Federal Title & Escrow released a mobile app called Close It! that produces a detailed picture of cash to close and monthly mortgage payments for homebuyers and cash in pocket for home sellers on an editable, shareable closing disclosure statement.
“Close It! is like Turbo Tax for real estate transactions,” said Todd Ewing, founder of Federal Title & Escrow Company in Washington, D.C., who first conceived of the app last summer. “And the results are accurate within one-tenth of 1 percent on average.”
Getting started with the app is as easy as entering a purchase or sales price. Then fine tune the results on a live, dynamic worksheet and instantly narrow down cash to close or cash in pocket within hundreds of dollars or less.
Designed for real estate agents, lenders and their clients, Close It! factors in 45 closing cost variables on the buyer’s side and 22 variables on the seller’s side. It produces a HUD-1 settlement statement users can save, edit and email as a PDF with the option to include their headshot and contact information, which can double a nice marketing tool for agents and lenders in particular.
The app, which is currently available for iPad only, can currently generate an accurate bottom line for any house or condo bought or sold in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and Florida, and Ewing said he plans to expand into more markets soon. An iPhone and mobile desktop version are also coming soon.
Title professionals across the country have used this type of technology in-house for years now, but Ewing is excited to move it into a mobile application with a user-friendly interface in order to make it easy for agents, lenders, homebuyers and home sellers to produce a HUD-1 that would be reviewed and signed at the closing table.
Ewing said his office receives numerous requests daily for an accurate preliminary HUD-1. Now that information is available in an instant.
“Close It! is like having a settlement agent in your pocket,” he said. Find a house you really like and the app will tell you in real terms, in real time, how much is required to close the deal.”