As part of its mission to help more people get home, Zillow Group has completed its acquisition of Spruce, a tech-enabled title and escrow company. Making it easier for people to move requires improvements across the real estate transaction – including the critical closing process. Over time, Zillow Group and Spruce will build a digital-powered closing services offering for Zillow customers.

As part of its mission to help more people get home, Zillow Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Spruce, a tech-enabled title and escrow company. Making it easier for people to move requires improvements across the real estate transaction - including the critical closing process. Over time, Zillow Group and Spruce will build a digital-powered closing services offering for Zillow customers. 

As we look back on a busy year in the mobility space, we take pride in being a national platform that addresses the needs of transferees in a pivotal moment of their lives. Throughout this year, we have achieved significant milestones, actively participated in events and conferences, engaged in insightful podcasts and continuously sought to innovate within the relocation industry.

At Spruce we’re re-thinking the way transactions are conducted, ranging from single transactions to the most complex, utilizing a novel communication strategy. Here's a guide on how our team and products are restructuring communication for streamlined real estate transactions.

Navigating the vast real estate landscape with its myriad complexities can be challenging. As executives of Relocation Management Companies, it's vital to have a title and closing partner that provides accuracy & efficiency. See how Spruce’s experienced Mobility team can help you improve your title strategy.

At Spruce, we recognize the importance of navigating HOA guidelines effectively. In this blog post, we'll share three tips tailored to SFR providers like you, helping you stay ahead of HOA restrictions and setbacks for a smoother property management experience.

SFR in 2023: Optimizing operational efficiency & preparing for 2024

Meet Deb - a driving force behind the Spruce team and a go-to expert for simplifying complex challenges surrounding title and closing. Deb brings a fresh perspective to Spruce - embracing flexibility and alternative approaches to the overall customer experience.

Why technology alone can’t replace the importance of human touch.

While real estate companies are always thinking about revenue, there’s added pressure to turn a profit during a down market. Cutting costs may be one option, but there is another way to create a new revenue stream: offering title and closing services. Monetizing a title strategy can be difficult without investing heavily in new infrastructure or taking on additional overhead costs. That's where SprucePowered comes in.

Staying Ahead of the Game in the Single-Family Rental and Build-to-Rent Sectors Last week, our team attended the National Home Rental Council's Industry Leadership Conference in Nashville. It was a great opportunity to have conversations with other industry leaders and clients within the SFR sector, and stay ahead of the game when it comes to what’s next. And of course, we made time for plenty of BBQ and live music!

In the world of real estate investment, hidden rental restrictions within Homeowners Associations (HOAs) can be a costly and frustrating surprise for investors. Until now, there hasn't been a solution that provides financial protection for investors facing rental restrictions due to HOAs. Enter SpruceProtect – the first and only offering of its kind designed to provide investors with a safety blanket to protect them from potential losses.

When looking to invest in single family rental properties (SFR) within the United States, location is a key component of making the best decision for the long term. Our team analyzed SFR activity across the nation, identifying the top five SFR states based on a weighted ranking of various factors

Last week, the Spruce team attended the highly anticipated ICE Experience 2023 at the Wynn in Las Vegas as a proud sponsor - immersing ourselves in the latest trends, innovations, and industry insights in the mortgage and real estate space. 

Spruce has been recognized as a HousingWire Tech100 recipient for 2023, marking our fifth (!) consecutive year in the real estate category. 

For this month’s Employee Spotlight, meet Joe O'Brien - a self-proclaimed army brat who loves learning about different cultures and perspectives. As a leader, Joe’s superpower is empathy, helping everyone around him get to an even happier place at work. His best advice? Let yourself be new, and understand that everyone has something to learn. Read on for Joe’s perspective as an engineering manager at Spruce.‍

For this month’s Employee Spotlight, we talked with Tasha Harville about her experience as a Lead Product Manager at Spruce. Tasha’s passion for modernization, learning from others, and thinking outside the box add immense value to Spruce’s team, clients, and the title industry as a whole.

The industry’s first and only homeowner’s association rental coverage policy.

This month, our team traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona to attend the IMN SFR West 2022 conference This industry-leading event brings together the most innovative players in the Single Family Rental (SFR) space, including real estate investors, professionals, startups, and service providers. The conference provided a platform for forward-thinking discussion, valuable networking opportunities, and of course–quality time with our team 

New technology is allowing institutional investors to grow and scale even more efficiently and effectively. Buying properties all over the country, even diversified homes that don’t fit a single buy box, is now possible . And despite a shifting market, now is a critical time to look at real estate investment as a growth opportunity, and reexamine the systems that institutional investors have been using–and what they should consider adopting.

Our Vice President of Insurance Products and Data Science, Brittany DiPietro has been named a 2022 HousingWire Tech Trendsetter. This award honors the most impactful and innovative technology leaders serving the housing economy.

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.