Forsaking human expertise in the quest for economic rationality and automation, the big title companies lead the march into real estate idiocracy.
I am not a technophobe nor am I a technoholic. I use technology as a tool. I use a lot of technology in my office. We’re more hip than most in our market BUT human experts form the core of our operation.
Technology and automation for it’s own sake, like money for it’s own sake, isn’t the right end. These are tools which if they add value, we can embrace, but as is often the case more is not always better.
You CAN be too thin and you CAN be too rich and you CAN be too dependent upon technology.
Each piece of real estate is unique.
Each human being is unique.
The big sell of automation in valuation, mortgage underwriting, and title underwriting ignores these unique qualities and therefore diminishes the effectiveness of the processes.
The foreclosure throes and institutional implosions we’re witnessing in the credit crisis find their roots in the quest for productivity in technology and automation. These are the unintended consequences of vendor management and outsourcing sellers – those who did not know or did not care about the unique qualities and the frailties of the judgment process which only those who have been long trained in the nuances of underwriting and appraisal truly understand.
You don’t know what you don’t know until you know it.
We shouldn’t care about blame. Leave that to the courts. We SHOULD care about learning how to fix what’s wrong and learning how to avoid the mistakes of the past.
It is with this perspective that I implore the lending and title insurance industries to embrace expert human infrastructure before it is lost, before it retires or dies. The expert hand on the wheel of technology is the driving force of productivity you seek, not the religion of metrics.
Mass production: good for the automobile, bad for health care. So where does title searching /title insurance fall? Its anyone’s guess, But if you accept that claims % are more or less inversely proportional to search/exam time, and that title searching is subject to diminishing returns. It’s no wonder the industry has been leaning toward less searching not more. If the existing human infrastructure feels otherwise we will have take our queue from John Henry and get out there and prove our worth.
“The foreclosure throes and institutional implosions we’re witnessing in the credit crisis find their roots in the quest for productivity in technology and automation.”
I think I would have to disagree with this. Turns out poor people with bad credit can’t afford to buy a home. Who knew.
From where I sit, automated searches are the response to agents wanting quick turnaround. The underwriter providing the technology is after all the underwriter and is taking the risk in the end.
Seems to me the technology is a way for the underwriter to enhance the productivity of their agents making the more competitive and more profitable.
Art – as a title professional, you should know better.
It’s not about ehanced productivity (the agents who buy outsourced searches still track file progress via sticky notes). Its all about cutting corners, cutting costs, and hoping that the loan was refinanced before you had pay the price for your sloppy work.
In this case, the underwriters are the first to pay, but I’m guessing we’ll all get a chance to ante up for our slipshod brethern.
Art, I’ve got to give you quote of the day for this:
“Turns out poor people with bad credit can’t afford to buy a home. Who knew.”
I will disagree with Diane on that one line as well, but her overall thinking is absolutely correct in my mind. FATCO has brought their entire operations to their knees three times in the last week because of upgrades to the technology done in the meat of the work day, at the end of the month no less. They weren’t security upgrades. One was an upgrade to the proprietary system another was an Adobe upgrade, and never knew what the last one was. At some point you just drink coffee with your feet on the desk and say WTF mate.
It is clear that their technology is worth more to them then their human beings. In the investor calls we’re FTE’s, we’re not even human beings. We don’t have families or lives for that matter. They do have it backwards and by the time that guys who refer to people as FTE’s figure it out, I’ll be spending every morning playing a round at the senior rate.
Technology is the tool for humans to work more efficiently. Not the other way around. Well done DC.
“Computers make excellent and efficient servants…but I have no wish to serve under them.”
–Mr. Spock, from the Star Trek episode,”The Ultimate Computer”
Beam me up, Scottie.
Dave: You say, “Its all about cutting corners”
I say it’s creating an efficient work flow
You say, ” cutting costs”
I say it’s being frugal.
And, as I have said before, It’s not the technology that creates sloppy work. it’s the agents that don’t know how to use the technology as a tool.
Wine Dog, you’re working for the wrong underwriter. I don’t want to sound like a commercial so I won’t mention any names. but we never do any upgrades unless it is in the middle of the night when no one is working. Our technology is an option for our agents – it’s their choice.
I can understand the frustration with technology when it doesn’t work. But let’s get some perspective. Would you rather still be producting commitments on 5 part carbon paper? The technology is going to evolve just as the industry evolves. I think the frustration comes when the changes don’t happen at the same pace as peoples ability to embrace them. Then people start to look for some place to place the blame and technology is always a convenient target.