Online
title insurance pricing models multiplying Over the past year, several companies have started to utilize Internet search engines that encourage consumers to buy directly and comparison shop for
title insurance. Read on to see who’s the latest to try out this marketing strategy. (2/14/2007) The recent downturn in the real estate market has prompted the creation of several Web sites that allow consumers
to comparison shop for the
lowest title insurance rates. The latest consumer-driven site to start up is
FreeTitleQuote.com. The company is owned by Joshua C. Cahill, in Riverview, Fla. "Our goal is to help save home sellers and buyers hundreds to even thousands in
title insurance costs," Cahill said. "By accessing
FreeTitleQuote.com potential sellers and buyers have the opportunity to connect with
title insurance companies across the country, so they can compare prices and save hundreds to even thousands of dollars — while driving more business to those
title insurance companies who sign up with us." The Web site, which has more than 450
title insurance companies signed up, has formed in response to market demands brought on by a sluggish housing market, he added, in which home sales are down and more sellers are trying to save on title insurance and other closing-related fees.
http://freetitlequote.com, based in Lithia, Fla., offers up to five free title insurance quotes for the consumer at no charge. Cahill said
title providers also benefit by signing up with
FreeTitleQuote.com,
a Web site that advertises on all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Doing so means they can potentially receive additional leads. There is no initial sign up fee and the first
title lead is free of charge, according to Cahill. As a preferred
title insurance provider, it matches the county of the homeowner to the provider's coverage
area and sends them the contact information so they can follow up and close the sale, Cahill said. This marketing avenue has attracted other title companies utilizing Internet search engines that encourage consumers to shop directly for their
title insurance. The two most prominent sites launched in 2006 are Titleinsurance.com and Gettitleinsurance.com. The Title Report first reported on the concept in the July 10 edition in an article titled “The advent of online title insurance pricing models.” Joe Drum, chief executive officer of United General Title Insurance Co., said at the time that the two new Web sites may inspire rapid acceptance of the technology. He noted that there’s always a bell curve to the adoption of any technology and speculated that often when adoption reaches 20 percent, the other 80 percent fall in line fairly quickly. Joan Rosenstock, president of Titleinsurance.com, said the company now has more than 300 title insurance providers and is currently looking to expand into other real-estate related services that its title insurance provider clients offer, such as 1031 exchanges. Titleinsurance.com is also looking to form exclusive partnerships with some of its clients on a statewide and multi-statewide basis,
Rosenstock said. One of the most common points of negative feedback from the Web site’s users in our original story was the company’s restriction of participating title providers to five per county. Titleinsurance.com still operates by that business model, but Rosenstock said more clients have come to view it as a positive. “First and foremost, for those title providers that are one of the providers, they are competing with a manageable number of other companies,” Rosenstock said. “For the inquirer, they are receiving a manageable number of responses to compare.” Titleinsurance.com’s main competitor, Gettitleinsurance.com, also has plans for expansion, said Jennifer Richter, a PR rep for the company. With more than 200 registered title professionals, the company is moving away from a ZIP code-based system to a multi-package structure, providing three pricing packages at the county, state and regional levels, which are all fully customizable. In addition, the company is exploring the possibility of integrating directly with their providers’ production systems, allowing the company to pass consumer information on directly to the system when a consumer accepts a quote. Other players with similar business models have entered the market. Susan Ramalah, co-partner with David O’Connor of EasyTitleQuote.com, says her company works with about 150 title companies nationally, with the majority of business coming from the eastern states.
Title companies pay a monthly fee of $24.95 if they want to do work located near their office.
