By: Kelly Brady, Founding Partner and EVP of Technology
Our Company’s Vision is “To Make Real Estate Simple,” but what does that mean? We interact and coordinate with multiple parties in a single purchase transaction – the buyer, seller, buyer’s real estate agent, buyer’s agent’s transaction coordinator, seller’s agent, seller’s agent’s transaction coordinator, lender, mortgage broker, title searcher, buyer’s attorney, seller’s attorney and paralegal (maybe), pre-closing paralegal, closing paralegal, post-closing paralegal, seller’s payoff lender, title insurance company – and depending on the issues that come up, numerous others. When we serve as the closing attorney, we gather all the information and share it with the proper parties to keep everyone informed and moving forward so that at some point, the buyer and the seller can sign their closing documents and complete the purchase or sale of their home. And yes, the days of all parties coming together in one location to sign their documents simultaneously are pretty much obsolete, so additional coordination is required by the closing attorney’s office. Needless to say, it takes a lot to make this all happen!
Back in 1998, when I first started practicing real estate law, most steps in the real estate transaction were similar to what they are today, but how we process the transaction today is significantly different. Back then, everything was scanned and faxed to us on fax machines that printed off pages and pages of information. We had paper files with numbered, physical folders and we used pagers to reach our title searchers. The deed vault had telephones and the title searchers would leave their coveted spot where they had been turning pages in the huge deed books so that they could return our phone call. I would have to fill my fax machine paper several times per day just so I could receive a “pdf” file. Let’s not talk about the faxes and re-faxes that occurred when there was a “blip” in the fax line. Piecing together multiple faxes to get all the pages was time-consuming, frustrating, and difficult.
Today, with cell phones, text messaging, email, digital files, portals, AI bots, integrations, and other technological enhancements, processing real estate transactions is much simpler. Yes, title issues still occur, conflicts flare between seller-siblings who inherited mom and stepdad’s home, or lender underwriting issues arise, often making the transaction difficult. Still, our vision is to make it simple anyway.
At Brady & Kosofsky, we strive to be proactive and communicate effectively, efficiently, timely, and simply. We invest in technology and innovate to find new ways to streamline our workflow, eliminate miskeyed information, and enhance our processes. We work as ONE TEAM and cross-train team members so they can jump in to assist when needed. Our employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and trying new processes to see if it simplifies the transaction for our clients and partners.
Our Vision, “To Make Real Estate Simple,” is a huge challenge, but we strive every day to make it happen. As many businesses do, we give out t-shirts with our vision and core values listed on them. We recently received an email message from an attorney who practiced law and lived in Charlotte several years ago. He said that he was having work done on his house and noticed one of the contractors wearing a Brady & Kosofsky t-shirt, so he decided to Google our firm. Imagine his surprise when he found us! He said that he thought that we would enjoy knowing that one of our t-shirts was proudly being worn by a hard-working man in Thailand! Sadly, today, we can’t be 100% certain that anything we receive via email is safe to open let alone true. I admit that is the first thing that we asked ourselves, “Is this legit?” We choose to believe that it is!
