REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRweb | March 21, 2023
Qualia, the leading digital real estate closing platform, today announced the launch of Qualia Atlas, a revolutionary new addition to their cloud-based title, escrow, and closing solutions. Atlas, which combines title and escrow production and vendor management along with client and homebuyer connectivity, is built with newly developed advanced configurability and automations to manage the unique complexity of national enterprise operations.
“We originally launched Qualia almost 10 years ago with the belief that a modern technology infrastructure could fundamentally transform homebuying into a simple, secure, and enjoyable experience for everyone involved,” said Nate Baker, Qualia’s Co-founder and CEO. “Atlas is the culmination of several years of development to provide a unified closing platform for enterprise title companies.”
Atlas includes a suite of newly released enterprise-critical functionality and services:
Data access via an enhanced API for integration with internal systems such as CRM, analytics, and accounting tools
Order opening automations to assist teams with high transaction volumes
Privacy and permissioning controls for multi-branch or agency operations
Sophisticated tasking capabilities to support centralized operations functions
A suite of anti fraud tools
In addition, Atlas provides companies with a standardized integration layer that is easy to manage across all transaction parties, eliminating the need for rigid custom-built integrations. This integration layer enables title companies to efficiently partner with their lenders, real estate agents, vendors, consumers, and underwriters. These integrations automate title & escrow companies’ workflows and the dependent workflows for their transaction partners. By providing enterprise-critical functionality and a standardized integration layer, Atlas enables the "connected transaction." This groundbreaking technology streamlines real estate closings from end-to-end for all parties involved in the transaction.
About Qualia
Qualia is the leading comprehensive digital closing platform used by title, escrow, real estate and mortgage lending professionals to transform home buying and selling into simple, secure, enjoyable experiences for millions of homeowners each year. The Qualia platform provides a secure system of record for the real estate settlement ecosystem through a suite of workflow, accounting, reporting, and collaboration products as well as its expansive product and service integrations. Qualia is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and has offices in Austin, TX, and Superior, CO. For more information on Qualia, visit http://www.qualia.com. Contact: Matt Kaufman, press@qualia.com
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | May 10, 2023
FirstClose, Inc., a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced today that America First Credit Union selected its FirstClose Equity™ solution to provide members access to a digital end-to-end home equity product that delivers a best-in-class experience and dramatically cuts down loan application approval times.
Industry analysis shows U.S. homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity increase by a total of $1 trillion since the fourth quarter of 2021, a gain of 7.3% year over year. While home equity lending is experiencing rapid growth, it continues to be a friction-filled process driving demand for a solution.
America First is a Utah-based credit union with 120 branches across Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and New Mexico, serving more than 1.3 million members, making it the 5th largest credit union in the country in terms of membership. Using FirstClose Equity, America First will be able to reduce the time to close from initial inquiry to as little as one week, versus the industry average of 45 to 60 days.
"Our focus is always on our members, and our partnership with FirstClose supports our goal of delivering the best member and processor experience possible," said Austin Coleman, Senior Vice President of Mortgage Lending at America First Credit Union.
FirstClose Equity makes home equity a low-friction lending experience that consumers have come to expect. Consumers have one experience via a private labeled POS and borrower portal. The application process itself is extremely streamlined. With the member's consent, FirstClose Equity collects and verifies asset and employment information. Even the few pieces of information that the member is required to provide can be uploaded through the platform. The decisioning engine delivers a firm decision on CLTV and pricing in approximately 5 to 7 minutes.
"Because we absorb many of the fees for our members, efficiency at every stage of the origination process takes on greater importance, and automation on both sides of the transaction is key," said Coleman. "Through our integration with FirstClose, loan officers, underwriters, and processors never have to leave their LOS, which greatly increases our efficiency with home equity lending."
Founded in 2000, FirstClose offers lenders a user-friendly home equity technology solution to lend more efficiently, faster, and at scale. "We are thrilled to be trusted with such an important role of helping fulfill America First Credit Union's mission to provide their members with a simple and streamlined home equity experience," said Tedd Smith, Chief Executive Officer of FirstClose. "We are the category leader and are committed to advancing our technology so our customers, like America First, can focus on what matters most - their member's experience and improving their bottom line."
