Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Voxtur Q1 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 30th, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jordan Ross, Chief Operating Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the Voxtur 2024 first quarter earnings call, where we will discuss our financial results and business highlights. Please note that our results for the three months ended March 31, 2024, were released May 29, 2024, and can be accessed on SEDAR+ and on our website at voxtur.com. Joining me today are CEO, Gary Yeoman, and CFO, Robyn Dyson. We will begin with prepared remarks and then move into Q&A. If we are unable to get to your questions, you are always welcome to contact me directly at jordan@voxtur.com. Robyn Dyson will begin by reviewing our financial results. After that, Gary Yeoman will provide updates as to how we are progressing towards our objectives. Before we get started, please be advised that some of the information that we will share on this call may contain forward-looking statements.
We caution you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and undertake no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or changes in our expectations. Further, on today's call, we will report using both IFRS and non-GAAP financial measures. We use these non-GAAP financial measures internally for financial and operational decision-making purposes, as we believe that they provide a meaningful measurement of financial performance and valuation. These non-GAAP financial measures are presented in addition to, and not as a substitute for, financial measures calculated in accordance with IFRS. To see the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures, please refer to our press release distributed Wednesday, May 29, 2024, and our Management's Discussion and Analysis, both of which are available on SEDAR+. A replay of today's call will also be posted on our website.
Finally, please note that all references to amounts or currency during today's call are to Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Robyn Dyson.
Thank you, Jordan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will provide an overview of the financial highlights for the three months ended March 31, 2024. While interest rates remain high, negatively impacting various areas of our business, we were able to achieve an increase in revenue to CAD 13.4 million for the first quarter of 2024, as compared to CAD 12.6 million for the same period of the prior year. The first quarter revenue performance also represents an increase as compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, which was CAD 9.9 million. This growth is primarily attributable to the performance of our capital markets division. As a result of the increase in revenue, gross profit also increased from CAD 7.8 million in the first quarter of 2023 to CAD 9 million in the first quarter of this year.
As we have noted on previous earnings call, a primary focus over the past year has been on cost reduction. We see the result of these efforts in our improvement of adjusted EBITDA to -CAD 665 thousand in Q1 of this year, as compared to -CAD 4.2 million for Q1 of 2023. We remain focused on revenue growth, cost containment, and debt reduction. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Gary Yeoman, to provide business updates.
Thank you, Robyn, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm delighted to share the progress we've made and the positive momentum we experienced in Q1 and continue to build on in Q2. First and foremost, I'm pleased to report that we are making progress in our concerted efforts to lower the company's debt and hope to provide more clarity on this in the near term. By reducing our debt, we will strengthen our financial foundation, allow for more liquidity while US mortgage rates remain at high levels, and will ultimately allow us to invest more strategically in our future growth. This quarter, we have been laser-focused on building out new technologies and enhancing the functionality within our existing platforms.
Our R&D teams have made remarkable strides, and we are excited about the innovations in the pipeline that will enhance our customer experience and set new industry standards. Equally important, we've continued to make impressive headway in lowering our operational expenses, considering the macroeconomic conditions and persistent high interest rates. Streamlining operations and improving efficiencies have always been at the core of our strategy over the last 12 months. These cost-saving measures not only improve our bottom line, but also enable us to reinvest in critical areas of our business. I'm also thrilled to highlight our advancements in onboarding new customers, leveraging our singular integration platform that incorporates multiple Voxtur products and external integrations. Our dedicated teams have worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth and seamless process for our new clients, and their efforts have paid off.
We've seen a quick uptick in our customer base and an increase in our customers going live, which is a testament to the value and trust that Voxtur brings to the market. Moreover, we had a landmark transaction within our capital markets and mortgage asset trading business division this quarter. This transaction is a clear indicator of our robust market presence and the trust that major players place in our expertise and capabilities. As we look ahead, we remain committed to driving innovation, enhancing customer satisfaction, and maintaining financial discipline. The progress we've made in these key areas should set for a strong foundation for continued success throughout the year and beyond. Thank you for your continued support and confidence in Voxtur. We look forward to sharing more updates with you over the next few months as we advance on these initiatives.
