RealEC & Closing Insight™ FAQs
- What is RealEC?
The RealEC Exchange is an interconnected network of lenders and service providers to help streamline the process of ordering, tracking and receiving mortgage products and services for refinance and purchase transactions. For more information, see www.bkfs.com/RealEC.
- What is Closing Insight?
Closing Insight is a module within the RealEC Exchange that allows lenders and settlement agents to collaborate on the preparation of the Closing Disclosure form. Lenders can choose whether or not to use Closing Insight for escrow orders. For more information, see www.closinginsight.com.
SoftPro 360’s Closing Insight integration allows you to participate in this collaboration with major lenders, electronically receiving orders from the lenders, sending your fees on those orders, and receiving lender fees and loan terms.
- Which Lenders are using Closing Insight?
The list of lenders using Closing Insight is growing rapidly. The good news is once you have registered with Closing Insight you can receive orders from any lender who utilizes Closing Insight. The settlement agent process does not change from lender to lender.
- Why do I need Closing Insight to collaborate with lenders on the Closing Disclosure when I never did that before with the HUD-1?
Because lenders are ultimately responsible for the CDF, many have decided to produce and distribute the form themselves. Both parties need the data in their systems – lenders to produce the CDF, and you to produce the seller’s disclosure, settlement statements, and disbursements – so Closing Insight was created to help electronically transfer that data between the two parties.
- Who determines the Title and Settlement Fees?
The settlement agent will still determine their fees as they do today. The settlement agent has the ability to accept or reject values that are different during collaboration with the lender.
- Who is Black Knight / BKFS?
Black Knight Financial Services is the company that provides the RealEC Exchange and Closing Insight products.
- How do I know when a lender sends me an order request?
Title, Closing and Signing Appointment order requests will appear in SoftPro 360 queue with a status of ‘New’. Each request will appear in the queue separately. Email notifications can also be setup in RealEC by your office Administrator. For more information, contact RealEC Technical Support at 1-877-2REALEC.
- How can I tell which order request is for Title, Closing or Signing Appointment?
In the SoftPro 360 queue you have an option to include ‘Product’ in your view. The Product column will indicate if the order request is for Title, Closing or Signing.
- Why did I get multiple requests for one file?
You will receive a separate request for each Title, Closing and Signing Appointment transaction. Each request needs to be accepted separately but can be linked to the same SoftPro order.
- If the initial RealEC request from the lender is not accepted in 360, but the user accepted the initial request in the Closing Insight Exchange website, is the initial transaction still in the 360 queue?
It depends whether the PID (Party Identification Number) is registered with SoftPro. If the PID was registered with SoftPro at the time that the initial service was received via the event 100 then yes, the initial transaction will still reflect in the 360 queue. However, if the PID was not registered with SoftPro then a new request must be sent by the lender after the registration is complete in order to link to the file in SoftPro.
- If the initial transaction is in the 360 queue and other events have occurred in the Closing Insight Exchange website, can I still link that transaction to my file in SoftPro?
Yes, once Event 100 is accepted in 360, any events sent/received via the Closing Insight Exchange website will show in the summary screen of that transaction within SoftPro.
- How do I accept an order request?
Highlight the new transaction in your SoftPro 360 queue and click ‘Next Step’. You will be presented with a Review screen which will allow you to create a new order or link the transaction to an existing order.
- Does the lender get notified when I accept the order request?
Yes, when you accept an order request the system will send Event 130 to the Lender indicating the request was accepted.
- How do I know if I have an existing file for the new order request?
The Lender may include a comment to indicate the order was opened outside of RealEC and may also include your order number. If the order number is included, the order will automatically open and appear in the ‘Linked To’ field on the Review screen. You may also do an order search prior to accepting the request.
- If the Lender includes an order number that is incorrect, can I link it to the correct one?
Yes, if the lender sends an order number that is incorrect you can still create a new order or search for an existing order.
- Can I link a Closing Insight order request to an existing HUD/GFE order?
No, you will need to create a new Closing Disclosure order. If you attempt to link your new order to a HUD/GFE order you will receive a message indicating the new order has been flagged for Closing Insight. You will need to open a new CDF Order.
- How do I know if the new closing order request will include Closing Collaboration?
On the Review screen there will be a note to indicate if Closing Insight will be utilized for the order. It will appear as ‘Closing Insight: Yes’ in the note section of the Review screen.
- If Closing Insight will not be utilized for the order does that mean the order does not require a Closing Disclosure Form?
No, your order may still require a Closing Disclosure Form. You will need to contact your lender to confirm the requirement.
- Will all the new values sent by the Lender be overwritten into my existing order?
By default the new values will be overwritten into your order. If there are values you do not want to accept, you can uncheck those values. You need to have at least one value checked in order to accept the new order request.
- Will my order type change in my file when I accept each transaction separately (Select Only)?
If you have a Title & Escrow order type and accept a title or closing order request your order type will not change. If you have a Title Only order type and accept a closing order request, your order type will change to Title & Escrow. If you have an Escrow Only order type and accept a title order request, your order type will change to Title & Escrow. If you have customized the order type drop down options, your results may be different.
- Will the notes and documents included in my new order request be added to my SoftPro file?
