DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/1187602
ยป VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 93 ity and reduces costs," said Scott Shleifer, Partner, Tiger Global. In less than two years, Qualia has more than tripled its market share, growing from 5% of all U.S. real estate transactions in March 2018 to more than 15% today. e platform currently processes more than one million transactions per year, and Qualia has completed closings across 82% of U.S. counties. Notably, Qualia was recently selected as the system of record for Iowa Title Guaranty, the state agency with exclusive authority to provide title cover- age for Iowa real property. "One of the biggest points of friction in buying a home remains the sheer amount of paperwork and coordination that is involved in the closing. Our goal is to help real estate professionals and homebuy- ers navigate the complexities of the real estate closing process by bringing everyone onto one shared, easy-to-use, and secure platform," said Nate Baker, CEO and Co- Founder of Qualia. "We're excited to have the support of our world-class investors to make this happen." Qualia empowers users across the entire real estate ecosystem, bringing together parties like the buyer, seller, title agent, es- crow officer, lender, and real estate agent. e company's partners include companies purchasing and selling real estate, financial institutions, and title insurance underwrit- ers. "Qualia has one of the most impres- sive retention rates that we've seen across SaaS companies," said Tyler Sosin, Partner at Menlo Ventures. "Qualia has a mar- ket opportunity to become the backbone infrastructure powering the digitization of real estate." Who's to Blame for Affordability Issues in San Francisco? Analysis from e Hill suggests that while tech giants such as Apple, Micro- soft, and Facebook are committing billions of funds toward affordable housing, it is the lack of government response that "war- rants the brunt of our ire." e piece, authored by Ethan Blevins, says many blame the tech industry for San Francisco's affordability woes. Blevins says that between 2012 and 2018 rent rose 29.5%, while supply grew by 2.8%. "e cities receiving San Franciscan refugees built more housing to accommo- date this influx than San Francisco built to house its own people," he said. "at problem sits squarely on the shoulders of the government." According to e Hill, the problem is two-fold. Urban growth boundaries prevent growth from expanding outward, and single-family zoning, minimum lot sizes, and density limits prevent "common sense increases" in supply like duplexes in residential areas. Second, residents pressure local gov- ernments to stop development and avoid regulatory reform. "e people who stand to benefit from stopping growth are a well-organized group of elites with a lot at stake, while the benefits of growth, though substantial, are spread among everyone," e Hill stated. "It's not hard to guess who shows up more often at city hall to crack their knuckles." Apple released a $2.5 billion plan earlier this month to help address the hous- ing shortage and affordability issues in California. COLORADO Covius Announces Integration with Clarifire to Streamline Loss Mitigation Covius, a Colorado-based provider of technology-enabled services to the finan- cial service industry, announced that it is integrating its full suite of loss mitigation services with Clarifire, a business process automation company. e integration will allow CLARIFIRE workflow users to seamlessly order most third-party products and services needed as part of any loss mitigation workout strategy, all through a single interface and a single vendor relationship. Joint clients will be able to seamlessly access and order the full range of Covius credit, valuation, tax, HOA, title, and loan modification documents services directly from their Clarifire dashboard, at the click of a button or have CLARIFIRE sys- temically place the orders for them. Data from these services will flow directly into CLARIFIRE's loss mitigation waterfall engine, including information used to pre- pare title and borrower verifications. When a workout decision has been reached, users will be able to create compliant documents that Covius will print and deliver through integrated carriers and/or electronically for traditional ink or e-signature. "is centralized integration comple- ments our dynamic, cohesive, connected secure application and adds further value to our joint clients that are progressively seeking more and more automation," said Jane Mason, CEO of Clarifire. "Covius' expertise in the loan modification process and its full range of products and services will deliver greater efficiencies and scal- ability to our clients." Pete Pannes, Head of Servicing and Capital Markets Solutions at Covius said, "Servicers are looking for fast, accurate, and defendable loss mitigation recom- mendations that offer better outcomes for both borrowers and investors. Combining Clarifire's workflow solutions with Covius' suite of tech-enabled offerings will give them a 'one-stop' access and eliminate the need for multiple application programming interfaces." Colorado was named by ATTOM Data Solutions as being one of the states with the lowest rates of zombie foreclosures. KNOW THIS