Operator, I'll turn it over to you for more questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your Touch-Tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Christian Sgro with Eight Capital. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. The first one I wanted to ask on is the capital markets business. I'm looking at Voxtur's segmented revenue at the software and tech managed services segments. Could you be able to share how much of that revenue mix is from Blue Water and the capital markets business, and kind of where it lands between those two buckets?
Yeah, Robyn, did you have the financials in front of you that you could answer Christian on that, please?
Yes. I can't, I don't have the exact breakdown at this point in time, but I can speak to the fact that the largest increase related to the capital markets in the quarter was within the Technology and Managed Services revenue segment, but there was also growth in the Software and Data Licensing.
Yeah, Christian, I could say to you that, you know, in 2023, our loans that have co-issued on flow platforms has increased by 132%. Active originators in 2023 were 39, and today we have over 60. We now have 250 active originators on our whole loan platform, and we didn't have any in 2023. So, you know, things are moving along, you know, fairly robustly, even though in some areas like bulk transactions are down, but our representation in the marketplace has significantly increased. And, you know, we do have, you know, more in the hopper, and we're very excited about the growth both on pre- and post-close due diligence.
We're now doing the whole loans in addition to MSRs and non-QM. And so, there's no question that we have, and we count on Blue Water to be a significant contributor to our health and well-being. And, first quarter was just a part of it. We expect it to be more robust in the coming weeks and months ahead.
Okay, that's great. I'll flip over to the operating expense profile. Some good cost containment came through in the financials in the quarter. I'm just wondering, does Q1 look like a steady state or run rate operating expense profile, or would you say there's more work to go? Through the years, some improvement in Q2. How is this all trending in terms of either leaning that out or adding heads at this point?
Yes, it's a bit of a predicament here. We do have some more cost cutting that we can do. No question about that. But at the outset, you know, my delivery today, I also said that we have to continue to invest in our business. And so ultimately, I'm not sure that there's gonna be a material impact in Q2 with respect to expense reduction, but I do expect that there will be reductions taking place in Q3. So overall, we're focused on, you know, obviously increasing our revenue, focusing on supporting the businesses in the technology areas that we believe to be critical. And at the same time, you know, as I said before, and I've said many times, that we need to have our debt certainly contained and significantly mitigated.
And with that, we are making progress with respect to what we deem to be non-strategic assets. And so it is our goal that we will, you know, have some announcements to make in the not-too-distant future. We're very confident that transactions will be taking place, that the key components of our business will, will remain robust and will continue to grow. And concurrently, we'll be, you know, reducing our debt, if not eliminating it, in a material way. So lots of positive things to happen for us as we continue to go.
Perfect, and that was going to be my third question, but you answered it. I won't ask you to tease out any more, but we'll look forward to updates in the near future, on your strategic update there. Thanks for taking my questions, Gary.
Thank you, Christian.
Your next question comes from Brendan O'Dwyer with Hold Brothers Capital. Your line is now open.
Morning, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Two of them for you. One is partially answered, so I'll just, I guess, go to that one first. I was just concerned with the balance sheet and the amount of cash on hand, and I'm assuming that your strategy here is to sell the non-core asset to get some more working capital. Is that the case, or are there other levers you're looking, maybe, more equity raises or whatnot, to raise the cash on hand?
Yeah. The equity raise is a tough one, and certainly we don't view that as an alternative of any form of likelihood. You know, cash flow on hand is obviously critical and needed, and we think that some of that will be supplemented with the new service offerings and the, you know, the expansion of our existing businesses. No question that our strategic dispositions are twofold. They do give us some cash flow, and they will mitigate substantively our debt. So it's a combination of two for the price of one. We are confident that, I mean, we, you know, with Al Qureshi's Blue Water business continuing to grow, both on bulk and on flow, we're very confident that he's growing.
Innovations, like, tokenization, you know, it, you know, continues to be, you know, a buoyant area that we're, you know, we're fairly positive on. Our title business, we continue to advance on, you know, our digitized loan officer process. We're now selling pre-docs and moving into starter kits. All of that technology has been built, sorry. And we have a couple of clients already ready to go to board on, and it's more than tax, but just, you know, penetrate the marketplace to be able to prove to everyone that there are substantive savings.
