Transforming title and lending workflows: GridBase’s Rhiannon Bolen on eliminating email and enhancing security

HousingWire

From fraud prevention to seamless system connection, GridBase stands out by being product, system, and channel agnostic, while transforming one of the most fragmented parts of the mortgage lending transaction. Rhiannon Bolen, SVP and National Sales Director at GridBase, speaks with Allison LaForgia about how the company is bridging critical gaps in the mortgage process.   With deep industry expertise and a passion for digital transformation, Rhiannon explains what makes GridBase’s approach to title and lending so powerful. This conversation explores how GridBase works to mitigate fraud risk, improve speed and gain interoperability, all without being locked into rigid platforms.   #LendingSolutions #TitleIndustry #WorkflowAutomation #GridBase

Transcript

00:00From HousingWire HQ in Dallas, Texas, I'm Alison LaForgia, Managing Editor of HousingWire's

00:08Content Studio. And today I'm joined by Rhiannon Bolan, the Senior Vice President and National

00:13Sales Director at GridBase. Rhiannon, thank you so much for joining me today.

00:18Thanks, Alison. Excited to be here. Appreciate it.

00:21Let's get started with talking a little bit about your role at GridBase and what drives

00:25your passion for transforming title and lending workflows. Yeah, no, I appreciate the question.

00:31So I'm SVP of sales for GridBase. I've been in the industry for about 25 years. I'm a CMB. I've

00:40been very involved in the industry via, you know, just work with I've done with the Mortgage Bankers

00:44Association. I think I've been on the TMBA board, Texas Mortgage Bankers Association since the day

00:49the earth cold, I feel like sometimes. But I've always been very driven by helping my clients solve

00:57problems. And I'm genuinely interested in making workflows and interaction more collaborative and

01:05efficient. I don't know that I even realized truly how manual the process was still between lender and

01:13title. So for me, it's really exciting what GridBase is trying to do. I think we're trying to solve

01:19for a problem here in the industry. And so for me, that's kind of what drives my my passion and why

01:26I came here. Plus, we just have very nice people that we work with. And it's really rewarding to be

01:33in a great culture that's really trying to help an industry challenge. So let's dig into that

01:41industry challenge a little bit more. GridBase has been described as a unique middleware solution

01:47connecting two segments of that transaction process that you just mentioned. What makes it a truly

01:52unique piece of technology? So I think for us, we're really the only solution of its kind that's

02:02truly agnostic to the operating system, the product, or the channel. And it connects both sides of the

02:12equation, both lender and title. Our company was founded in title. So that's, you know, kind of

02:18our background. And so from that aspect, we understand that side. And we know that in order

02:24to maximize the adoption between the two parties, we have to accommodate both sides. So we set out to

02:33build this technology that accommodates both workflows and in both systems. So we're kind of like an

02:39invisible connector between the two. But we built it in such a way that we can accommodate the

02:45specifications of each workflow. That sounds very exciting. It sounds like you're catering to two

02:51very separate needs industry wise, which is very unique. But whenever there's new technology,

02:58there's always some hesitancy around adopting that technology. What are some of the most significant

03:04significant or even standout gains that you've seen clients experience after implementation?

03:10So it's going to kind of sound very simplistic, but the first and I think most, you know, major

03:16area that the grid-based technology accommodates for is just completely getting out of email

03:22altogether. I was very surprised after coming here that this part of the manufacturing process of,

03:30you know, of originating and closing loans is still largely handled in email. So that's like sending

03:38documents, manual re-keying, all of these parts that are done outside of a system of record. So even

03:45that little change to the workflow where we enable both parties, title and lender, to collaborate and

03:53communicate inside of their respective systems of record, even that alone is such a huge lift.

03:59It really is. And what you just mentioned highlights something to me or what comes top of mind is

04:04security. Right. And that is, I know, a critical concern in the financial technology sector. So

04:11could you tell us a little bit more about how grid-based helps mitigate risks like fraud?

