Why Have eClosings Become So Important?

The pandemic revealed that face-to-face interactions can have deadly results. One of the most-important reasons to adopt eClosings (i.e. electronic rather than in-person handling of all documents) is to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. No physical handoff of documents means no physical spread of deadly viruses, bacteria or other germs during the transaction portion of a home sale.

From an entirely transactional perspective, eClosings outperform traditional methods in every way. Lenders may be hesitant to adopt eClosings because they simply don’t recognize that technologies make processes faster and more convenient. 

Everyone involved in a home sale can review and complete required documents within minutes. They don’t have to deal with scheduling and rearranging appointments or error-causing distractions caused by racing to arrive on time while dealing with bad weather, road construction or rush-hour traffic. They merely need a working internet connection. 

Additionally, direct sharing and transmission of documents in near real-time reduces errors and security risks. An error on a document that might have traditionally taken days to discover and update, followed by new documents sent via snail mail, can now be corrected online instantaneously. Documents are also less likely to become lost or stolen because of direct transmission and secure encryption.

Tips to Overcome Lender Objections

Lenders may be hesitant to adopt eClosings because no one has actually talked with them about adopting electronic technologies in ways that reduce their fears about technologies or change. To overcome their objections, it’s important to address pain points related to their most common concerns:

• Outline All Security Measures: Data theft stories are in the news daily. Make certain to work with an eClosings company that has top-notch security, and then provide lenders extensive details upfront about how their data remains secure before, during and after every closing.

• Provide Clear Pricing Details: Given that many eClosing providers offer subscription plans, a lender should never worry about the cost of adopting eClosing technologies. Implementation with the help of a Software as a Service company who meets all regulatory and transactional requirements can also help reduce costs.

• Choose a Training Package: Although some eClosing providers only offer setup and technical support, plenty of providers exist that also offer full training packages that make it possible for every staff member to quickly learn the tech inside and out. 

• Provide Diverse Informative Resources: Lastly, lenders may be hesitant to adopt eClosings because of a lack of resources designed to answer their top questions. Offer them a variety of options that promote these technologies, such as an FAQ business page and an online demonstration.

The post Tips for Dealing with Lenders who may be Hesitant to Adopt eClosings first appeared on titlecapture.com.

What is the Mortgage Interest Rate Prediction for the Future?

Unfortunately, homebuyers aren’t likely to see the historically low mortgage rates that 2020 and 2021 brought. However, mortgage rates are forecasted to remain “relatively” low throughout 2022. Right now, rates are sitting in the 4% range. Even if mortgage rates jump into the 5% range, they’ll still be at a lower rate than in the last decades before the Covid-19 pandemic. If you’ve been on the fence about whether to buy a home, it’s evident that now is the time to do so before mortgage rates increase.

Rate Estimates from Leading Home Authorities

One of the best ways to help determine what mortgage rates have in store for the country is to look at what the leading house authorities are forecasting. When it comes to a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the estimated mortgage rates for the last quarter of 2022 are as follows:

• 4.75% RealtyTrac
• 4.5% Kiplinger
• 4.5% NAR
• 4.5% MBA
• 3.9% Fannie Mae
• 3.7% Freddie Mac

After reading through these numbers, it becomes clear that many leading housing authorities’ mortgage interest rate predictions believe they will be in the mid-4% range going into the close of 2022. When all the above-forecasted mortgage rates are averaged out, the forecasted rate is 4.31%. Again, this is a relatively low rate compared to mortgage rates in the past decades.

Forecast Estimate from the National Association of Realtors

To get a more accurate forecast of what mortgage rates will be throughout 2022 and into 2023, we must look at all different angles. We’ve already looked at what many leading housing authorities have forecasted. Now, it’s time to take a much closer look at what the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has to say on the subject matter.

NAR predicts that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate will climb to an average of about 4.5% throughout 2022. They believe that inflation driving up rates is expected to slow down. However, NAR suggested that it will take a couple of months for the Federal Reserve to catch up with the constantly rising inflation rates.

