Notarize on Wednesday announced its partnership with Title365, a division of Xome, that will allow the companies to offer hybrid and fully digital residential real estate closings. As part of the collaboration, Title365 will collect, organize and retain mortgage documents via the Notarize platform.
Title365 customers will now have the option to close online through a secure video meeting – a fully digital option that Notarize predicts will shave weeks off the mortgage fulfillment process.
“As the industry evolves and demand for more efficient and secure solutions remains a high priority, our partnership with Notarize is a natural fit to help us deliver a seamless experience for our customers,” said Mike Rawls, CEO of Xome.
On Tuesday, Notarize announced it had closed on a $35 million series C round of funding in March. Since then, Notarize founder and CEO Pat Kindel said the startup has seen business surge by more than 400%.
Kindel said this latest partnership is ideal as Title365 shares Notarizes’ “commitment to using secure technology solutions to provide a world-class experience for everyone involved in the closing.”
Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Optimal Blue released its integration with Nasdaq’s Contributor API enabling the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices on Nasdaq’s Global Index Data Service platform.
Known as “OBMMI,” the platform is a compilation of 16 mortgage rate indices developed around mortgage loan products and credit-related attributes that impact mortgage pricing.
“Individuals who closely monitor the U.S. economy understand the strong correlation between the performance of the housing industry and the overall economy,” Optimal Blue said in a release. “Our timely indices offer substantial visibility into some of the critical drivers of mortgage pricing and trends over time for all GIDS data recipients, at no additional cost.”
Oliver Albers, SVP and head of data for Nasdaq’s global information services, said that while Nasdaq is already dedicated to bringing transparency to the financial ecosystem, the expansion of mortgage rate indices will provide additional clarity to an important asset class under one roof.
Finally, TowerHouse on Wednesday announced the launch of its flagship home management platform HomeEgg.com. The free platform allows U.S. homeowners the ability to track their home equity, home value trends, mortgage payoff and refi options, ROI on home improvements and other key financial information.
Daniel O’Toole, CEO and founder of TowerHouse, said HomeEgg will give homeowners unbiased financial insights across the homeownership cycle and the ability to tap into America’s $6.5 trillion in unmanaged home equity.
“Technology is stimulating new ways for homeowners to engage the marketplace which creates a unique opportunity for real estate services companies to calibrate more innovative customer retention and expansion strategies,” said Drew Meyers, founder and CEO of Geek Estate, a U.S. real estate think-tank. “HomeEgg.com is making strides toward capitalizing on this emerging proptech agenda.”
