About

National Title Solutions is a title insurance and closing services provider with offices in Illinois and Florida that manages nearly one thousand files each month. Its operations span multiple states and provide services for lenders, brokers, businesses, and individuals. Before switching to Qualia, National Title Solutions’ closing process was disjointed and clunky. Challenges with its previous title production software made it difficult to scale its business and manage vendors.

Ray Manuel, VP of Operations at National Title Solutions, describes his team’s previous title production software as “prehistoric.” National Title Solutions now utilizes many parts of the Qualia platform, including Core, Connect, Marketplace, and Reconciliation Service. By adopting Qualia as its title and escrow software, National Title Solutions estimates it saved over 160 hours of labor each month, streamlined its operations, and was able to offer a differentiated closing experience for its clients.

Challenge

As a growing business, National Title Solutions found that its previous title production software did not fit its needs for efficient and scalable workflows. Most tasks were completed manually and involved several fragmented systems across client communication, vendor management, and reconciliations. Its legacy software significantly delayed order processing time and inhibited its ability to grow. National Title Solutions knew it needed a modern software solution to handle order volume and to become a national company.

Lack of Tools to Communicate Effectively with Closing Parties

Due to limited communication tools on its legacy software system, National Title Solutions had difficulty sharing and getting information back from various closing parties. Manuel recalled that “we didn’t have a secure and easy way to communicate with our customers.” This lack of transparency resulted in clients and other stakeholders feeling in the dark about their closings, which increased frustration and confusion around the closing process.

Inefficiencies Around Managing Vendors

Before switching to Qualia, National Title Solutions’ vendor management process was cumbersome. As the company scaled, it lacked a reliable system to discover and vet new high-quality vendors for closing services. National Title Solutions manually collected data and vendor performance reporting from various sources and added it to a spreadsheet, making the vendor performance tracking process time-consuming and inefficient.

In addition to time spent tracking performance, National Title Solutions also spent too much time managing vendors and tracking the progress of orders. The team was calling and emailing each vendor individually to submit orders, check in on orders, and manage invoices. The decentralization of vendor services created system fatigue (as processors jumped from email to workflow software to phone) and often resulted in miscommunication and delays with vendors.

Before Qualia, we would have to Google search vendors and if they did a good job, we had a full sheet of vendors that we added to over the years. If they did a good job or if they weren’t around, we would put a star next to their name or cross them out.

Ray Manuel, VP of Operations at National Title Solutions

Difficulty Staying Audit-Ready

ALTA recommends that title & escrow companies reconcile their bank accounts daily. Previously, National Title Solutions used a third-party reconciliation service that only performed reconciliations monthly, adding to existing stress around remaining audit-ready. To get status updates on exceptions or old payoffs that hadn’t cleared, National Title Solutions’ team often needed to call its third-party reconciliation provider instead of receiving automatic daily updates.

Solution

When National Title Solutions switched to Qualia, it adopted many parts of the Qualia platform (Qualia Core, Connect, Marketplace, and Reconciliation Service) to streamline its operations and grow its business. Qualia centralizes communication for all the various closing parties into one system so that stakeholders can work from a single, secure space for greater efficiency and collaboration during the closing process.

Transitioning to new software that acts as a system of record can be challenging, but Manuel said that the Qualia Customer Success Team was always there to help during the onboarding process and after his team was up and running on Qualia. Now that National Title Solutions is well established on Qualia, Manuel requires his team to complete certain tracks of Qualia University for professional development and to make sure that his employees are getting the most out of Qualia.

Automated and Instant Client Communication

National Title Solutions now uses Qualia Connect to make communication more efficient, increase transparency around the closing process, and mitigate security risks. Looking back, Manuel said that he wished he and his team had taken advantage of Qualia Connect right away, saying that “communication was difficult without Connect, and it helps us provide better service for our clients.”

With Dynamic Workflows in Qualia Core, National Title Solutions can set up automations tied to Connect to instantly send clients and other stakeholders updates about the status of a closing when different milestones are completed. It also offers clients a single, secure space to access and exchange documents at any time. By leveraging Qualia Connect, National Title Solutions transformed its communication and ensured that its team met service level agreements with lenders and real estate brokerages every time.

Nobody is ever waiting for us anymore. The way that we can communicate with all parties and tailor communication to what the customer wants is a game-changer.

Ray Manuel, VP of Operations at National Title Solutions

Fully Integrated Vendor Management

National Title Solutions uses Qualia Marketplace to scale its vendor operations and reduce turn time per file using automations. Its team quickly sources new, high-quality vendors, even in unfamiliar territories, and tracks key vendor performance metrics such as turn times, quality of work, and pricing trends. The National Title Solutions team saves time and clicks because Marketplace vendors are fully integrated with title agents’ day-to-day workflows.

Before Qualia, we would get a title commitment from our vendor in an email, and then have to copy-paste the information into our old software.

Ray Manuel, VP of Operations at National Title Solutions

Qualia Marketplace provides a “one stop shop” for Manuel and his team to engage with a variety of vendors, from title search to notaries. National Title Solutions’ title agents can mark vendors as “preferred” within Qualia when a particular vendor does quality work. These preferred vendors are then automatically suggested to processors who are working on a similar file type in the future.

Daily Reconciliations and Automated Accounting Reports to Stay Audit-Ready

To scale its reconciliations and stay audit-ready, National Title Solutions now uses Qualia Reconciliation Service, meaning that its team is paired with expert Reconciliation Specialists who research and manage daily exceptions, perform daily reconciliations, and complete end-of-month three-way reconciliations. Qualia’s Significant Audit Findings Executive Reports (SAFER) are generated automatically in Qualia and alert National Title Solutions of any audit red flags, including uncleared credits or debits as well as exceptions. As National Title Solutions continues to scale its operations nationally, Qualia’s Reconciliation Service and ALTA best practice compliant escrow accountant team give them peace of mind by reducing the risk of fraud and helping them remain audit-ready.

Results

Once National Title Solutions transitioned to Qualia, it saw a significant reduction in the amount of time it takes to process closings and manage its business. Manuel explained that switching to Qualia helped his team dramatically reduce the average time per file. Not only did National Title Solutions provide instant answers to client questions, but it was able to reduce time spent on tasks significantly. For instance, Manuel's team decreased the time spent processing closing disclosures by over 70% with Qualia.

For National Title Solutions, these minutes add up to an average of 160 hours saved each month. When discussing the time-savings from switching to Qualia, Manuel said that “it's not just seconds and the minutes that we're saving.” National Title Solutions saves hours of work, which improves its employee experience and allows its team to get ahead on the next day's closings.

In assessing the Qualia platform as a whole, Manuel recommends taking advantage of all of Qualia’s products, explaining that it's more than the sum of its parts. By adopting Qualia, National Title has found efficiencies to quickly scale operations into new regions while delivering an exceptional closing experience for its clients.

In order to get the best benefit of Qualia, you should use all aspects of it. You can dip your toe into Qualia, but you’ll be missing out on so much.

Ray Manuel, VP of Operations at National Title Solutions