Behind the scenes of a real estate transaction, title insurance underwriters are busy evaluating land title risks and making coverage decisions. Their tireless work helps deals close quickly and on time.
What keeps underwriters so busy? Seasoned real estate experts know that real property transactions can be derailed by a variety of title issues. Among them: boundary disagreements with neighbors, errors in tax information, lien rights of contractors who worked on the property, lack of access to the land, etc. Many of these problems are difficult to identify, even for professionals, and need careful due diligence.
Historically, this process could require hours of manual investigation. Underwriters needed to assemble evidence from a variety of sources and compile “the story” of the property to make a coverage decision. But First American works hard to provide its underwriters with modern, digital tools that enhance their effectiveness and efficiency. One example is Galileo™, a best-in-industry platform and toolset for underwriting data. Galileo helps underwriters across the company make better, faster coverage decisions — which helps deliver the certainty and trust needed to power seamless real estate transactions for First American’s customers.
Recently named a 2024 HousingWire Insider, First American Title Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Underwriter Justin Lischak Earley championed the development of Galileo. He shared his thoughts on the inspiration for the platform, how it benefits First American’s customers, and how it may evolve.
How did the concept for Galileo come about? What challenges drove the development of the platform?
The origin story for Galileo is a real-life transaction that I was working on several years ago. We were asked to provide a customer with “mechanics’ lien coverage,” which is a type of title insurance coverage that is critically tied to whether any construction work is already happening on the property. Using an online satellite map service, I zoomed in on the property, and literally saw a bulldozer sitting on the site. Obviously, construction work was already happening, making that deal much more complicated. But, more broadly, I realized that the satellite map had made mission-critical underwriting information instantly visible at my fingertips. I thought, “Why can’t we make other things visible in this same way – plotted on a map and visualized instantly in a few clicks?” And thus, the concept for Galileo was born.
We saw an opportunity to transform our underwriting process, with a key goal being to shift underwriter involvement as early in the transaction as possible. But like John Doerr famously said, “Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” So, to make the vision real, we built a team that was zealously devoted to user-centered design. We prototyped, tested, and repeated, making sure that we created what our underwriters really wanted, not just what we thought they wanted.
With feedback from over 150 beta users, Galileo became a revolutionary map-based tool that combines data on prior policies, claims, tax parcels, geographic features, railroads, waterways, Native American lands, and more into a visual information hub. The platform was rolled out to all First American underwriters in late 2023 and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews across all divisions.
“Our customers all want protection from title risks and a seamless closing. This is true whether they are a first-time home buyer, a seasoned real estate investor, or a mortgage lender. It’s true whether the transaction is residential or commercial. It’s in our customers’ interests, as well as ours, to spot and resolve issues quickly. Galileo helps our underwriters quickly identify risks and deliver the best coverage options for our customers faster.”
What has been the response to Galileo from First American’s underwriters?
Well, Galileo was built by underwriters for underwriters — and that’s why our people love it! Galileo empowers them to perform their jobs to the very best of their abilities. Galileo can reveal unseen or underlying issues that might otherwise become unpleasant “last minute surprises” in a closing. We have plotted data sets for multiple high liability concerns, allowing underwriters to spot and address those issues before they become major headaches.
Each potential risk comes with specific information tailored to the area in which the property in question is located. With some of our data sets, we can be really specific. For example, sometimes you need to find the contact information for the government employee who is the official, public point of contact for a matter affecting a title. Environmental issues are an example. Before Galileo, fishing out that contact information could have taken days of outreach. Where possible, we’ve made it effortless.
Galileo also plots title insurance policies we’ve issued and claims history on detailed aerial maps to give underwriters visual context, both on the property in question and surrounding areas. This is crucial information for underwriters because knowing whether or not we issued coverage or had a claim on a particular issue in the past—either on the property in question or nearby—is incredibly important in risk analysis. It allows underwriters to see local historical patterns in coverages and claims, which opens whole new possibilities for understanding. Before Galileo, this kind of analysis was all but impossible for an underwriter working at their desk. Galileo makes it easy.
We are continually researching Galileo’s user experience, and some of the feedback our underwriters have shared includes:
• “[Galileo is] like combining Google Earth with every county assessor’s map and information.”
• “This must be what it was like for the first person who saw fire. Galileo is to title [insurance] what the wheel is to transportation.”
• “[Galileo] gives me a great deal of information that is exactly in the format that works best for me to quickly and fully understand the issues represented.”
How does Galileo help First American’s customers?
Our customers all want protection from title risks and a seamless closing. This is true whether they are a first-time home buyer, a seasoned real estate investor, or a mortgage lender. It’s true whether the transaction is residential or commercial. It’s in our customers’ interests, as well as ours, to spot and resolve issues quickly. Galileo helps our underwriters quickly identify risks and deliver the best coverage options for our customers faster.
The parties to a real estate transaction remember when a title insurance provider protects their ownership rights and delivers a seamless closing, and they will turn to that title insurance provider again in the future. That’s why we believe that Galileo offers a competitive advantage to doing business with First American.
What’s ahead for Galileo?
More and better. We are continually expanding the data sets available in Galileo. Some of our key priorities are adding more oil, gas, and mineral information, which is very hard to find in many places and can become a significant sticking point in some transactions. We’re also working to connect underwriters to one another through Galileo, so they can quickly and easily get a consult from a fellow expert by co-working on the same set of instantly available information. If we make collaboration between underwriting colleagues faster and easier, we make coverage decisions faster and easier. And we’re also investigating how to bring emerging AI technologies into Galileo.
All of this we do based on the feedback and input from our underwriters. We’re zealots for user-centered design, so we’ll always be laser-focused on determining what our underwriters want technology to accomplish for them, and then building that dream into reality.
