Welcome to the first issue of our newsletter reQuired Reading. Every month reQuired Reading will deliver industry news that you can use, quick tips and updates about reQuire.

Well, it’s official. Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow so you know what that means… Spring is right around the corner! And before you know it, we’ll be back into the swing of the busy Spring homebuying & conference season. Please make sure to check out the Events Page on our website & follow us on LinkedIn to see where we’ll be in the upcoming months.

MARKET

What Does 2020 Look Like?

The current MBA outlook predicts a gradual slowdown going into 2020 with a full year forecast of $1.29 trillion. But that’s at the 50,000 ft. level.  What does this mean for our world?  More opportunities to serve lenders, real estate agents and borrowers and in some cases clean up issues from previous closings. If the past is any indication, we’ve found that, out of every 100 loans that close, 15 to 20 of those loans are missing critical title documents. This is especially time-consuming and costly to both title companies and lenders who may not have upgraded their systems and processes to capture lien releases. We estimate this translates into a minimum of three additional hours per loan with lien issues adding cost, reducing efficiency and, ultimately, margins that already have been shrinking. Learn more about the Unreleased Lien Epidemic

BUSINESS

reQuire’s New Title Policy Recovery Product is a Hit

Unreleased liens aren’t the only document issues that can impede the mortgage origination and securitization process. Trailing title docs such as the title policy, original mortgage and fully recorded releases can make a loan ineligible for sale or pooling, which can cost aggregators and issuers as much as $45 to $75 a day. To remedy this, reQuire is now offering a new Title Policy Recovery Service, and is providing this service for one of the top 5 lenders in the country.

Most of this work is handled digitally, but if those initial efforts don’t produce results we’re on the phone making calls. So, if you get a call about title docs, now you’ll know why. For more information on reQuire’s Title Policy Recovery product, contact Linda Aparo for more information.

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT

Esther Fernandes is the Chief Operating Officer of Brady & Kosofsky

Recently, we sat down with long-time reQuire client Esther Fernandes, Chief Operating Officer of Brady & Kosofsky, a law firm that specializes in Centralized Title & Settlement Services, REO & Loss Mitigation and special dispositions.]

Esther Fernandes is the Chief Operating Officer of Brady & Kosofsky, a real estate law firm based in North Carolina. Esther has been a client of reQuire’s for more than 7 years. Recently, we sat down with her to learn a bit more about her, her company & her needs.

Q. Tell us about your firm and your role within the company.
A. Brady & Kosofsky is a real estate law firm that specializes in Centralized Title & Settlement Services (both Paper and eClosings), REO & Loss Mitigation and special dispositions. I’ve been at Brady & Kosofsky for 9 years and, in essence, my responsibilities are to make sure that everything’s working properly, that we are investing in new technology and tools to simplify the process in order for us to be more efficient, and to make sure that we are servicing our partners and clients to the best of our abilities consistently every time no exception.

Q. So, why reQuire?
A. A lot of settlement offices don’t realize the tools that are out there for them—I know we didn’t. So, before engaging reQuire we didn’t use a release tracking system, yet there was a HUGE need to track the loans being paid off and to make sure that the satisfactions were placed of record. Prior to using reQuire, we had staff that was solely dedicated to tracking down these loans, and we thought we could put their skills and knowledge to better use, so we partnered with reQuire.

Since partnering with reQuire, we’ve seen a significant impact in time savings. When we’re done with a closing, we input loan information into our system of record, it is pushed over to reQuire, and then we get an instant notification that the recording has been completed- simple as that, no additional post-close work needed. It’s a very clean and smooth process.

In addition, reQuire has been super easy to do business with and they take their partnerships very seriously. Their integration with leading title production systems, including ours, makes our lives much easier. We can do everything we need to do right there in the one system we primarily work in. We have use other reQuire services occasionally, aside from the release tracking, and there were no additional contracts or hoops to jump through. We were able to just pick up the phone, let them know what we needed, give them the information and we were ready to go in a timely manner.

Q. What would you say to prospects about the importance of release tracking?
A. Honestly, I would say sit down, look at your KPI, and figure out how much you’re spending on release tracking alone. Look at your workflow, look at your team members you’re currently paying to do this, where else can you use them in order to make your business and consumer interaction stronger? Take in all those variables and think about what you can do once you tie it to reQuire, because at the end of the day, I can tell you, for me, it is a no brainer. You can reallocate your resources who are currently spending time to track down those items, to areas you need additional help and you’ll have a lot less people frustrated with the process.

For more information on Esther visit her on LinkedIn or learn more about Brady & Kosofsky here.