"It seems like the few web service providers will be the ones making all the money."
Exactly. And they may end up being owned by the likes of major title co's. I suspect most lenders will be smart enough to stay at arm's length from the process.
This service will likely require significantly more overhead than what most of us currently have. Big operators will be the ones who can invest in a setup that will generate enough volume to make this very profitable for themselves and us small players will be left in their dust. If we think it's bad now with platforms like SD siphoning off chunks of signing fees, this will make it much worse.
I've been saying for a very long time now that we should not only be putting some time and effort into trying to stop this, but also into thinking about what we're going to do next (or in addition to...) if business volume drops significantly enough to impact livelihoods. I'm not saying that's going to happen next week, next month or maybe even next year, but for most, it's not easy to turn on a dime to replace lost income - unless you're willing to go find a full time job...
I'm just thinking back to all the moaning and complaining we saw here a little over a decade ago when the bottom dropped out of this business after the 'mortgage meltdown'. It was very sad!
|