For this month’s Employee Spotlight, we met with Abby Larsen to discuss her leading the Client Success team at Spruce. Abby has been a part of our team for three years, making sure our partners—whether recently onboarded or in a long-term relationship with Spruce—have a seamless, headache-free experience.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how title and closing services are priced and charged nationwide. In order to maintain focus, we’ll set aside government charges (transfer taxes and recording fees set by the applicable jurisdiction) and title insurance costs (premiums, endorsements and other charges controlled by the underwriter) to hone in on those charges within the discretion of the title and/or escrow company.

Inaugural SFR Industry Awards Honors Top Companies

It’s a question I get asked pretty frequently: how did you end up in title? We often joke that no one dreams of working within title insurance–kids dream of being astronauts, teachers, or firefighters–but it’s less about our path to title, and why we stay that really matters.

It’s no secret that 2022 has been a tumultuous and unpredictable year for the SFR industry. As we enter Q4, it is more important than ever for investors to control transaction costs. This means ensuring they are both predictable and competitively priced. In most cases, the solution calls for streamlining operations through internal process changes, in addition to forming new and stronger relationships with like-minded partners.

For the past 150 years, the real estate closing process has been more or less the same, with lenders and investors using local title agencies to help manage the transaction. A distributed model works well for individual buyers, or even smaller, regional investors. But for real estate investors operating at a national scale, finding countless local title companies all over the country can be a challenge.

In this month’s A Conversation With, we’re speaking with Ray Williamson, Director of Strategic Accounts of Kiavi. Ray has been a part of the Kiavi team (formerly LendingHome) for eight years, and has a longstanding history of implementing tech-based solutions within the insurance and real estate sectors.

Led by a team of respected industry experts and backed by Spruce’s culture of innovation, Spruce Mobility sets a new standard for how the industry thinks about title and closing services for both employer and employee-initiated relocations.

By partnering with Spruce, Simplist was able to centralize its title and closing process to complete mortgage transactions in as little as 10 days.

Buying a house (or selling one) is a stressful time in anyone’s life, and it’s no wonder that everyone involved in the process wants to feel like they know where they can access the critical documents, what’s happening and when, and how much money they’re going to need in which account when closing day arrives. Read why our team at Spruce built the borrower dashboard.

For this month’s Employee Spotlight, we’re featuring Susan King, Enterprise Account Executive and key member of our Sales team. Her extensive background and longstanding relationships within real estate have helped to strengthen our partnerships with innovative leaders across the industry.

The term “instant title” can mean a lot of different things–and while no end-to-end solution truly takes place in the blink of an eye (yet!), there can be certain elements of the closing process that truly are instant.

Spruce Mobility offers a modern-day title and closing solution for relocation transactions across the country. Having been in the industry for multiple market cycles, I’m motivated by the incredible opportunity to bring our proprietary technology to forward-thinking companies within the Mobility space. Working with our innovative partners within the Mobility sector, we’ve seen firsthand the positive impact technology can have when it comes to efficiency, centralization, and scale–while keeping the human component strong.

We’re welcoming Peter Gulliver to Spruce as our new Chief Financial Officer. In this role, Peter will help to scale our brand, further enabling our continued commitment to our partners and customers as we reach new stages of growth.

Andrew is a member of our Client Success Team as a Client Success Manager, supporting the health and trust of new and existing client relationships. While at Spruce, Andrew has tangibly seen how his actions have an impact on not only our clients, but everyone else at the organization - top to bottom and cross functionally.

In today’s (first ever) A Conversation with series, we’re speaking with our very own Lisa Robertson, Chief Client Officer at Spruce. Lisa has been an integral part of the Spruce team for nearly 4 years, building many of our teams, our processes, and the vision for our client’s and their customer’s experience.. With over 35 years of title experience, Lisa shares her insight on the evolving world of real estate transactions.

As competition in the single family rental industry grows fiercer, investing in the latest technology and identifying cutting-edge trends have never been more integral to your strategy.Spruce CEO and co-founder, Patrick Burns, sat down with other leaders at the forefront of the industry to talk about the most exciting and impactful opportunities for SFR investors today.

Iriana is a member of our Client Solutions Team as a Client Experience Associate. Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, she’s been a part of the Spruce team for two years–we’re so happy to have her on board.

