Seeking and applying feedback has been at the center of our business for over 20 years. So it should come as no surprise that most of our service improvements or innovations are ‘customer-inspired’ and not created in a vacuum.

Such is our newest innovation – the equity app. Months ago we asked mortgage bankers of all types, especially loan officers, and realtors, what they experienced as the main sources of friction in their transactions.

We thought ‘friction’ captured what we were looking, particularly because of one of the following definitions: “the action of one surface or object rubbing against another; conflict or animosity caused by a clash of wills, temperaments, or opinions.” We heard from hundreds of respondents, and found the two most common sources of friction (and most frequently cited) were poor communication among lenders, title companies and realtors and an overall a lack of responsiveness from title providers.

So we decided to build an app for that and rolled it out in October!

Our app goes far beyond the typical title company’s apps, which tend to focus solely on obtaining an order or generating a quote. Our app does that, but more importantly, allows the user to track the progress of their transaction in real time so they are always ‘in the loop’ and even allows users to share it with their realtor partners as well as buyers and sellers. In essence it is a ‘pipeline in the palm of your hand.’

Further down in our newsletter, you will learn more about its features and benefits, but I wanted to use this space to celebrate the spirit of innovation that has driven our business. I believe our innovation-mindedness springs from our deep desire to really listen and then to apply what we are hearing. We’ve been doing this with borrowers and lenders for over the past 25 years immediately after a closing, and hold monthly meetings with most customers to talk about the prior month and learn what challenges they are then facing and figure out if we can help them. Often we do, but always we come away inspired to find or create solutions.

So when hundreds of mortgage bankers and realtors told us about the ‘friction’ they were experiencing, we found a technology partner to collaborate with (kudos here to Massachusetts based LoanFuel) and created an app that removes that friction. Read on for more about it!

And, finally, it should come as no surprise that we are already receiving feedback from app users to develop new functionality and features (Version 2 work is already underway!  -- all in keeping with our philosophy of learning from one transaction at a time; applying what we have learned; and then repeating that process.

Learn. Apply. Repeat. The secret formula for our customer-inspired innovations.