Mortiles' Erich Wiedel on Building a Title Services Powerhouse Through Relationships

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

27 Mar 2025

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In an industry focused on aggressive growth and consolidation, Mortiles distinguishes itself—growing to employ 650 full-time staff and 1,300 independent contractors while intentionally maintaining a low profile throughout most of its existence.

Accidental Entrepreneurs

The Mortiles story began when Erich, as a teenager, worked part-time at a mortgage company during high school. When the company launched its in-house title division, Erich gravitated towards that side of the business and was mentored by industry veterans who “saw me as a son or a little brother,” says Erich Wiedel, President of Mortiles.

This informal apprenticeship laid the groundwork for Mortiles. Erich wasn’t aiming to lead the industry; he simply noticed inefficiencies in title services and thought, “We could do it better, faster, and cheaper.”

Erich partnered with two friends—one with extensive real estate expertise and the other with robust IT knowledge—to launch Mortiles. The founding team has remained intact for nearly two decades. The name reflects their practical mindset: “We were eager to get started, and two people suggested “Mortiles,” as a melding of “more titles.” I thought, ‘sure whatever, let’s just get this company started and things rolling.’

The Power of Word-of-Mouth

Most companies pursue growth through marketing campaigns, industry events, and sales outreach. Mortiles did none of this—for more than a decade and a half.

“100% of our business came from referral and word of mouth for the first 15-plus years, and business was thriving,” Erich explains.

At the beginning of 2022, the company began participating in industry conferences and experienced something unexpected: “The response was very positive from prospective clients. Moreover, we were meeting people left and right we’d been working with for many years who we’d never seen face to face.”

Even at these events, Mortiles maintains an understated approach: “We’re not aggressive with our sales approach—it’s more about brand presence.” Despite this low-key strategy, it has “brought in substantial business for us.”

The “Thanks, But No Thanks” Business Model

Mortiles’ unconventional philosophy is perhaps best illustrated by their reaction when Zillow, launching its in-house title services in 2019, presented them with a significant potential deal.

Erich recalls, “I was in the Bahamas on vacation with my wife when they called. The representative said, ‘We’ve heard great things about Mortiles; we have approximately 5,000 orders ready to go. We just need to fast track the onboarding process within the next 1-2 days.’ I asked her to give me an hour to discuss the opportunity with my team.”

After speaking with his Partner and a few other senior Managers, Mortiles respectfully declined the business, a response that left the Zillow representative “dumbfounded.”

“Are you sure about this?” she asked.

Erich confirmed, explaining that handling that volume within Zillow’s SLA requirements would sacrifice the quality and turnaround times for their current clients. “Our loyalty is first and foremost to our pre-existing client partners. Don’t get me wrong, saying no to a great opportunity like that wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing for us to do at the time. Zillow ended up shutting down their title division in mid 2023 anyway; whereas the clients we prioritized in 2019 are still in business and continue to work with Mortiles. While we welcome new business, it’s not necessarily our primary motivation.”

This dedication to existing relationships over growth extends to their operational philosophy: “Never over commit & under deliver.”

Tech-Savvy Traditionalists

Mortiles’ relaxed facade shouldn’t be mistaken for technological stagnation. The company has been quietly innovative, developing proprietary software and integrating with industry platforms like TSS and ResWare back in 2008-2012 (respectively); years ahead of its competitors. Mortiles was one of the very first title service providers to be on Qualia’s Marketplace back in 2017.

Erich recalls: “In Qualia’s early days, they landed at my close friend’s national title company. He said ‘Erich I have these kids in Stanford hoodies in my office & they’re working on building out features in this software they’ve developed. The thing is they want you to type my searches into their system.’ I said we’re doing thousands of files for your office every month, we don’t have time to type these searches. I said put me in touch with them, we’ll show them how we do field to field mapping so everything can be automated. We collaborated with Nate’s team and they had the integration ready to go in no time. That was before they launched their Marketplace.  Qualia went on to do amazing things; we’re proud to have that history with them.”

Mortiles has observed industry disruptions with measured perspective. When blockchain enthusiasts boldly claimed, “We won’t need title insurance anymore; it can all be on the blockchain,” and predictive underwriting sent “nervous shock waves through the industry,” Mortiles maintained a steady evaluation of each technology’s practical applications.

Today, Mortiles is investing significantly in advanced solutions, allocating millions of dollars to technology last year, with plans to increase that budget in 2025. The company is collaborating with blockchain experts from Silicon Valley and implementing AI-powered OCR to extract data from centuries-old handwritten documents.

However, Mortiles maintains a practical balance between automation and human expertise. Currently, technology handles about 35% of their processes, with people managing the remaining 65%. Their goal is a 50/50 split, acknowledging that aspects of title work require human judgment: “There are too many nuances in title with chain of title splits, multiple parcels, separate parcels for parking spots & boat slips, indexing issues at the County which take human expertise to identify, etc.”

Soul Over Scale

Mortiles is evolving in an industry that is being pressured towards consolidation and automation. Despite these forces, Mortiles stays true to its foundation of organic growth and relationship-based business.

Erich notes that bigger is not always better and that Mortiles aspires to grow without losing its identity.

In a business environment where success is often measured by aggressive growth, Mortiles offers an alternative narrative. It proves that companies can succeed by prioritizing quality, relationships, and maintaining their values while embracing innovation.

Their clients describe Mortiles as “the best kept secret in the industry.” After nearly two decades of success, that’s precisely how Erich and his team prefer it.