Title Agents Need to Automate
Our friends at ALTA recently posted a fascinating article reviewing the results of two title-related surveys, somewhat akin to the MBA’s Lender Sentiment Surveys. (Membership required) The article featured the results of separate surveys from PropLogix, which questioned 400 title and settlement professionals, and Williston Financial Group (WFG), which surveyed lenders about their views on the title industry. Since the title industry is comprised predominantly of privately held businesses, it’s always a treat when we can get a bit of fairly objective data on the state of the industry.
Of interest to us at alanna.ai were the top “day-to-day struggles” of title professionals. After all, a big part of Alanna’s job is to help alleviate communications and resource challenges. Not surprisingly, more than half of the respondents said “closing on time,” which has likely been a reality since the first real estate closing ever happened. A whopping 42% of the respondents said that “juggling too many responsibilities” was their most common concern. And 40% said that “not enough time to complete tasks” was their top struggle.
If you’ve been following our blog, does any of this sound familiar? These are the core reasons title agencies of all sizes are racing to automate their operations. And, of course, relieving front-line staffers from returning basic REALTOR texts or borrower emails has been part of our value proposition from the get-go.
The same PropLogix survey confirmed something else we’ve been talking about quite a bit. The top challenge in 2021 for almost half (49%) of the business leaders surveyed was “hiring and training new employees.” Engagement and retention will likely be hot topics for the title industry in 2022 and beyond. These numbers only reinforce our belief of that. We also believe that employee engagement starts with empowerment and challenge—automating basic tasks like sending emails asking for a stray Social Security number, and redeploying valuable staff to more complex functions are two great examples.
By the way, while turn-times were the top concern for title agents, the WFG survey confirmed that it was also the top concern for mortgage lenders surveyed (41%). However, the second largest concern with the title process as voiced by the mortgage lenders surveyed was “communication” (34%). Customer service was also significant—22 percent of the lenders surveyed found it to be a top challenge in dealing with title and settlement partners.
While it’s good to get hard numbers supporting the notion that Alanna is targeting some of the top pain points in the title industry, it’s even better to see that title agents are widely addressing the issue. That wasn’t always the case with some. We’re simply happy to be of service, and hope we can play our part in improving the entire title and closing process.