Over this time, home prices are expected to continue to increase. NAR is suggesting an overall home price increase for the entire 2022 year at about 5%. This is much less than the previous years during the pandemic when we’ve seen a 20% year-over-year home cost growth. It’s thought that the rising cost of homes will start to slow down as the number of first-time homebuyers will decrease due to financial constraints. We’re approaching the point where the action of first-time homebuyers is going to play a significant role in helping to keep prices relatively in check instead of exponentially growing.

Forecasts From Fannie Mae

The Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae, has been around since the New Deal days in the 1930s. This government-sponsored enterprise has seen many rises and falls over the years. Its spokespeople’s mortgage interest rate prediction is a more favorable rate of 3.8% throughout much of 2022, with a slight possibility of a rise to 3.9% by the last quarter of the year.

According to their Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President, Fannie Mae predicts that housing demand will remain strong throughout the year. It’s vital to note that rising interest rates will reduce the affordability of houses. However, they believe that the demographics still support a strong demand in many areas. In areas with a lack of existing housing supply, more and more people support new construction. They believe this will continue to increase throughout the year.

Forecasts From Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, is another government-sponsored enterprise that has been around since 1970. Their Chief Economist has mortgage interest rate predictions of 3.6% throughout 2022 and a rise of 3.7% nearing the fourth quarter of 2022.

Freddie Mac believes that as the mortgage rates rise, the demand for housing will decrease, thus causing housing prices to decline, realizing rate and price stability. Freddie Mac has predicted that home prices will see a growth rate of 6.2% throughout the year 2022. In coming to its mortgage interest rate prediction, Freddie notes that many first-time homebuyers are coming into the market, and entry-level inventory is low. For this reason, they believe that the housing market will remain highly competitive throughout 2022 and heading into 2023.

Predictions From Mortgage Bankers Association

Mortgage Bankers Association, known as MBA, is a highly respected association in the housing industry. Their most recent mortgage interest rate prediction boldly predicted that mortgage rates would be around 4.5% at the end of the year. The MBA has noted that rising mortgage interest rates have the most significant impact on the demand for refinancing mortgages. They stated that application volumes for refinancing had hit their lowest level since back in the spring of 2019 due to the climbing interest rates.

Final Thoughts

While no business or person can tell you precisely what mortgage rates will do throughout 2022, it helps to look at some of the leading housing authorities’ predictions. These authorities have experience over many years and have in-depth knowledge of first-time homebuyer and mortgage lender perspectives. These leading housing authorities agree that mortgage interest rates will remain “relatively” low throughout 2022 but will continue to see a rise going into 2023.

The post Mortgage Interest Rate Predictions 2022-2023 first appeared on titlecapture.com.

That was the belief of one escrow officer we recently spoke to. Her title company had cycled through multiple quoting apps, but their realtors and lenders still called every time they needed an estimate.

Why? When asked, she believed clients preferred the “personal interaction” when getting quotes. 

The myth that personal interaction is a priority to realtors and lenders runs rampant through the title industry. But that’s the thing about myths—they’re easily debunked by facts.

If you’re wary about adopting technology as part of your client experience, let’s bust this myth together with some data.

What do real estate agents want? Speed and accuracy. 

We polled over 1,000 real estate professionals on their top priorities when it comes to quoting.

The results showed that over 80% listed accuracy or speed as their top priority in generating an estimate. Less than 10% placed personal interaction in their top 3 priorities, and no one ranked personal interaction as most important.

This data (and our 8+ years of working in title quoting) confirms that the majority of clients do not care about personal interaction when generating estimates. So why are they calling instead of using your app or calculator?

The REAL reasons your clients aren’t using your quoting tool 

There are four main reasons your clients may be opting to call instead of using your app.

1. They don’t trust the numbers. If your app isn’t constantly updated with rate, fee, and tax changes, your clients won’t (and shouldn’t) trust its accuracy.