04:17Yeah. I mean, even just what I mentioned, even as simple as just getting completely out of email,

04:22I mean, conducting business in that way is inherently not secure. When you're sending

04:29information back and forth outside of, you know, a secure system that's, you know, that's residing

04:37inside of the portal of how you conduct your workflows, you're automatically going to increase

04:42the likelihood or the risk of fraud. So for us, that's a really critical concern,

04:48not only just the workflow aspect of it and making that more efficient, but then also,

04:54you know, eliminating that higher risk of fraud, you know, or a breach with, to your point,

05:02so many concerns that we have in our industry today.

05:06That sounds fantastic. I think everybody's looking for those opportunities in their tech stack to

05:12be more aware of security issues and mitigating any of those risks, right?

05:20Now, I want to go back a little bit. You mentioned being product system and even channel agnostic.

05:26Can you elaborate on how grid-based's flexibility distinguishes it from other solutions?

05:32Yeah. And for us, this is kind of where the rubber meets the road, right? Because we are a middleware,

05:37effectively. And because there are so many parts of the loan manufacturing process, and that can be

05:44from, you know, a search on the MLS, to the point of sale, to the LOS, and even on a servicing platform

05:51that interact in some way with title. Gridbase is really unique because we can connect to any number

05:58of various systems of record that subsequently connect the lender to the title provider, but we also connect

06:05to the major title production systems or the TPS. You know, lenders work on an LOS and title agents

06:11work on a TPS. So we connect to the other side of that. There are other solutions that only provide

06:17the title order, we'll say. So you can place the order, and that can happen from within the system,

06:24but the rest of the parts and the pieces around the workflow, like the documents and the data,

06:29the alerts, the statuses, the messages, those all then get moved to email, like we discussed.

06:34So what we do is we keep all of the parts of that inside of any platform used by the lender

06:40and the title provider on their system, and we connect those two. So they can, you know,

06:45you can kind of collaborate between the two systems without ever exiting it. That's what makes us unique.

06:51I mean, it sounds like getting out of email would be something that would be a pretty top of mind for

06:57most people who are looking to bring things into 2025, 2026. Speaking of that, technology continues to

07:10evolve. What vision does Gridbase have for supporting and continuing to support digital transformation in

07:18the title and lending industries? You know, I feel like we have very consistent conversations

07:26internally and considerations around our roadmap and where our technology can go. You know, we're

07:33already solving for the problem of keeping the workflows in a secure environment. But we've got

07:38areas of consideration around enabling lenders to validate whether the title is clear from the time

07:45of the intent to proceed that could reside in a point of sale. We see a future around digitizing,

07:52you know, balancing CDs that could effectively become a reality. And we also see a potential for

07:58fully streamlining the entirety, the end-to-end title workflow from fee estimates to the title order

08:07to docs to e-signing. So we've got a lot, I think, of opportunity and things that we're discussing that

08:15are potentially going to end up on our roadmap that I see just to make this whole workflow more

08:20efficient and, you know, kind of digitize that whole process. It sounds like there's a lot on the

08:28roadmap and that Gridbase has a pretty ambitious plan for continuing to support both title and lending.

08:35I have to ask you, what are you most excited about for the future?

08:39Yeah, I mean, I think I alluded to it, you know, when we first started talking about just

08:43me personally and my passion for, you know, helping to solve, you know, challenges or problems for my

08:48clients. And I think that is kind of the core of our company is kind of the culture of our company

08:53and the opportunity to help really truly solve an industry challenge that's very exciting for us.

08:59This workflow is well overdue for modernization and it's in desperate need of becoming more secure,

09:07especially with, you know, we talked about it a little bit with cybersecurity concerns that permeate

09:11our industry now. You know, it's certainly, I would say, a bit of a paradigm shift for this part of the

09:17process because it's a little new what we're trying to introduce. But I think at Gridbase, we truly have

09:23a passion for making this whole experience better for all the parties involved. So I think that's

09:28probably what is most exciting for us.

09:31Well, I'm excited to see what comes next for Gridbase. Brandon, thank you so much for taking

09:37me through how Gridbase is transforming the title and lending industry.

09:41Thank you. I appreciate it.

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