Okay, so how many are there. Really. How many different people are involved to help close on your new home? Depending upon where you live, the answer is around 12. Typically there are two real estate agents, a loan officer, a loan processor, escrow officer, appraiser, inspector, attorney, surveyor, underwriter, closer, and shipper. Your mileage may vary, but that’s a good estimate. Oh yeah, and you. That makes 13. There are at least 13 different people all scurrying about, verifying this and locating that. How can you track all this activity?

There are obvious ways, and there are some new ones. First and foremost, your real estate agent should be your focal point. Your agent is your navigator by helping to keep everyone in the process focused and to help when needed. It’s quite easy to simply call your agent and ask “So, how’s it going?”

The usual response is “Everything’s fine, all systems go.” Or some such simile. But there are those who want to know just a little bit more than if everything is fine or not. Has the appraisal been ordered? Is the value there? Has your Title work been issued? No? Why not? Is your credit report in? Does the underwriter have your paycheck stubs and are there any easements being reflected in your Survey?

Good questions, yet hard to track down if you have to call 12 different companies. But new online systems can help the consumer follow the transaction from beginning to end. These systems, although not really all that new, have just recently begun to emerge as a tool. The problem in the past has rooted in the fact that there are so many different players in the typical real estate transaction. Not only that, there was no way to get everyone to communicate in a timely manner, all the while speaking the same language. The new industry jargon for tracking the communication between all parties is “collaboration.”

Now, Lenders, Title Companies and Appraisers are all joining forces to provide you the consumer, as well as everyone else in the transaction, abreast of the closing process automatically. Not all companies are using collaboration programs at this young stage. But if they’re not, you can bet they soon will be.

Let’s imagine that it’s 10 days into your sales contract. You get home from work, log onto your specific tracking website, enter your user id and password and magically all the details about your closing are available to you at the click of a mouse. Is your appraisal in? Yes. Value? Yes. And while you’re there, why now download a copy of your appraisal from the site? While you’re there, check to see if your Title information has arrived at the Lender’s office and verify that your final closing condition has been approved.

Far fetched? Nope. There are systems available today. The problem is finding companies who work together with collaborative programs. How can you find this out? Ask your agent. Is it a deal breaker if your Title company doesn’t use collaborative software? Hardly. But you’ll soon find that such systems are the norm. And it makes everyones life just a little bit easier.

Published: March 22, 2002

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, a veteran Mortgage Banker, successful Real Estate Consultant and author of Your Guide to VA Loans, Mortgages 101: Quick Answers to Over 250 Critical Questions About Your Home Loan, Who Says You Can't Buy a Home!, and Mortgage Confidential: What You Need to Know That Your Lender Won't Tell You, is a former columnist and Contributing Editor with San Diego-based Mortgage Originator Magazine. Reed is President of CD Reed Mortgage Bankers, Austin, TX and is a Past President of the Austin Mortgage Bankers Association.