Five Star Best Practices

Everything in our industry, amid the aftermath of more than a decade of unparalleled levels of FRAUD – mortgage fraud, securities fraud, foreclosure fraud, foreclosure-rescue fraud, short-sale fraud [much of which continues in the real estate, lending, and servicing industries today] – cries out for a “best-practices” approach to doing business. Therefore, we ask our Academy Members to pledge allegiance to the spirit of Five Star Best Practices:

Regulatory Compliance
Academy Members support enhanced regulatory enforcement that protects consumers – even when left to shoulder the bulk of the economic impact of implementing and supporting new and/or revised industry regulations.
Professional Ethics
Academy Members go beyond complying with the letter of the law; they wholeheartedly embrace the spirit of the law. They do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Professional ethics emanate from personal values such as honesty, integrity, equity, and fairness. Academy Members know that character is what one does when no one else is looking.
Extreme Customer Care
Academy Members understand that, if consumers pursuing the American Dream of homeownership are to be protected in the future, Main Street providers must repopulate our national neighborhoods and, collectively, work together to ensure that consumers are well informed and transactionally supported by honest, ethical business professionals.
Intra-Industry Cooperation
Academy Members understand the importance of working with other settlement services providers, so as to provide consumers a simple, seamless settlement experience. The Academy promotes an all-inclusive membership of Main Street [small business] title insurance agents, attorneys, loan originators, real estate agents and brokers in addition to community banks, credit unions, and state-based and small regional title insurers.
Commitment to Personal Excellence
Academy Members understand that education is the cornerstone of personal and professional excellence. As such, they are lifelong learners. Academy Members are required to complete a series of Academy-sponsored regulatory compliance and professional ethics courses which are designed to ensure that Members are, literally, on-the-same-page with respect to their overall understanding and implementation of new and revised industry laws and regulations, regardless of their specific industry focus.

Shared knowledge enables people to take a risk to expand an idea and to venture to a new horizon.