2. They’re confused by the estimate. If your app doesn’t break down every rate, fee, and tax, your clients won’t be able to explain to their buyers and sellers what they’re paying for.

3. Your tool is too difficult to use. If your app isn’t as intuitive as making a call, your realtors and lenders won’t use it. Too many pages or irrelevant questions? They’ll just pick up the phone instead.

4. They never understood it in the first place. If your tool confused your clients from the beginning or your onboarding process didn’t answer their questions, they may have abandoned it from the start.

If any of the above sound relevant to your current solution, then the problem isn’t the lack of personal interaction—it’s that your tool isn’t faster, more accurate, and easier than a phone call. 

The data behind better quoting tools

Whether you have a quoting tool realtors love or one they ignore, the data will speak for itself.

In the last 12 months, title company clients (realtors and lenders alike) have generated a total of 1.4 million quotes using TitleCapture—an average of 120,000 quotes per month. Each one of these estimates was generated entirely by the client, zero interaction with a title rep required.

It’s safe to say that we can put the “clients want personal interaction” myth to rest and focus on choosing a quoting app that’s optimized for a better quoting experience.

The Dangers of Believing the Myth of Personalized Quoting

What happens if you ignore the draw of better quoting tools and keep believing the myth that clients want their estimates with a side of personal interaction? You’re going to get beat out.

Newer title companies with a better understanding of how technology serves their clients’ needs will steal your realtors and lenders away… and no amount of donuts or your version of “great service” will compensate for the convenience your competitors offer.

The Bottom Line

While your personal client relationships are still important, they’re not a priority when it comes to quoting. To truly meet clients’ expectations, title companies need to adopt the best, most accurate estimate app. Settling for less is a waste of money.

If you have an app or online calculator but are still fielding constant calls for quotes, you owe it to yourself and your clients to look into faster, more accurate quoting tools. If not, you’ll be left in the dust by companies that do.

The post Realtors & lenders don’t prefer ‘personal interaction’ — you’re just leaving them no choice first appeared on titlecapture.com.

This was a question asked by one of our clients recently, a title company in Virginia focused on growth. They had hired a young, talented Marketing Director to help attract more real estate agents. They were confident in her ability to help them grow — after all, she knew everything about SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and WordPress. After six months, they had a redesigned website, a social media strategy, and had spent a few tens of thousands of dollars on Google Ads…and they were pretty much in the same spot as before they hired her.

Which brings us back to Doug, the title company owner, asking a question that none of his staff could answer:  Do we even need marketing?

He kind of had a point. Why should a title company keep spending money on something that doesn’t work? Right?

Obviously, the answer to his question was “yes.” The problem, however, is in how a title company thinks about “marketing”. Title companies need to adopt a completely different approach to marketing than most products or services out there.

Title Company Marketing — A New School of Thought

Most product or service marketing reps spend their time and money attracting and converting prospects into leads or clients. Title company marketing, however, should focus more on servicing and building the brand for existing clients. Why is that?

Because growing a title company is a pure referral-driven effort. A real estate agent or lender will only pull the trigger and send you their first closing (and become your de-facto client) if they really trust you, and no amount of ad spend on social media, testimonials, case studies, or smart content on your site is going to boost that trust in the same way as when another real estate agent or lender is telling that prospect of yours “Oh yeah. I work with this title company. They’re awesome”.

The stakes are simply too high, and without that referral validation, your prospects will always be on the fence. They simply don’t want to risk the livelihood of their buyer or seller if there’s nobody they know and trust who will vouch for your title company.

So, your most important question, if you want to drive more growth to your title company is simply “How do I drive more referrals?” That’s it.

You now shift your focus from the outside world, with all the potential real estate agents and lenders you don’t currently work with, to your most important asset: your existing clients, to whom your quality of service is everything.

Start listening to what they really need. Start putting up rules and structure so that you make sure your reps are reaching our constantly to each and every one of them so that your title company is always top of mind.

