Help Your Clients Help Themselves - Closing

[Pages:2]By Cathy Blaszyk

Vice president, national account sales ClosingCorp

Help Your Clients Help Themselves

Mortgage bankers can cultivate customers with online technology

In recent years, technology has become a vital part of every mortgage professional's career, affecting the way that the industry conducts its business and interacts with consumers. Technology also has enabled consumers' to learn about the various loan products for which they may qualify.

In that regard, loan-evaluation sites are allowing consumers to be more interactive in the application process, letting them initiate, revise and even select a loan program based on the kind of financing they need. If mortgage bankers and lenders can harness this process effectively by offering such systems to their consumers, they'll likely be able to reduce the costs of origination and exponentially improve their borrowers' experiences.

These types of interactive online systems require only minimal consumer information at the onset, although any system should have the ability to update itself as additional information becomes available. This degree of control empowers consumers without making them feel vulnerable. Further, these systems can save money and provide the transparency that reduces risk.

Breaking it down

Here's an example of how these systems work. After looking at a home and deciding that it could be worth purchasing, a consumer receives, via a Realtor or lender, a link to a website that offers direct access to a loan application. The consumer would begin by providing minimal information -- i.e., the type of financing desired, estimated property value, FICO range, location, etc. Based on the information provided, the consumer then is given accurate closingcost estimates and loan-pricing data that's

customized for the given geographic location and needs.

At that point, the consumer can provide additional information that allows the participating lender to pull a credit report, insert a full property address, complete an interactive loan application and have the loan re-priced based on verified FICO scores, liabilities and income. Consumers can get a detailed view of what their payments will be and the cash that's required to close. Complete disclosure packages also can be generated and accepted electronically by the consumer.

In addition, automated underwriting can be performed, which will identify conditions for final loan approval. The ideal workflow in this process, however, is to have the consumer take these steps upfront to become pre- approved without a specific property address and before beginning the home search. This workflow can be initiated by consumers in the comfort of their own homes at any time of day.

For mortgage bankers and lenders, once this information is electronically delivered into their loan-origination platforms, it can help to guide the follow-up questions asked later. Originators can rest assured that they have located a qualified applicant -- and with minimal effort on their part in terms of their analysis. These types of systems enable mortgage companies to provide their consumers with the information they need to make an informed decision and express their intent to proceed or not proceed with the deal.

These systems also can be appealing to consumers because they can provide automatic updates as the consumer's file moves through certain processing and underwriting milestones. Consumers can upload documents such as pay stubs and

bank statements in a secure online environment and receive confirmation of their documents' receipt.

In short, this streamlined process puts control into the hands of your clients, which in turn demystifies the lending scenario for them while also helping them become more involved in the loan process. In addition, this type of system allows lenders to offer consumers closing discounts because of reductions in their costs and labor.

More uses and users

Through integration with data and fee providers, loan-origination systems, and automated underwriting solutions, mortgage bankers and lenders can customize these systems for use with their refinancing business, as well as their purchase business. In addition, they can make these systems available to their Realtor partners. In doing so, these systems can provide powerful lead-generation environments while quickly determining if a borrower is a qualified candidate to begin with. Consumers can become immediately aware of all the costs and liabilities associated with their financing and can determine if they're searching for homes in their appropriate price range.

continued >>

Cathy Blaszyk is vice president of national account sales for ClosingCorp, a leading provider of residential real estate closing-cost data and technologies for mortgage lenders, real estate professionals and consumers. In her current position, Blaszyk oversees business development, sales and implementation of ClosingCorp's SmartGFE Service, which provides residential mortgage originators with real-time title and settlement pricing, vendor fees, transfer taxes and recording fees to complete compliant good-faith estimates. Reach her at cblaszyk@.

Reprinted from Scotsman Guide Residential Edition and , June 2013

All rights reserved. Third-party reproduction for redistribution is prohibited without contractual consent from Scotsman Guide Media.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download