As reported at the membership meeting this week, in 2019, the Board established a group to look at the closing process.  This work-group comprised of Cortney Dupont, Eric Steuernagle, Peter West, Barbara Osborne, Mike Shepard and Sandy Carroll.  They had a brainstorming session where over a dozen issues were identified – all hiccups in the closing process that we heard from our members in the field or the participants experienced recently.  Our goal was to first identify the issues but more importantly, to implement actual solutions.  Leadership immediately saw need to include the legal and lending community in this discussion.   We serve mutual clients, and all must work together for realistic change.

Your leadership invited all Berkshire closing attorneys and lender affiliates to meet – and the response was very positive. We had 40 lawyer/lenders attend, with an additional 7 that asked to be included in the future that couldn’t make the meeting, out of 53 invited. We all gave and received “constructive criticism” and everyone walked away with great attitude, excited to continue working together.

Communication was an issue all around for Realtors, lawyers, paralegals and lenders.  Avoiding closing delays when possible on behalf of our mutual clients is another priority.  Above is a link to the full notes from the meeting with suggestions made and action items we are considering.  We have several concepts to float before the Contract & Forms Committee, and our goal is to release a best practice guide at our next membership meeting on Wednesday May 27th, 2020.

Please take the opportunity to share your feedback with us, if interested! It will be shared with the leadership and those working on developing solutions! Thank you.