Jeff Young and his tax business, especially Real Property Tax Analytics and some of the growth, we're not only, again, continuing to wait patiently, but again, remain more than confident that this alternative piece of technology will be embraced by the province. But there are other segues from that that we will be participating in on a bid process, and we're, you know, again, very buoyant about the opportunities. And then also, we're gonna continue to use that same piece of technology and expand into the insurance side of the business. So, you know, Jeff and his team have done a really good job as far as making, you know, that whole process open. You know, on the valuation side, we continue to make progress.
We're just around the corner from being able to incorporate, you know, our data collection tools with our floor plan and, you know, floor plan layouts, specifically. And so that integrated with, you know, an automated valuation, will be replacing in 2025, more prominently, the appraisal business as we know it today. We expect over the next 24 months, that as much as 50% of that work will be focused on, you know, floor plan layouts, sketches, you know, and data integration with the AVMs. We have built, you know, a web-based platform. We believe it's the only web-based platform out there. We're working very closely with Fannie Mae on this process.
Again, it is a key indicator of the growth that we want to focus on, and that is technology in the valuation sector. Lots of new areas that we're moving forward on and expect to, you know, see the benefits of.
Okay, great. Do you feel confident that cash flow from operations will improve this upcoming quarter or maybe even be positive? Or should we look for about the same rate as this past quarter?
Well, you know, I think that we rolled the dice very strategically in our acquisition of Blue Water. And, you know, there's nobody that's working harder than the Blue Water team to deliver. They realize the amount of confidence that we have on them, but also how much we're relying on them, not only to improve on their bottom line, but, you know, by way of example, if we're completing both deals and working with the mortgage originators, we effectively hope that with that, they require valuation, they require title, they require tax certificates and flood certificates.
So it is that synergistic opportunity that we not only, you know, purchase this business for, you know, tremendous growth, in, from a technology standpoint, you know, in the capital markets, but it is synergistic as far as providing business for us as a whole. So, you know, we're confident that that business is gonna grow in the second quarter, and quite frankly, with expectations that we had had from, you know, a year ago, they're just starting to blossom right now, and Blue Water can make the difference for us between being a cash burn and significantly cash flow positive. So second quarter's, you know, another quarter that we hope to continue to grow in that area.
We're not that far away from being cash flow positive, but again, a lot of it depends on getting some of these bulk deals done. You know, continuing growth in the flow business and boarding those transactions on. We have a number of significant, you know, mortgage entities that are dedicated to our technology trading platform, and so it is gonna grow. The business is gonna be good, and the guys continue to be innovative. So million-dollar, you know, question is that we're gonna use and need some of the disposition money to be there as an emergency if needed from a cash flow standpoint. But at the same time, you know, quietly confident that our existing businesses will continue to contribute more and be self-sufficient.
You know, raising money in the capital markets right now is the opportunity to be successful, and that is slim to none, and slim left town. It's just not a great opportunity, not, not, not because of Voxtur, but the industry at large is really, really kind of clammed up, and a lot of people have been moving to ETFs and things like that, while, you know, they continue to flesh out which way the market's going, what's happening with interest rates. You know, political pressures, you know, upcoming with elections both in Canada and US. A lot of macroeconomic conditions that impact. But our strategy, we believe, is sound, and, you know, I would be remiss if not to talk about our partner, the Bank of Montreal.
They've been outstanding partners. Again, they are quietly confident, and supporting us in every way possible. You know, we're hoping, you know, with, you know, within the next couple quarters, that this whole issue of, you know, being on side or not on side, being in a default position or not, will, you know, dissipate, you know, very rapidly, and we'll be focused on growth, cash flow positivity, and even a positivity, and that's where we remain right now.
Okay, great. My, my last question just is, I know the flywheel effect will probably make this obscured, but is there any effort being made to report each segment on a revenue basis or an income basis?
