US mortgage and real estate service firm Radian has integrated R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain with its Titlegenius offering. The workflow system for real estate title transfers uses DLT for document storage and data transfer. Rather than a black box, it provides transparency around the title transfer process and claims to cut closing costs by an average of 25%.
Radian has a market capitalization of more than $5 billion, although mortgage insurance is its primary revenue source rather than title services.
Title transfer services typically check the history of the property to ensure there are no surprises. They are not just verifying that the seller is the true title holder, but that there are no longer mortgage or other liens against the property. They frequently provide title insurance just in case they missed something.
Once that’s done, the final deed of transfer is drafted and the transaction proceeds to closing and settlement. The process can include various parties, such as the buyer, the real estate agents, mortgage providers and lawyers. By creating a transparent workflow using DLT, all parties can get an up-to-date record of the status of the transaction.
“The title transfer process is notoriously slow and complex, and we are excited to collaborate with R3 to make this process simpler and more efficient for our clients,” said Steven Stipetich, Radian’s Senior Vice President of Title. “There are many valuable use cases for DLT in the property space like bulk refinancing – already supported by the titlegenius platform.”
Coadjute also uses Corda for real estate sales
Corda is also used by UK property technology firm Coadjute, which does something similar to Titlegenius. However, its software provides the glue to share data between different real estate software solutions used by the estate agents of the buyer and seller. Corda was incorporated into Coadjute’s software since its founding in 2018. The startup’s backers include UK banks such as Lloyds, Natwest and Nationwide.
