In the beginning, we were not distinctive from other title companies. We established relationships that garnered us referrals of business, which often came at an added expense – the cost of doing business, as was the standard line of thinking back then.
But as the Internet came of age, our founder Todd Ewing began to wonder how his title company might leverage the fledgling medium to improve services while cutting costs. He made a decision around that time to end the company’s referral relationships and invest instead in technology to streamline the real estate closing process.
In the early aughts, Federal Title became one of the first title service providers in the country to target consumers directly by offering free, instant online quotes with guaranteed accuracy. At the same time, Federal Title began offering an instant credit to homebuyers who ordered settlement services online, which came to be known as the REAL Credit™.
The competition thought Todd was nuts. They said his model was not sustainable and he’d be out of business in months. But word of the REAL Credit™ spread throughout the local real estate community, and eventually many of the naysayers began unveiling their own versions of the REAL Credit™.
Fewer hands in the pie means more pie to go around
As an independent title company, we do not share our profits with referral sources through Affiliated Business Arrangements or Marketing Service Agreements. With fewer hands in the pie, as Todd likes to say, there’s more pie for everybody. In this case it means a cost savings of up to $750 for our clients.
Our revolutionary REAL Credit™ reflects costs passed through to consumers who close with other, affiliated title companies. To date, the cost savings hovers above $18 million.
