How do title agents ensure they have the right vendor partner?

The key things to look for before you get on board.

As a title agency, have you ever felt stuck in a business partnership which just adds no value? While bridging the gap between the client and partner relationship can often be difficult to achieve in our industry; yet once established, the payoff will be great especially in terms of increased performance, greater client satisfaction & more importantly a much-improved bottom line.

It is critical to maintain a partner relationship instead of a supplier or vendor relationship which is primarily transactional while the former adds more value specially in your business strategy.

While it’s not a compulsion for you to get associated with a partner to get your work done, but with the increasing volatility in the mortgage industry and with the ever changing client requirements, it becomes imperative for you to have a great strategic partner who can work as an extension of your team and continuously provide you with the latest and the best in technology platforms and transformational solutions to help you get the edge over your competition.

No matter what size of business you lead- it may be a small niche operation to a large scale established organization, there is a likelihood that you will need to rely on some external expertise from people who are working with your peers, to giveyou the strategic advantage and bring about enhanced efficiency in your business operations.

While making the decision to have a partnership is a big one, it is equally critical for you to choose the right partner because after all, the success or the failure of your operation, your brand and the ease of doing business depends upon that key decision.

Here are some of the key points to consider in your business partner before you make that commitment:

  • Industry / Domain Expertise: While it may seem obvious, but it is extremely important for you to look for the kind of expertise your preferred partner brings in, right from the experience of the top management all the way down to the skill set of each individual working for them. People with decades of experience in the mortgage and title industry will be able to drive that extra bit of efficiency your operations may need. After all you are partnering with them because they have carved out a niche for themselves with their experience and skill set.

  • Customer first approach: No matter whether your operations are small or big, you always look for a partner who shares the same commitment / vision of delivering exceptional customer service at all timesand stick to their commitment. Your business partner should be available for you anytime you need the right strategic inputs. You may not find everything you look for in a single partner, but you should make sure that you get exactly what you are promised at engagement and nothing less. Having a thorough due diligenceat this stage is extremely critical for a long lasting and stress-free partnership.

  • The right technology platforms & certifications: This could be the key to identifying the right partnership. In this era, when the mortgage and title industry is seeing some tectonic changes in technology adoption, your preferred partner should be able to bring the latest and the greatest in technological innovation to the table. Be it a web portal to help get your title searches done faster or a SaaS based solution to help get post-closings done at breakneck speed while ensuring complete transparency and accuracy. These are the things your partner should talk to you about. How they are customizing a solution basis your requirement, how they are enhancing AI to meet your business goals. Also, another critical element is the kind of certifications they have. Being SOC II compliant, ISO certified are some key metrics to look for.

  • Having a robust BCP plan in place: COVID-19 has shown us that businesses are prone to a wide variety of disasters and therefore having a robust BCP in place is critical to ensure zero to minimal impact in business operations. This is another key metric you should be looking for when you are looking to partner with someone. Do they have adequate BCP in place? Will they be able to adopt to a hybrid working model achieve 0 down time? After all, not having a robust BCP in place could lead to lack of confidence among your customers, diminish your brand value and deprive you of any competitive advantage apart from having significant financial impact.


We at Avanze group completely understand that choosing the right partner is a critical step for your business operations to succeed and hence make sure that we have right domain experts with decades of experience in title and mortgage industry coupled with the latest technology platforms while ensuring that we are SOC II compliant, and ISO certified. To know more about our solutions email us at solutions@avanzegroup.com

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