Remote online notarization is a game changer for the real estate industry. Check out our three steps to determine when and where you can use RON.

At Spruce, we work with many companies across the real estate industry. Take a look at the top 3 things we hear from title companies when it comes to how and when to expand into new geographic territories. 

Running a title and escrow business means you’ve got a lot on your plate, including how to continuously scale your operations. One of the easiest and most effective ways to increase revenue is to partner with an established national provider with centralized operations.

At Spruce, we've been focused on building products to help our clients grow, strengthening our talented team, and in particular making investments in customer service. While there's a lot to reflect on looking back at 2021, we're even more excited for what's to come—and we're just getting started.

Spruce Mobility is enabling a consultative, tech-focused approach to nationwide closings. Bringing the best of industry experts and modern solutions, our relocation services team acts as a natural extension of our clients, while implementing award-winning technology for a more seamless and centralized process.

Our Spruce Mobility team is passionate about customer service, innovation, and efficiency at scale.

Today, we’re formally announcing our bulk transaction capability. Our offering brings our unique, centralized operating model to large-scale investors to lower costs and add certainty to an otherwise obtuse process.

Craig Brings Decades of Customer-Focused Product Experience to Our Team

Spruce CEO Patrick Burns and Notarize founder Pat Kinsel joined HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins on his podcast, Housing News, to discuss the journey to digital mortgage adoption.

The list, which includes a total of 500 companies, was compiled by evaluating 2,500 U.S. businesses with at least 50 employees on three criteria: employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and growth.

We’re excited to share that Spruce has been named a 2022 HousingWire Tech100 winner (for the fourth year in a row!) – in both the mortgage and real estate categories.

We’re excited to announce today that we’ve hired our first Head of Customer Experience and Head of Service Delivery

As you begin to scale your business, it’s important to understand that not every transaction will have the same level of complexity. Being aware of potential roadblocks and proactively communicating them to your team and/or your borrowers can lead to fewer headaches down the road. 

We're excited to announce today that we’ve hired three strategic leaders across our data science, title solutions, and sales functions.

Spruce’s recent national survey found that homebuyers care most about affordability, transparency, and the time it takes to close.

Pride is both a celebration of LGBTQIA+ identities and a movement rooted in revolution—an opportunity to create impact, raise awareness, and be a catalyst for change.

It’s only the beginning of our journey toward the one-click checkout for real estate transactions

Congratulations to Spruce’s Tess Bettenay, who has been named a 2021 HousingWire Rising Star.

Earnest money is a deposit you make after signing a purchase agreement but before closing, to demonstrate that you’re committed to the sale. We break it down here.

Here’s a breakdown of the types of land surveys, who needs them, and what they can protect you from when you’re buying or altering property.

Closing is one of the most exciting parts of a home sale. But, It’s helpful to get clear on who typically pays for which closing costs early on in the process.

We’re proud to announce the roll out of an exclusive automated underwriting model that increases efficiency and lower costs for partners and homeowners.

Whether you’re already a homeowner or hoping to purchase a house, it’s important to understand how a lien can impact the property and how to get it removed.

Mortgage tax deductions save you money by reducing taxable income. We break down the deductions you should know about this tax season and how to utilize them.

We’re proud to announce that Spruce was included in HousingWire's 2021 Tech100 awards, recognizing the most innovative tech companies in the U.S. housing sector.

We’re proud to announce our partnership with FirstFunding’s FlexClose to extend funding times, lower costs, and reduce risks for lenders and borrowers.

Spruce’s platform allows single family real estate investors to automate earnest money deposits, which increases efficiency and lowers closing costs.

We’re proud to announce SprucePowered–a managed title and closing solution that provides an end-to-end customer experience and enables a new revenue stream.

2020 has been a year marked by incredible challenges and transitions. Despite these, there’s much to be thankful for and reflect upon as we close out the year.

A new Spruce survey shows homebuyers are frustrated with the closing process. 80% of survey respondents agreed that technology could make home buying easier.

Spruce CEO and Co-founder Patrick Burns recently sat down with leaders from Quontic Bank and LoanMonkey during MAXOUT 2020 to discuss implementing a mortgage tech adoption roadmap.

Spruce CEO and Co-founder Patrick Burns offers his Happy Thanksgiving message to our loyal clients, homeowners, team members, and the community.

