Over the past few years—and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic —venture capital firms have poured significant investment into mortgage technology solutions. This sudden influx is, in part, due to consumer demand for digital touchpoints. It may also be due to the maturity of once “new” technologies that are now advanced enough to handle the complexity of mortgage transactions.
With so much tech investment flooding the mortgage lending space, it’s a new age for the mortgage industry which has historically been slow to adopt new technology due to intense regulatory oversight and a dearth of solutions that could address the complexity of mortgage transactions. And while new technology presents ample opportunity, its advantages are null if businesses don’t consider how solutions work together within an integrated technology stack.
An influx in new tech: the opportunity and the challenge
Technology has the potential to transform the mortgage lending industry, bringing about greater efficiency and driving down operational costs as a result. According to Fannie Mae’s Q4 2020 Lender Sentiment Survey, among lenders who expect profit margin increases in the next 3 months, 38% attribute those expected increases to efficiency gains from technology.
In a special report from October Research, Qualia CEO, Nate Baker, offered his thoughts on how new technology is driving process efficiencies across the real estate industry but also cautioned that too many technology tools can have an adverse effect. “A lot of new options have come about that attempt to solve a single problem for a single audience,” he said. “Increasing efficiency through technology isn’t merely about adopting many different new technologies; it’s about adopting the right technology.”
Challenge 1: many fragmented tools
Investing in multiple technology solutions that solve for a single audience can result in disjointed operations. To complete a single task or series of tasks, a user must remember login credentials for each tool and navigate different user interfaces. Investing in multiple single-purpose technology tools also inevitably results in higher costs, especially when certain tools overlap in their functionality.
Challenge 2: systems that don’t work well with outside partners
Real-time transaction management requires tools that seamlessly work together—including with systems outside of the organization. When tools do not “talk” to one another, it creates operational challenges that hinder partner relationships and ultimately lead to operational slowdowns.
Challenge 3: tech partners that can’t grow with your business
Many of the mortgage lending solutions arriving on the scene are designed for a narrow business problem. These tech providers only incrementally improve operations by solving for a current, niche business need.
Mortgage lenders can succeed with a consolidated and integrated technology stack of trusted partners
One of the simplest strategies for building an effective technology stack is to consolidate technology providers to a smaller set of strategic partners. By working with a select set of tech solutions, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, drive down costs, and operate with more agility.
Why Qualia should be a part of your technology stack
Qualia has built the most advanced, cloud-based title & escrow software on the market. From our starting point in title, we believe it’s possible to build a new financial and technological infrastructure across all of real estate.
In the years since we’ve started, we’ve done just that by creating an infrastructure that powers the entire ecosystem, including insurers, real estate agents, and mortgage lenders to work more effectively together on a single system of record. One of our core products, Qualia Connect, enables all transaction participants to coordinate and track the progress of a closing in real-time on a secure communication portal.
We’ve also built products specifically for mortgage lenders. Last year, we launched Qualia Post, which enables mortgage lenders to automate the closing and post-closing document collection process with their title partners.
Below are 3 key reasons mortgage lenders are increasingly considering Qualia as their closing technology partner:
- Qualia is the technology powering thousands of title & escrow businesses across the country. We’re title technology experts who understand how to build solutions that work effectively with title & escrow systems. Recently, Qualia announced the acquisition of Adeptive Software, the developer of Resware, a complementary title & escrow production software. With our combined ecosystem of customers and partners, Qualia is now powering an even greater portion of the title & escrow market.
- We’re growing fast and evolving at the speed of change. Qualia also announced its recent Series D funding. This funding will be used to continue building toward our vision for a more connected real estate ecosystem. You can expect more solutions designed specifically for mortgage lenders from Qualia in the years to come.
- We’re thinking holistically about the real estate purchase and the fundamental ways in which technology can better bridge the gap between parties. We are not a siloed technology provider, our goal is to create a more secure, streamlined, and simple way to purchase homes. To accomplish this, we must look at the real estate ecosystem holistically. That’s why we’re building solutions that connect everyone in the transaction; from title & escrow business to mortgage lenders, to title insurers, real estate agents, and even home buyers and sellers.
