TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1484258
18 | M R EP O RT COVER STORY And I think one of the biggest things that you have to focus on as a lender is the lack of closing protection. The title opinion is only about the title side of the business. The closing is where the most risk is. That's where the money transfers hands. Underwriters have issued closing protection for lenders in con- junction with their title policies, which protects against fraud regarding the signatures on the documents and the handling of funds, which has nothing to do with title. It has everything to do with the closing piece of it. Lenders can't just look at the policy itself as a difference, they've got to evaluate that part of it too. What are the risks I am inherit- ing on the settlement side of the house? The other piece of it is the cost. There's been this misnomer put out there that the title insurance on a lender's policy is extremely expensive. It's not expensive at all, actually, especially on a refinance. If you have the right providers, they have access to bundled rates for centralized lenders who can distribute volume nationally. Total fees, including owner's and lender's policies, plus closing are typically about $800 on a $250,000 loan, or less. Go to an attorney, try to get them to settle, and to provide the right title opinion for less than $800. I challenge you to do that. The federal government is putting a ton of pressure on the business, the industry, the GSEs, and the mortgage lenders, in general, to improve a low-income consumer's ability to get into a home. But the attorney title opin- ion doesn't do that at all. It makes no impact. And if anything, it creates additional risk for the consumer, because the consumer would be losing their right to de- fense and reimbursement in most claims cases. What are the primary headwinds you're facing as we approach 2023, and how are you working to surmount them? T he The headwinds are the headwinds of the interest rate environment. When you see MBA come out and say the forecast is $2 trillion or less next year, coming from a market that was $4.4 trillion in 2021, that is an enormous headwind. But I think it's also an opportunity, right? Because right now is the time, we believe, [to focus on efficiencies]. Over the last couple of years, everyone was too busy to get anything done from a produc- tivity and efficiency standpoint. Efficiency-wise, lenders were just drinking from the fire hose, taking it in and trying to get everything out that they could. Now is the opportunity to use different products and different processes, and implement what we're calling the "base hits," the small wins that can make you more efficient. What are some examples of what you're focusing on during this time of "base hits?" I n 2020, we implemented our national instant title engine, and that's focused on refi. So. we're actually in beta right now to move that into the purchase envi- ronment as well. With purchase for title, you have to search back longer in the history. You have to go back a couple more owners, and so data access becomes an issue. But as data becomes more and more digital, these engines are usable for purchase as well. Another example is the use of digital closings. We are helping several lenders and servicers embrace a true full digital closing experience. And on the ap- praisal side, the implementation of our proprietary RemoteVal™ technology from our sister company INCENTER Appraisal Management is completely chang- ing the process and timeframes for how the lending world gets their property valuations. What are the big wins you're most proud of accomplishing in 2022? I think everyone understands that origination costs in our marketplace are too high and they're all looking at creative ways to address that. This industry, historically, has been afraid to implement broad changes to the way we do things. Because origination costs have skyrock- eted, the federal government, the GSEs, and lenders are looking for better things and are more willing to implement changes that they wouldn't implement in the past. With the use of technologies and processes that we are bringing to the table, and with the brain trust of our leadership team at INCENTER, we can definitively say we are helping the lending industry to streamline operations and evolve. We're going back and looking at this wave of business that everyone had to ingest in 2021. What did we do wrong and how do we do it better the next time? And I think that's what I'm excit- ed about. The conversations that we're having with the community at large, the industry at large, are different than in the past. There are a lot of folks now who are coming in with that attitude of, "Let's make this right the next time." Katie Brewer, COO, Selene Finance What are the primary headwinds you're facing as we approach 2023, and how are you working to surmount them? T he rising interest rates are impacting all lines of business, and everyone within the mortgage and real estate space is in a similar situation. So we're asking ourselves, how do we differentiate? How do we adjust our strategy, pivot, and ensure that we're focusing on the right "The federal government is putting a ton of pressure on the business, the industry, the GSEs, and the mortgage lenders, in general, to improve a low-income consumer's ability to get into a home." —Nathan Bossers, President, Boston National Title