Yes, the notes and documents will automatically be added to your SoftPro file unless you uncheck the ‘Add to Notes’ checkbox or the specific document checkbox.
- Can a lender change an order to use Closing Insight after the initial order request?
Yes, the lender can send an event to RealEC to change the order to Closing Insight. When the lender sends in their closing instructions it will include the Closing Disclosure data and you will have the ability to collaborate with the lender.
- How do I reject an order?
Highlight the new transaction in your SoftPro 360 queue and click ‘Next Step’. You will be presented with a Review screen. Click the ‘Reject’ button.
- Does the lender get notified when I reject the order request?
When you reject an order the system will send Event 140 to the Lender indicating the order was rejected.
- What happens next after I accept an order?
Your transaction status will change to In Progress. You are now able to send and receive events for the accepted transaction.
- Where can I find a list of all events?
View a list of all the closing events »
- How do I send events to the Lender?
Find your transaction in the SoftPro 360 queue and double click or click ‘Next Step’. This will open a Summary Screen. Click ‘Add Event’ to send an event for the transaction.
- Where can I see all the events for my transaction?
The summary screen will show all events that were sent or received for the transaction.
- Since I only have one SoftPro file, does it matter which transaction I use to send events?
Yes, although you only have one SoftPro file the events are tied specifically to the Title, Closing or Signing Appointment events and should be sent from the correct transaction.
- Do I need to send events in a certain order?
No, after accepting your new order request (Event 100) there are no restrictions to when you can send events.
- How do I know when I should send an event?
The way you conduct business is not changing. The only thing changing is how you are communicate or deliver documents to the lender.
- How much does SoftPro charge for this integration?
The cost is $2 per title order and $2 per escrow order. The charge applies to any order that you accept through 360, even if the closing is later canceled. There is no additional charge for Closing Insight use on escrow orders.
- How often will I be billed from SoftPro?
SoftPro will email you an invoice on the 15th of each month for your orders from the prior month.
- Will I also be charged from RealEC?
Yes, transaction fees from RealEC may also apply for refinance transactions but not for every purchase transaction. Please refer to RealEC’s published pricing here.
- Do I need to register for RealEC Closing Insight?
Major lenders including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Union Bank, PNC and others are planning to use Closing Insight to collaborate on the Closing Disclosure. If you provide closing services to any lender using Closing Insight, you must register.
- Do I need to register each branch separately?
Yes, each office (branch) of your company will need to be registered once. If you have 5 locations, you will need to complete the registration 5 different times, once for each location. If you only have one office or branch location, one registration will be sufficient.
- Do I need to register separately for each lender?
No, only one registration per office (branch) is required no matter how many lenders you work with.
- Do I need each escrow officer or closer to register separately?
No, the registration process is for the branch level. You will need to set up each escrow officer or closer as a RealEC user through RealEC’s Admin page. After they are added to the admin page, each user will receive an email and must set up their password within 5 days of receiving the email.
- Is there a fee to register?
Registration is free until June 30, 2016. Please use promo code ClsInstWEB to take advantage of free registration.
- How do I register?
Go to www.closinginsight.com and click on "Register Now.”
- The registration asks for my “Software Company ID” – where do I find this?
Your “Software Company ID” is your SoftPro serial number (SN). In Select, you’ll find the serial number in SPAdmin on the Licenses screen. In Standard and Enterprise, click on the Tools menu in ProForm, then click on Licensing. Your serial number will display in SoftPro as a 6-digit number like “123-346”. When you enter this into RealEC’s registration process, remove the hyphen and enter this like “123456”.
- What is a PID?
A PID is your PartyID – a unique number assigned from RealEC to identify one of your offices at the branch level. If you have two branch locations, you will have separate PIDs for each (for example, PID 123456789 for Office 1 and PID 987654321 for Office 2). This PartyID identifies your company to RealEC and the lenders with whom you do business.
- Do I contact SoftPro or RealEC when I have questions or problems?
If you have a problem with your RealEC login credentials or with the RealEC website, contact RealEC. For any problems within SoftPro 360 or general questions about the integration, contact SoftPro.
- Which browsers are supported by Closing Insight's web portal?
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: current version 11 and previous versions 10 & 9. You may download Explorer at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/internet-explorer-9-details.aspx.
- Google Chrome: current version 43 and previous versions 42 & 41.
- Mozilla Firefox: current version 38 and previous versions 37 & 36.
- Apple Safari (Mac only): current version 8 and previous versions 7 & 6.
RealEC supports accessing the Exchange website with the following browsers:
- How do I contact RealEC technical support?
1-877-2REALEC
- Where can I find answers to other Closing Insight questions?
For more information, please visit: https://www.blackknightinc.com/exchange-resource-portal/about-closing-insight/
- Are there SoftPro trainings we can attend?
Yes, SoftPro will be conducting free online training sessions. Please visit https://blog.softprocorp.com/webinars for the available webinars.
- Does Black Knight Financial Services have any training resources?
Yes, BKFS has assembled a wide variety of training materials, videos, handouts, webinars, and more at their Resource Center »
- Are there training videos I can watch on demand?
Yes, if you are unable to attend a demo session on one of the dates listed above, we will also be offering video recordings of these sessions. To access these recordings at a future date, please visit https://my.softprocorp.com/TrainingVideos and login with your mySoftPro user name and password.