Now you realize that in order for these people to drive a referral, they have to LOVE you. And if you want to create that romantic relationship, you need to know their pain points, make sure communication is excellent, make sure you’re giving them functional value – the tools that may make their life easier (such as TitleCapture’s branded app), teach them, train them, mentor them, go above and beyond to keep the buyers and sellers in the know, at every stage of the closing process. And once in a while … sure, take your top producers to dinner!

When you focus on providing the BEST service to your existing real estate agents and lenders, one of two things will happen:

Either…

Whenever one of their colleagues will look for a new title company to work with, your existing clients will be the first ones to recommend yours and VOUCH for it, no holds barred.

Or…

Your existing clients will be such fans of your title company, that they will actively go out and try to convert everyone they work with into a client of your title company. Because they LOVE you and they simply need to share it.

I beg of you. Change your focus. The quality of your service towards your existing clients is the absolute single best driver of growth for your title company.

The post Title Companies: Stop Marketing and Focus on This Instead first appeared on titlecapture.com.

After a decade and a half of marketing, user experience, and then finally entrepreneurship, we at TitleCapture have a pretty good grasp of how consumers think, especially Realtors, lenders and title agents. This has led us to believe the following, in spite of many “experts” out there.

People buy things for ONLY two reasons. It’s either NECESSITY or ESCAPISM.

So let me explain this.

Necessity is when you don’t have a smartphone, so you need one to do email, go online to communicate and search stuff when you’re one the go.

Escapism, however, is when you upgrade from an iPhone 6s to an iPhone 7. There’s really NO spec in the new phone that you would consider a necessity, unless you’re really into photos and really know your stuff, which I doubt.

Necessity is what people usually search for in an active manner. When doing the research of whether to buy a product or sign up for service they put their “thinking hat” on. This is where search-based marketing works flawlessly.

Escapism is any human’s desire to escape their current condition, which we know is mostly miserable. Proving to yourself you’re not deprecated, that you’re still relevant, escaping boredom or inability to do something or reach a goal, improving your own opinion of yourself, are some of the main drivers of escapism.

Even though, initially, a Realtor will actively seek your title agency out of necessity, even if your services continue to be good, you’re still running the risk of losing that Realtor to the newer and sexier title agency in town. And I know its already happened to you.

Why? Because it’s not about your services. It’s about his or her emotions. His or her feelings about their business as a Realtor. You have to fulfill those EMOTIONAL NEEDS to keep that real estate agent attached to your title agency.

They have to love you NOW, and they have to KEEP LOVING you years down the line.

So how do you do this? Well, the best way is to first sit down and think about their emotional needs and what brings positivity in their life. Then, you need to understand what makes them trust you. The combination of joy and trust generates the emotion called love. Read this older article here.

Being trustworthy.

Look the part. Have a professional designer take care of your logo, stationery, website (this is where TitleCapture’s website builder may come in handy), and all marketing materials and make them look like “this year”, not 10 years ago.

If you have a quoting mechanism, whether a website calculator or an actual app, make sure it’s coming from TitleCapture. And here is the reason. Our products look 10 years ahead of any other competitor out there, and we’re very objective when we say that. It’s for your benefit.

Have an interior designer take care of your office space to make it really cool and professional. Have a dress-code for your employees. Whenever you have people coming into your office, take them through a clear process (front desk, then into the office, paperwork, etc). You need to employ the power of ritual. Your branding should be smartly integrated. You have to look “presidential” in everything you do.

Deliver on your promises ALWAYS, be on time, and NEVER underquote or overestimate what you can do or how fast something will take.

Make them feel successful. Make them feel like they’re growing.

Even if their deals or bottom line don’t look that great, treat all your Realtors like A players. Moreover, make them feel like they belong in a club of top-notch Realtors. Publish success stories and address your Realtors as being members of your “Platinum Agents” or “Over Achievers Club” — you can come up with anything you want.

More than that, make sure that you periodically hold seminars and webinars where you allow them to learn new things, that would make their job easier and more profitable. Have your best Realtors speak and share their knowledge.

