KYC identity verification for real estate agents

By Brad Dack, Four Foxes · AML/CTF Consultant

When you take on a client under the new AML/CTF rules, you generally need to confirm who they actually are before you provide the service - that's the core of Customer Due Diligence (CDD). A KYC ("Know Your Customer") check is how you do that in practice: verify the person's identity, screen them against the relevant risk lists, and keep the evidence.

Verify by Four Foxes does this in a single, pay-per-check step - $13.50 per individual check, with no subscription and no lock-in contract. You send the client a branded link, they verify themselves, and a complete, timestamped record lands back with you. It's built for small, boutique and medium-sized agencies that need a proper check without an enterprise platform bolted onto their workflow.

What a single KYC check includes

One check covers the things a real estate CDD process generally needs to stand behind:

• Identity verification - confirming the client is who they say they are, against accepted identification documents.
• PEP screening - checking whether the client is a Politically Exposed Person, which can call for extra scrutiny.
• Sanctions screening - checking the client against relevant sanctions lists.
• Adverse media screening - checking news and public sources for risk flags. See PEP, sanctions & adverse media screening for the full detail on what's checked and where the data comes from.
• A complete audit trail - a timestamped record of every step, so you can evidence what you did and when.
• A branded verification link - the client sees your agency, not a generic third-party tool.

What your client experiences

The check is designed to be painless for the client, because a clunky verification step is the fastest way to lose one.

1. You send a branded verification link - by email or message, carrying your agency's identity.
2. The client completes it themselves - capturing their identification and details on their phone in a few minutes, without needing to come into the office or post anything.
3. The result lands back with you - the identity, screening outcomes and full record ready for your AML review.

No app for them to download, no account for them to create.

What you get back - a full audit trail

This is the part that matters when you have to show what you did. Every check produces a timestamped event log, so you're never reconstructing "did we actually verify this person, and when?" from memory or a paper file.

A typical check produces a trail along these lines:

Where a result needs a closer look, an enhanced due diligence step (edd.requested) can be requested and logged too - so even the exceptions are evidenced, not handled off to the side. If a client is asked for further documents, that request is logged as well (document.requested), and a resubmission is tracked separately (customer.resubmitted).

How the pricing works

$13.50 per individual check. Monthly invoicing. No subscription, no lock-in.

You pay for the checks you run - nothing when you're quiet, no minimum, no annual contract to sign. For a small or boutique agency doing a handful of transactions a month, that's the difference between a cost that scales with your work and a platform fee that doesn't care whether you used it.

How KYC fits your AML program

A KYC check is a tool, not a whole compliance program. It sits inside your CDD process: your documented AML/CTF program sets out when you verify a customer and what risk you're managing, and Verify is the practical step that does the verification and provides supporting records for it.

That's deliberately how it's built - to slot alongside a right-sized program rather than replace it. If you also need the program itself written or reviewed, that's what Four Foxes Consulting does; if you already have one, Verify just plugs into it.

Frequently asked questions