The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s TECH100 award are now open through Friday, December 23, 2022. Click here to nominate your organization.
Each year, the TECH100 awards recognize the 200 most influential tech companies in mortgage and real estate that are working to improve the housing industry through tech innovation.
Among this impressive list of submissions, companies like 2022 TECH100 honoree Voxtur are working to improve the entire lending lifecycle. Last year, Voxtur was selected as a TECH100 mortgage honoree for its work in empowering the real estate industry to become faster, more efficient and more cost-effective than ever before.
“There is no stopping progress, especially if that progress is for the benefit of consumers,” said Jim Albertelli, Voxtur CEO. “The promises of technology have largely been lost in the mortgage industry and little has been done to reduce costs for homebuyers.”
Last summer, Voxtur bought mortgage servicing rights trading platform Blue Water Financial Technologies. The company also made headlines in October for its decision to offer an Attorney Opinion Letter product for VA direct and VA-backed home loans as a compliant alternative to title insurance.
HousingWire reached out to Albertelli to learn more about Voxtur’s current product offerings and see what’s to come for the organization in 2023.
HousingWire: Voxtur is one of the few companies offering an attorney opinion letter product right now. As the American Land Title Association and some members of congress have taken a harsh stand against AOLs, how do you think this will impact the adoption and overall future of your AOL product?
Jim Albertelli: There is no stopping progress, especially if that progress is for the benefit of consumers. The promises of technology have largely been lost in the mortgage industry and little has been done to reduce costs for homebuyers. Fannie Mae and others have identified closing costs as a barrier to homeownership and our Voxtur AOL title alternative immediately and directly reduces those costs, potentially opening the door to homeownership for more Americans. To date, we’ve gained substantial momentum in the adoption of Voxtur AOL by lenders and investors and do not anticipate any impact from the efforts of third parties that do not want to see disruption in the title insurance industry.
HousingWire: As a real estate tech firm you are involved in many different areas of the real estate industry from the MSR market, to title insurance alternatives and you even own an appraisal management company. Is there any other part of the real estate ecosystem that you are looking at expanding into?
Jim Albertelli: We aim to improve every critical touchpoint in the lending lifecycle. As we continue to deploy innovative data analytics solutions, we create new opportunities in new markets. Most recently, our acquisition of Blue Water has placed us squarely in the capital markets arena, which allows us to provide dynamic and agile technology solutions to every subset of mortgage finance from origination to servicing to secondary market trading.
HousingWire: What are some of the latest tech innovations or capabilities that Voxtur is most excited about for 2023?
Jim Albertelli: We are excited to continue our mission of digitizing the lending lifecycle with a multi-faceted growth strategy that includes the enhancement of our technology platforms and growth of our industry expertise and leadership. Most recently, we integrated the digital asset capabilities of the Blue Water platform with our expansive data repository and innovative analytic solutions to create a sophisticated new platform. We will continue to build upon these capabilities to further streamline mortgage trading. This provides us with the opportunity to diversify and expand existing revenue streams from the primary mortgage market, while adding new revenue streams in the secondary market.