About America First Credit Union
Founded in 1939, and with a long-standing history of exceptional member service, America First Credit Union has become one of the largest, most stable, and most progressive credit unions in the country, and has remained a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative financial institution. Today, America First has 120 locations, and is the eighth largest credit union in assets in the United States with over $17 billion, and the fifth largest credit union in membership in America with more than 1.3 million members. For more information, visit americafirst.com.
About FirstClose
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, FirstClose, Inc. provides fintech solutions to HELOC and mortgage lenders nationwide. The company's mission is to increase profitability and reduce cost for mortgage lenders. FirstClose makes this possible through offering systems and relationships that enable lenders to assist the lender's borrowers more effectively, reduce closing costs, and ultimately shorten closing times. For more information, visit firstclose.com.
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REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT, ASSET MANAGEMENT
Businesswire | June 01, 2023
Cross River Bank (“Cross River”), a technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, today announced its strategic partnership with paymints.io, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to for real estate payment transactions. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in transforming the way stakeholders in real estate transactions handle and control their funds. Initially launched with two payment rails, ACH (including same day ACH), and wires, the partnership gives stakeholders unprecedented transparency and security to the entire payment process to further the mission of eliminating paper checks and reducing fraud for partners and customers.
"As a leader in modernizing payments, we are thrilled to join forces with paymints.io to transform the real estate payment landscape," said Keith Vander Leest, Head of Payments at Cross River. "By combining our expertise in payments, compliance, and financial technology, with the paymints.io team’s deep expertise in real estate, property and title insurance, we are advancing the way funds are handled in real estate transactions and ensuring a seamless and secure experience for all parties involved. It’s niche B2B verticals, like real estate, that have outdated payment processes which are ripe for innovation. These verticals are where Cross River works with partners, like paymints.io, to drive better, more efficient payment experiences."
The partnership between Cross River and paymints.io provides stakeholders involved in real estate transactions - including buyers, sellers, agents, and escrow holders - with a revolutionary payment platform that enables them to move money swiftly, conveniently, and in line with their individual preferences. By leveraging Cross River’s API technology with the paymints.io platform, this innovative partnership offers streamlined payments, expanded payment options, and enhanced visibility—at all touch points, from earnest money deposits to funding and disbursements. Stakeholders on the paymints.io platform can track funds in real-time, verify transactions, and enjoy a heightened sense of security and trust throughout the entire real estate transaction journey.
“The innovation of digital payments for real estate is still at the early stages,” says Jason Doshi, CEO of paymints.io. “And our partnership with Cross River enables us to continue to build the modern payment experience the real estate industry so desperately needs to make the transfer of funds as safe, convenient, and secure as possible.”
The innovative partnership between Cross River and paymints.io represents a groundbreaking step towards modernizing real estate transactions, ultimately delivering a superior experience for all involved parties. The partners look forward to adding additional payment capabilities in the future for access to all payment rails within a single platform.
About Cross River
Cross River provides technology infrastructure powering the future of financial services. Leveraging its proprietary real-time banking core, Cross River delivers innovative and scalable embedded payments, cards, and lending solutions to millions of consumers and businesses. Cross River is backed by leading investors and serves the world’s most essential fintech and technology companies. Together with its partners, Cross River is reshaping global finance and financial inclusion. Member FDIC. Find out more at www.crossriver.com.
About Paymints.io
Paymints.io is a venture-backed, SOC 2 Type II certified, digital payments solution focused on elevating the payment experience in a real estate transaction. Automating payments and modernizing the B2B and B2B2C experience allows real estate industry participants to reduce its dependency on the costly, manual process of handling and processing paper checks. The platform offers a variety of payment solutions including earnest money deposit, cash to close as well as client and vendor disbursements securely - without having to expose and share account numbers and routing information. In 2022, paymints.io was awarded HousingWire's Tech100 Real Estate Award for the second consecutive year and in 2023 awarded the Electronic Transaction Association Top 10 Payments ISV. For more information on paymints.io, visit http://www.paymints.io.
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