FOR BROKERS: Video Closings

What to Do When...
You want to operate title and mortgage companies for a multi-office brokerage without duplicating staff.

BY ROBERT FREEDMAN
Whether you’re looking into providing ancillary services or you already offer them, it’s a challenge to provide the services cost-effectively when you operate multiple offices.

Should you place loan and title officers in each location? Or should loan and title officers move from office to office, enabling them to interact with customers and participate in closings as needed?

Before you answer, consider a third option: Centralize your loan and title professionals in one office and have them interact with your customers, including during closings, through videoconferences.

Gary Yarbrough, regional director for Realty Executives in Texas, did just that two years ago, situating a team of loan and title officers at the company’s Southlake headquarters. They participate in closings for a number of company-owned and franchised offices. Of course, they don’t participate in all deals—only those in which the customers are using Realty Executives’ mortgage finance or title services.

Given the technology involved, you can bet setting up the system won’t be cheap. In Yarbrough’s operation, startup costs totaled about $10,000 per office. That covered the television hardware and high-speed T1 lines.

But you can count on savings and better quality control over time, Yarbrough believes. A handful of mortgage and title professionals consolidated in a single office can do the work of a number of duplicative staff at each office, and it’s easier to ensure uniform work quality. “Your team is smaller but more highly trained,” says Yarbrough.

In Yarbrough’s operation, 15 mortgage officers and seven title professionals handle closings for 410 associates working out of 16 offices around the state.

Yarbrough posts a marketing representative in each office to attend the closings. The reps, who are licensed as notaries, facilitate the closings and witness as documents are signed.

With the reps as facilitators, the sales associates who handled the transaction can attend the closings or not, as they see fit, giving them flexibility to concentrate on more value-producing activities, such as prospecting, says Yarbrough.

Loan and title officers and the buyers and sellers each have copies of all documents at a closing. Once buyers and sellers sign the documents, the notary scans and e-mails them to the loan and title officers. The signed originals are also sent by overnight mail to the title officer.

To find videoconference providers, search the Internet for the term “videoconferencing.” Yarbrough installed Polycom 323 TV monitors and video hardware. And he recommends investing in sufficient bandwidth to ensure fast video transmission. Look for bandwidth capable of handling at least 384 kilobits of data per second. Yarbrough also recommends installing T1 rather than DSL data transmission lines. You can typically obtain bandwidth service directly from the videoconferencing provider.

Since the launch, some 1,500 transactions—about a third of all Realty Executives transactions in the state—have been closed using Yarbrough’s videoconferencing equipment—and the reaction from buyers has been positive. “The customers love it,” says Yarbrough.

Thanks to the favorable reviews, other corporate-owned Realty Executives offices are looking to put their offices on the air, too.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
REALTOR VIP^® Alliance Program partner Conference Plus Inc. offers video, audio, and Web conferencing services. For more information, click here.