Developing solutions for complex industries, such as real estate, is no easy feat. At the Future of Real Estate Summit (FORES21), Qualia’s product leaders discussed how they develop industry-driving solutions for the entire real estate ecosystem.
Qualia’s mission and vision
Title & escrow companies are at the center of the real estate transaction, and Qualia’s product strategy reflects this integral component. Most often, title & escrow companies are the only entity that communicates with all other stakeholders. Therefore, solutions for mortgage lenders, title insurance, underwriters, real estate agents, and so on are built in interconnectivity with our title & escrow platform. “This strategy allows us to deliver significant value by creating efficient systems of engagement between title agents and every other transaction participant,” said Mark Heslop, Director of Product Management at Qualia.
Our mission as a company is to make the closing process as seamless as possible for our customers, our partners, and all other stakeholders. A shared system ultimately enables streamlined operations, effective communication, seamless vendor management, and greater efficiencies between all partners and stakeholders.
“We want to develop technology that is scalable and future-proof to ongoing change.”
Qualia’s product development core tenets
To achieve this mission and vision, Qualia’s team fully embraces agile development principles. This enables development and feature releases at a rapid pace and the ability to quickly adapt to changes in our customers’ business needs and the market. Qualia’s product and engineering teams keep the following core tenets top-of-mind when developing new features and functionalities.
1) Customer and market-driven focus
We build features that are going to be used and loved by all customers and truly impact their position in the market. Market forces also play an important role in shaping our product priorities, such as our customers’ need for streamlined remote closings and the recent refinance boom.
2) Find the best result and challenge the status quo
We constantly strive for better, more efficient ways for our customers. This enables our customers to save time and enhance processes altogether.
3) Focus on continuous improvement in businesses’ key performance indicators (KPIs)
We know from our customers’ feedback that many KPIs are around efficiency and this has been a major focus of our teams. Customers report time savings of up to 75% when using the Qualia platform.
4) Frequent releases and feedback loops
Qualia provides regular releases and rapid iterations where necessary. This is by no means a “set it and forget practice.” In fact, Qualia’s agile development process allows for new features to be released every two weeks. There are opportunities to course-correct if needed based on any customer feedback. “We have found that this is instrumental to being successful and ensures that you, as our clients, have the opportunity to help guide our feature development,” said Heslop.
Our customers’ success is our priority. “At Qualia, we want feedback, to hear and understand our customers’ business challenges and provide innovative solutions to drive meaningful value to their business, and the real estate industry as a whole,” Heslop said.
Putting the core tenets into practice
Qualia’s product managers shared new enhancements on the horizon that reinforce these core tenets.
Marketplace homepage redesign
Sid Hiregowdara, Technical Product Manager at Qualia, touched on the upcoming enhancements to Qualia’s comprehensive vendor management solution, Qualia Marketplace. Customers leverage Marketplace to efficiently work with existing vendors, find new vendor resources through a nationwide network, and expand into a new region or business type. Hiregowdara was excited to unveil the new homepage for Marketplace. The interface is more intuitive and streamlined to help you to collaborate with vendors and grow your business.
Core platform – new features
Qualia’s product teams have been laser-focused on efficiency-driven solutions that will also enable businesses to manage fluctuating volumes without an impact to staffing. Jason Liu, Senior Product Manager at Qualia, shared new features that will be available soon to further streamline title agent & underwriter collaboration. A few notable features include:
- time-saving policy editing tools
- dual closing letter protection (CPL) support which will benefit businesses that operate in multiple states
- the ability to make sure that rates are calculated on the correct date that they’re effective
Lulu Molina, Product Manager at Qualia, also touched on new features coming soon that will provide greater visibility into your business through global reporting and advanced accounting features.
Connect enhancements
Molina continued with new enhancements to Connect, the built-in communication and document sharing tool that brings the entire closing into one centralized and secure platform. We heard from our customers that they needed to refine how they worked with real estate agents, mortgage lenders, and consumers. As a result, Qualia further enhanced existing automations that would improve how our customers work within their company as well as other transaction parties. These enhancements empower companies to program their brand voice and real estate expertise into Connect through customizable communications.
Having a modern tech stack and a flexible market-driven process empowers all parties from title & escrow businesses, mortgage lenders, title insurers, real estate, home buyers, and home sellers to work more effectively together on a secure, streamlined, and future-proof platform.
If you missed the “How Qualia’s Engineering Culture Serves Your Business” segment or want to see it again, you can watch it here.
