How Technology is Changing the Face of the Mortgage Lending Process

Try and think of an area of your life where technology hasn’t taken over. Pretty tough, right? Everywhere you turn, people are buried in their tablets and smartphones. Work places are filled with the latest in software and computer programs. Even classrooms are filled with technological devices to help educators teach students more effectively.

Technology really has affected just about every aspect of our lives, including how you apply and get approved for a mortgage.

From beginning to the end, innovative technologies are revamping every step of the mortgage lending process for you, your lender, the real estate agent, and anyone else involved in the process. There are plenty of benefits that technology offers within the mortgage realm.

Streamlining the Mortgage Process

Many home buyer hopefuls dread the mortgage application process. The application itself tends to be lengthy and cumbersome. You’ve got to gather up all sorts of financial documents, and fill out and sign pages and pages of documents.

Then waiting around to find out whether or not you’re approved can have you biting your nails. When you finally get the stamp of approval, there’s the closing to deal with and wait for.

This doesn’t sound like the most enjoyable task in the world. In fact, it isn’t. It can be a real labor-intensive hassle. But thanks to advances in technology, the process is much simpler and more streamlined. In fact, you can even apply for a mortgage online without ever even having to leave the comfort of your home.

Benefits That Technology Has Brought to the Face of Mortgage Lending

With the right tools at your fingertips, you can significantly cut the application and approval times by more than half. It’s not unheard of to be approved for a mortgage within a few short days. Digital tools also help you stay in closer contact with your lender to ensure that all necessary information is properly and accurately communicated.

Aside from the online application process, one of the biggest ways that technology has positively affected the mortgage loan process is though the advent of electronic signatures – or ‘e-signatures.’ Thanks to the arrival of e-signatures, it’s no longer necessary to have to hand-deliver documents in person.

Simply signing your name on a document electronically and emailing it to the necessary parties has shaved a serious amount of time off the process, and made things so much more convenient for everyone involved. This is especially helpful when there’s a lot of back-and-forth document exchanges that tends to be pretty common.

As long as you’ve got a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone, you can check the status of your loan application at any time, and from anywhere. There are even smartphone apps that serve as an entire loan processing management system. These apps connect all parties involved in the mortgage process so everyone can stay in constant communication. Just installing the app on your smartphone can instantly offer total transparency to you, the lender, the underwriter, and your agent, in the loan process from start to finish. Anyone involved can check the status of a loan application at any time.

Has the underwriter received your application? Is approval conditional? Has an appraisal been ordered? Has title been ordered and received? These are just some of the questions that can be answered thanks to the inclusion of technology in the mortgage lending process. Everything is updated in real time, giving you up-to-the-minute information as needed.

Rather than a paper-based system, processes can be automated and dealt with electronically to speed up any steps that were once done manually. Digital workflow processes can be used for signatures, accessing information on file, approvals, and more. For instance, during the mortgage process, all of the borrower’s data can be gathered electronically and automatically pushed through to the underwriter. If the underwriter feels that more information is needed, it can be sent back to the loan processor with this request.

The costs associated with the mortgage process can also be significantly reduced. Rather than shuffling through paper copies between the loan officer, loan processor and underwriter, everyone involved in the lending process can access such information remotely and fire it off to the necessary parties quickly and easily. Not only does this cut costs, it also minimizes the odds of documents getting misplaced or lost.

New advancements in technology come up all the time, and as such, lenders and borrowers can expect the lending process to be a lot easier and more cost-effective. While you can use technology yourself, make sure that the mortgage broker you work with keeps up with such technology too, and uses it to help save a ton of time and avoid a lot of potential frustration.