Transforming the mortgage and real estate process: Insights from Tech100 leaders

The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2025 Tech100 Award are open now through December 16, 2024. Click here to nominate a tech organization.

For the past 14 years, HousingWire’s Tech100 award has been celebrating the most innovative and impactful tech organizations in real estate and housing.

In honor of the 2025 Tech100 nomination season, HousingWire asked leaders from last year’s Tech100-winning companies including Flueid, Vesta, Gridbase and MyHome, a Williston Financial Group Company to share some examples of how their technology has helped transform a traditional real estate and mortgage process. From streamlining title verification to enabling collaborative loan processing and automating key title production tasks, these leaders are helping shape a faster, smarter, and more efficient housing market. Here’s what these the leaders of these organizations had to share:

“Traditionally, the insurable title process has been time-consuming and manually intensive, often delaying closings and increasing costs. Additionally, title is typically verified days into the mortgage origination or servicing process, leaving room for unforeseen surprises, complications, and further delays. Flueid has solved both problems with our Flueid Decision platform, which combines robust data sets with underwriter-approved title risk logic to securely identify title risks and assess a property’s title condition for refinance, home equity, purchase, and default transactions. We call this process VOT or Verification of Title.” – Matt Regan, Chief Technology Officer at Flueid

“Vesta has enabled parallel processing in the loan manufacturing process, by allowing multiple users to be doing separate tasks on the same loan, or open a loan together and collaborate virtually right in the loan origination system.” — Mike Yu, CEO at Vesta

“GridBase has transformed the traditional title order management process by creating a system-agnostic middleware platform...One standout feature is our Title Fee Quote Feature, which allows users to generate accurate, real-time cost estimates directly from their title provider. This innovation has not only improved operational efficiency but also enhanced the borrower’s experience by delivering transparent, instant results to the lender. It’s a game-changer for an industry often bogged down by outdated, siloed processes.” — Kevin Koon-Koon, CTO Gridbase

“WFG’s DecisionPoint technology has transformed the traditional title search and exam process. Historically, these processes involved multiple manual steps and handoffs, resulting in delays and higher costs. With DecisionPoint, we’ve been able to automate key aspects of title production, such as searching bankruptcy records, identifying Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, and curative work. This AI-driven automation has drastically reduced manual input and accelerated our turn times. For instance, the system can flag potential issues and suggest solutions, leading to faster, more accurate closings. The impact has been transformative, leading to a 15% reduction in per-file costs, benefiting both WFG and our clients and improving the overall customer experience.” — Marty Frame, President, MyHome, A Williston Financial Group Company