Spruce CEO Patrick Burns recently sat down with Alejandro Cremades from the “DealMakers” podcast to discuss entrepreneurship and raising money in a crisis.

We’re proud to announce our partnership with Munich Re, one of the world’s leading insurance companies, to lower title insurance costs in some states up to 20% via automation.

We’re proud to be named to the CB Insights Fintech 250 list for the second year in a row! Get more info on the award and the full list here.

Many investors and individual owners hold property in trusts rather than their personal name. We break down the pros and cons, including refinancing here.

Many real estate investors chose to own their properties as LLCs rather than under their personal name. We break down the pros and cons here.

Spruce CEO Patrick Burns recently sat down with Alan and Bryan from “Clear to Close” to talk about tech adoption in the mortgage industry and COVID-19’s impact.

A 1031 exchange can defer up to 20% in taxes on a sale, making it a common tool in the savvy real estate investor’s toolbelt. We break down the specifics here.

We sat down with Rich Shapiro to discuss his most recent venture, RealEZRealty, a real estate P2P platform where you can buy, rent, or sell your property.

A hold open or binder policy is a discounted title product generally aimed at real estate investors and/or fix and flippers. We break down how it works here.

Spruce CEO and co-founder Patrick Burns was recently a guest on Roofstock’s “The Remote Real Estate Investor” podcast. Check out the episode here.

We’re very proud to announce that our VP of Product Nicole Reyes is part of HousingWire’s 2020 class of Rising Stars. Get more info on the award here.

Spruce has raised $29 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from Zigg Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Gramercy Ventures.

We’re proud to introduce the new Spruce client dashboard, which empowers mortgage brokers or anyone dealing with multiple lender relationships to pull quotes, order title, and manage closings all-in-one place.

Current public health concerns have sped up bringing eClosings into the mainstream. We break down exactly what an eClosing is and how it works here.

We're absolutely delighted to be included in Redfin's latest article "Most Common Questions Asked by First Time Homebuyers." Check it out here.

In light of the COVID-19 news, Spruce CEO Patrick Burns gives an update on the steps we’re taking to prioritize the health and wellness of our team and clients.

We’re absolutely thrilled to be included in the HousingWire Tech100 award list for the second year in a row. Get more info and see the full list here. 

Title insurance companies tackle a lot of different tasks to ensure your home closing goes smoothly. We break down their main responsibilities here.

Spruce VP of Engineering Dion Ridley recently moderated the panel “Building Your Product” at Facebook NYC in honor of Black History Month. Get insights here.

The cost of title insurance will vary depending on the state you live in, the cost of your property, and your specific transaction type. We break it down here.

Spruce receives license to act as an underwritten title company in California from the Department of Insurance, and opens a new office in Sacramento.

Title insurance covers past problems rather than future accidents. We break down items like liens or recording errors that a title policy can protect against.

It’s been another busy year at Spruce! As 2019 comes to a close, please join us in reflecting back on the past year and celebrating our accomplishments.

Spruce CEO Patrick Burns discusses “The Future of Home Transactions” at InnovateHousing with leaders from RedfinNow, Reali, Fannie Mae, and Washington REALTORS.

By choosing to work with Spruce, local realtors get 1:1 title and closing expertise paired with a suite of tech tools to pass onto their homebuyers.

Spruce CEO and Co-founder Patrick Burns offers his Happy Thanksgiving message to our loyal clients, vendor partners, team members, and the community.

When buying a home, a lender’s title insurance policy is typically required by the lender and owner’s is not—but there are benefits to both. We break it down below.

Courtney O'Connell, our Director of Design, was featured in Built in NYC's recent article. Get insights on her career journey in tech here.

The cost to originate increased to $9,299 per loan in Q1 2019, and Northpointe Bank was looking for a title and closing partner to make them more competitive.

Spruce was recently included in PropertyClub's list of "NYC Real Estate Startups Worth Knowing." We're delighted to be included in this list of homegrown NYC talent.

We're thrilled that our Executive Vice President of Real Estate Operations Lisa Robertson is one of HousingWire's 2019 Women of Influence.

Last Friday, our CEO and Co-Founder Patrick Burns spoke on the panel “Closing Process Getting a Major Shakeup” at Inman Connect Las Vegas.

