Survey: Unexpected Closing Delays, Hiring Top Challenges in 2021
November 23, 2021
Dealing with unexpected closing delays while juggling increased workload with fewer employees were the biggest challenges in 2021, according to the latest State of the Title Industry survey from PropLogix.
PropLogix surveyed more than 400 title and settlement professionals performing closings in all 50 states
More than half surveyed said closing on time was the biggest day-to-day struggle, followed by juggling too many responsibilities (42%) and not enough time to complete tasks (40%).
When asked about workload, the largest percentage of respondents said they were personally handling 21-30 closings a month (18%). In 2020, just 10% of respondents were handling that many closings, with the biggest percentage in 2020 reporting handling 1-5 closings (21%).
Thanks to a busy year bolstered by a hot housing market, the top challenge for 49% of title company leaders faced is hiring and training new employees. The report also shows what pieces of title production respondents do in-house vs. outsource. According to the survey, respondents do most of the title and curative work, along with satisfaction and release tracking in house. Meanwhile, the survey showed that the majority of those surveyed outsource the various searches, municipal liens (83%), utility (75%), title (73%), permit (73%) and special assessments (72%).
In past surveys, generating new business was in the top five of overall responses, but this year’s mortgage activity likely impacted its ranking, according to PropLogix.
As far as technology goes, a majority (62%) of title professionals said they added some kind of digital closing solution to their process in response to the pandemic. Another 18% reported are in the process, while 20% said they didn’t make any changes. Notarize was the most used platform at 56%, followed by Pavaso (20%), Qualia (8%) and Snapdocs (6%). In regard to title production software, SoftPro was the most popular choice from respondents at 20%, followed by Qualia (16%), ResWare (15%) and RamQuest (12%).
“Each year we do this survey, we learn a little more about how economic and real estate market shifts are impacting title agents and how they’re adapting to these challenges,” said Becky Tassell, chief marketing officer for PropLogix. “Our goal in conducting this survey and sharing this report is to help title professionals plan for the year ahead.”
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.