The charge is $99 to cover an entire state. Ramalah says her company charges a flat subscription fee from the title insurance companies to avoid any RESPA concerns. Ramallah said she saw a need for the company after noticing a change in the market, that nobody could move any houses and that there was a lot of competition. “This company would not have worked last year because those companies would have been too busy to give a quote,” said Ramallah, who is a licensed real estate agent and mortgage broker. “They would have already had six jobs to work on. Now, they have to be competitive to win over that customer. The slow market is the reason for the business.”
to comparison shop for the lowest title insurance rates. The latest consumer-driven site to start up is FreeTitleQuote.com. The company is owned by Joshua C. Cahill, in Riverview, Fla. "Our goal is to help save home sellers and buyers hundreds to even thousands in title insurance costs," Cahill said. "By accessing FreeTitleQuote.com potential sellers and buyers have the opportunity to connect with title insurance companies across the country, so they can compare prices and save hundreds to even thousands of dollars — while driving more business to those title insurance companies who sign up with us." The Web site, which has more than 450 title insurance companies signed up, has formed in response to market demands brought on by a sluggish housing market, he added, in which home sales are down and more sellers are trying to save on title insurance and other closing-related fees.http://freetitlequote.com, based in Lithia, Fla., offers up to five free title insurance quotes for the consumer at no charge. Cahill said title providers also benefit by signing up with FreeTitleQuote.com,
a Web site that advertises on all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Doing so means they can potentially receive additional leads. There is no initial sign up fee and the first title lead is free of charge, according to Cahill. As a preferred title insurance provider, it matches the county of the homeowner to the provider's coverage 
area and sends them the contact information so they can follow up and close the sale, Cahill said. This marketing avenue has attracted other title companies utilizing Internet search engines that encourage consumers to shop directly for their title insurance. The two most prominent sites launched in 2006 are Titleinsurance.com and Gettitleinsurance.com. The Title Report first reported on the concept in the July 10 edition in an article titled “The advent of online title insurance pricing models.” Joe Drum, chief executive officer of United General Title Insurance Co., said at the time that the two new Web sites may inspire rapid acceptance of the technology. He noted that there’s always a bell curve to the adoption of any technology and speculated that often when adoption reaches 20 percent, the other 80 percent fall in line fairly quickly. Joan Rosenstock, president of Titleinsurance.com, said the company now has more than 300 title insurance providers and is currently looking to expand into other real-estate related services that its title insurance provider clients offer, such as 1031 exchanges. Titleinsurance.com is also looking to form exclusive partnerships with some of its clients on a statewide and multi-statewide basis, Rosenstock said. One of the most common points of negative feedback from the Web site’s users in our original story was the company’s restriction of participating title providers to five per county. Titleinsurance.com still operates by that business model, but Rosenstock said more clients have come to view it as a positive. “First and foremost, for those title providers that are one of the providers, they are competing with a manageable number of other companies,” Rosenstock said. “For the inquirer, they are receiving a manageable number of responses to compare.” Titleinsurance.com’s main competitor, Gettitleinsurance.com, also has plans for expansion, said Jennifer Richter, a PR rep for the company. With more than 200 registered title professionals, the company is moving away from a ZIP code-based system to a multi-package structure, providing three pricing packages at the county, state and regional levels, which are all fully customizable. In addition, the company is exploring the possibility of integrating directly with their providers’ production systems, allowing the company to pass consumer information on directly to the system when a consumer accepts a quote. Other players with similar business models have entered the market. Susan Ramalah, co-partner with David O’Connor of EasyTitleQuote.com, says her company works with about 150 title companies nationally, with the majority of business coming from the eastern states. Title companies pay a monthly fee of $24.95 if they want to do work located near their office. 
The charge is $99 to cover an entire state. Ramalah says her company charges a flat subscription fee from the title insurance companies to avoid any RESPA concerns. Ramallah said she saw a need for the company after noticing a change in the market, that nobody could move any houses and that there was a lot of competition. “This company would not have worked last year because those companies would have been too busy to give a quote,” said Ramallah, who is a licensed real estate agent and mortgage broker. “They would have already had six jobs to work on. Now, they have to be competitive to win over that customer. The slow market is the reason for the business.”
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