Taylor Arrubla Hardwick's Life-Changing Switch to Qualia

About

[Taylor Arrubla Hardwick P.A.](https://www.tah-law.com/), a small-town, family-owned law firm based in Keystone Heights, FL, has been serving the real estate community since 1998. Specializing in residential and commercial closings, the firm’s title processing responsibilities fall primarily on Kim Story, a legal assistant who has been with the company for over 20 years. In true small-town fashion, Story’s children went to school with the owner’s daughters, who now run the firm together with their father.

Challenge

When Story first started working in real estate over 34 years ago, processing a closing meant filling out pre-printed HUDs on a typewriter and using server-based closing software that required floppy disk backups. For years, she managed every step of each closing on her own—sometimes handling up to 15 open contracts at a time–without modern title production software (TPS) that could keep up with the volume. Eventually, her company adopted E-Closing, one of the first cloud-based TPS solutions, which brought meaningful improvements. However, Story still encountered frustrations, including a lack of key features, limited automation, and the complexity of managing multiple tools. In early 2022, Story convinced her company to transition from E-Closing to Qualia, seeking a more efficient and integrated solution to increase productivity, reduce her workload, and provide peace of mind. **Lack of Modern Title Production Software** Despite the benefits of cloud-based software, one of the challenges Taylor Arrubla Hardwick faced with its previous TPS was a lack of frequent updates, making it difficult to keep up with emerging technology or request new features. “When we were considering transitioning to Qualia and learned about the features it offered–especially eSigning–I reached out to E-Closing to see if they had plans to add that functionality,” Story said. “They mentioned it was something they planned to look at in the next couple of years. That’s when I realized we needed a solution that could better meet our needs now.” **Manual Processes Slowed Down Closings** Story noted E-Closing’s automation capabilities were not as strong as she would have preferred. Key processes, such as opening a new order from a purchase and sale agreement, preparing closing documents to send to clients to eSign, and processing a Closing Disclosure (CD), used to take 10 to 15 minutes each. Whenever information changed on an order, documents had to be updated manually, saved in the software, and sent to clients separately through DocuSign. Task management was also highly manual, requiring Story to track and manage every outstanding task for each order. “If I completed a property survey, I had to remember to manually email it to everyone,” she said. “Whereas in Qualia, I can set up a Smart Action and that step is automated for me every time.” **Too Many Systems Frustrated Clients** Previously, Taylor Arrubla Hardwick relied on E-Closing, DocuSign, and Pavaso, three separate tools, which required manual data entry across platforms and multiple logins for both her and her customers. Story said, “Our clients had to log in to multiple systems—one password for remote online notarizations and another to access their closing documents. People were tired of having all these different portals to manage.”

Solution

**One-Week Onboarding, Fast Return on Investment** Easy-to-access self-service training modules in Qualia University allowed Story to immediately get started on the platform. “The training was great and Qualia is so user-friendly. I went ahead and took files in my previous software and moved them over within a week,” she said. While Story acknowledged that transitioning from any title production software has challenges, the resources Qualia provided enabled her to start working in the new system by the end of the first week. Story quickly familiarized herself with Qualia’s system and completed onboarding in just one week. She said, “The onboarding experience went very smoothly. I'm one of those people that just dives in, so before I even started working in Qualia University training modules or working with a Qualia Onboarding Specialist, I had already opened files on my own.” **AI & Automations Eliminate Manual Work, Drive 3x Time Savings** By leveraging Qualia’s advanced automation and AI-powered tools, Taylor Arrubla Hardwick dramatically reduced the time required for key processes including document preparation, task management, order opening, CD processing, and client communication. Smart Tags in Qualia save significant time by automatically updating documents when order details changed—eliminating the need to manually recreate them, as was required with Taylor Arrubla Hardwick’s previous software. eSigning in Qualia’s secure customer portal, Connect, also speeds up document preparation, allowing clients to sign documents remotely instead of visiting the office. Story added, “Sellers are very surprised that their closing appointment takes just 10 minutes, thanks to eSigning the majority of their closing documents ahead of time.”

Smart Actions and Connect Information Requests help manage closing tasks and information gathering by automating actions to run at the right time. “The automations were a game-changer and one of my biggest draws to Qualia,” Story said. “They save me valuable time as a one-person operation while providing peace of mind that follow-up tasks are being handled automatically.” Qualia’s AI-powered features also help Taylor Arrubla Hardwick streamline previously time-consuming tasks—freeing up time and improving the overall client experience. The AI Document Processor cuts down the time it takes to open a new order to just five minutes by quickly scanning document information and inputting the data into Qualia. Using Qualia’s AI-powered CD Processor reduces what used to be a 10-minute task to under three. “Qualia is always moving forward and adding new features, like the CD Processor which uses AI,” Story said. “I now spend two to three minutes uploading a CD and reconciling it against the lender CD instead of the usual ten minutes it takes. One lender even commented, 'Wow, that was really fast!' when I sent the CD back to her.”

AI has also made improvements to client communication. The Connect AI Messaging Assistant has helped Story streamline her responses to customers, saving even more time. “I hadn’t paid much attention to AI until I noticed the Connect AI Messaging Assistant. I remember thinking, ‘Dang, this is nice!’ Instead of having to write response emails from scratch, it gives you multiple options to start with, and you can adjust them from there. It’s a huge time saver.” **One Complete System and Automated Communications Boost Client Satisfaction** With Qualia’s fully integrated system, Taylor Arrubla Hardwick now manages everything in one place–from remote online notarizations, to securely sending closing documents to clients and processing wires–without needing multiple logins or re-entering data across tools. Story especially feels the difference when sending wires, thanks to Qualia Shield’s built-in security features and wire fraud protection. “I used to dread handling wires,” she said. “It was such a manual, stressful process having to manually type sensitive information. Wire integrations in Qualia Shield eliminate rekeying from one system to another. I’ll never do it another way.” The benefits of Qualia’s unified platform extend to Taylor Arrubla Hardwick’s clients, too. “Realtors we work with love the ease and transparency in Qualia Connect, that everything is in one place. No searching through emails to find a settlement statement or specific message—it’s all there.”

Results

Story describes her transition to Qualia as “life-changing,” having experienced firsthand the shift from manual, paper-driven processes to an automation and AI-driven approach to managing her workload. Looking ahead, she believes Qualia is setting the standard for the future of title processing, while other companies risk falling behind. “I don’t see other platforms keeping up with emerging technology the way Qualia does,” she said. By choosing Qualia, Taylor Arrubla Hardwick P.A. has positioned both the firm and Story for continued efficiency and success in an industry that shows no signs of slowing down.