 and is already being used by over a thousand professionals across dozens of industries,” says Martinez. “Every day, more than 1,000 small businesses are fined, suspended or shut down due to non-compliance issues. Certa solves this problem.”
Although the company just launched, it has added new users daily. “Every time a real estate professional starts using Certa, we get positive feedback,” says Michaels. “Users compliment how the app is easy to use, and how our continuing education content is full of relevant information, examples, and court cases. Agents and brokers also like how the app can easily log CE and attach certificates and other relevant documentation right from their phone. Users also love how they can set up their licenses once, and not worry about forgetting expiration dates or the status of their continuing education hours.”
Certa is currently available through the Apple App Store. It will be available through Google Play this summer.