Yeah. Yeah, Robyn is... I mean, listen, this is a question, not just by you, but we've been having this every quarter. You know, my former company that I was the CEO of, Altus Group, we did that. There's no question that we need to give better vision for the investors and the public at large, as far as how each business unit is performing, their contribution level, their margins, you know, their profit margins, their gross margins, and their contribution in relationship to the company as a whole. So, it is sorely needed, and we're working on it. It's a bit of a, you know, a double-edged sword in that we have, you know, reduced our staff by almost 80%.
We have been so cognizant that we need to, you know, be mindful of what our expenses are in that, and so we're just trying to balance our fiscal obligations with, with, you know, what we know is our, you know, our moral responsibilities to give you as much clarity into who we are as a company. So we, we definitely will be moving in that direction.
Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.
You're welcome. You're welcome.
Your next question comes from Colin Fisher with Garrison Creek. Your line is now open.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. And congrats on the, on the, growth in the revenues and the gross margins. Mine are probably a little more technical in nature. With regards to the, post the sale of the asset and the repayment of the, the debt, there's a statement in there that there's CAD 8.2 million of savings vis-a-vis both, interest rate, interest savings, and principal. As I understand it, there's a CAD 3.1 million annual savings in interest, and I'm guessing then the balance is CAD 5.1 million of principal repayment savings from... That would basically have come out of cash flow. Is that the right way to look at that?
Yeah. Robyn, do you want to be specific? You're on the right line, Colin, you're correct, but I'll let Robyn be more articulate on that.
Yes, no, you're correct, Colin. That includes both the interest and the principal. That's correct.
And is it roughly about CAD 5.1 million of cash flow being preserved by not having to pay down the principal? Is that about right?
That's about right. Yes, that's correct.
In this quarter, was it a clean quarter in terms of the impact of the debt reduction?
Meaning. Yes, in terms of like with those savings, that would have been for the full quarter, because it was paid down at the beginning of November.
Okay, so there's no lagging, no nothing. Okay. With regards to, Gary, with your business update, you've made mention that this quarter there was a landmark transaction in the capital markets, and I'm guessing that's the Blue Water. When you said this quarter, was that a Q2 statement or a Q1 statement?
No, the Q1 there was, you know, a major transaction in Q1. We also expect, you know, a couple of transactions to take place in Q2. Nothing, you know, can be absolute certainty because, you know, we've one is, you know, having a letter of intent, and the other is executing on it and closing it. And sometimes, you know, those time periods tend to, you know, trickle ahead more days than what you want. But certainly, we have contracts in place that we expect to execute. And so, we're hopeful that that will be done, you know, in the very not-too-distant future. And it will be impactful for us, you know, in contributing to our moving to being cash flow positive.
Okay. With regards to the sale of that asset, the AMC, one of the implications was that you would no longer be in competition with prospective clients. Has there been any positive impact in that regard? Have you seen any change in the footing of some of your prospective clients or clients that had previously stated they didn't want to do business with a competitor?
It's a bit of a long play, Colin. As you know, I indicated to you before that we had significant concerns that there was going to be a significant change in the concept of valuation. And we expect that 50% of all of the appraisals over the next 24 months will be vis-a-vis through data collection, sketches, floor plan layouts, and that is integrated with an AVM, and that's what they're gonna use for the basis of determining and approving mortgages. And so, you know, Fannie is absolutely committed to that. But just like everything else, any, you know, kind of quasi-government, government entity, when you're making changes to a system that has been around for decades and decades, the wheels move a little slowly.
So where we have to make our investment today and make those changes, the benefit of this probably is not gonna be any material change won't take place until, you know, 2025. But if you think about our position, we were representing less than 1% of the valuation business. And the valuation business, you know, as we all know it, consistently, you know, had 30% gross margins, and it's lucky, you know, 8% profit margins. And quite frankly, there was so much infrastructure required to run an AMC.
And you know, from your days, you know, going back when you were in the valuation business, but quality control, regulatory compliance, you know, all of the, all of the insurances, all of the manpower that was needed became an extremely, you know, people-related administrative business. And what happens is when the, you know, when the industry changes and interest rates go up, you can't change that infrastructure. It's not like you can rise and fall materially with your infrastructure costs. And so what you've seen is a lot of the AMC businesses, with all these interest rates, they go from making, you know, substantively, you know, good cash flow and profits to actually losing money. And it's because they had to keep their infrastructure in place.
