Blog
Equity National Title is a company that's dedicated not only to awesome experiences and community involvement, but to education as well. We maintain this blog so that we can be a valuable resource to homeowners, lenders and realtors.
By: Equity National August 2, 2017 Title A Closer Look
My Lines - 28th Anniversary Edition
Last month – August 21st – marked Equity’s 28th anniversary. Three years ago, to celebrate our anniversary, we challenged ourselves to complete twenty-five acts of service. This continued for twenty-six and twenty-seven, with the acts ranging from volunteering at the Amos House, participating in First Book Campaign and The Walking Bus, and any other event that a staff member brings to our attention that fits the qualification. When tal...
By: Equity National August 2, 2017 Title A Closer Look
Does it make any difference at closing if your t...
When it comes to choosing a company to do business with, there are few options laid out in front of you. Almost all of them (excluding Multinational for simplicity’s sake) can fit under the header of either ‘Local’ or ‘National.’ And so the decision process starts there. But the questions do not. You start wondering what the difference is between the two. Aren’t they both providing the same service? Is there even any difference a...
By: Equity National July 17, 2017 Mortgage A Closer Look
My Lines
Over twenty years ago, when we were still starting out, I made a point of visiting our customers to sit down and talk about what Equity could do to make the experience better for them. “Just don’t mess it up,” they said. I had to take a moment to be sure that I heard right, that there was no more to be said. But that was it. The customer was coming into the closing with an almost premeditated sense of defeat. As much of a surprise as this w...
By: Equity National Title April 26, 2017 Mortgage A Closer Look
In the borrower’s own words: What I really wa...
One of the many beneficial elements of taking an ongoing survey of recent borrowers is our ability to measure not only the borrower’s closing experience, but her overall experience as well. As we saw the last time we checked the data (“In the client’s own words…what borrowers really want from closing experiences.”), consumers identify several key, positive traits among their expectations when entering the often-confusing labyrinth of th...
By: Equity National Title April 20, 2017 Title A Closer Look
Creating Informed Borrowers...a confused client ...
Even for the best prepared and most professional lenders or closing professionals, the closing table can be a chaotic and confusing place. So it’s not hard to understand how a settlement feels for many consumers. The last-minute nature of the document preparation, although usually not the fault of the lender or the title company (in some cases, it’s not really anyone’s fault, to be honest) and the enormous host of legal requirements (...
By: Equity National Title April 11, 2017 Borrowers Why Feedback Matters
A Word from Jim: A Brief History of Borrower Sat...
Years ago, while discussing the insights into borrower behavior we were deriving from our borrower feedback, I was encouraging a mortgage company CEO to consider doing his own surveying, and I can still remember his reply. He looked at me, took off his glasses for emphasis, and said: ‘Jim, I am in the mortgage business, not the customer satisfaction business.’ On some level, I understood what he meant. The word “profession” brings to m...
By: Equity National Title April 11, 2017 Elcosings A Closer Look
On Unicorns; Millennials; e-Mortgages and a Futu...
Lately, we’ve welcomed back an old friend to the mortgage industry’s trade publications. When we’re not seeing headlines about deregulation; rising interest rates; the future of the CFPB or GSE reform, we’re seeing…the return of the e-mortgage. If you’ve been around the title or mortgage industry for a while, you know that this is a topic that pops up every five or six years. In the past, it tended to be limited to confere...
By: Equity National Title April 4, 2017 Borrowers A Closer Look
In the client’s own words: what borrowers say...
Some like to talk about the importance of a good first impression. But what about a strong final impression? When it comes to mortgage lending, the closing or settlement can leave a powerful memory (good or bad) in the mind of the borrower. Unfortunately, having a bad experience seems to have more impact on repeat business than having a good experience. One recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey, as reported in Nationa...
By: Equity National March 21, 2017 Mortgage A Closer Look
Vendor Management--What's your title company doi...
We’re going to take a little break from the numbers for a moment to talk a bit about third and fourth party liability. Vendor management. By now, most lenders understand that the CFPB has proclaimed it’s holding them accountable for the actions of their “service providers.” It’s probably why your vetting and oversight policy manual has quintupled in size in the last year. (Wait. You don’t have a manual…? ...
By: Equity National Title March 13, 2017 Mortgage A Closer Look
Looking back, was TRID worth it to the consumer?
As we mentioned earlier (Let's put TRID to the test), we thought it might be time to ask the borrower—the intended beneficiary of the CFPB’s new TRID rule—if that rule had, indeed, made a positive effect upon their home loan experiences. You’ll recall that TRID was engineered by the CFPB, primarily, to prevent surprises (especially as to the settlement fees) at the closing table by driving better communication and collaboration...