Be motivational, educational and entertaining at the same time to win their hearts.

Offer them new and relevant tools and technology.

We at TitleCapture obsess over user experience, design and ease of use, therefore all our tools are and will always be one step ahead anyone. If you have an agency app, that makes their life easy, when it comes to generating estimates, make sure you go with us — you’ll see for yourself why.

If you have a website, refresh those looks and boast about it. And make sure it has an easy to use quoting mechanism, such as this.

Change your office space every couple of years. Decorate it differently. Everyone loves new things.

Offer them gifts from time to time.

Look, winning someone’s heart is not an easy task. But if you manage to crack the code of how you bring joy to people’s lives and how you make them trust you, they’ll stick around for a very, very long time.

The post Critical Retention Strategies: Your Realtors are Going to Leave Your Title Agency If You Don’t Do This first appeared on titlecapture.com.

The journeys, the transformations, they had to go through, are truly inspiring. But they’re also an indication that failure is staring you in the face constantly. And it’s up to you to avoid it.

Audit yourself. Take your time. See what stage in your career you’re at and what it takes to make the next move. There are only 3 stages or roles you can play throughout your career, so let’s take a look at them.

The DOER. The Title Agent / Closer Role.

The post From Closer to Entrepreneur. Can You Beat the Odds? first appeared on titlecapture.com.

If your title agency is not doing that great, most of the time, it’s because of the human resource. You either don’t have the right people working for you, or you, as a title agency owner, are not creating the right environment for people to perform better.

Among the thousands and thousands of title agents that use TitleCapture every day, we’ve seen truly awesome people. And we’re seeing great teams, built by truly inspiring title agency owners. We talked to some of them, and a pattern seemed to emerge. I’d like to share that pattern with you.

We believe that the best performers comply with at least 2 of the 3 key elements required for a title agent to deliver consistently in the medium-long term.

The key elements are:
1. Positive Motivation
2. Accountability
3. Comfort

Let’s take a look at what each one means.

Positive Motivation

It’s either internal or external. Someone who is internally motivated to grow and do better because they, one day, want to start their own agency, and feel they need to really learn and grind, until they are ready, that is a big get for you. This kind of person is also very rare.

External motivation is when you incentivize performance by rewarding it either financially or emotionally (as an owner you really need to know how to treat people, i.e. have a high EQ). We do not recommend going overboard with the financial incentive or you’ll open up Pandora’s box.

No matter if internal or external, positive motivation is the employee’s drive to grow, to solve problems. It’s a rare occurrence, but when you have someone like this, you can consider yourself lucky. It’s the stuff your future mangers or CxOs are made of.

Accountability

Most people try to do a good job, not necessarily because they’re motivated to do a great job, but because they don’t want to fail in front of their boss, colleagues or the client. It’s more about the fear of failure than the desire to succeed. Unfortunately.

So it’s important that every team member is accountable to at least one person and that he or she can’t hide his or her mistakes. Also they need to be aware WHAT they’re accountable for and to WHOM.

It also helps if the people they’re accountable to, have a high emotional intelligence quota and they know exactly how to reinforce that sense of accountability. Too soft and the team won’t feel accountable anymore. Too hard and they’ll all walk away.

Comfort

How easy it is for them to do their job. That’s what comfort is about. No matter how motivated or accountable a person is, if they find it frustrating to do their job, it’s not gonna last for long.

So, agency owners need to always think like entrepreneurs. Meaning, look at the processes and operations that happen inside the agency and try to simplify them.

Whether we’re talking about the settlement, secure communication or plain quoting out to Realtors and Lenders, you always need to find the easiest and best way for your agents to do their job and actually love doing it.

For example, TitleCapture is widely regarded by title agents nationwide as the easiest way to create a title quote or a seller net sheet for any of their Realtors or Lenders.

So when your Realtor or Lender calls you on the phone that they need an estimate, instead of spending time creating an unnecessary file in your settlement software, generating the quote and then saving a PDF and figuring out then how to send it over, you simply log into TitleCapture, do the estimate in 10 seconds and send it over right from within the app.