In our particular case, as I've said, we've changed our staffing to. You know, we've reduced it by almost 80%. And guess what? We're improving our productivity, we're improving our margins, we're... We will be cash flow positive. And so, you know, that's the beauty of being in the technology-based business. You know, we went from, oh, like, almost 525 people down to 100. And yet, I think our opportunity to be, certainly from a profitability standpoint, will be, you know, wildly profitable and serve, which is something that we weren't able, you know, to obtain over the last three years.
And so we're really excited about it, and it's been really, really, you know, a difficult road to hoe because we've asked so much from our shareholders, you know, to be patient in this regard. We think we're there. But at the same time, we, you know, we got the double whammy in that, you know, interest rates doubled. You know, the interest in capital markets, especially for small cap companies, has, you know, dwindled, you know, significantly. And, you know, and a lot of people become extremely lethargic and don't have the patience. And because of that, you know, not only two years ago, we were looking at multiples of revenue at 7-8 times. And now, you know, you're not even getting 7-8 times on EBITDA. I mean, it's purely an EBITDA business.
That's how you're gonna get value today. That's what people are expecting. And there are small cap companies that are out there that have the benefit and the privilege of having people standing behind them. And we did that in our early days, you know, with Voxtur. But it's very clear to us today that we know it's time to man up, and so we think that we've done all of the right things. And we've got some dispositions that have to take place. And when I say, it could be one, it could be more than one. We'll see, you know, what the future holds with respect to, you know, the opportunities that we have in hand.
But we do know that we've got to just get out of debt, and we've got to focus on profit and all of that. I think we've done, you know, a really, really good job at that in increasingly challenging times. I mean, our, our interest rates on our debt, you know, double digits and, you know, pretty onerous. And, you know, we're grateful to the bank for sticking with us and supporting us. I mean, not very many companies that are in, you know, our field will have that kind of support and that confidence. But, I would tell you that I think that our relationship with the Bank of Montreal and how they regarded.
Or, sorry, Bank of Montreal, and how they regarded, you know, us, you know, and, and our performance and our dealing with is that I think that, you know, they're extremely, not only grateful, but extremely confident that when we say we're going to do something, we do it. So, you know, kudos and, and lots of thanks to the Bank of Montreal people. They've been great.
So Blue Water, for lack of a better term, is a somewhat lumpy business, and I think it'll become more steady state as it stabilizes. But what are the most likely business units where you see near-term accelerated growth, given that the... There seems to be some green shoots in the in the home origination and refi starting to show up again? Where do you see growth happening that's outside of the Blue Water?
Yeah, let's just talk about it individually, and I'll go over it quickly. I mean, you know, we talked about the bulk deals, and that's when you get some home runs, right? And you get some really nice contributions. But what hasn't been talked about is the flow business. And with the mortgage entities that Al has boarded on, we participate in every loan that is transacted. And so, that whole flow business where we lost a lot of that when, you know, one of the major entities, one of our clients sold a major entity and had to board some more, you know, some more correspondents on, that's now taking place.
And so, you know, we expect that business should be, you know, growing to $500,000 a month and more. And that more than, you know, represents the base costs of running that business. So, you know, we're really, really happy about that, and that's going to continue to go. And then, you know, with the bulk deals and the advent where, you know, Al has added, you know, not just bulk deal sales, but added whole loans and non-QM in addition to the MSRs, is really going to make a material difference. So, no one's got, you know, that digitized platform like we have. So, you know, that's the Bluewater business. The tax business, which is a business I know extremely well.
You know, when I was at Altus, we built the largest tax business in the world, and we're so close to just getting, you know, this transaction done. And we'll be servicing and representing more than 444 municipalities. And what you're finding right now is they haven't had a reassessment in Ontario since 2016. And now they're talking about, you know, having an early election, which will, in my view, will help precipitate a new reassessment taking place earlier rather than later.
