No question, closing on the purchase of a house can wreck the nerves of a future homeowner. But a software company in Falls Church may reduce the amount of time and stress involved in the process. SettlementRoom Inc. has developed a program with the capability of keeping all parties in a real estate transaction informed at all times.

Jonathan Cutler, company president and founder, gained much of his real estate experience as the president and co-founder of the Legend Group, a residential real estate company that built more than 400 homes in the Washington metro area. Realizing the archaic nature of the titling process, he gathered funds from two of his successful companies, The Cornerstone Cos., a graphics design firm, and Premier Management Services Inc., a commercial real estate management firm, and launched the software company in February. Marketed primarily toward title companies, lenders, real estate agents and builders, "The solution is a three-legged stool," says Cutler. "There is a Web site, reporting and CD component involved."

The Web site provides access to information about the progression of the transaction — including all paperwork and documents. "A homeowner, for example, can read the closing documents before the deal is actually closed," Cutler says. However, access to this information must be initiated by an entity other than the potential homeowner. "Our package is not geared toward the homeowner because it sells for $29.95 per transaction, with a minimum purchase of 10 packages at a time," he says. Primarily real estate agents, title companies and others handling the paperwork and transactions of the home-buying purchase invest in the software because they do dozens of such transactions every month, Cutler adds.

The reporting element manages the information for users to keep it organized. A CD, mailed to the user by the company, creates a legal archive of everything that has occurred during the transaction. Users get all of this information by logging on at SettlementRoom.com.

And what will prevent the online start-up from becoming another dot-com casualty? Many dot-com failures, Cutler says, were mostly funded by venture capital firms. When the VC money dried up, so did the businesses. "But [we] are privately funded," he says, "with a small staff. We are growing at a smart, steady pace." Cutler won’t discuss revenues, but says he believes the program has great potential. "There are 10 million residential real estate transactions in a year. This software handles everything."

Cutler already has a customer base of a few hundred in Virginia, Florida, California and Arizona. He will offer the system internationally in the near future, he says.