We’ve definitely made the quoting part comfortable.

Another example is our website builder that helps marketing people inside an agency to create and maintain a website without having to rely on designers or developers at all. Instead of them spending months creating a website and going nuts with 3rd party people, they log into their website builder tool and get the title agency website done in 1 hour. No kidding.

Take a look at your agency employees. How many of the 3 elements do they check off the list. If the majority of them aren’t at least a 2 out of 3, you need to make some adjustments.

The post Most Title Agencies FAIL Because of This One Reason! first appeared on titlecapture.com.

90% of our awake time, we are acting on reflexes and reacting emotionally to the stimuli around us. This is a well-known fact to most marketers that get real results. The moment you understand that your marketing effectiveness depends on how well you manage to communicate EMOTIONALLY, not rationally, with your target audience, that’s the moment when all the pieces fall into place and marketing becomes easy.

Decision making is emotional, not rational. However, many of you may be scared of this “emotional” thing. Don’t be. It’s quite easy, but it requires work.

Out of many theories about human emotion, there is one that really does a great job at explaining how they work. It’s Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. According to Plutchik, there are 8 basic human emotions and certain feelings, such as “love” or “submission” is a combination of two of those basic emotions.

Take a look at the picture below and you’ll see that, according to the Wheel of Emotions, LOVE is a combination of Trust + Joy.

You can’t really have your Realtors and Lenders LOVE YOU, unless you appear trustworthy, but at the same time manage to give them that joy, that positivity they all need.

So let’s see how you can achieve all this using CONTENT MARKETING.

Step 1:  Appearing Trustworthy

There are many ways you can craft this solid, trustworthy image. You could use testimonials, real ones, videos shot of your Realtors or Lenders talking about how you managed to do get the closing done, fast and secure. Homebuyers and sellers that talk about how you managed to explain everything and provide real value.

The other way to project a trustworthy image is to tackle industry specific issues, in a very thorough, professional manner.

Also, showing your face (hence using video or photography) is preferred to hiding behind written content and just a name and job title.

Last but not least, let your audience know you’re growing, new team members are coming in, moving to a newer office, these kinds of things that show you’re progressing and doing well. Also, any new piece of technology will make you appear tech-savvy and forward-thinking, one of the sure-fire ways to generating admiration.

Step 2:  Bringing Joy

Well, the easiest thing to do to bring Joy is to simply make someone laugh. But while telling a joke will make people laugh, you need to ask yourself if this is relevant to your company. So, at the most, your joke will need to be related to something you or your Realtors and Lenders do, and not something random.

Leaving joking aside, it’s a known fact that there are 3 things that may bring joy to your Realtors and Lenders:

• their relationship with others
• their meaning and purpose
• the sense of accomplishment

If you could post nice Instagram-styled quotes with inspiring image backgrounds, that touch on these 3 topics above, and do it regularly, you’re going to become their feel-good dispenser.

You could also post articles on “how to” have a better relationship with the buyers/borrowers and sellers, their family, etc. On how to grow and feel satisfied with their work.

This is the kind of Joy you’d like to bring and associate your brand with.

The post How to make your Realtors & Lenders Love Your Title Agency first appeared on titlecapture.com.

The only mentality that works is that of “How can I provide more value to my clients, partners, affiliates, etc?” This is the ONLY way. If you provide value, you become invaluable and indispensable. Sought after, recommended, praised, hated… All the good things.

We work with SO MANY title agencies nationwide, that it allows us to see what the winners do vs what the losers do, and here’s the one thing we’ve picked up on the winners:

Title agencies that constantly get business and grow are the same ones that invest the most in providing value to each category they come in contact with.

Whether it’s Lenders, Realtors, Buyers, Sellers, these title agencies strive to provide real, tangible value. Whether it’s help in the form of insight and education for each of the listed categories, or it’s useful tools that make their life easier: such as our app, TitleCapture, among other tools, the common denominator is they “give, give, give”.