Right now, you know, we're dealing with the government authorities because not only are they concerned because it's been eight years since there's been the last reassessment, but they're thinking, "Okay, what is the impact going to be when we have it?" And so, you know, we're talking about providing an audit, a pre-roll audit before it's delivered, as well as building some technology platforms. Because in Ontario, I think most people know, and I know we have many people in the U.S. that are listening today, but in Ontario, your tax rate for residential is substantively less than it is for multi-residential or commercial, industrial. And so we have as many as seven and eight tax classes in Ontario, depending upon who you are. And so now the government's saying: Well, what do we do?
Like, how do we mitigate shifts in taxes and, you know, what can we do to, you know, to normalize it? And so, you know, we, you know, we have the ability with technology that we have at our hands to be able to, you know, create all these what-if scenarios. And so I think quietly, we're, we're going to become an integral part of the whole property tax platform in Ontario. And so not only can we tell you whether your taxes are too high, too low, and how, and how much with our PTA, but now we'll be doing audits of, of pre-rolls. That at least that's, that's our plan. And to be able to work closely with the government on, you know, basically, helping to establish and provide, you know, information on tax classes.
So, you know, having a province that has, you know, close to 6 million properties, 444 municipalities and having them as your key clients, I mean, once you get in, as long as you continue to form and develop your technology, it's a very, very, very robust business. And so, you know, that's one aspect of the business. You know, on the valuation side, we talked about, and I talked about, you know, the sketches and floor plan layouts and data integration. Our data integration tool was already accepted by Fannie. We don't have, and, you know, I'm thinking, like, literally weeks away, but we haven't updated, you know, our floor plan layout to integrate with that data collection, you know, on a web-based platform. And that's what we're doing right now.
You know, I'm hoping we're literally weeks away. I keep talking to Rob, who runs the Apex business, who's working diligently on that technology. And again, we're talking web-based, and what that means is that anytime you make a change, you get instant gratification on that property. So not only your data gets updated, but your sketch gets updated, your floor plan layout gets updated, and you can tie that automatically in with a valuation. And nobody is doing that. Everyone right now are basically got tools, but basically, they're taking pictures. They have to stitch the photography together, and you know, they basically offshore it to people that would convert that to a sketch.
Well, in our case, because we've been doing it, you know, through Jeffrey and Cliff with Apex, we've been doing it for years, where it's instant gratification. You make changes, it's automatically updated on your platform. And so, you know, again, we're excited, from a valuation side, that come 2025, we're gonna be not only ready, but we can, you know, go to all the AMCs that are out there and basically say, "Hey, we're not the hand that's trying to bite," right? Right? "We are the people that if you use our technology, you can continue to work with your clients. You know, we're not a threat in trying to take your clients away. We will work with you. We will provide an infrastructure for you. We'll provide a data integration tool for you.
We'll provide the sketches and floor plan layouts for you. And by the way, we're not competing, you know, we're supporting you." And so that's, you know, that's kind of our valuation kick. So we've done, you know, you know, we've done, you know, the valuation, we've done the tax, we've done the capital markets, and what's last, last, but not last, is, is, you know, our whole title side of the business. So we do provide settlement services, and Jim Adams, who runs that right, right now, was basically having to pivot because relying on default has been a disaster. Not only did we, you know, have the advent of COVID, that impacted that, but then the government brought in a moratorium.
While the interest rates are a little higher, because costs of real estate have went higher, we have seen a significant, you know, downshift in default. And why? Because typically, most homeowners now, because of prices, the, the amount of equity that's risen in their home has risen, they'd rather sell their house than, than get into that default mode. And so Jim has had to, you know, shift and move to purchase, and that, you know, has not been easy. But you know, concurrently, while they're doing that, they've now built technology platforms that can, you know, not only deal, you know, with, you know, pre-docs, you know, data collection, but also starter kits, which we've talked about, that could save, you know, all of the title companies, the agencies, and that as much as, you know, $65 a transaction.
And so, you know, massive, you know, opportunity for our business. And again, you know, what we really want to get to is just being a technology provider and not compete. So, you know, that's... You know, we're excited about that, the title side of that business. And so, Colin, you know, we're not a one-trick pony. Every individual business unit is going to come and evolve, you know, when it's supposed to, and that's where we are today.
Okay, well, listen, thank you very much for that update. I'll now pass the line.
Okay, thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Mike Seabeck with Trident. Your line is now open.
