Buying a home is the biggest financial transaction most people will ever make. But the process is stuck in the past, causing stress, risk, and extra work for buyers and your title & escrow company.

We’re changing that, starting today, with the launch of two new products: Qualia Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) and Qualia Cash to Close. We built them on a simple belief: payments should be modern, efficient, and secure. 

Previewed during The Future Is Now, both products help your title & escrow company deliver a better client experience at two high-stakes moments in a transaction: the buyer’s first payment after signing the contract and their final payment before closing. They replace sending payments by check or wire with a simple digital way to pay, and let your team collect them from a link on the order. Earnest money can also come in through a payment portal on your website, even before the file is open.

Both products are built directly into Qualia Core, where your team already works. That means they can provide efficiency and protection against errors and fraud that point solutions outside your system of record can’t match. 

With Qualia EMD and Qualia Cash to Close, paying is easy. Buyers receive a payment link from your company, connect their bank account, and pay digitally in a few clicks. There are no emailed wire instructions to second-guess, and buyers get confirmation once the payment is submitted.

Traditional payment methods add friction and fraud risk for homebuyers when they’re closing on a home. But as Qualia Chief Strategy Officer Jackson Reynolds explains in this video, Qualia EMD and Qualia Cash to Close let buyers send earnest money and closing funds digitally, creating a secure and more modern experience for buyers and title & escrow teams.

The current way of paying: unfamiliar for buyers and an opening for fraudsters

Buyers can pay for almost everything on their phones, but when it comes to purchasing a home, they’re asked to wire money using instructions sent by email or deliver a certified check in person. Many aren’t sure they’re paying correctly or that their money will arrive safely. That’s confusing and frustrating, which causes anxiety for real estate agents and reflects poorly on your company.  

It also makes closings more susceptible to fraud. Emailed wire instructions are a prime target for real estate wire fraud. They give fraudsters an opening to impersonate legitimate transaction parties and redirect funds to their own accounts. These fraudsters are organized and sophisticated. They bet on buyers being unfamiliar with the payment process and seek to exploit that uncertainty. 

The problem is real and growing. Real estate fraud losses reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation rose from about $145 million in 2023 to more than $275 million in 2025. And in Qualia’s recent “Wire Fraud Trends in Title & Escrow, 2026” report, cash to close had the largest year-over-year increase in perceived fraud risk of any part of the closing. 

Built in, not bolted on: safer payments and less work for your team

“Buyers are looking to their title & escrow company for two things: a frictionless payment experience and certainty that their money arrives where it should,” said Jackson Reynolds, Chief Strategy Officer at Qualia.

We’ve launched Qualia EMD and Qualia Cash to Close to give your buyers a better, more secure way to pay. These solutions can do that because they live in your system of record where you do your work. 

Other digital payment tools sit outside your system of record. The payment lives in one tool. The order is in another. Every handoff between the two is extra work for your team and extra risk for your buyer.

Every added vendor means another login for your team, another site for the buyer to visit, and more emails and links. Each one is another message a fraudster can imitate. Because Qualia EMD and Qualia Cash to Close start from the order you’re already working in, buyers deal with one company, and no wire instructions go out by email for fraudsters to spoof. With fewer handoffs and less rekeying, there are also fewer places for a wrong account number to slip in.

The same gaps cost your team time. With a standalone tool that’s outside your system of record, the money may reach your escrow account, but your team still has to find the deposit, match it to the file, key the details into your title production system, and reconcile it against the ledger. With Qualia, the payment arrives in the same system as the order. Payments requested from the order post to its ledger in Qualia Core. Deposits come in with the buyer’s details attached, and Qualia suggests the file they belong to. Nobody rekeys anything. That means faster work and fewer errors. 

Qualia EMD: collect earnest money digitally

Qualia EMD lets your title & escrow company collect earnest money digitally, so buyers don’t have to drop off a paper check or wire funds. With Qualia EMD, you can:

  • Collect deposits: Send a request through an open file or share a secure payment portal link, even on your company’s own website, so buyers can pay as soon as the contract is signed.
  • Keep deposits tied to the file: Deposits link to the order and post to the ledger in Qualia Core, ready to reconcile.
  • Keep your current escrow account: Funds go to your company’s existing escrow account, with no need to switch banks.

Title & escrow companies used Qualia EMD on live transactions during early access, and their feedback shaped both products. Early adopters say Qualia EMD is already delivering benefits like:

  • More time for clients: “We are not rushed. We can sit in that signing room with [clients] as they ask questions and give them back that extra time that we are getting back from things like the earnest money deposit.” — Stacie Reid, Vice President of Operations, Horizon Title Group 
  • Improved security and client experience: “This service is great for me, but it’s really great for the clients. From a customer service standpoint, the clients like it better. We’ve made a decision as an organization that we’re not accepting checks anymore. We’re only going to use EMD with Qualia.” — Jacob Webb, CEO, Level 10 Title 
  • Less busywork and risk of errors: “EMD minimizes the opportunity for human error, which I really appreciate. It’s cut back a lot of our daily admin work: the printing, the depositing. We used to have to print all the checks at the end of the day.” — Sarah Brown, Escrow Accounts Administrator, Hanger Law 

Qualia Cash to Close: same-day good funds with no wire instructions needed

With Qualia Cash to Close, buyers fund their closing through a secure link instead of following emailed wire instructions or getting a cashier’s check. Funds arrive in escrow as good funds the same business day.1 With Qualia Cash to Close, your title & escrow company can:

  • Send buyers a secure payment link: Buyers see exactly what they owe, connect their bank account, and confirm the payment in a few clicks.
  • Request the right amount from the order: Qualia calculates what the buyer owes, accounting for funds already collected and credits applied.
  • Confirm each payment automatically: When the buyer pays, Qualia adds a submission confirmation document to the order, and it creates the receipt on the order and the general ledger once funds arrive in the escrow bank account.

Real time back for your team, a better closing for your clients

Qualia EMD and Qualia Cash to Close join a set of payments and fraud prevention capabilities already built natively into Qualia Core. 

Now, both sides of the escrow ledger run through Qualia Core. When a buyer’s funds arrive, the payment posts to the order in the same system where your team reconciles the file and screens outgoing wires. Your team doesn’t have to check a separate portal or re-enter a receipt. 

“We’ve built the system title & escrow companies close in, and we already connect to the banks that hold their escrow funds,” said Reynolds. “Now the incoming funds get the same treatment as the money going out.”

Qualia EMD and Qualia Cash to Close build on what we previewed at The Future Is Now. Qualia plans to expand with more payment products in the coming months. We’re building technology that works inside a title & escrow business, so your team gets real time back and your clients get a better closing experience.

Availability

Qualia EMD is available today to all Qualia Core customers, who can sign up in a few minutes from inside Qualia Core. Qualia Cash to Close is available today in limited release, with expanded availability later this year. To learn more, visit qualia.com/emd or contact a Qualia representative.

Speak to an expert to learn more about how we’re building powerful solutions that help you do the work, move the money, and run the business.

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  1. Payments submitted after 3 p.m. ET arrive the next business morning. ↩︎