Even the time they take to make their website and marketing materials easy to use, understand and act upon, gives you a hint on how far these agencies go to provide value, in the form of saving them precious time.

TitleCapture allows you to provide that VALUE.

You have NO EXCUSE (and this is by far not a plug) to not schedule a demo and see for yourself the true value of TitleCapture.

This is what we do with our app. Try to offer tools that save your Realtors and Lenders time. That’s probably the best value you can offer right there.

Let me give you an example. We think we have the best Seller Net Sheet tool that your Realtors can access, anywhere. It’s so comprehensive that they can go and not only generate an estimate of the seller’s net proceeds in no time, but with one click, they can mail it out, they can render a compliant PDF with all the necessary details (including a signature line). It’s awesome.

But here’s the cool thing. We’re always striving to make perfect better.

This is why, we’ve just included yet another feature to this tool. Unlimited Expenses AND Credits. The way it works is the Realtor can now plug in, one after the other, ANY kind of expense and/or credit the seller may receive from ANYONE (be it the buyer or any other 3rd party).

The real value we offer YOU, the title agency, is that you’re able to stick with a product that always growing and evolving, while keeping a sharp focus on the value it provides to your agents and employees.

Be a winner. Offer value!

The post Winning Title Agencies Do This One Simple Thing and Always Get Ahead first appeared on titlecapture.com.

It should be a market that provides with plenty of opportunity for title agencies. And it does! However, some agencies catch all the fish, while others squander for leftovers, so to speak, and are threatened to go bust every month.

So here are some of the reasons why we feel that many agencies are missing out on many great deals. If you find yourself in any of these situations, don’t despair, just do something about it.

Reason #1:  You’re not visible enough

Very few agents, be it Realtors or Lenders know you. This is really NOT the time to say “Social media? Who case about that?” or “My agents don’t spend their time on LikedIn, Twitter or Facebook, why bother?”. Cause if you do that… that’s the problem right there. How would they get to know you? Where would they learn about you? Just be where their attention is.

Reason #2:  You’re not addressing your agents’ concerns

Ok, so you are somewhat visible. You are “present” on social media, but what are you TALKING about? One of your employee’s birthday? Really? Does anyone care about that? Nope. Start talking about what really matters to your Realtors or Lenders. Address their fears, address the things they’re anticipating, showcase people they trust and admire and BECOME one by putting out great advice and “how to”s. Find out what brings THEM joy, what they’re ecstatic about.

Reason #3:  Not using technology to gain a competitive edge

Face it. Everything around us is changing because of technology. We are living the second industrial revolution, yet you still insist on doing things the old way (pen and paper, Excel and email). Guess what? Everyone is doing that and if you want to grow head and shoulders above the competition you need to do things differently.

And you know what? Your agents don’t care about excuses like “Oh, but what about TRID. I can’t do that because I’m afraid it’s not going to be compliant…” Do your homework and take fear OUT of the equation. Be certain. You’ll find that you’re not all that constrained as you thought.

Do the work!

The post You’re MISSING OUT on so many closings. Here’s why! first appeared on titlecapture.com.

If you are familiar with the 80/20 principle or Pareto’s Law, you would be aware that 80% of your business is coming from 20% of your agents. In some extreme cases, 96% of business comes from only 4% of agents (but this may not be your case).

Anyways, the point is that only around 20% of your Realtors and Lenders are sending you business and that’s likely not going to change any time soon. So how do you “grow”, given this circumstance? The answer is DEPTH as opposed to WIDTH.

Meaning, instead of trying to go wide – as in trying to get business from more people, go deep and try to get more business from the same people.

So here are 3 tips on exactly how to do that.

1. Cater to those 20% of agents in person

We’ve seen this for way too long, where title agencies, when launching the TitleCapture App, which is a very empowering tool for Realtors and Lenders, were satisfied with just sending out a bulk, automated email to their entire list of Realtors / Lenders announcing the app, and that was that.

