TitleBytes News & Happenings

Three Perspectives, from ALTA ONE

By MLTA Directors Eileen LaPlante, Tom Lico and Darlene Wilsey

Fast and the Furious

ALTA ONE Attendee, Eileen LaPlante, 2018-2019 MLTA Director

ALTA One is always packed with information and learning opportunities, this year in LA was no exception. Imagine the land title industry meets the Fast and the Furious and that is the pace and energy of the experience. There is something for everyone from motivational, to practical right now, to what the future of our industry may look like.

On the motivational front, Sekou Andrews recommends that we – Make waves.

Sekou is a master of spoken word poetry; and while he fully acknowledged that to those unfamiliar with the style, the statement “spoken word poetry” translates to “bath room break”

All I can say about that is, I’m very glad I didn’t miss his presentation. He had much to share in a humorous, interesting style.

• Put an S on the chest of your mild-mannered ideas
• Lead like the North Star
• Don’t stand waste deep in the waters of change, talking on your cell phone, trying not to get your hair wet. SLASH!!!
• The real estate industry is no longer a walkway – it’s a runway people.

Change can be awkward – Make it awe-some instead.
The world is not waiting for you to catch up.

Doug Duncan, from Fannie Mae spoke on now and the near future;
While many things are uncertain, we can count on this:
People will always live in a building built on land – somewhere near where they work.

Doug shared that 2017 was the peak year for home sales; that Baby Boomers are aging in place, which will mean continued demand on housing inventory. He indicated that Fannie Mae has informational surveys available for viewing their website.

There were Notable presentations and Engagement Labs about team building, leadership, innovation, growth, culture, planning, working with your underwriters (I suspect other states may not have the great underwriter reps like we have here in Michigan), as well as the latest greatest fraud scams impacting our industry.

Market One – is where you can meet industry vendors, both the ones you know as well as new services. It is a great way to learn more about the services you may already have and learn about new technologies the support and protect our industry.

ALTA One is a high energy experience I highly recommend.

Members Working Together

Presenter, Tom Lico, 2018-2019 MLTA President Elect

AmRock’s Brad Miller and I co-presented an Omni Session at the most recent ALTA One conference. The topic – Creating A Culture Innovation. To a full room, Brad and I discussed the importance of building a foundation of trust as the first pillar. Much of that trust is reliant on “safety nets” for those that venture out and try new things, but sometimes fail. In fact, no failures only means no one is stretching themselves outside the norm. Engaging employees through round table forums and smaller work groups gives them a voice and an opportunity to openly discuss with management ideas that they’ve come up with throughout the year. We also gave many real life examples of “trial and error” from Henry Ford to Michael Jordan to Brad’s son learning how to ride a bike. As always, any change management must come from the top leaders in the organization who must be relentless advocates for progress. That will inspire others to question the status quo, try new things, and freely speak up about current flawed practices. An innovative culture helps you retain your top people because they can directly have an impact on the company – giving them a sense of ownership. We also showed that even though we are direct competitors on the street, we can still work together to give back to this great industry..

State Industry Association Leaders Unite

Panelist, Darlene Wilsey, 2018-2019 MLTA Secretary-Treasurer

Land title professional association leaders from across the country assembled, during the Federal and State Advocacy meeting, at ALTA One, to discuss common issues amongst state association members.

In particular, leaders from land title associations, representing states that have either passed or have pending Remote Online Notarization legislation, in 2018 (Minnesota, Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan) were asked to participate on a panel, to discuss their respective association’s experiences with RON legislation.

Panelists provided RON legislative updates, including noting legislative stakeholders, secretary of state engagement, to date, and lessons learned throughout this process.

While each panelist described slightly different experiences with RON legislation, all agreed enhanced communication and collaboration amongst cross-industry professionals and state legislative and department representatives was vital to ensuring a seamless integration.