Our Origin Story
About six years ago, I remember talking at length with a real estate agent who was moving to North Carolina from another state. In their prior state, the closing company was responsible for helping the buyer complete a survey and inspection on the property. Of course, our state typically leaves the burden of that work on the real estate agent—a difference that had me wondering, what things do real estate agents handle in our state that would be easier for the closing attorney?
A few years later, Kelly White joined my firm as our practice manager, bringing a wealth of experience and process-knowledge as a transaction coordinator. Early on, we spent a lot of time talking through different ways that we could leverage her systems and know-how on the transaction side into improvements for the law firm. She formed Catalyst Closing Services during that time, and independently helped a few agents with transaction coordination, which had the practical effect of honing those systems to be more efficient and effective for our agents.
Last year, the idea came to us: why couldn’t Atlas Orange help agents with transaction coordination? Even though it is not something currently handled by law firms, surely there are some efficiencies gained by having the same hands on both parts of the transaction. What if we merged Catalyst’s and Atlas Orange’s system to work in tandem?
Thus, Catalyst Concierge was born!
One thing we are always working towards is finding places where we can position our agents to be successful and productive. Having a front row seat, what we have learned over the years is that our most talented agents are brilliant when it comes to buying and selling, negotiating, and relationship building with their clients. What do they tend to hate more than anything? Paperwork. Scheduling. Compliance.
The idea behind Catalyst is that we wanted to be able to help small and mid-sized agents and agencies operate at a higher level by taking post-contract responsibilities off of the agent’s plate! Organizationally, we are able to have much more hiring flexibility than a small or mid-sized agent, which means that we can take the burden of hiring and training a transaction coordinator off your plate.
On top of that, things like obtaining a Closing Disclosure or arranging seller document signing becomes so much easier. You literally have an inside agent in the attorney’s office who can advocate and work to make sure you and your client have what you need.
My favorite part: this kind of leverage costs you nothing at all. The transaction coordination service is built into the fee structure that is charged to the client with other attorney’s fees. What if I told you that we could give you access to a free transaction coordination service for all of your transactions? It would be a no-brainer, from a business perspective.
So, it’s definitely time to book your free discovery call with Catalyst Concierge. We are excited to help you get your business to the next level and no better time to start than now!
-Joseph D. Orenstein