When refinancing a loan on a primary residence, you are entitled to something called the right of rescission, or the ability to cancel the transaction. This right is set forth in the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and expires three business daysafter the last of the following events occur:

The Rising Stars represent the best young leaders in the mortgage industry.They help run major corporations, and are the entrepreneurs building tomorrow’s great businesses. They work in any and every area of the housing economy: lenders, servicers, investors, and real estate. They come from diverse backgrounds but share one common trait: an outsized impact on the industry and their businesses. All of this – and they are under 40 years old! These are the shapers of our industry – the leaders of tomorrow, and of today.

Here at Spruce, diversity and inclusion not only drive our company culture, but they truly inform every decision we make—including our product roadmap. So, we’re thrilled to be included in two recent publications highlighting the importance of diversity in tech.

Our team is heading to the 16th Annual Eastern Secondary Conference in Florida June 18-20, and we’d love to set up some time to connect! Click hereto set up an appointment or drop us an email at hello@spruce.co.If you’re also traveling to Florida, make sure to mark your calendars for Wednesday June 19th 2-3:00 P.M. Our CEO and Co-Founder Patrick Burnswill be part of an exciting panel of industry experts. The topic is “Modernizing the Housing Finance Marketplace, Leveraging Blockchain, Bringing Mortgage into the 21st Century”, and will include panelists:

Although refinancing can lower your monthly payment, it comes with upfront costs––including title insurance. Learn how to save money with the reissue rate here.

We're thrilled to be included in the HousingWire Tech100 list for 2019, recognizing the most innovative technology companies in the U.S. housing economy, spanning real estate, mortgage lending, mortgage servicing and investments.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to take a moment to recognize the incredible women on our team who work hard everyday to make real estate transactions more delightful for everyone involved. We’re proud to say that our team is 60% women, which is far above the average in our industry.Although tech is known for product innovations, it’s faltered at implementing diverse and inclusive workplaces. To us, this deficit is unacceptable and a block to innovation and progress. But, we think the best way to start dealing with inequities is to both surface the conversation and talk about why diversity and inclusion makes us a stronger team.

Jennifer Tierney is not only a barred New York real estate attorney, but she’s also part of the Spruce family! Get her insights and expertise here.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made significant revisions to deductions long enjoyed by homeowners Here’s a recap of what changes are going into effect.

Spruce is a title agency. Our platform enables fast, frictionless, and transparent real estate transactions across the country. We believe the future of real estate will be driven by automation and empowering homeowners, so our mission is to make real estate transactions amazing for everyone involved in the process.

If you live in New York and want to refinance a mortgage, you may take advantage of a special type of loan, a Consolidation, Extension and Modification Agreement (“CEMA”).

Earlier this month, the Spruce team attended the NEXT Mortgage Conferencein Dallas, TX. NEXT is the women’s mortgage technology summit. Twice a year, dozens of C-suite and senior mortgage executives take the stage at NEXT to share how they handle the industry's most pressing issues—from compliance and audits to marketing and production.

Here at Spruce, we are passionate about modernizing the antiquated, paper-based process of closing real estate transactions—an often overlooked, yet critical, part of the experience of buying a home or securing a mortgage.

We’re expanding our spotlight series to shine light on the vast real estate ecosystem in NYC. Cindy Scholz was an obvious first choice to kick things off.

If you aren’t available for a real estate closing, entering into a power of attorney with a trusted person may be an option. Start out with these standard forms.

Spruce is rethinking the role of the title company for lenders. Every step of our process is designed to save you time, lower costs, and keep your clients happy.

It’s been a busy and exciting year here at Spruce! Since 2018 is coming to a close, we thought it made sense to do a quick holiday wrap up of our biggest milestones over the past year. Here’s our top 5!Doubled the Size of our Team2018 brought a ton of fresh faces to Spruce, and we’re literally twice the team we were a year ago. This expansion was important to us in order to further optimize our operational efficiency, continue to promote a customer-centric closing process, and to serve more customers.

Chopping down a tree for the holidays may seem like a pretty harmless activity, but it actually brings up a fairly contentious property issue. Timber rights allow an individual to own all or part of the trees on a property without actually owning the ground where they grow, and this can lead to some interesting title insurance questions.