This is not the right approach as not everyone in that list carries the same weight. There are valuable assets there (assets = agents) that need to be catered to in person and invested in. They need to be invited personally to lunch-and-learns, called on the phone, walked through step by step, maybe even taken out to lunch. And this is not just for the free tools your provide to them. It’s also about your offers, training, content, etc.

If they feel like they’re valuable to you, they will keep bringing that value. It’s that simple. So take your time and go manual on them. Don’t just sit in the office because “you’re busy doing closings.”

2. Publicly honor their work

How to do that? You have so many channels at your disposal now, such as your Facebook Company Page, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. So many channels where you can post something, whenever your agent’s transactions have just closed.

Snap a photo of the buyer/seller and their agents on the closing day. Make a big deal out of it. Mention/tag them so that everyone sees who the big dogs are, who gets deals, who gets loans approved, etc. The point is they will love it.

But here’s the other benefit. The agents who know you and work with you, but are underperforming, they will look at this and feel like they could be honored too, if they would just try harder and bring more business in.

3. Give vs Ask

We’ve touched on this and will keep talking about this important point. You have to give value to your agents. On a consistent basis. Flood them with valuable content and tools (for free) that help them do more, get more deals, empowering them. Don’t ask for anything in return. It’s not going to make any difference. If you are the one that helps them, you are “top of mind”, so their business is going to come to you either way.

Having a content publishing schedule, whether it’s a blog or your YouTube channel, and whether you promote the content on your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, or all of them, is key. Posting once a week vs. once a day is not that important. However posting consistently is. Create a schedule. Stick to it.

Try to offer valuable tools (such as the TitleCapture App) once every few months and let them know they can count on these tools for help. Then post tutorials, explaining how to use the tools.

Awareness is one thing, but always being top of mind for your agents is something that requires consistency and patience… and more importantly, it requires you to put in the work.

The post How To Honor Your Best Realtors & Lenders. first appeared on titlecapture.com.

This is no news really! All title companies have this same problem. Whenever your Realtors are out and about with their buyers and sellers, your title reps are home. Why? Because Realtors usually work when buyers and sellers have TIME to see them, to see properties, and this is usually during week-ends and off-hours.

What to do?

Step 1: Use technology! Have an app!

First of all, let me tell you that there are already other, younger, hungrier, title companies out there that are already using technology to their advantage. Others need to catch up, or it will become about survival, more than growth.

Here’s the basic solution. Have a title company app that works for you 24/7 and gives your Realtors EXACTLY what they need, at their fingertips.

Let’s take an example:

Suppose Realtor Bob is with a buyer, visiting a home. It’s Saturday afternoon and the buyer is super-excited about the home and asks Bob the following question: “Hey man, I want this. How much will this cost me? I want the full breakdown!”.

Now Bob, unable to call your title company up can’t provide his buyer with the settlement costs and recording fees. He may be able to pick up a pen and a calculator and figure out the buyer’s monthly mortgage costs, but … really? How’s Bob going to look like to his customer? Old-school, that’s how.

Imagine you had a title company app and Bob pulled his iPhone tapped on your app and did a full buyer estimate with closing costs and monthly mortgage costs, the works. Then he taps again and sends the buyer an email with the estimate. Pretty neat! It could actually seal the deal right then and there…

Besides, your title company app would also offer Seller Net Sheets, regular Title Quotes (for Lenders) or Preliminary HUD forms. It’s all up to you really to increase your bottom line.

Step 2: Determine your Realtors & Lenders to have YOUR app on their phones / tablets / desktops

It’s not sufficient to just have the title company app. It’s also necessary that your agents use it. Just like in the example above, Bob needs to have the app on his phone’s homescreen.

TitleCapture makes it easy for any app user to save the app on the homescreen, therefore having your title company logo on the device they interact with almost constantly. When they start using your app, they will become addicted to it, we guarantee this. When you have them in that state, chances are you’ve won an agent for life.

The post Your Realtors are Working and You’re NOT in the Office! first appeared on titlecapture.com.