Hey, Gary and Robyn, good morning.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
My pleasure.
A lot of what I was interested in learning about has been covered with some excellent questions, but what I want to just see if I can get some clarity on is, in terms of Blue Water, you seem to be very high in hanging your hat on their prospects, and they're kind of, aside from the lumpiness, they're moving ahead. Which of the products in the suite of offerings, the technology offerings right now, do you envision maybe not as a loss leader, but kind of as a strategic driver to develop relationships and pull through other products? So I was under the impression that the sketches was completely market-ready already, but now I'm learning that it sounds like there's a little more developmental work to be done.
Yeah, I think, Mike, it's not so much our development as much as it is the development of Fannie to get ready to be able to, you know, order these new, this new type of transaction. And so they have some infrastructure changes themselves. And so while it's kind of on a prototype or pilot-type basis, there's really nothing significant that they are doing at this stage. And when I say 2025, you know, it's, it, that's, you know, that I'm saying rather than sorry. So we're, we're so close to being, you know, ready to go on that end of it. It has been the number one priority for Apex. So we're so close and moving right along.
We are not going to be in the position where there's a flood of new opportunities and requests for this coming in, and we're not ready. We're literally, you know, weeks away from being, "Let's get going. Let's pilot test this. We'll get back on the, you know, the list," the Fannie list. And we got something no one else has. So, you know, we're not going to be lagging, you know, in that particular area.
But are you marketing it directly to Fannie, or is ultimately Fannie's acceptance open the floodgate to market it to the originators?
Yeah, we're going to, you know... Obviously, we're going to, you know, focus, like I said to you before, you know, Fannie Mae's gonna be, you know, the guys that are improving it, but our clients are going to be lenders, and it's gonna be AMCs and whoever else, you know, requires it. So, you know, what we didn't want to do is be, you know, to bite the hand that feeds us. And so not being an AMC now clearly gives us an opportunity. And look for our platform.
Now, some of the bigger ones can build their own, but as you know, there's a plethora of AMCs across the country out there that do not have the means or the technology capabilities to be able to take on a project of that depth. And luckily for us, we bought Apex a couple of years back, and they currently service, you know, 3,300, or sorry, around 3,200 counties, in, or sorry, I'm wrong, 2,300 counties, in the out of the 3,300 in the U.S. And so having that many years of experience in doing sketches, the platform is there. We just had to reform it to, you know, to adapt to floor plan layouts as well.
Like, we're so far ahead, it's just a really, really nice place for us to be in that business.
Okay.
It's why we sold the appraisal business.
Well, the appraisal business disposition sounds strategically correct. I mean, I can see where you being viewed as competitors to the very people you're marketing to would be a detriment. But in terms of, you know, getting the suite of products rolling, is there anything you can envision, not as a loss leader, but as something that's a, you know, maybe a more enticing offering to get the customers on board to pull through the other products? And this.
Yeah, I think that we. Sorry, go ahead.
No, I was gonna say, which, which product line do you foresee acting in that capacity?
The title business. The title business, you know, and rolling out our technology, you know, we're in a position right now that, you know, ultimately the bottom line matters. And so if we have to throw something in front of another, and as an enticement, we will. And so the title business, and the, you know, the general adoption of this digitized loan process could take some time, but if we're able to throw that in there, you know, and at the same time providing these AMCs. So a lot of the AMCs, like, for example, Real Matters, they have a title business, they have an AMC business. There are a lot of, you know, AMCs out there have dual capacities, where they have title and valuation.
So, you know, our view is that, you know, we'll sell them 2 for the price of 1.5. I mean, that's kind of our goal.
Okay. Well, that's all I have. Thanks, Gary. Have a great day.
You're welcome. We do have to focus on technology, though. That is the only way to do it. You got to do things, you know, you got to do more with less. You know, it's got to be more affordable, it's got to be more accurate, it's got to be more timely. So that's what we'll do. Anyways, I think we're running out of time, Jordan. So, with that, I'll, you know, ask that the meeting be adjourned. I want to thank everyone for calling in today, and thank you for your patience, and we'll continue to, you know, do our best to get this company back to what you all thought it would be. Appreciate for calling in. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.