When you bring together passionate people from around our industry, you often hear similar complaints about how hard it is to make changes in “this industry.” Silk Title brought together a group for the 1st Annual RealEDGE Summit earlier this week in Boston, MA. The goal was to come away with better ways to approach our business and roundtable new ideas to progress the industry forward in 2025.
For instance, instead of asking about data, ask about how you identified tools to get the right piece of data from the customer at the right time. One example that we discussed was the trend to move more process-related tasks up the funnel and to keep systems “cleaner” as a result. What does that mean? It means getting source data from your customer or business partners that make your job easier. Often the solutions are to reduce processes and not overcomplicate it.
The hot topics of the summit were: AOLs for certain refinances, lender reaction to the NAR settlement, are there any tools that are must-haves for artificial intelligence, and the ways in which consolidation is inevitable.
AOLs are not likely to save the customer money especially once people realize the coverage is not strong. However lenders may turn to them for refinances if the competition (UWM and others) are using them.
Initially we have not seen a major shift in the real estate agent patterns and practices but more technology innovation will likely bring changes eventually.
A.I. is proven to be good at 2 things. Customer service intake or chatbots, and knowledge management / enterprise search. If you do not have your own instance for customers or team members to get answers quickly and easily, you are already behind.
Consolidation is likely to happen through several trends. One is servicer retention of refinances. Moving up the funnel with referral sources will help digitally enabled lenders to get purchase leads earlier and earlier. Both trends will add pressure on mid sized lenders to cut prices to get the loan eating away at already thin margins. The same trend in mortgage will hit title companies except even harder and faster.
Lastly, one of the biggest surprises of the day was the spike in rescissions. Lead providers are enabling brokers and lenders to get to the consumer and offer a better deal all the way up through closing. Not something I expected to be a trend but it is.
The 1st Annual RealEDGE Summit highlighted the challenges and opportunities our industry faces as we look toward 2025. By bringing together passionate professionals, the event fostered meaningful discussions on simplifying processes, leveraging data effectively, and embracing AI and technology to stay ahead in an evolving market. Key takeaways included the potential impact of AOLs on refinances, the inevitability of industry consolidation, and the increasing importance of early engagement with customers and referral sources. As the industry continues to shift, collaboration and innovation will be crucial to navigating these changes and driving progress.