In 2019, more than $135 billion was invested in fintech innovations globally. Real estate was a major focus for fintech businesses spanning every part of the real estate transaction, from creating alternative home financing options, to businesses like Qualia that are improving the home purchase process by streamlining mortgage, title and escrow operations.
It’s a crowded space, and Qualia was recently honored to be recognized as one of the top influential businesses breaking through the noise. Qualia received HousingWire’s Tech100 Award (for the second year in a row) which is awarded to the most innovative technology companies in the U.S. housing economy.
Here’s a closer look at why more investors and technology businesses are turning their attention toward real estate, where real estate closings fit into the bigger fintech picture, and how Qualia is transforming real estate purchase and sale experience through better technology.
More fintech businesses are interested in real estate
It’s no surprise that fintech businesses are increasingly focused on real estate. After all, the housing market plays an important role in the U.S. economy and is a major political, social, and economic force.
Purchasing a home is often one of the biggest investments an individual will make. In fact, owner-occupied real estate accounted for a quarter of households’ net worth in 2018. Additionally, changes in the housing market have broader effects. Generally, as housing prices increase, homeowners spend more due to greater confidence in the economy and higher equity to borrow against. Levels of consumer spending are a clear indicator of economic health in the U.S. due to the fact that consumer spending makes up around 70% of the economy.
Solving real estate challenges through better title workflow software
The housing market has clear economic influence, yet it is also rife with inefficiencies and challenges.
There are a few key challenges in the real estate market that fintech businesses are looking to address including high transaction costs and transaction complexity. Transaction costs are one of the most tractable challenges to address in the market and are a direct symptom of workflow issues that can be solved with improved enterprise software.
Title companies are one of the most important and underserved players in the real estate transaction. Of all parties involved, title agents have the sole responsibility of managing all of the sensitive paperwork, government filings, and complex cash flow operations that happen during each of the millions of transactions that occur every year. Historically, title & escrow businesses have had to work around (not with) their software systems to complete closings while maintaining high security and customer experience standards.
Qualia’s core software works to improve the workflow complexities managed by title & escrow businesses who are essentially “quarterbacking” the real estate closing process from start to finish.
Qualia is uniting the housing industry
On top of our title & escrow platform, Qualia has built a shared partner platform for closing real estate transactions. Traditionally, lenders, title agents and real estate agents worked separately on different software systems that solved their piece of the closing puzzle. By creating one common platform, Qualia is uniting the housing industry and greatly reducing the combined workload of every stakeholder in the transaction.
In the past few years, Qualia has expanded its products and network of customers to include most lenders and real estate brokerages in the country. Qualia now powers more than 1 million transactions per year and over 500,000 real estate and mortgage professionals use Qualia’s platform.
To learn more about how Qualia can improve your closing operations, click below to schedule a demo.
